The Energy Department recently announced that it has conditionally authorized Freeport LNG Expansion, L.P. and FLNG Liquefaction LLC (Freeport) to export domestically produced Liquefied Natural Gas to countries that do not have a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States, from the Freeport LNG Terminal on Quintana Island, Texas. Freeport previously received approval to export LNG from this facility to FTA countries on February 10, 2011.

The latest airplane fan engines being discussed have exhaust temperatures of around 900o F for minimum fuel burn and maximum thrust for their high PRs. This level of exhaust temperature limits the steam temperature in a CC to about 850o F which is far lower than needed for maximum 1100/1100o F steam.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding the country’s regulatory scenario and the overcapacity of some Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) plants, the US is expected to remain the largest market for gas turbines in 2020, says the latest report from research and consulting firm GlobalData.

The early models of the Whittle jets were sent to the US towards the end of the war. GE and Westinghouse were selected to develop US jets for our military needs. These companies had the background in rotating steam turbines and seemed to be the ones to develop the new jets. Pratt and Whitney soon saw what would happen to the reciprocating engine business and joined GE and W designing and building jets. The rest is history. In England, Frank Whittle formed a research and development company, and Rolls Royce took over the jet engine manufacturing business.

   

Interest in low-grade heat recovery has grown in recent years. A number of approaches have been proposed to capture and convert low-grade heat energy, traditionally viewed as not commercially useful, into productive electric power. Among the proposed solutions is the use of ORC technology.

In the past few years, it has become commonplace to install centrifugal compressors in parallel with reciprocating compressors. Among other concerns related to this system layout, centrifugal compressors cannot efficiently operate with high-amplitude pressure fluctuations (pulsations) in the attached piping system.

Combined cycle gas turbine power plants are currently the most efficient way to convert fossil fuels into electricity. For several years, the Holy Grail of power generation was to reach, and exceed 60 percent thermal efficiency at the generator terminals. The path to this accomplishment involved significantly improved gas turbine efficiency, higher combustor firing temperatures, state-of-the-art steam cycles and modern hydrogen-cooled generators.

In addition to component design, steam turbine reliability is dependent on many systems that can affect its safety, and therefore calls for effective monitoring of steam, condensing, governor, protection, trip valve exerciser, steam seal, cooling and monitoring systems. Defining the steam conditions accurately ensures maximum power output and reliability. Failure to do so has often led to low turbine power output and erosion of the last stages of blading in condensing turbines.

Wood Group has secured 11 new contracts in Africa totaling approximately $240 million, which were awarded over the last 12 months. The contracts were awarded to Wood Group PSN, Wood Group GTS and Wood Group Mustang for projects in five African nations. Wood Group PSN, which provides brownfield production services, won contracts to provide operations & maintenance and construction services to clients in Equatorial Guinea, Chad and Algeria.

Unbalance is the most common malfunction in turbomachines. In an unbalanced condition, the machine’s rotor mass centerline does not coincide with the axis of rotation (condition of unequal mass distribution at each section of the rotating assembly). Unbalance represents the first, fundamental mechanism to transfer the rotational energy into the vibration.

Abu Dhabi recently made a 10-fold boost in its capacity to generate electricity from the sun by officially launching the Shams 1 solar plant for business. The 100 MW solar collector plant is a cooperative venture between Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s state-owned renewable-energy company, French oil firm Total and Spain’s energy infrastructure company Abengoa Solar.