A student of the Aerospace Engineering faculty at Perm Tech has presented a model of a closed-cycle gas-turbine with CO2 as the working fluid. This unique technology will allow enterprises to reduce harmful emissions and make the waste work as fuel.
“A gas-turbine is an engine that converts thermal energy to mechanical energy. We suggest using it as a waste heat recovery unit. This turbine will not be driven with air, but with carbon dioxide. Now there are pyrolysis and incineration units that burn solid and liquid waste. But greenhouse gas emissions, emitted directly into the atmosphere, cause thermal pollution. Our technology allows reusing waste heat. And this feature makes our gas-turbine unique” says Anna Prosvirnova, the first-year MSc student in Aerospace Engineering faculty.
Gas-turbines are most often used as sources of heat and electricity in settlements, sometimes they can be found in the oil refining and gas producing industries. The developer supposes that harmful emissions can be a reusable fuel which circulation allows reducing costs and increasing plant’s efficiency, benefits and power.
The student believes that the working principle of gas-turbine is quite simple. The compressor pumps gas into the heat exchanger, where an external source - for example, fuel combustion products – supplies heat. Then the emissions enter the gas turbine where expanding to a lower pressure they perform useful work, part of which is used to drive the compressor. Then gases are sent from the turbine to the cooler, where heat is carried away from them to the environment - for example, by passing water from an external reservoir through the cooler. Emissions from the cooler go to the compressor, and the cycle repeats.
The developer suggests that this technology will be interesting for enterprises where it is necessary to control waste management.