Aclosed-cycle gas turbine is a turbine that uses a gas (e.g. air, nitrogen, helium, argon,[1][2] etc.) for the working fluid as part of a closed thermodynamic system. Heat is supplied from an external source.[3] Such recirculating turbines follow the Brayton cycle.[4][5]
The initial patent for a closed-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) was issued in 1935 and they were first used commercially in 1939.[3] Seven CCGT units were built in Switzerland and Germany by 1978.[2] Historically, CCGTs found most use as external combustion engines "with fuels such as bituminous coal, brown coal and blast furnace gas" but were superseded by open cycle gas turbines using cleaner-burning fuels (e.g. "gasorlight oil"), especially in highly efficient combined cycle systems.[3] Air-based CCGT systems have demonstrated very high availability and reliability.[6] The most notable helium-based system thus far was Oberhausen 2, a 50 megawatt cogeneration plant that operated from 1975 to 1987 in Germany.[7] Compared to Europe where the technology was originally developed, CCGT is not well known in the US.[8]
Gas-cooled reactors powering helium-based closed-cycle gas turbines were suggested in 1945.[8] The experimental ML-1 nuclear reactor in the early-1960s used a nitrogen-based CCGT operating at 0.9 MPa.[9] The cancelled pebble bed modular reactor was intended to be coupled with a helium CCGT.[10] Future nuclear (Generation IV reactors) may employ CCGT for power generation,[3] e.g. Flibe Energy intends to produce a liquid fluoride thorium reactor coupled with a CCGT.[11]
Closed-cycle gas turbines hold promise for use with future high temperature solar power[3] and fusion power[2] generation.
They have also been proposed as a technology for use in long-term space exploration.[12]
Supercritical carbon dioxide closed-cycle gas turbines are under development; "The main advantage of the supercritical CO2 cycle is comparable efficiency with the helium Brayton cycle at significantly lower temperature" (550 °C vs. 850 °C), but with the disadvantage of higher pressure (20 MPa vs. 8 MPa).[13] Sandia National Laboratories has a goal of developing a 10 MWe supercritical CO2 demonstration CCGT by 2019.[14]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) MIT-ANP-Series, MIT-ANP-TR-100 (2004)
