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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
Micro turbine is one of the important components in a micro gas turbine engine. Micro gas
turbine engine is a promising solution to provide high-density power source for micro
systems. A micro gas turbine engine consists of a radial inflow turbine, a centrifugal
compressor and a combustor. This thesis mainly deals with the design aspects of a micro
turbine. Various journals has been published on designing of various types of micro turbines.
Exhaustive study has been done on these papers and the major points have been highlighted
here.
Micro turbines are a relatively new distributed generation technology being used for
stationary energy generation applications. They are a type of combustion turbine that
produces both heat and electricity on a relatively small scale. Micro turbines offer several
potential advantages compared to other technologies for small-scale power generation,
including: a small number of moving parts, compact size, lightweight, greater efficiency,
lower emissions, lower electricity costs, and opportunities to utilize waste fuels. Waste heat
recovery can also be used with these systems to achieve efficiencies greater than 80%.
Because of their small size, relatively low capital costs, expected low operations and
maintenance costs, and automatic electronic control, micro turbines are expected to capture a
significant share of the distributed generation market. In addition, micro turbines offer an
efficient and clean solution to direct mechanical drive markets such as compression and air-
conditioning.
“Principles and working of microturbine” by K.C Goli, S.V Kondi, V.B Trimmanpalli ,
development and investigation of a new small gas turbine technology is being developed
which promises to bring the economic, environmental and convenience benefits,
advancements in the automotive sector, generation of electricity and mechanical power needs
of the commercial sector. The technology is of the microturbines. The microturbine is an
example of Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, which is efficiently used to develop power
ata small scale. Microturbines are small combustion turbines approximately the size of a
refrigerator with outputs of 25 kW to 500 kW. Microturbines are part of the future of onsite,
or distributed energy and powe rgeneration. They are actually single shaft machines, in which
turbine, compressor and generator are mounted on the single shaft. This unit can be used for
distributed power, stand-alone power, stand-by power and vehicle application like
turbocharger.
A simple method sufficient for the design of a high efficiency expansion turbine is outlined
by Kun et. al. A study was initiated in 1979 to survey operating plants and generate the cost
factors relating to turbine by Kun & Sentz. Sixsmith et. al. in collaboration with Goddard
Space Flight Centre of NASA, developed miniature turbines for Brayton Cycle cry coolers.
They have developed of a turbine, 1.5 mm in diameter rotating at a speed of approximately
one million rpm.
Yang et. al developed a two stage miniature expansion turbine made for an 1.5 L/hr helium
liquefier at the Cryogenic Engineering Laboratory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The
turbines rotated at more than 500,000 rpm. The design of a small, high speed turbo expander
was taken up by the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) USA. The first expander operated
at 600,000 rpm in externally pressurized gas bearings. The turbo expander developed by Kate
et. al was with variable flow capacity mechanism (an adjustable turbine), which had the
capacity of controlling the refrigerating power by using the variable nozzle vane height.
CHAPTER 2
A gas turbine is a rotating engine that extracts energy from a flow of combustion gases that
result from the ignition of compressed air and a fuel (either a gas or liquid, most commonly
natural gas). It has an upstream compressor module coupled to a downstream turbine module,
and a combustion chamber(s) module (with igniter[s]) in between.
Energy is added to the gas stream in the combustor, where air is mixed with fuel and ignited.
Combustion increases the temperature, velocity, and volume of the gas flow. This is directed
through a nozzle over the turbine’s blades, spinning the turbine and powering the compressor.
Energy is extracted in the form of shaft power, compressed air, and thrust, in any
combination, and used to power aircraft, trains, ships, generators, and even tanks.
There are different types of gas turbines. Some of them are named below:
The simplest gas turbine follows the Brayton cycle (Figure 1.1). In a closed cycle (i.e., the
working fluid is not released to the atmosphere), air is compressed isentropically, combustion
occurs at constant pressure, and expansion over the turbine occurs isentropically back to the
starting pressure. As with all heat engine cycles, higher combustion temperature (the common
industry reference is turbine inlet temperature) means greater efficiency. The limiting factor
is the ability of the steel, ceramic, or other materials that make up the engine to withstand
heat and pressure. Considerable design/manufacturing engineering goes into keeping the
The largest gas turbines operate at 3000 (50 hertz [Hz], European and Asian power supply) or
3600 (60 Hz, U.S. power supply) RPM to match the AC power grid. They require their own
building and several more to house support and auxiliary equipment, such as cooling towers.
Smaller turbines, with fewer compressor/turbine stages, spin faster. Jet engines operate
around 10,000 RPM and micro turbines around 100,000 RPM. Thrust bearings and journal
bearings are a critical part of the design. Traditionally, they have been hydrodynamic oil
bearings or oil cooled ball bearings.
Chapter 3
MICRO TURBINE
The small size of microturbines is a major advantage that allows them to be situated right at
the source ofelectricity demand. This eliminates energy losses that usually occur when
transmitting electricity frompower stations. Such transmission losses are quite significant and
can easily amount to 7% of the powergenerated. Micro turbines are a new class of small gas
turbines used for distributed generation ofelectricity. Microturbines are small version of gas
turbines emerged from four different technologies viz.small gas turbines, auxiliary power
units, automotive development gas turbine and turbochargers.
Microturbines are new class of gas turbines used for distributed generation of electricity.
Microturbine development is based on turbines used for aircraft auxiliary power units, which
have been used in commercial airlines for decades. One way in which Microturbine can be
distinguished from larger turbine is that Microturbines use a single shaft to drive the
compressor, turbine and generator. Whereas in large power plants, the turbines and generator
are on separate shafts and are connected by gears that slow down the high-speed rotation of
the gas turbines, simultaneously increasing the torque sufficient to turn much large electric
generators. Some microturbines even include the ability to generate electricity from heat of
exhaust gases.
They accept most commercial fuels, such as gasoline, natural gas, propane, diesel, and
kerosene as well as renewable fuels such as E85, biodiesel and biogas. Most micro turbines
are comprised of a compressor, combustor, turbine, alternator, recuperator (a device that
captures waste heat to improve the efficiency of the compressor stage), and generator.
3.2 History
In 1900 when a 2 MW steam turbine was installed at Hartford, its size was 4 times bigger
than any of the existing steam turbines. From then on economy of scale meant bigger and
bigger. By the end of the 1970sand largely driven by nuclear power plants, steam turbines
exceeded 1000 MW. The electric efficiency of steam turbine power plants eventually reached
In today's energy economy, most electricity is produced using fossil fuel-burning generators.
These machines consist of a motor and a dense coil of copper wires that surround a shaft
containing powerful magnets. To get that power to a home or factory typically requires a
local utility to run a heavy copper cable to the residence or business site. But what if the site
requiring energy is in a remote mountain location, or it's an offshore oil rig where electricity
is scarce and hookups don't exist? Here the microturbines come into the picture. It is one of
the best options to set up a local power-generation plant, perhaps using a Microturbine -- a
small, sometimes portable, fossil fuel-burning system that can provide enough electricity to
power anywhere from 10 to 5,000 homes. Also it has an important application as a
turbocharger in vehicles when more energy is required from the engine in less amount of fuel.
Micro turbines are classified by the physical arrangement of the component parts: single shaft
or two-shaft, simple cycle, or recuperated, inter-cooled, and reheat. The machines generally
rotate over 40,000 revolutions per minute. The bearing selection—oil or air—is dependent on
usage. A single shaft micro turbine with high rotating speeds of 90,000 to 120,000
revolutions per minute is the more common design, as it is simpler and less expensive to
build. Conversely, the split shaft is necessary for machine drive applications, which does not
require an inverter to change the frequency of the AC power.
CHAPTER-4
Description of microturbines:
The basic components of a micro turbine are the compressor, turbine, generator, and
recuperator (Figure 1.2). The heart of the micro turbine is the compressor-turbine package,
which is most commonly mounted on a single shaft along with the electric generator. The
single shaft is supported by two (or more) high-speed bearings. Because single-shaft turbines
have only one moving shaft, they have the potential for lower maintenance and higher
reliability than turbines with two or more shafts. There are also two-shaft versions of the
micro turbine, in which the turbine on the first shaft only drives the compressor while a
second power turbine on a second shaft drives a gearbox and conventional electric generator
producing 60 or 50 Hz of power. Moderate- to large-sized gas turbines use multistage axial
flow compressors and turbines, in which the gas flows parallel to the axis of the shaft and
Generator: - The micro turbine produces electrical power either via a high-speed generator
turning on the single turbo-compressor shaft or with a separate power turbine driving a
Recuperators:- Recuperators are heat exchangers that use the hot turbine exhaust gas
(typically around 1,200ºF) to preheat the compressed air (typically around 300ºF) going into
the combustor, thereby reducing the fuel needed to heat the compressed air to turbine inlet
temperature. Depending on micro turbine operating parameters, recuperators can more than
double machine efficiency. However, since there is increased pressure drop in both the
compressed air and turbine exhaust sides of the recuperator, power output typically declines
10 to 15% from that attainable without the recuperator. Recuperators also lower the
temperature of the micro turbine exhaust, reducing the micro turbine’s effectiveness in CHP
applications.
Air bearings:-They allow the turbine to spin on a thin layer of air, so friction is low and rpm
is high. No OIL or oil pump is needed. Air bearings offer simplicity of operation without the
cost, reliability concerns, maintenance requirements, or power drain of an oil supply and
filtering system. Concern does exist for the reliability of air bearings under numerous and
repeated starts due to metal on metal friction during start up, shutdown, and load changes.
Reliability depends largely on individual manufacturers' quality control methodology more
than on design engineering, and will only be proven after significant experience with
substantial numbers of units with long numbers of operating hours and on/off cycles.
Performance Efficency:
The performance of the microturbines is given in the tabular form as below
Commercial micro turbines used for power generation range in size from about 25KW to
500KW. They produce both heat and electricity on a relatively small scale. The energy to
electricity conversion efficiencies are in the range of 20 to 30%. These efficiencies are
attained when using a recuperator .Cogeneration is an option in many cases as a Microturbine
is located at the point of power utilization. The combined thermal electrical efficiency is
85%. Unrecuperated microturbines have lower efficiencies at around 15%.
Micro turbine capital costs range from $700-$1,100/kW. These costs include all hardware,
associated manuals, software, and initial training. Adding heat recovery increases the cost by
$75-$350/kW. Installation costs vary significantly by location but generally add 30-50% to
the total installed cost.
Micro turbine manufacturers are targeting a future cost below $650/kW. This appears to be
feasible if the market expands and sales volumes increase. With fewer moving parts, micro
turbine vendors hope the units can provide higher reliability than conventional reciprocating
generating technologies. Manufacturers expect that initial units will require more unexpected
visits, but as the products mature, a once-a-year maintenance schedule should suffice. Most
manufacturers are targeting maintenance intervals of 5,000-8,000 hours. Maintenance costs
for micro turbine units are still based on forecasts with minimal real-life situations. Estimates
range from $0.005-$0.016 per kWh, which would be comparable to that for small
reciprocating engine systems.
3.4.4 Advantages
Limitations:-
• Low feul to electricity efficiency.
• Loss of power output and efficiency with higher ambient temperature and elevation
4.6 Applications
While the simplest application for a micro turbine prime mover is of power generation other
application exists. Microturbine prime movers can be used for cooling, refrigeration; air
compression and pump drive application whereby the inherent high speed of the power shaft
can be used to drive high efficiency and low cost centrifugal compressors.
Micro turbines can be used for stand-by power, power quality and reliability, peak shaving,
and cogeneration applications. In addition, because micro turbines are being developed to
utilize a variety of fuels, they are being used for resource recovery and landfill gas
applications. Micro turbines are well suited for small commercial building establishments
such as: restaurants, hotels/motels, small offices, retail stores, and many others.
Other ongoing developments to improve micro turbine design, lower costs, and increase
performance in order to produce a competitive distributed generation product include heat
Stand-alone power
Backup/standby power
Micro grid
Resource recovery
Transportation applications
FUTURE SCOPE:
Extensive field test data collected from units currently in use at commercial and
industrial facilities
will provide the manufacturers with the ability to improve the Microturbine design,
lowering the cost and
increasing performance, in order to produce a competitive distributed generation
product. Utilities,
government agencies, and other
Organizations are involved in collaborative research and field-testing.
Development is ongoing in a variety of areas:
1. Heat recovery/coregeneration
2. Fuel flexibility
3. Vehicles
4. Hybrid systems (e.g. fuel cell/Microturbine, flywheel/Microturbine
CHAPTER -5
CONCULSION:
Micro turbine can use low grade of fuel very effectively like waste gases, sour gases
etc. Thus micro turbine gives chance of low fuel cost and less emission.The
dimensions of micro turbine comparatively small by which it can be installed at field
where power is consumed. Micro turbine is also effective in CHP operation. In India
the micro turbine is quite useful.The power shortage effect can be solved using micro
turbine, using fuels like biogas, etc. India the technology is still underdevelopment so
the present seminar is an honest attempt to introduce micro turbine technology in
India for solving the problem of power generation in future.
REFERENCE:
CHAPTER 3