Case Studies - Energy & Environment

A market viewpoint

In order to understand where developments in industrial gas turbine evolution will take place in the next few years, one needs to see this evolution in the context of market development. Currently, the power generation business sits at the bottom of a curve, yielding poor $/MWh returns. This position is recovering and with more stringent environmental legislation in 2007 and 2008 eventually inhibiting the viability of alternative forms of generation, the gas turbine power generation operators need to be ready to deal with these changes.

As the market situation improves in 3-4 years' time, operators will face new challenges. They will need to be able to satisfy the requirements driven by tightened environmental legislation. They will also need to deal with the new market opportunities arising from the void left by nuclear stations that will begin to lose their operating consent, and as ageing coal power stations come to the end of their life span.

In the UK, for example, by 2008, the present over-capacity in power generation may have been drastically reduced and while build programmes will then be well underway in the renewables sector (to satisfy the Government's 20% target by 2020), robust, cost-effective gas turbine power plants will be greatly in demand. There will also be an increased requirement to keep gas turbines power plants running - cost-effectively and reliably. It is these market imperatives which will drive technological change.

Sensor technology - determining future capacity and growth demands

Power operators will need to use ever increasingly sophisticated sensor technology to arrive at a better understanding of future capacity and growth issues, while optimising through life support costs. One example of technology development that illustrates the use of intelligent monitoring systems is a world-first achieved by QinetiQ. The company has implemented a non-uniform temperature generator on a turbine research facility to investigate the influence of combustor exit flow effects on turbine blade heat transfer.

This has led the development of another company world first: heat-monitoring technology, which uses thin film sensors. These innovative heat-monitoring technologies have made the accurate monitoring of blade heat transfer in high temperature gas turbines possible for the first time ever. Benefits for manufacturers will be longer life blades and more efficient engines, yielding an attendant increase in the competitiveness of the power, aerospace and marine industries.

Lifing procedures

If gas turbine power plant is to remain in the ascendant, it will have to look to an array of similar technical and service development activities. The development of new gas turbine lifting procedures, capable of accurately predicting component lives, will become increasingly important. Such capabilities will have a huge impact on the predictive and lifting capabilities of power operators who are run on tight operating budgets.

We have developed a patented technique for continuous condition monitoring of plant for the industrial power and aerospace industries. Called Integrated Plant Management (IPM), it is the result of £1.5m investment and nine years' of research and development work. The IPM technique has been developed to enhance the real-time control and health monitoring of gas turbine engines.

IPM takes an 'adaptive modelling' approach to engine condition assessment. Using existing sensor readings from plant equipment to tune a model to accurately represent the plant.

This accurate representation can then be used to estimate parameters within the plant that cannot easily be measured, such as firing temperature, air/fuel ratio, flows, temperatures and pressures. Accurate estimates of the plant component efficiencies can also be made. By monitoring these additional estimates, as well as the sensor output readings, a clear picture of the current condition of the plant, and how it is changing, can be obtained. This can then be used for both diagnostic and prognostic purposes.

Gas turbine technology - focusing on economy, reliability and efficiency

In summary, as the world demands an increasingly reliable, clean, and dependable supply of power, modern gas turbines must meet the most varied of requirements. The technology focus must be on economical performance, environmental efficiency, reliability, easy-to-service designs, and long service life, resulting in rapid return on invested capital.