GE’s 9HA high
efficiency, air cooled heavy duty gas turbine is the industry leader in H-class
technology.
To meet the
greater need of enhanced efficiency and flexibility to effectively use the
energy, GE Power has developed the 9HA Combined Cycle Power Plant. With an
objective to give customers a total plant design that is simple and cost
effective to install, control and maintain GE Power has specifically engineered
the power plant.
This first 9HA
combined cycle power plant independently demonstrated a maximum output of 605
MW on a power island net output basis. With a generating capability of more
than 605MW, the 9HA turbine developed and produced by GE is the world’s most
efficient gas turbine, achieving an efficiency rate during commissioning performance
tests of up to 62.22%. In addition, the 9HA is highly flexible, is capable of
reaching full power in less than 30 minutes.
The performance
test was conducted according to ASME PTC 46-1996. Fuel samples collected during
the tests were analyzed as per ISO6974 standard and ISO6976 was used for the
calculation of calorific values of gas, Wobbe Index and density. The entire
test was carried out under the able supervision by Bureau Veritas a third party
agency.
Towards 65%
Combined Cycle Efficiency, GE sees continued efficiency gains in the years to
come. Advances in materials, additive manufactured geometries, ceramic matrix
composite materials, combustion, and steam cycle conditions and efficiency
should enable GE to reach 65% combined cycle efficiency. These advances will
enable higher temperature operation with less cooling and less emissions.
In this regard, Global
technology giant GE has been taking advantage of what 3D printing technology
has to offer for years now, with the establishment of the dedicated GE Additive
business in 2016 being one of its most significant moves in this field. The
company’s energy division, GE Power, today i.e in Nov-17 announced that its
largest gas turbine can now operate at 64 percent efficiency, which is a
record-breaking figure for the energy industry. This was made possible due to
GE’s innovative additive manufacturing systems, which were used to produce many
of the turbine’s components.
The new
generation turbine is known as the 9HA.02, and is the latest version of the HA
series of combustion systems, which had already broken records for efficiency
last year i. at 62.22 %.
GE achieved the
new record efficiency results for the turbine at its test platform in
Greenville, South Carolina. In specified conditions, with total output of 826
megawatts in 1x1 combined cycle configuration, the system was able to operate
at 64 percent efficiency, an improvement of over 1 percent compared to last
year. Considering the achievement in increased efficiency, GE power is now
firmly on track to achieve energy efficiency of 65 percent with the HA turbines
by the 2020s.
3D printing has
been the key to achieving this impressively high level of efficiency, with the
technology’s improved design flexibility, lower costs, and shorter production
cycle all contributing to the company’s optimization and continued fine-tuning
of such a crucial industrial product as the HA.
GE’s engineers
developed additively-manufactured components for the 9HA’s combustion system,
which made use of metal 3D printing techniques in order to unlock new advanced
geometries. These improved shapes, which would be impossible to fabricate
without the digitally enhanced manufacturing process offered by 3D printing,
can provide a much better pre-mixing of fuel and air. This improved pre-mix
leads to more powerful gas combustion and therefore greater energy efficiency
further down the line.
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