Microturbines
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Calnetix develops and manufactures high speed generators
for microturbine applications. Microturbines are a reliable,
cost-effective on-site power generating units using natural
gas, diesel, and a variety of other liquid and gaseous fuels.
This technology is versatile and adaptable for both stationary
power and vehicular applications. Currently Calnetix has hundreds
of high speed alternators running in the field. Calnetix is
also is working on integrating magnetic bearings into microturbines
for more reliable and efficient systems.
What is a microturbine?
Microturbines are small combustion turbines approximately
the size of a refrigerator with outputs of 25 kW to 500 kW.
Microturbines offer a number of potential advantages. These
advantages include less moving parts, compact size, light-weight,
lower emissions, lower electricity costs (depending on fuel
cost), and opportunities to utilize waste fuels. They have
the advantage to be located on sites with space limitations
for the production of power. Waste heat recovery can be used
with these systems to achieve efficiencies of up to 70%.
The machines generally rotate over 40,000 rpm. A single shaft
is the more common design as it is simpler and less expensive
to build. Microturbines can also be classified as simple cycle
or recuperated. In a simple cycle, or unrecuperated, turbine,
compressed air is mixed with fuel and burned under constant
pressure conditions. The resulting hot gas is allowed to expand
through a turbine to perform work. Recuperated units use a
heat exchanger that recover the heat from the exhaust and
transfer it to the incoming air stream. The preheated air
is then used in the combustion process. If the air is preheated,
less fuel is necessary to raise its temperature to the required
level at the turbine inlet.
Because of their compact size, relatively low capital costs,
and expected low operations and maintenance costs, automatic
electronic control, microturbines are expected to capture
a significant share of the distributed generation market.
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