Advanced Technologies for Gas Turbines (2020) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 6-25
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This report identifies key research goals and topics that the United States could pursue to continue its technological leadership in gas turbines. The report is organized around three applications of particular interest: • Power generation (i.e., large ground-based gas turbines that generate electricity to power the electrical grid)
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Gas turbines can be designed to use many different fuels, including natural gas, jet fuel, or hydrogen. Other types of turbines are also used for power generation and other industrial uses.
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For power generation, advanced gas turbine technologies are funded under the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy, with a budget of approximately $15 to $20 million annually since 2015 (see Figure 1.1)
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Market Overview Globally, electricity generation has more than doubled since 1990,7 and it could grow by more than 50 percent over the next two decades, as depicted in Figure 1.2. By capacity type, power generation for natural gas could also grow by more than 50 percent by 2040.8,9 In aviation, essentially all large military and commercial airplanes are powered by gas turbine propulsion systems.
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23, http:// bit.ly/2Chfmty. In the United States, gas turbine facilities powered by natural gas generate about one-third of the electrical power; and gas turbines are the predominant means of using energy from the combustion of natural gas to produce electricity.13 Within the United States, the power produced by gas turbines and by renewable energy sources are each projected to grow in absolute terms and as a percentage of the national market through 2050 (see Figure 1.4)
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. SOURCE: Energy Information Administration, 2019, Annual Energy Outlook 2019 with Projections to 2050, p.
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The power generation market is undergoing important transformations with renewable energy sources and decarbonization. However, because of their power density, relatively small carbon footprint, and potential to burn environmentally friendly fuels -- and because appropriately designed gas turbines can respond rapidly to changes in power demand -- gas turbines will continue to be an important element in this energy mix.
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Continued investments in gas turbine research and development have important implications for the economic and technological leadership in this industry. This technological leadership is important, as the United States is the principal exporter of gas turbines, with an export value of $32 billion in 2017.15 Overall, gas turbines represent a $90 billion global market (see Figure 1.7)
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.16 As such, countries in these regions will have an increasing demand for reliable power, energy supplies, and air transportation. Unlike previous markets penetrated by gas turbines, these countries often lack capital, local sources of natural gas, and a robust grid infrastructure for power generation and gas pipelines.
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It will also incentivize the use of gas turbines as a replacement for power generation facilities fueled by coal or petroleum products because those facilities emit more CO2 per kilowatt hour than gas turbine facilities. In addition, gas turbines can become a renewable, carbon-free source of power for ground and aviation applications to the extent that they are fueled by synthetic hydrocarbons, hydrogen, methane, and other fuels that can be generated and transported from renewable energy sources.
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The increasing need for smaller, more decentralized power sources and the declining needs for large, centralized facilities in the developed world, coupled with competition with renewable energy sources, will tend to threaten the market share of gas turbines in the power generation market, especially with respect to the very large gas turbines that are used to provide base load power in existing, centralized facilities. Gas turbines will be required to work in concert with renewable energy sources within a more-distributed power generation system.
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In particular, the following emerging technologies will enable substantial changes for the inspection and repair paradigm for gas turbines: • Miniaturized robotic mechanisms; • Autonomous navigation; • Automated repair and inspection; • Teleoperation and telepresence; and • Virtual and augmented reality. Additive Manufacturing Additive manufacturing represents an opportunity to institute digitally based product development capabilities that can marry conception and validation of new and complex designs with print-to-part manufacturing capabilities of radical, previously unavailable three-dimensional (3D)
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Artificial Intelligence AI will help improve the operational efficiency and quality of gas turbines throughout the design, manufacturing, operation, and service phases of the product life cycle. Advances in AI (including machine learning)
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As noted above, this report focuses on three applications of gas turbines: powering the electrical grid, propulsion for both military and commercial aircraft, and transporting natural gas from gas fields to users. In all three applications of interest, gas turbines are but one element of a larger system such as the nation's electrical power grid, an aircraft, or a natural gas pipeline.
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, and for oil and gas applications (which tend to use small gas turbines compared to power generation gas turbines)
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Historically, there have been incremental improvements to gas turbine efficiency over time; improvements in gas turbine efficiency for power generation gas turbines over the past four decades and the class hierarchy of heavy-duty industrial gas turbines is summarized in Figure 1.10.24 Values of turbine inlet temperature (in °C) in the embedded table reflect the state of the art at the time of the introduction of the particular gas turbine class.
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Hydrogen fuels have been researched to some extent in large-scale industrial turbines, and gas turbine manufacturers are continuing to invest in the development of turbines that can use fuels with a mix of natural gas and hydrogen, with the goal of increasing the amount of hydrogen in the fuel to the point that the turbines can operate on hydrogen alone.26 The introduction of significant levels of hydrogen into the existing natural gas pipeline network would raise significant issues associated with the pipelines themselves and with the gas turbines that would be fueled by the mix of natural gas and hydrogen. For gas turbines, the primary issue would be the inher 26 EUTurbines, 2019, "The Gas Turbine Industry Commitments to Drive Europe's Transition to a Decarbonised Energy Mix," http://bit.ly/2JRCxyE, January.
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Compatibility with Renewable Energy Sources and the Future Electrical Grid Renewable energy sources are playing an ever-increasing role in current and future energy networks. The amount of power generated from renewable sources is increasing rapidly, and gas turbines will play a vital role in complementing renewable energy sources.27 This will include both generating electricity when the power from renewable energy sources is not available and using renewable fuels.
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Even a large, heavy-duty industrial gas turbine rated at several hundred megawatts can reach full load in about 20 minutes from standstill. Aeroderivatives (i.e., power generation gas turbines that are derivatives of aviation gas turbines)
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Breadth of Application The breadth of application selection criterion was used to assess the extent to which a proposed research topic would support the accomplishment of multiple research goals. High-Priority Research Areas and Topics The committee generated a list of candidate research areas that would contribute to achieving the gas turbine goals.
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