Microturbines

Introduction and Summary

Microturbines are small electricity generators that burn gaseous and liquid fuels to create highspeed rotation that turns an electrical generator. Today’s microturbine technology is the result of development work in small stationary and automotive gas turbines, auxiliary power equipment, and turbochargers, much of which was pursued by the automotive industry beginning in the 1950s. Microturbines entered field testing around 1997 and began initial commercial service in 2000.

The size range for microturbines available and in development is from 30 to 350 kilowatts (kW), while conventional gas turbine sizes range from 500 kW to 250 megawatts (MW). Microturbines run at high speeds and, like larger gas turbines, can be used in power-only generation or in combined heat and power (CHP) systems. They are able to operate on a variety of fuels, including natural gas, sour gases (high sulfur, low Btu content), and liquid fuels such as gasoline, kerosene, and diesel fuel/distillate heating oil. In resource recovery applications, they burn waste gases that would otherwise be flared or released directly into the atmosphere.

Applications

Microturbines are ideally suited for distributed generation applications due to their flexibility in connection methods, ability to be stacked in parallel to serve larger loads, ability to provide stable and reliable power, and low emissions. Types of applications include:

o Peak shaving and base load power (grid parallel)

o Combined heat and power

o Stand-alone power

o Backup/standby power

o Ride-through connection

o Primary power with grid as backup

o Microgrid

o Resource recovery

Target customers include financial services, data processing, telecommunications, restaurant, lodging, retail, office building, and other commercial sectors. Microturbines are currently operating in resource recovery operations at oil and gas production fields, wellheads, coal mines, and landfill operations, where byproduct gases serve as essentially free fuel. Reliable unattended operation is important since these locations may be remote from the grid, and even when served by the grid, may experience costly downtime when electric service is lost due to weather, fire, or animals. In CHP applications, the waste heat from the microturbine is used to produce hot water, to heat building space, to drive absorption cooling or desiccant dehumidification equipment, and to supply other thermal energy needs in a building or industrial process.

FOR TECHNICAL & OTHER DETAILS PLEASE DOWNLOAD MICROTURBINES.PDF