Power Plant Generator Using Gas Turbine Technology

Gas turbines have been in use ever since 1939. There are many places apart from power plants that have been used for gas turbines. Some of them include aviation, jets, marine vehicles, and automation. Did you know that there are around 7658 power plants in America alone? But the real question today is what are power plants doing with gas turbine technology? Before that, we need to understand what exactly they are.

What are gas turbines?

Gas turbines are primarily used to create electricity that should help power up the area nearby. This is the most recent technology that one can come up with to induce power. It is a kind of internal combustion engine that changes natural energy to electrical energy. It has chambers dedicated to working towards different targets.

Before gas turbines, came steam engines. Though it was a more environmentally friendly process, the results weren’t nearly as satisfactory. What differentiates gas turbines from steam turbines is that the latter uses water vapours to generate energy. The former on the other hand can use many different kinds of fuels that generate better results in terms of quality and quantity.

Mechanism of gas turbines

Gas turbines work on the principle of thermodynamics. The compartments have their distinctive roles that convert heat energy to electrical energy. It performs on the Brayton cycle. This is when the fuels are mixed with compressed air and high temperature. Both are burned which causes them to expand and then passed through a high-pressured steam engine.

Then this air is passed through turning blades which convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. Finally, the electricity is then channelled through power plants and spread over regions that require electricity.

Parts of gas turbine services

There are primarily three parts with respect to gas turbines. Comprehensively, these three parts come together to generate electricity. They have their distinctive duties and they adhere to them accordingly.

Compressor

This is where the natural gas is passed through highly compressed air. The pressure is created by heat and compression.

Combustor

The air from the compressed chamber is divided into two parts. There, the air is heated at a high temperature and then passed through.  

Power turbine

This part contains rotating blades wherein the air is passed again. Now, this creates an electric field along with magnetic power. This is where the cycle ends.

What are power plants?

These gas turbines are generally found in power generating plants or industrial plants as they are commercially called. They perform a mechanism that changes natural gas to mechanical energy and then to electrical energy.

The power plants have either one or more generators along with huge fans. The rotating blades of the fan are what help the chemical energy to get converted into three-phase electrical energy.

The plants use fuels like natural oils, fossil fuels, coal oils, and other natural gas. This creates a relative motion between the magnetic field and the conductor. This in turn leads to creating an electric current.

Power plants and their benefits

Power plants have the worst name in history. But it is done wrongly. There are many advantages of the plant which are not well appreciated. Without them, many places would not have proper electricity. But that is not all, here are some more advantages of power plants:

•       It saves money since it uses fuels. Though fuels still require a lot of money, end-result of electricity produced from steam engines is not as much. Therefore, the returns through natural gas are far more than steam. Did you know that gas turbines have a market share of 45.48%?
•       The carbon footprint is very low since it uses energy sources with low carbon energy. Therefore the by-products are also limited.
•       It helps with climate change and greenhouse gas control.
•       It is very reliable and trustworthy.

What is the relationship between gas turbines and power plants?

Power plants are basically the home for gas turbines. There are more places where the turbines are used, but power plants make the best use of them. They have huge setups and space for the generator and the rotating blades to accommodate. Therefore, it develops into a huge business over time considering, you can give back proper electricity.  Right now, there are 50 reactors which are currently under construction. That sums to around 15% of the existing population or turbines. 

Conclusion

There are a lot of talks that suggest that natural gas is not good and should not be used. However, a lot of people would argue otherwise. Natural gas is not only cheap, but it is also helpful to save the country money in the long run. Additionally, it also produces maximum efficiency while generating electricity. This is in comparison to steam engines which were tried and tested, but could not live up to gas turbines.