NETL looks to lower electricity bills through increased turbine efficiency

The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) recently announced that it is researching ways to increase turbine efficiency in concert with academic and military partners.

They hope to lower consumer electricity bills through the advances they reach eventually. The means to achieve this is combined cycle power generation, through which heat engines convert that heat to mechanical energy at a current rate of 60 percent or more. The NETL hopes to reach efficiency levels higher than 65 percent by fiddling with turbines, which have traditionally aided efficiency efforts through increasing firing temperatures.

Unfortunately, current materials have reached their structural limits for running hot. For that reason, NETL researchers are turning to a process called pressure gain combustion to increase gas pressure during combustion and increase thermal efficiency in the process. They are creating energy systems that incorporate PGC research and higher firing temperatures to augment traditional efficiency levels. Eventually, they want to see them designed for potential integration with combustion gas turbines.

They also are developing a rotating detonation engine to create controlled, continuous detonation waves rotating around the inside of modified gas turbine combustion chambers. These could reduce turbine pressure loss and aid efficiency over conventional gas turbine engines. To this end, NETL has altered its high-pressure combustion rig to study these RDE combustors at pressures above atmospheric.