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Steps to reduce compressor load consumption and maximize gas turbine flow

Turbo Expo 2025 opened its exhibition hall at the Renasant Convention Center in Memphis, Tennessee,

this morning to roughly 2,500 attendees from the turbomachinery industry. Tuesday morning kicked off with the plenary session, 

Envisioning the Future of Gas Turbines with Artificial Intelligence

, featuring panelists Richard Voorberg, President, North America at Siemens Energy, Paul Sloup, Executive Director of AI tools and FLIGHT DECK at GE Aerospace, and Pete Bradley, Principal Fellow in digital tools and data science at RTX Pratt & Whitney.

AI is revolutionizing engineering fields—from predictive maintenance and design optimization to advanced manufacturing and beyond. The OEM-centered panel session provided perspectives on the current and future vision of working with AI in gas turbine technology and a few key takeaways for the turbomachinery industry:

AI is a Transformative Force Multiplier: 

Companies like RTX, GE Aerospace, and Siemens Energy are using AI to optimize design processes, improve manufacturing, enhance product performance, and drive innovation across the entire product lifecycle.

 Successfully implementing AI requires more than just technology—it demands building an AI-ready culture that encourages experimentation, reduces fear of change, and empowers engineers to leverage new tools creatively.

The industry recognizes that AI advancement cannot happen in isolation. Companies are calling for increased data collaboration, shared learning, and community-wide approaches to solving complex challenges in turbomachinery and energy systems.

AI is not just a technological upgrade, but a fundamental reimagining of how the turbomachinery industry develops, manufactures, and operates its systems.

Bradley highlighted AI's transformative potential across RTX’s business. He said AI is already integrated into every aspect of its operations—from design optimization to product development and manufacturing, and it has over 20 AI-enabled products with 100 more in development, including advanced systems like the RAIVEN electro-optical imaging platform that can work in air, ground, and sea.

“I think one of the things that's really important about these AI-enabled capabilities is they make it possible to do really complex things without creating extra complexity for the operator,” Bradley said.

In the aftermarket, RTX’s advanced oil analysis technology examines oil samples, predicts various potential engine problems, and provides tailored recommendations for customers.

He emphasized that anytime you have an industry disrupter, like AI, you have to navigate three key aspects: managing fear, avoiding hype, and seizing opportunities. He stressed the importance of building an AI culture, incentivizing realistic proof-of-concept evaluations, and leveraging experienced engineers' knowledge. His core message: AI can transform the impossible into the routine by combining deep domain expertise with innovative technological approaches.

Sloup discussed AI's role in transforming GE Aerospace, focusing on a mindset shift rather than just technological change. GE Aerospace, in partnership with Microsoft, launched AI Wingmate, a proprietary generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) tool used by over 50% of employees, and developed an engineering assistant to help engineers spend more time on critical thinking. Sloup outlined the company’s AI strategy across supercomputing, design cycles, and connected systems.

"We don't know all the answers,” he said. “We're not sure how all this should play out, but we have a very intelligent organization, and we have a lot of engineers, and so if we put the tools in their hands, they can help us figure it out."

Voorberg presented a comprehensive view of AI integration into Siemens Energy’s 100,000-person, 175-year-old company.

“There are numerous opportunities at Siemens Energy, which is truly exciting,” Voorberg said. “Just look at how this business has transformed over the last couple of years. Two years ago, especially in the gas turbine sector, it was dead. Three years ago, the large gas turbine market in the United States had only one large gas turbine. My friends at GE won that unit that year, while my market share stood at 0%. How do you explain that to the board, right? How did we end up with 0% gas turbines in the market? The good news is, this year, the market has completely flipped. We've sold over 100 gas turbines here in the United States, and it continues to grow like that. So, we need to ensure that we're expanding and growing our business.”

With a $1.4 billion annual R&D investment, it is strategically deploying AI across multiple domains. Key AI applications include:

Grid optimization through digital-twin technology

Inventory management to prevent parts from sitting unused

Digitalizing historical data from century-old equipment

Developing an AI Lab in Orlando to foster innovation

"AI can be really beneficial, but we've got to make sure that it's creating something," he said. “If I tell you what to do, I’m going to limit you. I want to give you the tools, and that's what our AI Lab is going to be: a tool.”

Siemens Energy’s AI initiatives include:

Partnering with Nvidia to analyze grid power distribution

Creating an AI Lab with dedicated data scientists

Enabling engineers to use supercomputer resources without bureaucratic barriers

Transforming maintenance by using AI to analyze historical equipment data

Siemens Energy’s approach to AI focuses on giving employees tools and freedom to innovate, believing that unexpected breakthroughs can happen when talented people have access to advanced resources.

At Turbo Expo 2025, RTX, GE Aerospace, and Siemens Energy share how they are leveraging AI to optimize design, enhance productivity, solve complex engineering challenges, and drive innovation.

Conference Coverage

Turbo Expo Panel Says AI Requires Creativity, Experimentation to Solve Complex Turbomachinery Challenges

Tuesday afternoon at Turbo Expo 2025, Antonio Escamilla Perejon, Client Relationship Manager, and Giuseppe Tilocca, Technical Lead of ETN Global, presented 

Micro-Gas Turbine: Technological Advancements and Market Research

Perejon kicked off the session by introducing the audience to the micro-gas turbine community, how to join, and highlighted two ongoing projects: Next Entity and Fit for Micro.

Before diving into micro-gas turbines, he introduced thermodynamic cycles. “Maximizing thermal efficiency" is key, he said.

The simple Brayton cycle involves compressing air, combusting fuel, and expanding the heated fluid in a turbine to produce electricity.

The regenerative Brayton cycle includes a regenerative heat exchanger. The fluid exiting the turbine is used to heat the fluid coming from the compressor. The thermal efficiency of the regenerative cycle is now dependent on both pressure ratio and temperature ratio. Regenerative cycles are more effective than the Brayton cycle at lower pressure ratios.

Complex cycles with two-stage compression and expansion are beneficial to small gas turbines based on the fundamental thermodynamic cycles driving these innovations and the broader landscape of energy innovation. Pressure ratios, meticulous temperature management, and ongoing technological improvements are necessary when creating efficient, compact energy solutions for decentralized power generation.

Perejon said during a recent community, there was inherent complexity and a striking lack of standardized criteria across the industry in terms of micro gas turbine definitions. A key takeaway was the undeniable importance of recuperators in significantly improving electrical efficiency, though limitations often associated with single-stage compressors were also acknowledged.

With micro-gas turbines, there are intricate trade-offs among system size, performance, and cost, and they must be considered when designing and implementing them across diverse power output ranges.

Several advancements have been made through various micro-gas turbine research projects that are pushing the boundaries of sustainable energy technologies, including:

Innovative applications like using micro-gas turbines as fuel cell replacements for aircraft auxiliary power units

Harmonizing micro gas turbines with water treatment plants

Exploring sophisticated hybrid systems with fuel cells

Rigorously investigating sustainable biofuel applications

Looking ahead, the development drivers are focused on increasing turbine temperature, leveraging advanced materials, achieving significant cost reductions, and exploring novel external fire and hybrid configurations to continuously improve efficiency and performance.

 Key considerations include optimizing thermal efficiency, managing pressure ratios and temperatures, and overcoming limitations like those of single-stage compressors. The role of recuperators in boosting efficiency and the trade-offs between size, performance, and cost were also central.

Diverse Applications, Lacking Standardization:

 Despite a lack of standardized definitions for micro gas turbines, the presentations showcased their wide-ranging applications. These include integration with solar power systems and water treatment plants, serving as fuel cell replacements for aircraft, and utilizing sustainable biofuels, underscoring their versatility in decentralized power generation.

Future advancements hinge on increasing turbine operating temperatures, adopting advanced materials, and cost reduction. The exploration of external fire and hybrid configurations (e.g., with fuel cells) is also crucial for enhancing both efficiency and sustainability in micro gas turbine technology.

 to watch Antonio Escamilla Perejon discuss key technological advancements that are driving global micro-gas turbine adoption, growth barriers, and primary market drivers at Turbo Expo 2025!

A History of the Micro-Gas Turbine Market

Tilocca offered attendees a comprehensive overview of the micro-gas turbine market. Micro-gas turbines became commercially viable in 1998, with companies like Capstone leading early development. The market size is estimated at around 100 million units, although Tilocca said that precise numbers are less important than understanding the market dynamics: "We're wasting time debating exact figures.”

The development of micro-gas turbines is divided into two phases:

First Wave (early 2000s): Focused on increasing power output and efficiency

Second Wave (2010s): Attempting to reduce costs and improve commercial viability

The market has faced significant obstacles, with multiple companies experiencing bankruptcy due to several key challenges:

Microgas turbines are mainly used in primary generation and co-generation in niche markets—such as oil and gas, decentralized power, biogas and sewage gas applications, and cogeneration—due to cost and performance.

 When compared to reciprocating engines, micro-gas turbines struggle with performance. Tilocca explained: “Micro-gas turbines have no edge on the heat-to-power ratio. You cannot compete in the cogeneration applications with a high heat-to-power ratio, and the cost needs to be lower; otherwise, you won't sell any products because you're directly competing with reciprocating energy. The cost of a gas turbine versus the cost of a reciprocating engine is very expensive.”

Micro-gas turbine technology suffers from competition from internal combustion engines, advancing fuel cell technologies, and growing electrification trends.

But, despite challenges, micro-gas turbines offer some unique benefits:

Single exhaust stream that’s ideal for hybrid heat applications

Excellent performance with renewable and difficult fuels

"Microgas turbines are a niche product. If you try to market it as a mass product, you will not succeed,” TIlocca said.

Looking forward, considerations such as equipment cost reductions, improved overall efficiency, scaled-up production, and targeted niche applications are critical. When exploring hydrogen applications, it’s important to balance efficiency and cost. He said that equipment costs become increasingly critical as hydrogen fuel prices decrease.

“Micro-gas turbines have low market assessment," Tilocca said, with promising opportunities in renewable fuel and biogas and decentralized power applications.

The development of micro-gas turbines has occurred in two distinct phases: the first focused on increasing power output, while the second concentrated on improving efficiency and reducing costs. However, most commercially available products were developed over 20 years ago, with minimal technological advancement.

Micro-gas turbines remain a niche market with limited growth, characterized by high costs, low efficiency, and challenges in scaling production. Despite potential applications in specific sectors like oil and gas and renewable fuels, the technology struggles to compete with reciprocating engines and other power generation technologies.

The economic viability of micro-gas turbines heavily depends on fuel costs, operational hours, and specific application requirements. They show promise in scenarios with high heat-to-power ratio needs, remote locations, or when working with challenging fuels like biogas, but face significant challenges in becoming a mainstream power generation technology.

At Turbo Expo 2025, ETN Global says micro-gas turbines must focus on specialized markets, cost reduction, and continued technological refinement to remain competitive.

Micro-Gas Turbines: A Challenging Market Yet Promising Technology 

On Wednesday at Turbo Expo 2025 in Memphis, Tennessee, the technical session, 

The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Gas Turbine Combustor Design

, moderated by Joseph Meadows, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech, brought together experts from academia and industry to discuss integrating computational fluid dynamics, machine learning-assisted reduced-order modeling, automated design optimization, and data-driven diagnostics with gas turbine combustor design.

The pursuit of more efficient, cleaner, and adaptable gas turbine combustors has created complexity in their design. This intricate challenge has highlighted the critical need for advanced computational tools to bolster existing design approaches. Enter AI, a game-changing technology that is rapidly transforming this landscape. AI promises to dramatically speed up design processes, optimize performance, and even assist in uncovering entirely new combustor configurations.

Werner Krebs, Ph.D., Lead Technology Expert for Combustion at Siemens Energy, Robert Zacharias, Ph.D., of GE Aerospace Research, as well as Panelists Pinaki Pal, Ph.D., of Argonne National Laboratory, Jay Gore, Ph.D., of Purdue University, dove into the opportunities and challenges of using AI for design, including:

Model interpretability and ensuring physical consistency.

Balancing physics-based and data-driven modeling approaches.

The future direction of AI in combustor development.

Krebs from Siemens Energy presented on generative AI in combustion design. He focused on how AI can address complex engineering challenges. The core problem involves translating product requirements into design parameters, where "10 requirements" must navigate a design space of "more than 100 parameters, maybe 1000 parameters."

Krebs outlined a systematic approach to generative design: parameterizing the design space, identifying critical labels like pressure drop, performing design calculations, and generating design proposals. He emphasized the critical need for high-quality computational tools: "If the tools provide garbage, then the whole thing is garbage,” he said.

The research compared multiple generative AI methods, with flow matching showing the most promising results across parameters like pressure drop and NOx emissions. His team at Siemens Energy developed an AI platform called Horizon, which provides "no-code code environments" to help engineers focus on physics rather than programming.

Looking forward, Rex said the ultimate goal is a "self-learning system where we start with a hypothesis or with a small design space and then let it continuously generate designs even in more detail." AI should support engineers’ innovative efforts.

Generative AI's Potential in Complex Design:

 AI can navigate massive design spaces with hundreds of parameters, generating design proposals that meet specific engineering requirements like NOx emissions, pressure drop, and thermostatic stability. The approach allows for rapid exploration of design possibilities beyond traditional engineering methods.

Critical Importance of High-Quality Data and Computational Power

: Rex emphasized that the success of generative AI depends entirely on the quality of underlying computational tools and data. The research requires sophisticated GPU clusters and a deep understanding of physical principles to generate meaningful design proposals.

AI as an Engineering Collaborator, Not a Replacement:

 Despite the advanced technological capabilities, Rex was clear that AI is a tool to augment, not replace, human engineering expertise. His vision is to create platforms like Horizon that allow engineers to focus on physics and engineering principles while AI handles complex computational tasks.

Zacharias said that in aerospace engineering, safety and innovative design optimization take center stage. Human intelligence plays a critical role: “Nobody wants to get on an airplane with an engine that was designed by AI,” he said.

Zacharias shared a real-life combustion dynamics example, where one of the team’s combustors had a debilitating combustion dynamic, and “we had to figure out how to kill this dynamic so that we had a safe and stable combustion system,” he said. “Generally, there's a source of unsteadiness somewhere in the combustor that triggers the resonance somewhere, and it just accelerates. In this example, we had a 500 Hz combustion dynamics problem that we believe was caused by unsteadiness in the swirler upstream of the vortex breakdown bubble.”

The approach to this complex combustion problem? To combine engineering intuition with advanced computational techniques. By parameterizing the swirler design with "eight or 10 independent variables," they developed a sophisticated optimization strategy. Their methodology involved creating a surrogate model through a comprehensive design exploration. “We carpet bomb[ed] the design space [by running] hundreds of thousands of combinations" using a neural network model that could process calculations in "three thousandths of a second,” he said.

The ultimate goal is to advance design optimization, with the potential of "inverse neural nets" that can fundamentally transform the design process. "We want to flip the problem over," he noted, "give it the Ys, the outputs that we want, and have it spit out the Xs."

This approach represents a significant leap in engineering design, balancing computational power with human expertise and safety considerations.

Safety is Paramount in Aerospace Engineering:

 Human intelligence and safety are critical, particularly in aerospace. "At GE Aerospace, safety is job number one; safety, above all else."

Advanced Design Optimization Through AI and Computational Modeling:

 Zacharias showcased a sophisticated approach to solving complex engineering challenges using AI and computational techniques. By creating a surrogate model, the team could explore hundreds of thousands of design combinations quickly, reducing computational time from days to milliseconds.

Future of Design: Inverse Neural Networks:

 The next frontier of design optimization is inverse neural networks. Instead of traditional methods of exploring design spaces, the goal is to "flip the problem over", allowing engineers to input desired outputs and have the system generate potential design solutions, fundamentally transforming the design process.

Turbo Expo panelists from Siemens Energy and GE Aerospace highlight the intersection of human expertise, computational power, and innovative AI techniques in advanced engineering design.

Panel Says AI Supports, Not Replaces Engineers in Gas Turbine Combustor Design  

At Turbo Expo 2025, Tim Allison, Director of R&D in the Machinery Department at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), sat down with 

 power cycle research and development, including the STEP Demo pilot plant.

Tim Allison of SwRI shares the biggest remaining hurdles for widespread sCO2 turbomachinery commercialization and the most promising energy storage solutions.

SWRI Shares Biggest Hurdles for Widespread sCO2

 power cycle research and development, including the STEP Demo pilot plant. What are the biggest remaining hurdles for widespread sCO

 turbomachinery commercialization, and how is SwRI addressing them?

The Southwest Research Institute is the host site for the STEP Demo pilot plant, which was successfully commissioned late last year, running a simple-recuperated cycle with a turbine inlet temperature of 500° C. Part of that operation was to run the turbine as well as the main compressor, which is a centrifugal compressor. We were able to run those right at predicted performance for the operating condition that we were in. We encountered some growing pains associated with handling the high pressures as well as the high temperatures in the turbine, which was a design factor, but we found that there are no real technology gaps there. As long as you account for the pressures and densities associated with those machines, they do not have any fundamental technology problems.

Toward commercialization, we see a need for increasing the temperature. We are scoped to run the step demo at 700° C later this year; we also see a need to increase the number of operating hours. And then there's a lot of commercial interest in developing solutions that will fast ramp the machinery or incorporate hermetic machinery designs to minimize the CO

What are the most promising turbomachinery-based energy storage solutions SwRI is exploring, and what unique challenges do they present?

We developed a software tool to analyze energy storage systems to help answer that question. What we found is that when simulating various renewable resources, market economics, and electricity prices for your area, the most technically and economically viable solution varies based on those inputs. We are exploring a broad range of energy storage technologies that could be suitable for different applications. These technologies include options like pumped thermal energy storage, liquid air energy storage, hydrogen, geomechanical storage, and other thermal storage mechanisms that are coupled to turbo machinery. Currently, we observe strong trends toward thermal energy storage systems that can either direct heat toward an industrial process or direct thermal energy to a heat engine for conversion back to electricity. This flexibility for dual use is quite appealing for commercialization. Additionally, we are noticing interest in hybrid energy storage systems that incorporate thermal energy storage linked to existing gas or steam turbines. The idea of coupling to those existing resources enhances retrofit economics and increases the utilization of the capital asset, making them quite promising.

Tim Allison of SwRI shares outcomes from the STEP Demo pilot plant, sCO2 commercialization, and the most promising energy storage solutions.

SWRI Talks Widespread sCO2 Commercialization, Energy Storage Solutions

Around 1971, at the urging of Charlie Jackson, a notable oil and gas engineer in Houston, Prof. Meherwan Boyce of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M established the Gas Turbine Laboratories, now known as the Turbomachinery Lab. 

Around the same time, a group of Texas A&M (TAMU) engineering graduates organized the first Turbomachinery Symposium as a concerted effort to assist Gulf Coast downstream operators with equipment challenges. 

Today, the Turbo Lab is a 37,000-square-foot facility equipped with 12 vibration-damped test cells and numerous air compressors to drive test rigs. Despite the lab’s leading sophistication, the experienced faculty largely place operations in the hands of the future: TAMU students.

Turbomachinery International toured the Turbo Lab in February with Greg Gammon, Director of Global and Corporate Partnerships, and Dr. Adolfo Delgado, Associate Professor, leading the charge. The duo offered an in-depth history of TAMU itself, the Turbomachinery & Pump Symposium (TPS), and the Turbo Lab’s efforts to advance research for rotating machinery.

Despite the Turbo Lab’s sprawling nature, some of it was inaccessible due to construction for an upcoming facility: the Propulsion Energetics Research Laboratory (PERL), designed with open and closed configurations for propulsion and gas turbine applications, as well as dynamic events such as detonations and explosions. Still, Dr. Delgado guided the tour through the main high-bay location and offered insight on its layout, purpose, and how it’s used in the modern day.

“When this building was designed, they created this space with the idea that equipment would be brought in via 18-wheeler, you lay it next to a test cell and work on it, and then roll it in for testing,” Delgado said. “We have 12 test cells, and each has two rooms. One is a control room with equipment for data acquisition and equipment control, while the other is an isolated test area. The test cell is separated by a wall that’s fire-, shock-, and sound-proof.” 

Each test area contains a six-foot-deep concrete slab that’s isolated from the building’s foundation, preventing the transfer of test-induced vibration to its critical infrastructure. The facility’s top level is mainly comprised of additional offices, which, according to Delgado, host computational work, materials testing equipment, an additive manufacturing facility, and a library.

Within many of these cells, TAMU students are currently conducting rotordynamics testing. “One of the common themes at the Turbo Lab, specifically for rotordynamics, is component-level testing,” Delgado said. “This example is a tilting pad bearing controlled-motion test rig, in which we isolate the bearing and characterize its dynamic forced performance. We test a bearing at rotor surface speeds comparable to or the same as ones you would see on a high-speed compressor, for example. This is an element from a compressor OEM that we’ve been testing.”

He emphasized that, after adequate laboratory certification, students operate all test cells, as the Turbo Lab prides itself on “training professionals.” The test rig vibrates the floating bearing with an electrohydraulic shaker capable of transferring dynamic loads while the static loader simulates the machine’s weight under a real-life operating scenario. Delgado said that most testing, which is sponsored by industry participants, aims to validate models or new concepts for OEMs and end users. In terms of component-level testing, the Lab also evaluates annular clearance seals performance.

“In this cell, we test high-pressure oil and gas seals,” Delgado said. “We’re currently testing labyrinth or textured seals designed to stabilize machines like high-speed compressors. We’ve also been working with 3D-printed seals for prototyping and testing different surface texture concepts. Isolating component performance is a necessary part of component-level testing, as it would be more difficult to assess performance within the full-scale machine itself.” 

Given that students are testing machinery and components under real-world conditions, safety is a top priority among faculty. A safety officer enforces a strict protocol, which includes safety training at the university, lab, and test-cell levels. The training is comprised of online and in-person aspects, the latter of which includes education on energy sources and how to manage emergencies, such as oil spills.

The Lab also contains a full-scale machine shop for manufacturing smaller components or modifying existing components. A facility manager leads the shop, but students may use the tools if they’ve received proper training. 

The last test cell was conducting combustion-related research with shock tubes, and Dr. Delgado handed off the tour to Dr. Claire Grégoire, a post-doctoral researcher at TAMU. “It’s a long piece of tubing split into two sections separated by a diaphragm,” Grégoire said. “We study the gas phase of a mixture that can be fuel-air or electrolytes in a lithium-ion battery. We fill one side with pressure so the diaphragm breaks and sends a shockwave, igniting the mixture on the other side. Optical or laser elements monitor the combustion properties.” 

Two other students were assessing oil combustion properties with the same shock-tube technology, deploying the aforementioned laser absorption spectroscopy to measure the concentration of specific chemical species precisely. This allows researchers to study combustion kinetics at high temperatures and pressures by tracking the formation and decay of key reactions.

The Turbo Lab is part of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) and focuses on three key areas: research, education, and workforce development. The main facility is located in College Station, Texas, and primarily studies rotordynamics and mechanical systems, thermal fluids and combustion, and computational modeling and design. 

Dr. Eric Petersen, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of Texas A&M’s Turbo Lab, said new research covers power generation gas turbines, rocket propulsion systems, explosion and detonation safety limits, aviation jet propulsion, and hypersonic propulsion systems. “In recent years, we have also been developing methods for studying coke formation and possible ignition in lubrication oils when exposed to elevated temperatures.”

Gammon stressed that the Turbo Lab’s role and history are interlinked with the TPS conference: “The symposia did not originate from Texas A&M. Instead, it originated from an industry that was looking to solve problems. In the late 1960s and early 70s, a group of machinery engineers in the Gulf Coast region faced massive machinery failures in ethylene plants, primarily due to the uptick in plastic demand. These engineers came together, and, luckily, some were Texas A&M graduates.” 

Gammon said that both TPS and Asia TPS are the Turbo Lab’s biggest assets, with industry-leading individuals and companies volunteering for a spot on the advisory committee. Speaking on his own role, Gammon put it simply: facilitating knowledge transfer.

“We have very smart people in many different places,” Gammon said. “We have smart people doing research at the laboratory, including students and professors; we have smart people on our advisory committees; and we have smart people teaching short courses outside of TPS and presenting at the symposia. Everything I do facilitates that.” 

Perhaps the biggest upcoming development for the Turbo Lab is the Industry Certification Program that will help educate rotating equipment engineers across a variety of industries, such as oil and gas, petroleum, power production, and additional industrial applications. Being certified under this program will demonstrate a practical knowledge base to employers in the field, potentially bridging the skill/experience gap brought on by the exodus of older professionals and the influx of younger, inexperienced engineers.

By combining face-to-face courses, rigorous testing, and continued education to maintain competency, engineers can be certified by top subject matter experts in numerous fields, including but not limited to:

“Major companies can use these certifications to judge placement,” Gammon said. “It also helps standardize development and competence, like API develops a standard of education for rotating equipment engineers. This program is designed for working engineers, not field technicians. The curriculum will be developed by industry instructors and includes testing, which we don't do in any of our current courses.”

The Turbo Lab maintains its student-first focus throughout all the research operations, educational initiatives, and industry-oriented conferences. “Students are our primary product and everything that we do,” Gammon said. “Even in the symposia, we bring our students. We are educating at the lab, and we want to engage them with continuous education programs.” 

Dr. Delgado said, quoting the late professor and Turbo Lab director, Dr. Dara Childs, they are in the business of training professionals, “everything else is secondary to that, including the research that we do. That’s reflected in the lab, as everything you see is done by students since we don’t rely on technicians.” 

Although the Turbo Lab has been conducting world-class research on rotating machinery for decades, it does not lose sight of its educational roots, allowing students to obtain hands-on knowledge before entering the workforce. With the knowledge gap growing between older or retiring professionals and newer engineers, Texas A&M’s Turbo Lab ensures that the new generation will be equipped to handle the current and future energy challenges and opportunities.

Check out our video and written interviews with 

The Turbomachinery Laboratory at Texas A&M researches compressors, turbines, and pumps, fostering collaboration between academia and industry.

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Turbo Tour: Texas A&M’s Turbo Lab: Student-First Research with Industry-Wide Goals

The 2025 Baker Hughes Annual Meeting is the largest meeting to date, with more than 2,300 delegates from 85 countries from sectors beyond oil and gas, including mining, steel, aerospace, hard-to-abate sectors, and data centers.

Lorenzo Simonelli, Chairman and CEO of Baker Hughes, outlined the theme and goals of the two-day meeting in his opening keynote on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025: what's happening in the energy landscape, the challenges and opportunities, and how to meet the demands of the energy future.

What’s clear is that energy demand is increasing, as are the industry's requirements going forward. Simonelli cited factors such as the 26% increase in U.S. energy consumption by 2028, the growth of generative AI, and the increasing data center population. These factors are surrounded by the geopolitical background, new tariffs, and policy confusion: “Over 75 carbon pricing models covering 24% of CO

 emissions globally—how do we manage this confusing environment?” Simonelli said.

According to McKinsey, over the next 30 years, $275 trillion will be needed for the energy infrastructure of the future to manage the energy development. Climate change continues to be a reality: 2024 was the hottest year on record. The question remains: How do we manage these complex aspects of the energy future and achieve sustainable, affordable, and secure energy and abundance for the future?

Simonelli said it’s through sustainable energy development: “It's through efficiencies and effectiveness of how we use innovations and apply them to the energy infrastructure. It's how we go through the energy expansion, using all fuel types: oil, hydrogen, renewables, continuing to increase nuclear and gas.”

In his opening keynote, Lorenzo Simonelli, CEO of Baker Hughes, echoed the theme of an “affordable, sustainable, and secure” energy landscape.

Fuad Al Mahmood

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