Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has completed the development of its J-series gas turbine and offered it to the market for delivery in 2011. The preparatory stages of commercial production have already started. MHI will initially market the new turbine in industrially more developed areas such as Japan, the US and European countries.
‘Our global market share is currently about 10%, but we'd like to achieve a share of 30% during the period from 2012 to 2015 through the introduction of the J-series turbine to the market,’ said Yoshiaki Tsukuda, MHI's executive vice president, and general manager at the group’s Power Systems headquarters
MHI says that the new model allows the largest power generation capacity available in a single unit and the highest thermal efficiency in CC applications. The unit is designed to operate at a very high temperature, near 1600 degrees C at the turbine inlet.
The 60 Hz version achieves a rated power output of about 320 MW (ISO basis) and 460 MW in combined-cycle power generation. The company is aiming at over 60% thermal efficiency in GTCC applications, which if it is achieved will be a new record.
With the adoption of low-thermal-conductivity TBC (thermal barrier coating) technology and improvements in cooling efficiency, the J-series gas turbine is able to withstand temperatures higher by 100 degrees C than the existing 1500 deg C G-series gas turbine. The adoption of an enhanced 3-dimensional design contributed to improved aerodynamics. The compressor is designed to provide a higher compression ratio, while the combustor carries on the steam-cooled technology originally developed for the G-series turbine. The J-series also adopts new technologies derived from an ongoing national project that seeks to develop core technologies for a 1700 °C-class gas turbine (Japan’s Basic Energy Act 2002). Nitrogen oxide emission of the J-series is expected to be equivalent to the level of the existing series.
As a result of these developments, GTCCs featuring the J-series gas turbine are expected to achieve well above 60% power generation thermal efficiency. The power generation capacity will be about 1.2 times that of GTCC using a G-series gas turbine, the largest gas turbine commercially available until now.
MHI verifies the performance of its developed machines at its Takasago R & D Centre and Takasago Machinery Works in Hyogo Prefecture. At the Takasago works, MHI has a verification facility for GTCC. In commercialising this GTCC, the company says, it conducted elaborate verification tests of the large-size gas turbines and their core technologies. The G-series gas turbine was itself designed and developed through such meticulous verification processes.
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