3 ms·
My understanding is that the most efficient turbines top out at about 40%. Reciprocating engines are better, but even they can't get much above 50%. There's sti
by rfrey 6y ago
My understanding is that the most efficient turbines top out at about 40%. Reciprocating engines are better, but even they can't get much above 50%. There's still lots of heat there even in the most efficient engines.
You're absolutely right about the efficiency being just fine -- especially when you're a pipeline company and you just pull fuel for free out of the pipeline to run the turbine. That's a big reason why these companies haven't built these plants already.
- trhway 6y ago>pull fuel for free out of the pipeline to run the turbine. yep. The situation here and globally would be completely different if to the price of fuel, however low one can get it, the price of the emitted carbon were added. That would in particular have leap frogged our civilization efficiency.
- jjk166 6y agoRankine cycle tops out at 40%, gas turbines are more like 50%, and combined cycle, which is really what's being implemented here, can reach around 60%. When the gas is essentially free, there's not much incentive for efficiency, but they could have powered the compressor with a smaller yet more efficient combined cycle system. If you can economically extract power from a powerplant's waste heat, the original power plant was suboptimally designed.