Major Test of Utility Turbine Compressor Sets Stage For Westinghouse to Advance in DOE Turbine Program

Successful Test Likely to be Key Discussion Topic at DOE Advanced Turbine Program Review, October 28-29

An advanced turbine compressor -- a critical component in an ultra-clean, high-efficiency turbine power plant being developed for the 21st century -- has passed a major performance test.

Westinghouse Electric Corporation announced that testing being conducted at the Navy Ship Systems Engineering Station test facility at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard verified that key innovations in the advanced compressor design met design targets for efficiency and performance.

The compressor is the largest, highest pressure ratio, 60 Hz (hertz) utility combustion turbine compressor ever built. (Hertz is a measure of the frequency of the turbine generator. A 60 Hz turbine generates electricity at 60 cycles per second, standard for the U.S. electric grid.)

The compressor test witnessed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in early October was a key milestone in the Westinghouse program to develop a new generation of utility gas turbine technology that will far surpass current technology in power-generating efficiency and environmental performance. Westinghouse and General Electric are working in parallel in the DOE program to develop an advanced turbine that will achieve combined cycle power efficiencies of more than 60 percent, nitrogen oxide levels of less than nine parts per million, and a cost of electricity 10 percent below that of today's gas-turbine power plants.

The compressor is the critical first step of a gas turbine. In it, air is compressed to a fraction of its initial volume. When heated in a combustor and released into the turbine, the hot, high pressure air expands rapidly, creating the power that spins the blades of the turbine which, in turn, drives an electric generator.

Westinghouse's new compressor operates at an advanced 29 to 1 compression ratio compared to the 19 to 1 ratio of the most advanced conventional stationary turbine now offered commercially by the company.

To achieve the increase in pressure ratio, Westinghouse engineers added four more stages to the rear of the company's 16-stage 501G compressor. This compressor design incorporates advanced, custom-shaped airfoils designed using sophisticated computer modeling to reduce airfoil thickness, minimize vibration, and optimize efficiency. Advanced seals were also employed to minimize air leakage. The first two rows of stators --the stationary parts of the compressor -- were designed to be adjusted during start-up and partial load operation to improve starting capabilities and to maintain high efficiencies at part load.

During the witness test, more than 500 individual measurements were made to monitor the performance of the compressor.

"The latest test demonstrates that we are right on target with our design criteria," said Dominic Bartol, General Manager, Westinghouse Technology Division. "By combining advances in aerodynamics, computer modeling, and new materials with proven design concepts, we are developing a combustion turbine that will be the most efficient and reliable in the world."

The full-scale compressor test was run with a compressor sized at the equivalent of a 300-megawatt-class gas turbine, the scale at which Westinghouse plans to implement its commercial advanced gas turbine shortly after the year 2000.

Westinghouse carried out the compressor test as part of the third phase of the Energy Department's turbine development program. With the successful verification of the compressor design, Westinghouse is now preparing to move into the final phase of the joint government-industry development program: the integration of the compressor, combustion system and turbine into a complete prototype machine.

Some turbine manufacturers' project that the market for gas turbines and related power generating equipment derived from the Energy Department's Advanced Gas Turbine Program could amount to as much as $5 billion a year in the United States after the year 2000. The international market is likely to be even larger. Already, U.S. turbine manufacturers export annually more than $3 billion of power generating systems.

The higher generating efficiencies also mean that less fuel is needed for producing electric power, an important economic consideration as well as a potentially important factor in reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

DOE To Hold Turbine Program Review

Westinghouse's successful compressor test will be a key topic of discussion at the Energy Department's Advanced Turbine Systems Annual Program Review on October 28-29, 1997, at the department's Federal Energy Technology Center (FETC) in Morgantown, WV.

The meeting provides a forum for energy executives, engineers, scientists, government regulators, and others to learn of the latest results from DOE-sponsored turbine research and development. Researchers and industrial developers, along with FETC scientists and engineers, will present results from their government-sponsored projects. The meeting will also feature speakers who will present their views of the research and development still required to move advanced gas turbine technologies into the marketplace in the 21st century.

- End of TechLine -

For More Information:
Hattie Wolfe, DOE Office of Fossil Energy, 202/586-6503, e-mail: hattie.wolfe@hq.doe.gov

Patrice Leister, DOE Federal Energy Technology Center, 412/892-6126, e-mail: patrice.leister@fetc.doe.gov

Technical contact: Abbie W. Layne, Product Manager, DOE Federal Energy Technology Center, at (304) 285-4603, e-mail: abbie.layne@fetc.doe.gov