Steam Center Blog

Small and simple gas turbine power plants to produce electricity for communities isolated from a grid or a community wishing to remain so can be a reliable means of power supply at reasonable rates. Such power plants need to be simple in order to reduce maintenance needs. Research engineers love to play with thermodynamics and will go to any lengths to increase thermal efficiency even if it means that the final constructed plant is complex, expensive and results in frequent maintenance shut downs. For a gas turbine plant this implies using multistage turbines with intermediate heating and several heat exchangers. While the additional complexity may be justified for large gas turbine plants where thermal efficiency has an important bearing on running costs, it is not advisable for small independently managed gas turbine power plants that range from a few kilowatts to a Megawatt capacity. A gas turbine plant involves a compressor stage coupled to a turbine for expansion. Heating o...

Recently I chanced upon a Scientific American Article that quoted my book on supercritical steam in the article “One Hot Island: Iceland's Renewable Geothermal Power” by Christopher Mims at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/iceland-geothermal-power/ Although I was not quoted accurately, the inference of the author was correct in its conclusion that use of supercritical steam remains one of the available methods of increasing thermal efficiency of steam power plants. Increasing such efficiencies also reduces the amount of green house gases produced per unit of power generated. Although the emission of greenhouse gases is not an issue when using geothermal energy, the use of supercritical steam will nevertheless allow the maximum utilisation of geothermal energy.I am delighted that Christopher Mims has found this book useful towards making use of Iceland’s geothermal reserves in an efficient manner. https://www.amazon.com/Thermodynamic-Properties-...