By Gerrill Griffith
Ever since Hero, the Greek mathematician of Alexandria, unveiled his simple bladeless radial steam turbine engine—that was mocked as merely an interesting toy—back in 50 AD, great thinkers including Leonardo da Vinci and Nikola Tesla have labored to evolve the concept of gas turbines and create machines that make power with ever-greater efficiency.
Now, 1,966 years after Hero’s work, a team of experts from private industry and academia, backed by funding from the Department of Energy and managed by its National Energy Technology Laboratory, has made a breakthrough that significantly increases the efficiency of turbines in fossil-fuel electricity generation and could help decrease greenhouse gas emissions.
Gas turbines, the main electricity generating components in most power plants, operate similarly to steam power plants except that instead of water, air is used. Fresh air flows through a compressor bringing it to a higher pressure. Then, fuel is sprayed into the air and ignited so that the combustion creates a high temperature flow. That high-temperature, high-pressure gas goes into a turbine where it expands, producing exhaust pressure that drives devices like electric generators.