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Podcasts

How accurate are advanced computational tools like CFD and FEA? Find out in part II of designing turbomachines with the Myth Busters.

TurboTime Podcast: Designing Turbomachines - Part II

In this episode of the TurboTime podcast, Myth Busters Klaus Brun and Rainer Kurz discuss the design of turbomachines. They describe the typical design process for a turbomachine, outline the required engineering tools, and explain each analytical tool's function: finite element analysis, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and rotor and blade dynamics. They also discuss how compressors, pumps, and turbomachines were designed before these advanced computational tools existed.

TURBO: Can you describe the typical design process of a turbomachine and what engineering tools are required?

 You begin with what's known as a 1D analysis, then move to a 2D analysis, also called a blade passage flow analysis. After that, you proceed to 3D and conduct some testing before refining your geometry. In essence, that's the aerodynamics part, right? However, there’s an initial step that is often overlooked, which is your own experience. You start your design based on your experience and your existing machinery portfolio. If you’re a turbomachinery manufacturer with 50, 60, or 70 years in the field, you’ve likely worked on various types of machines. Therefore, before designing a new machine, impeller, or expander, you review your existing portfolio; that's usually your starting point. You examine what's closest to your needs within that portfolio to determine if you can build upon it or if you need to start from scratch. Besides the aerodynamic design process, there's also a review of structures and dynamics that runs parallel to your aerodynamic process. You perform aerodynamic design followed by structural checks. Essentially, you assess the solids and dynamics to ensure there’s no risk of failure due to vibration. You conduct these evaluations throughout to avoid potential failures. These are generally well-known considerations. Additionally, a third aspect that often gets overlooked is manufacturability. It’s crucial to ensure that what you're designing can actually be manufactured, as it wouldn’t make sense to design an impeller or a machine that ultimately cannot be produced due to a lack of available technology or machinery. This consideration relates closely to materials, so manufacturability and materials fall into the same category, requiring a review of your materials, coatings, etc., throughout the design process to ensure that your design is feasible for production.

 I’d also like to point out that, as engineers, we don't design these machines out of thin air. There’s usually a use case, a customer, or a market assessment that indicates we need something that fits specific requirements. This could be a gas turbine that produces 20,000 horsepower or a compressor that can deliver more throughput than what my competitors can achieve within a given casing size, and so on. Then, we enter a process where engineering is asked, "Hey, can you guys do that?” Of course, someone also inevitably asks if we can achieve that at a cost that makes the project feasible. Yes, Klaus is absolutely right; this essentially defines the playground we work within. From there, we move from what could be considered a rough draft, using our experience, to increasingly refined concepts. Ultimately, you'll end up with some CFD simulations, and after building the first machine or prototype, there will be some testing to follow.

Do engineers overrely on computational tools? The Myth Busters deep dive into engineering tools, such as CFD and FEA, used to design turbomachines. 

TurboTime Podcast: The Turbomachinery Design Process - Part I

In this episode of the TurboTime podcast, Myth Busters Klaus Burn of Ebara Elliott Energy and Rainer Kurz of RKSBenergy LLC dive into electrification: what it is and debunk the myth that it and machines—such as hermetically sealed compressors and high-speed electric motor drives—hydrogen blending and others are decarbonized.

TURBO: Can you break down the assertion that that machinery electrification and electric-motor drives are a decarbonization myth?

 There are a lot of decarbonization myths that don’t just have to do with electrification and electric motors and hermetically sealed drives and high-speed motors, but they also have to do with hydrogen blending, unburned hydrocarbons and gas turbines, and other types of emissions that are part of the sustainable energy economy. What we set to do, however, is talk about electrification, which is basically when you take a turbomachine, a compressor or pump, and instead of running it with a driver—e.g., a gas or steam turbine, which has been done traditionally at a lot of compressor stations, pipelines, or in refineries, ethylene plants, or other places—you actually replace them with an electric motor. And, obviously, an electric motor does not have any emissions directly; it just shifts the responsibility of the carbon production from where you utilize the electric motor to where the electricity comes from. And the last time I checked, at least in most of the industrialized nations such as North America, 60% of all fossil electricity comes from fossil fuels, a mix of natural gas and coal. China actually has more—I think 70% of the electricity comes from fossil fuels, mostly coal, which is very dirty. Europe is not quite as bad. They now have about 40% alternative energies, but still a substantial part. So, you're really just shifting the carbon emission from one place to another, sometimes in a very, very inefficient way.

 In a way, this discussion is always about where you draw the emissions boundaries. Klaus is right: As soon as you can shift your emissions outside your boundaries, you can claim you are carbon-neutral, whereas, in reality, you just made somebody else deal with your carbon emissions. There are quite a few studies that address that one way or another and very clearly show if you make electricity while creating CO

 or other emissions, you may create more emissions with an electric driver than with a driver that’s driven by fossil-fueled engines.

Klaus Brun and Rainer Kurz break down the myth that electrification and electric-motor drives are decarbonized. 

TurboTime Podcast: Debunking Machinery Decarbonization Myths

In this interview with Scott DeNeale, a Water Resources Engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, we discuss the lab’s current research projects in hydropower and trends such as low-head and modular designs and metal additive manufacturing to manufacture Francis turbines. The lab is working on a lot of exciting work, and even though hydropower has been around for 150 years, DeNeale said there is a lot of opportunity to complement new generation with environmental compatibility.

An interesting fact is that only 3% of the more than 90,000 damns in the United States use hydropower. Why? Listen to find out!

TURBO: Can you tell us a little about Oak Ridge National Lab?

 Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the largest multi-program science and technology laboratory in the United States. It's managed by UT Battelle but is owned by the U.S. Department of Energy. As part of my research, I do a lot of work for hydropower. The research and development that I do touch on a lot of different things. We look at grid integration, markets, reliability, performance, hydrology and hydraulics, water management, biodiversity and ecosystem science. We look at technological advancement as well.

TURBO: What recent advancements have you seen in turbomachinery used in hydropower technology and pumped storage hydropower technology?

 Conventional hydropower—what we would speak to is the age of the big dams is over, so a lot of what we're looking at is retrofitting existing dams, replacing units, or adding new units to existing dams. And there's an area looking at canals and conduits as well. So, some of the advancements that I've seen are really geared toward the existing infrastructure, which has largely low-head or low-pressure potential. It’s a little bit different design that is used to capture that design point. Another area is modular technologies and standard technologies. Conventionally, a lot of turbines are custom-built, so the ability to have a standard design that could be plug-and-play has been of interest. We've had some research over the past 10 years related to that, working with industry on advancing their concepts as well. 

For pumped storage … I would refer you to a report from some of my friends at Argonne National Laboratory. They have done some great documentation of innovations—a lot of it's conceptual for pump storage but some cool innovations there. However, there has been no new pump storage since 2012. And, even with that, that was a very small project. So, since the mid-nineties, there really hasn’t been much of anything in terms of new pump storage, but there is a great demand for it.

Scott DeNeale of Oak Ridge National Lab shares trends in hydropower—from modular designs to additive-manufactured Francis turbines. 

TurboTime Podcast: Modular and Low-Head Designs are Trending in Hydropower 

In this episode of the TurboTime Podcast, Myth Busters Klaus Burn of Ebara Elliott Energy, and Rainer Kurz of RKSBenergy LLC, discuss root-cause analysis (RCA), including what it is, the philosophy and methodologies behind it, what actions should and should not be taken, and more.

Brun said: “RCA, some folks call it root-cause failure analysis, looks at something that failed: Your machine had a catastrophic failure, or you’re missing performance by a percent or two—something is not as you would expect in a compressor or gas or steam turbine, and you want to figure out what it is. So, you perform an RCA based on certain symptoms. In most cases, RCA starts with a review of the machine’s operation that may have preceded the failure and in some cases a metallurgical investigation, which is one of the best indicators as to what failed. It can indicate it was high-cycle fatigue, sudden overload, corrosion or erosion, for example. Then you figure out what excitation may have caused the high-cycle fatigue or what in your process gas may have caused corrosion or erosion.”

Kurz said: “In a way, this is a bit like a detective story. You find something failed, aka the dead body, and then you gather evidence. One of the key things in root-cause failure analysis is that you not only gather evidence, but you also document it. One of the key problems when these reports are written is you have a failure in 2015, for example, and you conduct an RCA, and the next similar failure isn’t for another 10 years. (These events don’t happen that often.) And if you haven't documented what you did for the first one, you can’t use it as a starting point.”

Klaus Brun and Rainer Kurz discuss root-cause analysis—what it is, its methodologies, and why it’s so important to managing turbomachines.

TurboTime Podcast: Root Cause Analysis with the Myth Busters 

During this episode of the TurboTime Podcast, Klaus Brun and Rainer Kurz discuss how hydrogen is transported and its use as an energy carrier. They then discuss how ammonia is produced, its advantages and limitations, and for what industries it’s a suitable solution.

“We’ve previously talked about hydrogen in some of our Myth Buster podcasts and how it’s relevant to a decarbonized energy economy as an energy carrier. Unfortunately, hydrogen itself has a lot of nasty characteristics: it's hard to compress, highly flammable, as a gas it’s not easy to deal with, etc. From a transportation and storage perspective, it leaks, has many safety issues, causes hydrogen embrittlement, etc., making it difficult to transport.”

“Making ammonia is nothing new. We know how to how the process works, but it is an energy-intensive process. But ammonia is a very toxic gas. It causes skin burns rapidly if you touch it in liquid form. In vapor form, even at less than 100 PPMs, it’s very irritating, so it creates a lot of issues from the handling perspective.”

In this episode of the TurboTime podcast, Myth Buster Klaus Brun and Rainer Kurz discuss ammonia. 

TurboTime Podcast: Ammonia with the Myth Busters

This episode of the TurboTime podcast features an onsite interview from our Turbo Tour of EthosEnergy’s Light Gas Turbine and Performance Center Facility in Houston. Assistant Editor James Cook talks with Daniel Tegtmeier, Director of EthosEnergy's Performance Center, about remote monitoring and operations, the changing energy landscape, and the benefits of remote start/stop and virtual capabilities.

Q: How does remote monitoring keep simple-cycle assets viable in a market focused on renewable energy?

 If you think about a machine built 20+ years ago and its efficiency, it still has a place in the market when competing with renewables. It’s not like it used to be though—these units used to run wide-open, 24/7. They’re now intermittent assets competing with renewables and zero-cost fuels, but once the wind stops blowing and the sun stops shining, that load is gone.

These are simple-cycle configurations, so they can come online quickly and be at 100 - 120 MW in less than an hour. So, you’re going to staff a facility 8,000 hours per year in case they call you up? That’s part of what we do and the justification for remote operations—you need the intermittent load from simple-cycle assets in rapid fashion, but you can’t afford to staff these places full-time.

Q: In addition to that justification, are there any safety improvements delivered through remote start/stop and control capabilities?

 Economics seems to drive most decision processes behind whether you’re remotely operating a facility or not; however, there’s a huge safety aspect. You don’t need people there 24 hours a day around equipment with a lot of pent-up energy, so exposure levels drop dramatically. For the most part, these machines are designed so well and over-engineered from day one that they’re conducive to [remote monitoring].

In this episode of the TurboTime podcast, Daniel Tegtmeier, Director of EthosEnergy’s Performance Center, talks about remote operations and monitoring. 

TurboTime Podcast: Remote Monitoring with EthosEnergy

In this episode of the TurboTime podcast, Klaus Brun and Rainer Kurz talk about turbine degradation. They define terms such as fouling, corrosion, erosion, and rubbing and dig a little bit into what causes degradation, how it can be measured and minimized, and the difference between recoverable and non-recoverable degradation.

Burn explained: “A gas turbine system consists of a compressor, combustor, and one or several turbines, so degradation at its highest level is simply measured by what power output and efficiency to expect under certain operating conditions from a new machine and how much less power and less efficiency do you get after that machine has been running for thousands or tens of thousands of hours. The primary measurement is really on a macro level.”

During this episode, the Myth Busters break down the many terms associated with degradation, what components degrade, how it can be measured and minimized, and more. 

TurboTime Podcast: Turbomachine Degradation with the Myth Busters

In this episode of the TurboTime Podcast, we talk with Giuseppe Tilocca, Scientific Officer at ETN Global, a non-profit member association in the gas turbine technology space. ETN Global’s recent global report, 

Decentralized Energy Systems: Toward Carbon-Neutral Energy Solutions for Gas Turbines

, compares decentralized systems to centralized heat and power units and highlights its advantages—including modularity, the possibility to exploit waste heat avoiding energy transmission losses, and reducing energy distribution costs. Tilocca reviews these advantages in detail, as well as trends and emerging market opportunities, and he dives into gas turbines and how they fit into decentralized energy systems.

“Considering this specific report, we all know that the energy sector is transforming very quickly, and it's mainly driven by the increasingly high share of renewable energy sources,” Ticolla said. “In this scenario, which is dominated by variable sources whose daily, weekly, and seasonal flexibility are set to go dramatically, to meet the system requirements while accomplishing the ambitious decarbonization goals, we need to support traditional centralized generation with a mix of the centralized components.”

So, how does ETN Global define decentralized energy systems, and what are their advantages?

“Historically, we established centralized energy systems, meaning large plants located far from consumers,” Tilocca explained. “The reason behind it is merely economy of scale and efficiency, so it is cheaper to have one big plant than many small ones; however, with the increasing integration of variable renewable energy sources, which are inherently decentralized, we now need to adapt our infrastructure and incorporate technologies that are traditionally used for centralized energy. By definition, a decentralized energy system is located close to the consumption nodes—so on the end user side of the network—and therefore it's connected to the distribution grid rather than the transmission grid. The advantages of a decentralized energy system are mainly modularity, the possibility of exploiting waste heat, and a positive contribution to stability. In particular, one of the main advantages of being close to consumption nodes is avoiding transmission and distribution losses and also costs compared to centralized generation. Centralized energy systems are pivotal in meeting the pillars of the energy trilemma, which stress the principles of affordability, security, and climate neutrality and hence it aligns with the requirements for the transition toward 2030 but also 2040 and 2050.”

ETN Global’s Scientific Officer, Giuseppe Tilocca, talks about the association’s recent report on decentralized energy systems—their advantages and challenges, trends, and where and how gas turbines fit in.  

TurboTime Podcast: Decentralized Energy Systems with ETN Global 

In this episode of the TurboTime Podcast, the Myth Busters discusses the role of turbomachinery in energy transport and storage, including how gas turbines maximize energy density. They dive into various forms of energy storage—including batteries, hydrogen, and mechanical and thermal energy—for various energy sources such as wind, solar, fossil fuels, etc., and more.

During the energy transport and conversion processes, for example in the case of hydrogen, there are significant energy losses. The lowest losses are with coal, then oil and fossil fuels. As a result of these losses, “Hydrogen is a viable solution for storage, but it’s not a great solution to power a large-scale electric power plant by itself,” Kurz said.

Really, energy comes down to sustainability, affordability, and sustainability of supply – and in this equation, renewables are typically intermittent and not a reliable full-time source of energy.

So where does turbomachinery fit into all of this?

“From a turbomachinery perspective, if you exclude electric—because as Rainer said, it's not always applicable, as you can’t transport energy from Venezuela to Florida along an electric line—then you have to convert your energy stored material, be it natural gas, oil, coal, or from an alternative source then you have to convert it into hydrogen or ammonia or something else, and then transport it,” Brun explained. “All these convergent processes utilize turbomachinery. We have maybe 100 years of experience transporting oil in pipelines and ships and trucks and that involves a lot of pumping—we're very good at pumping – it’s very efficient. We also have about a similar amount of time compressing natural gas, which over the last 40 - 50 years we've used a lot more centrifugal compressors for transporting natural gas. Now we're running into the challenge of sustainable alternative energies where basically you're saying, ‘OK, I'm going to take my wind and solar electric and convert them to let's say hydrogen or ammonia or dimethyl ether or methanol—there are a lot of fluids that you can make from electricity that are energy carriers—but then they have to be transported. Hydrogen is the lightest gas (We had a previous podcast where we talked about the challenges of 

). Similarly, ammonia is a liquid that has to be transported at slightly refrigerated temperatures, and it brings its own challenges because it's highly poisonous and very corrosive to a lot of materials. Dimethyl ether is not that hard to transport—it’s similar to diesel—but it's very expensive to make. Methanol is also highly poisonous. So there are a lot of other challenges that you now face with these energy carriers that you worry about when transporting your original form of energy to the end user.”

Klaus Brun and Rainer Kurz dial into energy storage and transport—why they are necessary, how turbomachinery fits into these processes, and more. 

TurboTime Podcast: Energy Transport and Storage with the Myth Busters 

Louisiana LNG will purchase approximately 640 Bcf of natural gas from bp, the primary natural gas supplier, with deliveries planned for 2029.

Woodside Energy, bp Sign Natural Gas Supply Agreement for Louisiana LNG Project

Hanwha Aerospace will assemble and test the eight LM500 marine gas turbine engines before installing them on four Korean patrol boats.

GE Aerospace’s LM500 Marine Turbines Power Korean Navy Patrol Vessels

The May/June 2025 issue spotlights the gas turbine market, deep-diving into order activity, the impact of surging power demand, and how the industry is responding.

Turbomachinery International: May/June 2025

The Louisiana LNG facility is a three-train, 16.5 MTPA development scheduled for first LNG in 2029.

Woodside Energy Gives ‘Go-Ahead’ to Develop Louisiana LNG

The planned combined-cycle, gas turbine-equipped power plant is expected to be Hungary’s largest and most efficient upon completion, bolstering domestic energy production.

Ansaldo Energia, MVM Agree to Build Combined-Cycle Plant in Hungary

Welcome to the sixth edition of the Turbomachinery News Network. I’m James Cook, assistant editor at 

The Turbomachinery News Network, for the week of April 21, 2025, covers news from Capstone Green Energy, bp, Chevron U.S.A., and TMC Compressors.

Capstone Delivers Microturbines, bp Loads LNG Cargo, Chevron Kickstarts Ballymore, TMC Equips LNG Carriers

The City of Winona ordered two C65 integrated combined heat-and-power 

 and a remote monitoring controller from Vergent Power for its wastewater treatment plant. The new turbines, set to be commissioned by April 30, will replace an existing C65 model that operated for over 15 years and had more than 100,000 hours of runtime.

bp successfully loaded its first LNG cargo from the 

 Phase 1 project, located approximately 120 km offshore Mauritania and Senegal’s maritime border. The cargo, designated for export, was loaded onto bp’s floating LNG vessel 10 km offshore. This loading follows first gas flow from GTA in early 2025.

Chevron began producing oil and natural gas at the 

 in the Gulf of America. This subsea tieback is estimated to contain 150 million barrels of oil equivalent recoverable resources to be extracted over the project’s lifetime. The project is slated to produce up to 75,000 barrels of oil per day across three wells connected to the Blind Faith facility.

TMC Compressors is supplying marine-based 

 to Hanwha Ocean to construct 12 new-build LNG carriers. The company’s compressed air systems are designed specifically for offshore and maritime applications and enable the vessel’s crew to perform on-board maintenance while at sea easily.

Welcome to the fifth edition of the Turbomachinery News Network. I’m James Cook, assistant editor at 

The Turbomachinery News Network, for the week of April 14, 2025, covers news from EnBW, the Port of Rotterdam, Venture Global, MAN Energy Solutions, and GE Vernova.

EnBW Commissions Plant, Rotterdam Conducts Pilot, Calcasieu Pass Enters Operation, MAN Supplies Propulsion, GE Vernova Equips Plant

EnBW commissioned a power plant equipped with hydrogen-ready gas turbines, one of Germany’s first, at the 

 waste incineration site. EnBW modernized the site with a 62-MW turbine construction featuring waste-heat boilers and hot-water boilers. The new plant will generate 124 MW of electrical energy and 370 MW of thermal energy for Stuttgart.

 between two vessels that transferred 800 cubic meters of liquefied ammonia at -33 ºC. It took approximately 2.5 hours alongside a newly constructed concrete quay. The demonstration validated the Port of Rotterdam Authority’s safety system for ammonia bunkering, with the first ammonia-bunker-fueled ships arriving in 2026 - 2027.

 export facility into commercial operation, allowing long-term customers to offtake low-cost LNG just 68 months after reaching final investment decision. The facility, among the fastest greenfield LNG projects completed to date, holds numerous multi-billion-dollar contracts with key European trade allies. These customers will receive North American LNG for 20-year terms.

In the maritime sector,MAN Energy Solutions will deliver 10 

 to Hindustan Shipyard in India, which will build five fleet support ships for the Indian Navy.

 in Japan kicked off operation using three GE Vernova 9HA.02 gas turbines, three heat recovery steam generators, and steam turbines and generators from Toshiba. The HRSGs were manufactured as pressure part modules in GE Vernova’s factory in South Korea and assembled into prefabricated supermodules in Tongyeong before maritime shipment to Japan. The Goi Thermal Power Station may reduce CO

 emissions by 16% compared to the original plant.

Welcome to the fourth edition of the Turbomachinery News Network. I’m James Cook, assistant editor at 

The Turbomachinery News Network, for the week of April 7, 2025, covers news from Baker Hughes, Concepts NREC, GE Aerospace/MTU, Shell, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Baker Hughes Installs Software, Concepts NREC Updates AEDS, MTU’s Fort Worth Expansion, Shell Produces Oil, MHI Completes Refurbishment

 to install its Cordant Asset Health digital solution at 10 chemical production facilities in China. This provides Sinochem’s diagnostics teams with centralized data to minimize unplanned downtime, identify failures proactively, and reduce production losses across the portfolio. Also, Sinochem will develop and scale best practices, apply operational learnings, enhance asset performance, and establish efficiencies at the highest organizational level.

 for its Agile Engineering Design System. The update includes multiple software modules tailored to computer-aided engineering and computer-aided manufacturing; advanced rotating machinery dynamics software, which can be launched in real-time from within AxCent to analyze rotordynamics during the design phase; CYCAL thermodynamic cycle analysis software; and Code LEO, a new computational fluid dynamics code powered by a graphics processing unit that operates 15 - 120x faster than current CFD solvers.

GE Aerospace and MTU Maintenance Dallas agreed to continue GEnx aviation engine maintenance at the new 

. The agreement supports MTU Maintenance Dallas in expanding maintenance variety and Fort Worth shop capacity for customers using GE Aerospace engines. In 2023, MTU Maintenance transferred its maintenance work to the Fort Worth location: a 43,000-square-meter facility with engine testing capable of up to 100,000 lbs. of thrust.

Shell Offshore started oil production at the 

 tieback, located 170 miles offshore of New Orleans, LA, in the Mississippi Canyon in approximately 7,500 feet of water. Expected to produce up to 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, Dover is the second tieback to the Appomattox production hub. The subsea development’s two production wells will be connected to Appomattox via a 17.5-mile flowline and riser.Shell’s current Dover estimates claim approximately 44.5 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Environmental & Chemical Engineering successfully finished the refurbishment of several facilities at its 

: a waste-to-energy plant in Kyushu, Japan. Following refurbishment, the plant attained a 31.86% CO

 reduction rate compared to the lower 17.25% targeted rate. This was achieved by replacing a feeder and boiler piping, allowing higher durability when exposed to lower air ratios. Additionally, the increased power generation made efficient use of waste steam through a denitration catalyst.

Baker Hughes Installs Software, Concepts NREC Updates AEDS, MTU’s Fort Worth Expansion, Shell Produces Oil, MHI Completes Refurbishment 

Welcome to the third edition of the Turbomachinery News Network. I’m James Cook, assistant editor at 

The Turbomachinery News Network, for the week of March 31, 2025, covers news from MTU Maintenance, GE Vernova, Rolls-Royce, Homer City Energy Campus, and bp.

MTU Expands Facility, GE Vernova Launches TM2500, Rolls-Royce Updates Automation, Homer City Uses Gas, bp’s First Gas at Cypre

MTU Maintenance is constructing a new maintenance, repair, and overhaul production section at its 

, supporting a 30% increase in shop visit volumes in the coming years. This expansion aims to improve workscope customization, satisfy customer requirements, and meet growing market demand. The new addition is slated to commence operations in January 2027 after completion.

 dry-low emissions aeroderivative turbine: a mobile, water-free 34-MW power-plant solution with up to 39% efficiency, lower NOx emissions and waste, and the ability to deliver power on and off the grid. It operates on a two-trailer frame that enables easy shipping, on-site flexibility, and a 30-day lead time from contract to commissioning.

Rolls-Royce and the Singapore Institute of Technology

 announced a partnership to develop and improve equipment health and fleet management technologies for autonomous ships, harbor crafts, and vessels with hybrid propulsion systems. The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore will dedicate a multi-purpose, hybrid patrol craft for the pilot project: the MPA Guardian, equipped with two mtu Series 16V2000 engines.

Homer City Redevelopment and Kiewit Power Constructors will transform the previously coal-based Homer City Generating Station into a large-scale, natural gas-powered data center complex, leveraging seven GE Vernova 7HA.02 gas turbines to be delivered in 2026. The 3,200-acre 

 will support increasing AI and high-performance computing demand in the PJM and NYISO power grids. Site construction will begin in 2025, with power generation slated for 2027.

bp Trinidad and Tobago began gas production at the 

 project which, at its peak, is expected to deliver approximately 45,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The Cypre field is 78 km off Trinidad’s southeastern coast in the East Mayaro Block, with water depths of nearly 80 meters. The total project scope will include seven wells, with the additional three assets scheduled for construction later this year.

Welcome to the second edition of the Turbomachinery News Network. I’m James Cook, assistant editor at 

The Turbomachinery News Network, for the week of March 24, 2025, covers news from GE Vernova, GE Aerospace, Baker Hughes, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, and LNGameChanger.

GE Conducts Outage, Inaugurates XEOS, Baker Hughes Executes Drilling, KHI Builds Demo Facility, LNGameChanger Develops Powertrain

 completed gas turbine outage and maintenance operations at the Riyadh 8 power plant. The outage was led by GE Vernova’s Gas Power One Field Services Team and supported the reliability and efficiency of the plant’s power generation assets.Saudi engineers and specialists conducted detailed planning and execution, established strict safety protocols, and delivered the project on schedule with GE Vernova’s Live Outage digital tool.

GE Aerospace and Lufthansa Technik recently inaugurated the 

 engine maintenance, repair, and overhaul facility—a 35,000-square-meter facility that leverages GE Aerospace’s lean operating system, FLIGHT DECK, to deploy best practices in design and operation.XEOS is currently conducting LEAP-1B shop visits and LEAP-1A module work and engine testing, with plans to increase overhaul capacity and repair capability in the coming months.

Baker Hughes, under a multi-year contract with the Dubai Petroleum Establishment and Dubai Supply Authority, will execute 

 work at the Margham Gas Storage Project. The company will leverage its CoilTrak coiled-tubing bottomhole assembly system and under-balanced drilling expertise.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) started building a 

hydrogen compressor demonstration facility

 at its Harima Works in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. The facility will test the company’s new, world-first centrifugal hydrogen compressor for hydrogen liquefaction plants, the KM Comp-H

. KHI expects to complete construction in November 2025, followed by one year of operational testing. The new machine achieves high-boosting performance through ultra-high-speed rotating technology, including KHI’s newly developed impeller, which optimizes a small molecular weight gas like hydrogen.

The HAV Group, Havila Voyages, Molgas Norway, and SINTEF established a consortium to decarbonize the maritime transport industry: 

. Their main objective is to design, manufacture, test, and commercialize an LNG-fired power train that uses solid-oxide fuel cells and onboard CO

 liquefaction and storage, meeting the CO

-equivalent intensity of Norway’s 2045-2050 emission standards.

Dr. Adolfo Delgado, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University’s Turbomachinery Laboratory, guided the 

 team through the lab, located in College Station, Texas, during our visit last month.

During our tour, he spoke about the latest research being conducted on rotating equipment systems and components and relevant trends and changes. According to Delgado, the industry’s most prevalent trend is transitioning toward high-power density machines, which the Lab’s component-level testing addresses.

Adolfo Delgado of Texas A&M’s Turbomachinery Laboratory says component-level testing and development have significant impacts on the industry as a whole.

Texas A&M’s Dr. Delgado Talks Component-Level Testing, Power Density Trends

TURBO: What improvements or research have been applied to rotating equipment, rotor dynamics, pumps, etc., at the Turbo Lab?

There are a number of developments and improvements that have been made over the years. We constantly work with our sponsors to understand the industry’s needs and how we can help improve their equipment. In terms of what we do here, we’ve mainly worked with components and have improved bearings, seals, and dampers. These are components that go directly into the machines and have a significant impact on the industry.

TURBO: What trends are you seeing in the rotating equipment space?

A constant trend that we’re seeing in the industry is increasing power density, and everything we do in terms of improving machinery is toward that goal. We work at a component and system level to find ways to improve power density. Another trend we’re seeing is high-power density CO

 for power generation, and it’s pushing the need for high-power density machines.

TURBO: What changes have you seen in rotating equipment in the past 3 – 5 years?

The main change we’re seeing in the rotating equipment field goes, again, toward having machines that can increase their power output while maintaining the size or shrinking the machine and maintaining the same power output. These initiatives require new mechanical components that are able to withstand high velocities or high speeds, as well as high forces. We may have to revisit some of these mechanical components.

In our final video from PowerGen 2025 with Jeffrey Benoit, Vice President of Clean Energy Solutions at PSM - a Hanwha company, and Bobby Noble, Senior Program Manager, Gas Turbine R&D – EPRI, the duo talks about the future of and what a decarbonized electric grid may look like, how OEMs are answering the call to create more power to satisfy demand coming from data centers, and availability versus sustainability.

Bobby Noble of EPRI says gas turbines are “well sought after” thanks to data center power demands and shifts in the energy portfolio mix. 

Gas Turbines

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