INSPIRE – INSpiring Pressure gain combustion Integration, Research, and Education

Gas turbines play an important role in power generation and electric energy production: the gas turbine is the base component of natural gas fired combined-cycle power plants (that use both a gas and a steam turbine) which are now able to reach 60 % of thermal efficiency. Gas turbines are also used to power vehicles, from aircraft to tanks, and the global market is expected to reach more than USD 20 billion by 2022. Gas turbines are not going anywhere soon and, given their importance to the global economy, increasing their efficiency to reduce fuel consumption and emissions is a priority. The EU-funded INSPIRE project is developing novel technologies that utilise alternative thermodynamic cycles to make that possible, increasing pressure as the combustion process proceeds. The developed technologies, that will take advantage of the use of hydrogen as fuel for future scenarios, will benefit the aerospace and energy industries, the environment and our planet.

TPG role

As part of the Inspire project, TPG is hosting two Early Stage Researchers, ESR, who are focusing on the overall performance of the pressure-gain combustion gas turbine system. ESR13 is studying the land-based combined-cycle gas turbine, while ESR 14 is studying the open-cycle gas turbine for propulsion. ESR13 is implementing the reduced-order combustion models in the existing W-TEMP (Web Thermo-Economic Modular Program) library, which allows for parameter studies and easy consideration of innovative blade cooling and fuel pretreatment concepts, as well as the impact of possible integration with energy storage processes such as Power-to-Gas, in order to adopt zero-emission fuels. ESR 14 is analyzing the effects of dynamic gas interference on the performance of gas turbine cycles. Identify possible operational instabilities due to gas dynamics phenomena.

Reference

H2020 - GA 956803

Year

2021 - 2024

Sponsor

European Commission

Coordinator

Università degli Studi di Firenze (UNIFI)

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