History of the Industrial Gas Turbine Part 1 The First Fifty Years

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PUBLICATION 582
the independent technical forum for power generation
The History of the Industrial Gas Turbine
(Part 1 The First Fifty Years 1940-1990)
By
Ronald J Hunt CEng FIMechE FIDGTE
Thermal Power Consultant
Power + Energy Associates
Morpeth, United Kingdom
IDGTE as a body is not responsible for statements expressed in any of its publications.
Copyright by the Institution of Diesel and Gas Turbine Engineers.
Founded in 1913 as Diesel Engine Users Association
The Institution of Diesel and Gas Turbine Engineers, Bedford Heights, Manton Lane, Bedford MK41 7PH
Tel +44 (0)1234 214340
Fax +44 (0)1234 355493
Email: [email protected]
www.idgte.org
This publication is copyright under the Berne Convention and the International
Copyright Convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private
study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act 1956,
no part may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the
copyright owners.
Enquiries should be addressed to: The Director General, IDGTE, Bedford Heights,
Manton Lane, Bedford MK41 7PH.
© Reserved by the Author
The publishers are not responsible for any statement made in this publication.
Data, discussion and conclusions developed by authors are for information only
and are not intended for use without independent substantiating investigation
on the part of potential users.
For discussion at a General Meeting to be held at IDGTE,
The Great Northern Hotel, Peterborough PE1 1QL
at 14.00 hours on Thursday 20 January 2011
The History of the Industrial Gas Turbine
(Part 1 The First Fifty Years 1940-1990)
Ronald J Hunt CEng FIMechE FIDGTE
Thermal Power Consultant
Power + Energy Associates
Morpeth, United Kingdom
Preamble
This account of the history of the industrial gas turbine documents the history of the development of gas
turbines for land based, locomotive and marine applications. A key part of this history is the tabulation
of the manufacturers and models produced by year since 1940. The aircraft engine is excluded from the
scope of this work and only referred to in relation to the development of industrial machines. It has not
been possible, up to the time of publication, to include every company who were active in the
development of industrial gas turbine however the research work is continuing and it is planned to add
to this history in due course.
This paper (Part 1) deals with the first fifty years of development of the industrial gas turbine from 1940
to 1990. It is planned that a second paper (Part 2) will be presented later in 2011 covering the period
1990 onwards. The author recognises that whilst there are already a number of individual historical
accounts concerning the development of the industrial gas turbine it hoped that this work will add a
broader and more comprehensive perspective to the subject. One published book [53] makes the
comment that this is a subject with as many opinions on who to credit developments to as there are
engineering historians. This author endeavours to give a fair opinion on the credits due and to give due
recognition.
Acknowledgement and thanks are given to all the companies referred to for their permission to publish
the material. Sincere thanks and appreciation is given to the many individual contributors for this work
and all who have made significant efforts to support the work and given of their time to provide the data
and reference material making this historical account possible. Special thanks are given to Steve Reed
for his support and the extensive research he has carried out. In addition thanks are given to the
numerous librarians and archivists who responded to so many enquiries and provided papers and
documents on the subject. A list of acknowledgements is attached.
The author wishes to thank the Council and Officers of the Institution of Diesel and Gas Turbine
Engineers (IDGTE) for their support, encouragement and assistance in preparing this history especially
members of the IDGTE gas turbine committee and the IDGTE heritage committee.
In preparing this historical review every effort has been made to report the performance ratings at the
time the various models were introduced. It is recognised that all turbine manufacturers are
continuously improving gas turbine products in line with ever changing market dynamics therefore the
purpose of the history is to illustrate the development history of gas turbines in general and not current
ratings. Updates will be included in a later edition (Part 2).
Note. This shortened version of the history has been prepared for presentation at the meeting of IDGTE
to be held in Peterborough on 20 January 2011 and publishing in the IDGTE Journal “The Power
Engineer”. It is planned that the full account of the history with extensive tables an specifications,
including fully detailed contributions by the contributors, will be published in a book in due course.
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List of Contributors
The Author is indebted to all the following Contributors who have generously contributed papers,
information, documents, books, photographs, and especially for sharing their experience and knowledge
to make this history what is hoped will prove to be a useful and worthwhile work.
John Marshall
John Baker
Richard Flatman
John Kitchenman
Ivan Dean
Prof. Riti Singh
Prof. Peri Pilidus
Alan Young
Eric Neal
Graham Reynolds
David Taylor
Simon Newman
Trevor Wick
Brian Tucker
Mike Dobson
Frank Carchedi
Terry Raddings
Richard Willows
John Bolter
Ian Burdon
Alan Jarvis
Alain Foote
Steve Reed
Paul Evans
Willibald Fischer
Volker Leiste
Klaas Krijnen
Tore Naess
Tom L. Lazet
Gerry McQuiggan
Akio Suzuki
1.
Anglesey, North Wales, United Kingdom
Austin Memories
Bedford, United Kingdom
Burnley, Lancashire
Cranfield, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom
Cranfield, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom
Clydebank, Scotland, United Kingdom
Derby, United Kingdom
Ansty, Coventry, United Kingdom
Ansty, Coventry, United Kingdom
Bristol, United Kingdom
Filey, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Hampshire, United Kingdom
Lincoln, United Kingdom
Lincoln, United Kingdom
Newton Abbot, Devon, United Kingdom
Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Rugby, Warwickshire, United Kingdom
Whetstone, United Kingdom
Tanygroes, Ceredigion, Wales
Erlangen, Germany
Erlangen, Germany
Rotterdam, Holland
Kongsberg, Norway
San Diego, California, USA
Florida, USA
Tokyo, Japan
Proteus Generating Set
Austin Gas Turbines
W.H. Allen Gas turbines
W.H. Allen & RAE(B)
Lucas Aerospace
Cranfield University
John Brown Gas Turbines
Rolls Royce Trust
Rolls Royce Industrial Gas Turbines
Rolls Royce Industrial Gas Turbines
Rolls Royce marine Gas Turbines
Metrovick Gas Turbines
RAE(B) Bedford
RAE(B) Bedford
Ruston/ Siemens Gas turbines
General Electric Gas turbines
Centrax Gas turbines
C.A. Parsons Gas turbines
Merz and McLellan
Merz and McLellan
English Electric Gas turbines
Ruston/ English Electric
Museum of Internal Fire
Siemens Gas turbines
Siemens Gas turbines
Steamship Rotterdam Foundation
Kongsberg Gas turbines
Solar Gas turbines
Westinghouse Gas turbines
Secretary to ISO Committee
Introduction to the Industrial Gas Turbine
It is clear that in the 19th Century the concept of the gas turbine became known to many engineers and
the efforts of all the pioneers are well documented. In the early part of the 20th Century several trials
took place. Early on it was recognised that this was a technological concept with huge potential being
limited only by the state of art of associated technologies and the materials available at that time. By the
late 1930s the concept of the gas turbine had been around for decades with articles already having being
published and patents applied for up to 50 years ahead of the realisation of the goal.
Experimental gas turbines had been around in various forms since the early 1900s and in a following
chapter the efforts of the Pioneers is given the credit that they deserve. The question of who came first
is also addressed. The early efforts to make the gas turbine work often resulted in disappointment as the
poor efficiencies initially achieved meant that there was little incentive to take the idea further.
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There was certainly no shortage of vision in the early 1900s, however, as is exampled by Captain H. Riall
Sankey1 who, in his outstanding lecture on Heat Engines given to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
in November 1917 [1], predicted the future role of the gas turbine. Sankey could see the continued
dominance and development of the steam turbine for some time to come, which at that time had
already reached 45MW. In his discussion about the future of power generation he says “…… steam
turbines will hold the field for the large units ….… until a satisfactory gas turbine has evolved.” He also
mentions that during the past 15 years (that is 1902-1917) “a few experimental turbines have been
produced but so far there has been no progress.”
On reflection what was in itself something really quite amazing was the effort of the British Government
in the early 1940s to promote the development of the gas turbine. This effort was applied in so many
fields, industrial as well as the aircraft industry. It was at this time that, Harold Roxbee Cox entered into
the picture in his government role in charge of the Gas Turbine Collaboration Committee and then Chief
Scientific Officer. The government effectively created a race and pulled into the fold all the established
engineering companies pushing this with great determination.
There is no doubt that it is Brown Boveri in Switzerland with their 4,000kW Neuchatel machine that is
credited as being the first practical industrial gas turbine. The first industrial gas turbine to run in the
United Kingdom however was the 500 bhp experimental machine of C A Parsons, which ran in 1945 [5].
2.
The Work of the Pioneers
Tribute is given to all those pioneers for their true dedication to the development of the industrial gas
turbine and working tirelessly to achieve success. There must have been so many disappointments
through all the trials and efforts but perseverance eventually bore fruits. Figure 1 illustrates the influence
of the pioneers on the development of the industrial gas turbine with key dates.
Figure 1 The History of The Industrial Gas Turbine – The Pioneers
1
Inventor of the Sankey Diagram (1905)
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The claim to the invention of the gas turbine is something that has to date never been resolved. The
idea was certainly set out by John Barber in the late 18th century (1791) then incredibly during the
following 148 years so many attempts were made to solve the challenge. In this time a number of other
patents were lodged and experimental machines were constructed with varying degrees of success.
Some of the problems encountered were due to the availability of suitable materials at the time,
compressor technology and the construction of compressors of adequate efficiency. In truth then the
achievement of the practical industrial gas turbine is due to the work of many contributors.
Brief summary biographies of each of the pioneer’s on this roll of honour are below.
1 John Barber (1734–1801) – British
He was born in Nottinghamshire and moved to Warwickshire in the 1760s to manage collieries in
the Nuneaton area. He patented several inventions the most remarkable being one in 1791 “A Method
of Rising Inflammable Air for the Purposes of Procuring Motion”. This is the patent of a gas turbine.
2 John Dumbell – British
He is credited with patenting a device in 1808 having “a series of vanes, or fliers, within a cylinder, like
the sails of a windmill, causing them to rotate together with the shaft to which they were fixed”. [3]
[41][71]
3 Bresson – French
In Paris in 1837 Bresson had the idea to heat and compress air then deliver this to a combustion chamber
and to mix this with fuel gas and then burnt. The combustion products were to be used to drive “a
wheel like a water wheel”. [41]
4 Franz Stolze (1836-1910) – German
Dr. Stolze took out a patent for gas turbine engine in 1872. This engine used a multi-stage reaction
turbine and a multistage axial flow compressor. He called this a “Fire Turbine”. Tests were made in
Berlin and trials were carried out between 1900 and 1904 but no success. [2]
5 Sir Charles Algernon Parsons (1854 – 1931) - British
Whilst he is best known for the invention of the steam turbine and founding C A Parsons& Co Ltd of
Newcastle upon Tyne in 1884, along with his celebrated steam turbine patents, Parsons patented his
idea for the gas turbine, which he called a Multiple Motor. In addition to steam turbines, by the early
1900s, Parsons was designing and manufacturing industrial compressors.
6 Rene Armengaud and Charles Lemale - French
In 1903 they built and successfully tested the first of several experimental gas turbines with internally
water cooled disks and blades. [50]
7 Dr. Holzwarth
In 1905 Dr Holzwarth proposed an explosion (constant volume) turbine. A prototype was built and
experiments were carried out between 1909 and 1913 [2]. This worked without a compressor. Several
of these turbines were built but not put into commercial use.
8 Matthew Henry Phineas Riall Sankey (1853-1925) - Irish
He was an Irish engineer from County Cork who invented the Sankey Diagram. He became President of
the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and was able to recognise the future role of the gas turbine as
early as 1917.
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9 Charles Gordon Curtis (1860-1953) - American
Born in Boston, Massachusetts he patented the first US gas turbine in 1899. Among his other
achievements was the Curtis steam turbine of 1896. He sold the rights to the turbine to GE in 1901.
10 Prof. Aurel Boleslav Stodola (1859–1942) - Swiss
He was Slovak by birth and he was a pioneer in thermodynamics and its applications. His published book
in 1903 had an appendix on gas turbines. He was invited by Brown Boveri to commission and test the
world’s first industrial gas turbine at Neuchâtel in 1940.
11 Charles Brown (1863-1924) British/ Swiss
Charles Brown was co-founder of the Brown Boveri Company in 1891 in Baden, Switzerland. He was
born in Winterthur and his father was a British engineer who founded the SLM Swiss Locomotive and
Machine Works.
12 Walter Boveri (1865-1924) German/ Swiss
Walter Boveri was co-founder of the Brown Boveri Company in 1891 in Baden, Switzerland. He was
born in Bamberg, Bavaria and died in Baden, Switzerland.
13 Aegidius Elling (1861–1949) Norwegian
Norwegian inventor considered in some quarters to be the father of the gas turbine. In 1903 he
designed and constructed the first constant pressure gas turbine. His first machine had an output of
11hp and the second 44hp. [40]
14 Auguste Camille Rateau (1863–1930) French
He is associated with the work of Lemale and Armengaud and designed the compressor for their gas
turbine. His work was largely on compressors and founded Rateau Industries.
15 Sanford Alexander Moss (1872 – 1946) American
After graduation he joined GE where he carried out research into compressor design. Due to the low
overall efficiencies achieved at the time GE ended his work on gas turbines in 1907. [40]
16 Jakob Ackeret (1898-1981) Swiss
He worked at Escher Wyss AG in Zurich as Chief Engineer of Hydraulics and was considered as an expert
on gas turbines; known for his research on axial flow compressors, airfoil theory, aerodynamics and highspeed propulsion problems. He is recognised as a pioneer of modern aerodynamics. [58]
17 Sir Harold Roxbee Cox (1902–1997) British
He was a British aeronautical engineer who became chief scientific officer for the British Government. In
1944 he became both chairman and managing director of the then nationalised Power Jets. Power Jets
was restyled again in 1946 as the National Gas Turbine Establishment with Roxbee Cox as its director.
18 Alan Howard (1905–1966) American
He worked for the GE Company in Schenectady, NY and the steam turbine activities of the company. He
is considered as the key figure in GE efforts to develop the gas turbine as he was appointed to a wartime
committee part of the general wartime effort to develop gas turbines for military aircraft propulsion.
19 Basil Wood (1905–1992) British
He worked with the consulting firm of Merz and McLellan. He was highly respected as an engineer and
regarded as an expert in all matters relating to gas turbines. For many years he edited the gas turbine
section of Kemps Yearbook. In 1970 he became President of the Diesel Engine Users Association (IDGTE).
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20 Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle (1907–1996) British
Known as the inventor of the Jet Engine, he was a British Royal Air Force (RAF) engineer officer who
shared credit with Germany's Dr. Hans Von Ohain for independently inventing the jet engine. Whittle is
hailed as the father of jet propulsion and the contribution he made to the development of the industrial
gas turbine was significant,
21 Geoffrey Bertram Robert Feilden (1917–2004) British
Bob Feilden worked with Power Jets. After that he moved to Ruston & Hornsby in Lincoln to produce the
first Ruston type TA gas turbine. Later in life he was the author of a widely acclaimed work on
engineering design for which he is highly regarded.
22 Dr. Waheeb Rizk (1921-2009)
He was born in Cairo and was educated in Cairo and then Cambridge University. After graduating he
carried out research. He joined the English Electric Company in 1954, to become a founder member of
the mechanical engineering laboratory at Whetstone, Leicester and in 1957 was made chief engineer of
the gas turbine division.
23 Prof. Dr. Rudolf Friedrich (1909-1998) German
Rudolf Friedrich was employed by Siemens from 1948 – 1964. He was Chief Technical Officer for gas
turbines at Siemens-Schuckert Works in Mülheim /Ruhr. From 1964 – 1976 he was full professor for
turbine technology at Karlsruhe technical university. He has been given the nickname “Mr. Siemens-Gas
Turbine” by his colleagues.
24 Andrew T. Bowden ( -1968) British
Graduated at Herriot-Watt, Edinburgh and went on to gain a PhD on the characteristics of solid injection.
He became Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering in Western Australia. In 1939 he returned to
the UK where he became Assistant Director of Tank Design at the Ministry of Supply and after the war he
joined C A Parsons as Chief Research Engineer setting set up the Gas Turbine Department and recruiting
a team of engineers. In 1955 he became Research Director.
25 Dr. Claude Seippel (1900-1986) Swiss
He was employed by Brown Boveri and in 1939 the person in charge of conceptual design for the
Neuchatel gas turbine plant. Some sources refer to Prof. Stodola as the Neuchatel designer however the
evidence suggests that Dr. Sieppel should have the credit. Brown Boveri honoured him by naming their
research centre at Daetwill, Baden after him.
26 John Lamb (1890-1958) British
He was a pioneer marine engineer who was Chief Engineer of the Anglo Saxon Petroleum company [48].
In 1951 he arranged for one of the diesel-electric engines on the tanker Auris to be replaced by a gas
turbine. He then carried out sea going trials with this ship and presented the results to the Institute of
Marine Engineers in October 1953 [10] [48].
3.
Technology Developments
3.1
Landmark Technical Papers
The development of the industrial gas turbine has come about as a result of the development of a large
number of technologies and research into materials enabling the improvement in operating conditions.
These have been described over the years in a number of landmark technical papers, a few of which are
mentioned below and others in the references. Refer to Figure 2.
In February 1939 Dr. Adolf Meyer from Brown Boveri presented his outstanding paper on The
Combustion Gas Turbine: Its History, Developments and Prospects [2] to the Institution of Mechanical
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Engineers in London. This presentation coincided with the introduction of the first practical industrial
gas turbine by that company in 1939.
In June 1948 at a meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London A.T. Bowden and J.L.
Jefferson of C A Parsons presented their paper on the Design and Operation of the Parsons Experimental
Gas Turbine [5]. The Parsons paper presents a detailed, no holds barred account of the gas turbine
experimental work carried out at the Heaton Works of C.A. Parson in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Figure 2 The Six Ages of Development
Over the years the Institution of Diesel and Gas Turbine Engineers (IDGTE) 2 has presented many
milestone papers on the design, development and application of the gas turbine. The first was given by
Mr. R.J. Welsh of the English Electric Company, presented in London in November 1948. Then in 1954
E.A. Kerez of Brown Boveri presented his paper on the Benzau Power Station.
In 1951, at the time of The Festival of Britain, a document was published by Power Jets (Research and
Development) called the “The Story of the British Gas Turbine”.
An account was presented by the British National Committee at the World Power Conference in Rio de
Janeiro in 1954[13]. This started with the work of John Barber and Charles Parsons and describes British
gas turbine developments in power generation, traction, automotive engines and aircraft engines.
Around 1965, as mentioned in the paper of Dr. Seippel [15], there appeared to have been a serious
debate at that time as to whether the industrial gas turbine was economically viable. At the same time it
was recognised that the climb in gas turbine outputs had been spectacular. Dr. Seippel introduced the
“combined gas-steam cycles” concept and this was immediately met by doubts as to the viability of such
schemes.
2
Formerly the Diesel Engine Users Association (DEUA).
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3.2
Cycles and Configurations
From the start of the development of the gas turbine researchers have considered whether to adopt
either the open cycle or closed cycle, the primary proponents of the closed cycle being the Swiss.
The advantages seen for the closed cycle were no need for compressor intake filtration and reduced gas
path dimensions due to the higher working pressures. The capability of the closed cycle to burn
otherwise unsuitable fuels was another big incentive. The disadvantages turned out to be the cost of
building these complex plants, limitations on the gas circuit materials resulting in lower turbine inlet
temperatures and lower efficiencies. The two alternatives were the closed cycle air cycle and the closed
cycle helium cycle. In collaboration with others, Escher Wyss pioneered the closed cycle, built 24 of
these with varying success, and mostly for combined power and district heating applications. A
significant merit of the closed cycle was claimed to be that the load was varied by altering the pressure in
the closed circuit whilst maintaining the turbine inlet temperature at the full load value, so giving almost
full load efficiency over the load range.
Early developers made every possible effort to improve efficiency and to make the gas turbine
economically viable and they looked into inter-cooling, exhaust heat recovery and recuperation. The
configurations considered were:
(1) Open Cycle Single Shaft without Exhaust Heat Recuperation
(2) Open Cycle Two Shafts without Exhaust Heat Recuperation
(3) Open Cycle Single Shaft with Exhaust Heat Recuperation
(4) Open Cycle Two Shafts with Exhaust Heat Recuperation
(5) Open Cycle Single Shaft with Exhaust Heat Recuperation and Inter-cooling
(6) Open Cycle Two Shaft with Exhaust Heat Recuperation and Inter-cooling
(7) Open Cycle Three Shaft with Exhaust Heat Recuperation and Inter-cooling
(8) Closed Cycle Air - CLAGT
(9) Closed Cycle Helium – CLHGT
(10)Combined Cycle Steam and Gas Turbines - CCGT
The efforts of those promoting closed cycle plants to compete against open cycle lasted only till about
1975 and then finally it was the merging of different companies that sealed to fate of the closed cycle.
By that time CCGT was already getting well established and higher operating conditions for the open
cycle meant that the goal of beating the conventional cycle would follow the CCGT route. In the
meanwhile everyone was striving to improve both compressor and turbine efficiencies and to increase
turbine inlet temperatures and pressure ratios.
After a period of about 10-15 years (1940-1955), the general industry trend for industrial gas turbine
configurations has been to move to simple single shaft options without inter-cooling. On the other hand,
in the aero engine world, the trend has been towards inter-cooled and multiple shaft arrangements with
separate power turbines. This trend is also seen in the aero-derivatives that are currently on the market.
3.3
Unit Outputs
All who have studied the development of the gas turbine will know that starting from only 4,000kW in
1939 the output of the industrial gas turbine has grown in size phenomenally to around 250,000kW by
the late 1990s and to over 300,000kW presently. In the 60 year period, 1939-1999, the simple cycle
output of the industrial gas turbine has increased 60 fold as shown by Figure 3.
There are of course two groups of companies one being the small machine group all of whom are
targeting the small industrial market the size of these units being dictated by use. The other is the large
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machines group who continue to seek to dominate the market for thermal power generation and take
over from conventional cycles as Riall Sankey had predicted in 1917.
3.4
Operational Conditions
It has been known from the earliest experiments that higher efficiency was linked to the achievable
turbine inlet temperatures. There is evidence of considerable discussion amongst the pioneers about
the inlet temperature that could be achieved safely with the available heat resisting steels at the time.
This led to many ingenious and complicated schemes for cooling of the hot gas path components initially
with water passages. It was always going to be a combination of materials, thermal barrier coatings and
cooling technologies that would push the gas turbine forward and enable higher and higher inlet
temperatures to be achieved.
Figure 3 Technology Trends – Unit Outputs
A review of the achieved turbine inlet temperatures from this historical research is shown in Figure 4.
Two additional lines have been added from the book by Meherwan Boyce [47]. Aero engine data shows
that, whilst the industrial gas turbine inlet temperatures have been consistently well below those of aero
engines convergence is taking place.
When the Neuchatel gas turbine power plant was put into service in 1940 the operational conditions for
the gas turbine cycle included a turbine inlet temperature of 550°C and pressure ratio of 4.2:1. In his
1939 paper Dr Meyer was comparing inlet conditions of 538°C (1000°F), 649°C (1200°F) and 816°C
(1500°F). He stated that 1000°F (538°C) was absolutely safe for uncooled blades made of the available
heat resisting steel. Then he went on to say that he could foresee the prospect of the gas turbine inlet
temperature being increased to 816°C(1500°F). As seen in Figure 4 this came about within 20 years.
It was not until the late 1950s that turbine inlet temperatures for industrial gas turbines exceeded the
816°C (1500°F) level. It was Siemens who broke away from the trend in 1957. The whole field has
continued to steadily increase inlet temperatures by roughly about 100°C for every 10 years. By the late
1990s turbine inlet temperatures of approximately 1300°C were being achieved.
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HISTORY OF THE INDUSTRIAL GAS TURBINE
TURBINE INLET TEMPERATURE TREND
1800
1700
1600
TURBINE INLET TEMPERATURE DEGC
1500
1400
Aero Engines
1300
1316
1200
1124
1100
1068
1000
900
899
Industrial Gas Turbine Research
816
800
760
700
600
550
500
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
YEAR
Boyce data - extracted from
Gas Turbine Engineering Handbook 3rd Edition
History Research Data
Boyce Aero
Boyce Industrial
Figure 4 Technology Trends – Temperature
3.5
Pressure Ratio
Pressure ratios of the gas turbine compressor have increased by about 2 units each decade from 1940
however since about 1985 there appears to be a convergence as all machines large and small fall in the
same band. The actual progress of gas turbine compressor pressure ratios for industrial machines is
illustrated in Figure 5.
COMPRESSOR PRESSURE RATIO
35.0
30.0
COMPRESSOR PRESSURE RATIO
30.0
25.0
20.0
15.7
14.0
15.0
9.4
10.0
6.5
5.0
4.2
5.0
20
00
19
90
19
80
19
70
19
60
19
50
19
40
0.0
YEAR
Figure 5 Technology Trends – Pressure Ratio
Aero-engines operate at a higher pressure ratio than industrial gas turbines and in the aircraft engine
field, modern turbofan engines operate as high as 44:1. Consequently, those aero-derivative gas
turbines that have been modified for land based power generation applications also operate with
similarly high pressure ratios.
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3.6
Thermal Efficiencies
The Neuchatel power plant achieved a noteworthy compressor efficiency of 88%, turbine efficiency of
89% and a thermal efficiency of 17.4 (18.6) %. Associated with the increase in turbine inlet temperatures
the corresponding overall cycle efficiency was foreseen in 1939 to rise from 18% to 26%. The
achievement of 26% overall efficiency took about 20 years and the step by step increase actually
achieved is illustrated in Figure 6.
At the time of the emergence of the industrial gas turbine in 1939 the thermal efficiency was 17-18 %
and this was being compared with steam cycle efficiencies of 25-26 % of that day. As we well know, over
the following years the steam cycle thermal efficiency continued to improve always keeping ahead of the
simple cycle gas turbine until around 2000 when advanced class gas turbines became operational.
This race between the gas turbine and the conventional steam cycle efficiency was effectively halted in
the 1960s when the combined gas turbine steam turbine cycle started pushing plant thermal efficiencies
over 40% and beyond.
OVERALL THERMAL EFFICIENCY (SC)
45.0
38.6
40.0
34.4
OVERALL THERMAL EFFICIENCY (SC) %
35.0
31.5
30.0
27.3
25.8
24.0
25.0
20.0
17.4
15.0
10.0
5.0
20
00
19
90
19
80
19
70
19
60
19
50
19
40
0.0
YEAR
Figure 6 Technology Trends – Thermal Efficiency
3.7
Materials and Cooling
Owing to the complexity of the Metallurgy and Materials Sciences it is only possible to touch briefly in
this historical review on the impact that these have had on gas turbine technology and in particular on
higher firing temperatures. As with the steam turbine, the gas turbine stage 1 blade (bucket) has to
withstand the highest temperatures, stresses in the turbine, and is therefore considered to be the
limiting component. Progress is illustrated in Figure 7.
In the early 1940s high grade heat-resisting steels were not available so steel temperatures were limited
to 1050F (566C) for continuous running. Advances in materials accounted for the majority of the firing
temperature increase until air cooling was introduced in the 1970s. These increases enabled increased
firing temperatures, increased output and improved thermal efficiency. During the early 1950s the
National Gas Turbine Establishment (NGTE) was carrying out experiments into the air cooling of gas
turbine blades (buckets). This shows that the present day methods of air cooling were being developed
in 1953.
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Figure 7 Technology Trends – Material Limits
In the 1951 paper on the Ruston 750kW gas turbine [9] it is mentioned that air cooling of turbine discs
had been employed.
In addition to the limit on the material capability metal temperatures above 870oC have resulted in the
need to apply thermal barrier coatings due to hot corrosion effects.
3.8
Emissions
Over the years Gas Turbine emissions have gradually become more important and in particular NOX. The
United Kingdom and the EU had no statutory requirements for gas turbines until the early 1990s.
Figure 8 Technology Trends – Emissions
It is Tokyo and California that seem to have been leading the trend for lower and lower permissible
limits. As seen from Figure 8 in 1970 a value of 75 ppmv was considered acceptable, by 1980 this had
been reduced to 50 ppmv for California and 15 ppmv for Tokyo. By 1990 everyone was asking for 15
ppmv or better. Reference Fig 5 [36]
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4.
Gas Turbine Applications and Fuels
Although the prime area of interest in the gas turbine in the early years was aircraft engines and land
based power generation, almost immediately the industrial gas turbine had become a reality the
applications being exploited seemed limitless. Economics drove engineers to look at a wide range of
fuels and many different applications and alternative fuels were being trialled.
In addition to direct power generation the applications for the industrial gas turbine in 1940 immediately
included Locomotive Engines, Blast Furnace Blowers, Marine Propulsion, Road Vehicle Engines and
Mechanical Drives.
Motor Car
125hp
Railway Locomotive 1,800kW
Aircraft Carrier 72,000kW
50hp Turbine
Bluebird Car 3,320kW
375,000kW Gas Turbine
4.1
Marine Propulsion
In 1947 a Metrovick F2 axial-flow jet engine, known as the Beryl engine, was installed in the MGB2009 to
become the worlds first ever gas turbine propelled sea going vessel.
1951 The first ever merchant vessel to be fitted with a gas turbine propulsion system was the
Anglo Saxon Petroleum Company Tanker “Auris” 12,000 tons d.w with a BTH 1200hp gas turbine
1953 Rolls-Royce designed the RM60 gas turbine rated at 4,000kW; which was installed in the
British naval vessel HMS Grey Goose. The worlds first ever solely gas turbine propelled ship
1956 A GE FS3 gas turbine of 6000hp (4,500kW) was installed in the US Maritime Administration
vessel, the John Sargent, to become the first US vessel to be gas turbine powered
1958 Three Bristol Proteus engines were employed in a fast patrol boat. HMS Brave Borderer
starts sea trials fitted with the Rolls-Royce Proteus GT
1967 The British Royal navy decided to use gas turbine propulsion for all future warships
1969 The first GE LM2500 aero derivative enters service with US Navy
1968 A Bristol Siddeley Olympus was installed in the RN vessel HMS Exmouth
1980 All propulsion power for the HMS Invincible, HMS Illustrious and HMS Ark Royal aircraft
carriers provided by four Olympus engines on each ship, providing 72,000kW total shaft power
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The 1967 decision of the Royal Navy to only use gas turbines for propulsion was quite a milestone in
itself. Today all gas turbine manufacturers have marine variants of their gas turbines and aero
derivatives have now found a real place in marine propulsion. About 7% of the gas turbine market is for
marine applications.
4.2
Road Vehicle Engines
The application of gas turbines to road vehicles was a real quest in the late 1940s and 1950s. First off the
mark was Centrax who designed and manufactured a 160hp engine in 1948 for use as a truck engine.
The Rover Company became famous for producing the Rover gas turbine car. The Rover gas turbine car
JET1 with 100bhp was first demonstrated to the public in March 1950 achieving a speed of 85 mph. The
updated version with an engine of 230 bhp went on to achieve a speed of 152 mph. This certainly gained
public attention. [74]
Work was started by Austin on the gas turbine in 1952 and their first unit ran in 1954 using a Rolls-Royce
Merlin supercharger as a compressor. Leyland, the successor of Austin, developed a gas turbine
powered truck. A specially designed Parsons 1000hp (746kW) gas turbine was installed in the Conqueror
tank in 1954.
In 1956 Donald Campbell’s “Bluebird” was powered by a Bristol Siddeley “Proteus” engine rated at
3,320kW. The initial test in the USA did not succeed but during a new attempt in 1964 the car reached
429mph during tests at Lake Eyre, Australia.
4.3
Locomotive Engines
A very early start was made on applying the gas turbine to railway locomotive use. There was
considerable progress made, however eventually the ultimate fate of gas turbine powered locomotives
was to be sealed as soon as the price of fuel oil became too high.
COUNTRY
MANUFACTURER
SWISS FEDERAL RAILWAYS
BRITISH RAILWAYS
(GREAT WESTERN RAIL)
(NORTH BRITISH)
BROWN BOVERI & CO
BROWN BOVERI & CO
METROVICK
C A PARSONS
ENGLISH ELECTRIC
BRITISH LEYLAND
ALSTHOM
GENERAL ELECTRIC
WESTINGHOUSE
PLANNED
FRANCE
UNITED STATES
UNION PACIFIC
CANADA
RUSSIA
YEAR
INTRODUCED
1941
1949
1951
1952
1961
1950
1950
2002
2006
2007
YEAR
WITHDRAWN
MODEL
ENGINE
POWER KW
GTEL
BR18000
BR18100
1620
1840
2200
1959
1969
1953
NA
I/S
I/S
GT3 EM-27
APT-E
TGV-GT
GE
WH
1500*2
GEM-10
GT1-001
1000
8300
FUEL
FUEL OIL
COAL
RESIDUAL
(Jet train)
LNG
LNG
Table 1 Gas Turbine Powered Locomotives
In 1939 Brown Boveri was already well advanced with the design of gas turbine powered locomotives
and their first gas turbine powered locomotive at 1,620kW was delivered in 1941.
In the UK the first was the BR18000 1,800kW unit from Brown Boveri for the Great Western Railway,
delivered in 1949. In 1951 Metrovick built the BR18100 2,200kW engine based on an aircraft engine.
Then in 1961 English Electric built the GT3 locomotive with an EM27 engine. The last to be built in the
UK was the British Rail APT-E prototype using a British Leyland gas turbine.
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Both Westinghouse and GE developed gas turbine locomotives. In 1951 the Union Pacific Railroad had a
GE FS3 gas turbine powered locomotive rated at 8,500hp (6,300kW). They succeeded with a large fleet of
gas turbine locomotives; operated by Union Pacific, these running successfully from 1950 to 1969.
In July 1952 C A Parsons received an order from the Ministry of Fuel & Power to design and construct a
prototype coal burning gas turbine locomotive for the North British Railway. This locomotive was to be
ready for trials in 1954 and was a joint contract with the North British Locomotive Company of Glasgow,
it was to run on British Rail. The testing of the gas turbine unit mounted on the loco frame was carried
out at Parsons' Heaton Works, Newcastle. After trials the project closed down in March 1959. [37]
The first version of the TGV in France was TGV 001 gas turbine electric (GTEL) built by Alsthom and first
commissioned in 1969. The TGV rail trials were carried out from 1972-1978 and the gas turbine powered
unit achieved a record 318 km/h (200 mph) on 8 December 1972. Only one gas turbine set was built.
In Russia from 1959 to 1970 there were two 2,600kW gas turbine powered locomotives under test. Then
in 2006 Russia introduced a 1,000kW LNG fired GTEL and in 2007 an 8,300kW GTEL. Today these are the
only gas turbine locomotives in service.
4.4
Power Station Standby and Peak Lopping
In the early 1960s a severe Grid disturbance led to electricity black-outs over the south east of England.
This, together with the predicted load growth at the time, made it necessary for the Central Electricity
Generating Board (CEGB) to install quick starting gas turbines suitable for peaking duties. This is
described in the paper by R.G Henbest delivered to DUEA (IDGTE) in 1970 [46].
A new application for gas turbines was found in 1962 when CEGB decided to install fast start gas turbines
using aero engines as gas generators and free power turbines. The gas generators used were the Bristol
Siddeley Olympus and Rolls Royce Avon engines. The first installation tested was a single Olympus
engine installed at Hams Hall power station in 1964. Following this trial a major programme of
installation got under way. A few were built with Pratt & Whitney FT8 engines.
There were three main contractors at the time these being AEI, Bristol Siddeley and English Electric/ GEC.
The configurations adopted were:
AEI
AEI
BS
BS
EE
EE
EE
4 Avon + PT
1 Avon + PT
4 Olympus + PT
1 Olympus + PT
4 Avon + 2PT
2 Avon + PT
1 Avon + PT
55MW Peak (40MW Base)
70MW Peak ( MW Base)
17.5MW Peak ( MW Base)
13.5MW Peak (10MW Base)
It was not all plain sailing for these peak load sets. Initially the aero engines were installed as designed
then it was found that the new operational conditions faced by operating these engines in a land based
power station environment showed up unforeseen problems.
4.5
Mechanical Drive
Whilst a large part of industrial gas turbine development activity has been directed to power generation
and marine applications, from the earliest days gas turbines have been used for mechanical drive.
In 1946 Solar Turbines produced 35kW portable gas turbine driven pump for the US Navy, this was used
for fire fighting duties. The 1949 the 2,170bhp (2022kW) Air Bleed unit of C A Parsons was in fact a gas
turbine driven compressor. Rover gas turbines were manufactured for a variety of stationary
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applications including emergency pumps. The Austin engine was put on the market in 1961 as an
independent prime mover and pump drive. Today about 30% of the gas turbine market is for mechanical
drive applications.
4.6
Total Energy – Combined Heat and Power – Cogeneration
In the 1960s Total Energy became popular. Today this is better known as Combined Heat and Power
(CHP) and in some parts of the World as Cogeneration. These schemes usually mean the combined
production of electricity and heat for process or other uses. Today Cogeneration has been extended to
mean the combined production of electricity and heat or cooling; and occasionally “Trigeneration”.
As long ago as 1956 Ruston installed a turbine in a combined heat and power scheme in a large shopping
complex in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. Over the years the application of gas turbines to combined heat
and power/ cogeneration has grown enormously. Wherever there is a significant demand for heat (or
cooling) the appropriate CHP/ Cogen is applied and a large number of these are gas turbine based.
4.7
Combined Cycle
A combined cycle power plant is a plant that produces electricity from gas and steam turbines. The gas
turbine drives an electrical generator and the exhaust gas energy from the gas turbine is used to
generate steam in a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) which then produces electricity from a steam
turbine. The advent of the combined gas and steam cycle (CCGT) has enabled the gas turbine to leap to
prominence as a primary power generator.
The combined cycle was foreseen by Dr. Meyer in his 1939 paper and lots of applications were found to
recover gas turbine exhaust heat. It was not however until around 1965 that CCGT became a serious
contender. The beginnings of combined cycle are described in the 1970 paper of Basil Wood [19].
1960 BBC - Korneuburg, Austria 75MW (2+1 configuration)
1963 Horsehoe Lake, Oklahoma
1965 Siemens – Hohe Wand Austria 12.8MW
1968 GE - Wolverine Cooperative 21MW (1+1 configuration)
1979 Siemens – Bang Pakong Thailand 250MW (2+1 configuration)
Since 1968 onwards the CCGT cycle has made steady progress and together with CCGT the gas turbine
has overtaken the conventional cycle reaching unbelievably high cycle thermal efficiencies. In the UK the
first CCGT was the Roosecote Station in Cumbria commissioned in 1991 producing 224,000kW with a
thermal efficiency of 49%.
4.8
The Educational Units
A large number of small gas turbines have been produced for educational purposes. These were sold in
significant numbers to colleges and universities around the world. Between 1955 and 1965 the Rover
Company manufactured more than 250 small gas turbines (60hp) for educational establishments. In
addition to colleges and universities around the UK they were sent to 40 countries worldwide from
Australia to Uruguay.
4.9
Gas Turbine Fuel Options
Light oil and diesel started as the preferred fuels however from very early in the life of the gas turbine
economics were pushing the need to burn a wide range of fuels. All of the following have been tried
with varying success. What has changed since of course is the availability of natural gas.
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4.9.1
Heavy Oil / Crude
In trials of the 1940s gas oil was used and heavier grades of fuel oil, some resulting in serious ash
deposition [5]. Since then various other liquid fuels including heavy oil, crude, Naptha and others have
been used extensively in gas turbines incurring penalties on maintenance intervals and costs.
The oil producing states of the Middle East pushed the use of Crude Oil for direct burning in gas turbines
and from the 1970s this became quite normal however the cost of maintaining such turbines was high
due to corrosion and deposition. Degradation of output performance could be up to 15%. Fuel
treatment was found to be an effective means of handling these fuels but again at a cost. It is generally
agreed that not all gas turbines are suitable for burning heavy oils and crude.
4.9.2
Coal
By 1939 work was already under way testing gas turbines with coal. One paper stated that an
experimental gas turbine set had been run on pulverised fuel for many months at the Brown Boveri
testing plant. In the UK during the 1950s a great deal of effort was employed on gas turbine coal
burning trials; these being reported by C A Parsons, Ruston, Metrovick and others.
In Canada the government awarded a contract to McGill University in 1950 to construct an experimental
coal burning locomotive. In 1961 Union Pacific in the USA made trials with UP80 an experimental coal
burning gas turbine (GTEL) locomotive. These were not successful.
The Escher Wyss closed cycle was much more successful in burning coal in conjunction with the gas
turbine. These closed cycle plants burning coal were built in Germany, Russia and the UK from 1950 –
1963. In 1999 the US DOE (Office of Industrial Technologies Energy Efficiency) promoted a Coal-Fired Air
Turbine (CAT) Cycle Plant to deliver more than 40% efficiency, currently at the feasibility study stage.
The process that does overcome the difficulty of burning coal in gas turbines is Integrated Gasification
Combined Cycle (IGCC). IGCC is already well proven, converting coal into a clean gas (known as Syngas)
and able to achieve better than 45% efficiency.
4.9.3
Peat
In the days before the dilemma on the depletion of Peat resources it was foreseen that Peat could be
used for power generation. The concept was promoted by the British Government for the North of
Scotland Hydro Electric Board.
The process required the Peat to be milled and then passed to the combustors on the gas turbine. The
first open cycle gas turbine to run on Peat was built by Ruston & Hornsby [9] in 1949. A test facility was
constructed in Lincoln and tests carried out in 1952 and 1953. The systems were developed to the extent
that a full scale trial in Scotland was envisaged.
At the same time John Brown, developed a gas turbine using Escher Wyss closed cycle technology and
carried out trials in their works in 1950. They went on to install two peat burning plants in Scotland, one
at Altnabreac and the other Dundee. Work was stopped on the peat plants around 1960 due to the
relative cost of producing electricity from Peat being significantly higher than conventional methods.
4.9.4
Blast Furnace Gas
Gas turbines have been successfully modified to burn blast furnace gas (BFG). This was known to be
possible during the 1930s. Blast furnace gas has major drawbacks for gas turbines as it is of low calorific
value resulting in huge gas volumes and contains significant amounts of dust.
In 1955 a Westinghouse W201 machine was modified as a blast furnace gas blower and fired on blast
furnace gas. There were 30 BFG fired gas turbines reported to be installed in Europe from 1950 to 1965.
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In 1958 MHI supplied their first BFG fired gas turbine, this was an 850kW machine fro Nippon Steel.
Since then and up to 2004 MHI has been really successful in this field supplying another 12 BFG fired gas
turbines, the sizes increasing to 180,000kW [45].
4.9.5
Natural Gas
Natural gas is widely considered as a clean fuel, easy to burn and good for gas turbines.
Until the early 1980s natural gas was not available for power generation. The exception to this was the
Middle East where oil producing states had huge quantities of residual gas to burn. Until the gas turbine
came along this gas was just disposed of by burning by flare. A memorable sight of the Gulf in the late
1970s was the large number of flares burning across the Middle East. At that time even the gas turbine
power plants of the Middle East were either distillate or Crude fired.
The oil crisis of 1973 became the driver for the petroleum industry to develop new oil fields and the
result of this was natural gas becoming available in sufficient quantities to burn in gas turbines. In the
beginning the supply of natural gas was largely on an interruptible basis hence every power generation
gas turbine needed to be dual fired and have a back up fuel supply. This gradually changed as natural gas
was discovered in bigger quantities and the oil companies began recovering residual gas and creating gas
grids to deliver the gas to power plants. Slowly the need for oil as a standby fuel has diminished and
many gas turbines now rely solely on the natural gas grid.
5.
British Industrial Gas Turbine Companies
By far the largest group of companies and organisations active in the field of the industrial gas turbine
during the period 1940-1990 were British. The book “The Industrial Gas Turbine” by Dr E.C. Roberson,
published in 1951[6], has twelve British manufacturers listed as already active in industrial gas turbine
manufacture. The research for this publication has shown that in the 1950s there were in fact 18 British
companies directly involved in the design and manufacture of the industrial gas turbine.
A code is introduced here to assist with the cataloguing and listing of all the gas turbine manufacturing
companies. The full list of the companies of all nationalities and reference codes is provided in Table 4.
A1
W.H. Allen
The W.H. Allen Company was based in Bedford, United Kingdom and members of the W.H. Allen heritage
group have kindly contributed to this history by providing information, tables and technical papers. In
1947, in cooperation with Bristol Aero Engines, Allen’s produced a 1,000kW set. This set was designed
for the Admiralty as a marine auxiliary unit and had a separate power turbine. They also produced a
150kW gas turbine driven alternator designed for emergency standby and peaking purposes [13].
It was the Admiralty that persuaded Allen’s to set up its own Gas Turbine department. This team was
under the leadership of Arthur Pope, a former member of the Power Jets team, then working for the
Bristol Aeroplane Company under Roy Fedden. A Design Consultancy Agreement was concluded with
Bristol and almost immediately a contract from the Admiralty to develop a:
1,000kW gas turbine generator set for base load operation
Design work on the Allen 1,000kW engine commenced early in 1948 and the unit was successfully run at
full speed and power early in 1951. As conceived, the unit had an axial compressor of 4.25/1 pressure
ratio driven by a 2 stage turbine; tubular combustion chambers disposed symmetrically around the
engine; an annular two-pass cross-flow heat exchanger and a separate single stage power turbine. The
engine layout was determined largely by the Admiralty space requirements.
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Due to changes in Warship design only one example was ever built. The engine was run initially at
Bedford and then mainly at NGTE (Pyestock) where it accumulated some 4000 hrs running. Most of this
was satisfactory with the exception of the heat exchanger. It was found that this needed greater
flexibility to accommodate thermal expansion and a more corrosion resistant tube material.
Admiralty Emergency Generator of 125KW
This simple engine was designed for short term use, low cost and bulk being more important than low
fuel consumption. This engine had a centrifugal compressor and radial turbine machined from a
common forging. A single large combustion chamber was mounted vertically above the turbine volute.
Output to the epicyclic gear was taken from the compressor end. The rotor configuration emerged from
a series of studies, which indicated that large amounts of cooling air would be required to cool a
conventional separate turbine disc.
Later work included:
500kW Marine Auxiliary Generator
During the early 1950s, following the satisfactory running of the 1,000kW set and the review of
Admiralty policy, a 500kW base load set was required for a weight of about 2 tons and a thermal
efficiency of not less than 20%. This challenging specification resulted in a design study considering
three configurations in some detail. These were an Intercooled Compound Engine with Alternator on HP
spool, an Intercooled Compound Engine with Heat Exchanger and a Single Shaft Core + Free Power
Turbine + Heat Exchanger. The selected compound intercooled engine had two spools.
The prototype engine was installed in HMS Llandaff, a new diesel powered Frigate. Production Engines
were installed in the County Class Destroyers, and in the Tribal Class Frigates. The Tribal Class
Frigates totalled seven in all and these were commissioned between November 1961 and April 1967.
Due to the lack of ships to protect home waters, whilst the Falklands Task Force was in the South Atlantic
at least three of the Tribals were taken off the reserve list and refitted in some haste in 1981/2. Three of
the Tribal class were sold to Indonesia in 1986 following an extensive refit at Vosper Thorneycroft's yard.
350kW Marine Auxiliary Generator
The 350kW machine was introduced in 1956 as a marine auxiliary set. One of these units was installed
on the cruise ship S.S. Rotterdam in 1959 where it remained until 2007. The S.S. Rotterdam had been
moored for a number of years in Freetown, Barbados. The ship was eventually purchased by the
Steamship Rotterdam Foundation and brought back to Holland for restoration as a floating museum.
Initially is was thought that the Allen gas turbine was still on board S.S. Rotterdam however during this
research a message was received from the Foundation sincerely regretting that the engine had been
scrapped. From the summer of 2002 until the summer of 2006 the foundation had corresponded with
the Roll-Royce Heritage Trust. All concerned were fully aware of the uniqueness of the engine, and had
tried to keep her on board as a part of the museum. Unfortunately this contact did not lead to the
rescue of the engine and in 2007 the engine was removed from the ship and subsequently was scrapped.
According to Michael Lane's History of Queen's Engineering Works, the numbers of Allen Gas Turbines
produced were no more than about 35 sets in all. The Gas Turbine department was finally run down in
1964 on completion of the generating sets for the County Class Destroyers.
As a result of a merger in 1968 W.H. Allen became part of Amalgamated Power Engineering (APE) and in
1981 the APE group was taken over by Northern Engineering Industries (NEI). Finally in 1989 Rolls-Royce
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acquired the NEI group. The Bedford works were closed in the year 2000 bringing to an end 106 years of
manufacturing on the site.
A5
Associated Electrical Industries
In 1926 Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) was created as a holding company. They bought out both
BTH and Metropolitan Vickers in 1928 and increased the size of the Rugby sites. The gas turbine story of
AEI is therefore told here primarily under the names of Metrovick and BTH.
In 1945, under the names Metrovick and BTH, AEI entered the field of using gas turbines for electricity
generation. In the 1960s AEI licensed a number of companies to manufacture Marine gas turbines to
their design including Harland and Wolff, Thorneycroft, White, and Yarrow in the UK; also Franco Tosi
and Reggiana in Italy, and Werkspoor in Holland.
AEI were a main contractor to CEGB for the peak lopping gas turbines using aero engines as gas
generators. Between 1964 and 1980 AEI installed 13 of these units totalling 445MW installed capacity
for the CEGB. AEI also supplied a further 42 units totalling 1050MW to other countries. The total
worldwide for this type of installation by AEI came to 55 units produced with 1450 MW capacity.
AEI was bought by GEC in 1967 and in 1968 the gas turbine business was merged into English Electric to
form GEC Alsthom.
A6
Austin Motor Company
The Austin Motor Company was based in Longbridge, United Kingdom. The team working on gas turbines
was led by Dr. John Weaving and started work in 1952. They built the Austin Gas Turbine Car and a
significant number of small gas turbines for auxiliary power generation and pumping duties.
Work was started by Austin on the gas turbine in April 1952 and the first unit ran in 1954 using a RollsRoyce Merlin supercharger as a compressor. Austin went on to build the Austin 250 hp gas turbine
engine and that went onto the market in 1961. After several years of turbine development a good
product was being produced, it was marketed in the USA as a total energy package incorporated into the
AMF Beaird Maxim heat recovery boiler.
Between 1962 and 1969 Austin manufactured over 70 gas turbines all but one being the 250hp rated
machine. Most of these were sold in the UK however a few went to other countries including Algeria,
Australia, Canada, Burma, Finland, Holland, Iran, Libya, Norway and the USA.
A 300hp model was also introduced in 1967, however, due to the complexity of manufacture resulting in
high production costs, producing these machines was not a profitable venture therefore after about nine
years a decision was made to stop production. The Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield
Organisation (Morris, MG, Riley and Wolseley) merged to form the British Motor Corporation (BMC) in
1952 and then in 1968 was it became part of British Leyland.
B1
Bristol Siddeley
Bristol Siddeley was formed in 1959 as the result of the merger of Bristol Aero Engines with Armstrong
Siddeley Motors. The technical office of the Bristol Siddeley Power Division Ansty set up in 1963 and
headed was by Roxbee Cox. The two BS engines that have had a major impact on the industrial gas
turbine field are the Proteus and the Olympus.
The Proteus engine was first introduced in 1946 and it became the power plant of the Britannia aircraft.
A version of the engine (3,320kW) was used in 1960-64 to power the Bluebird, Donald Campbell's land
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speed record car. The bluebird had a drive shaft at each end of the engine, each connected to a separate
axle. This engine was also used in 1968 on the Mountbatten class cross-channel hovercraft, which had
four "Marine Proteus" engines (3,000kW) in the rear of the craft.
Another use of the Proteus was for remotely operated power generation of the South West of England
in what were called "Pocket Power Stations". The first two Pocket power stations were installed at
Princetown, Dartmoor in December 1959 and at the Bristol Siddeley Patchway site. A further four sets
were commissioned between 1960 and 1965, they were also called "The Robot Power Stations". It has
been commented that the running hours for the Proteus hovercraft engines were quite significant,
however, for the industrial units the running hours were quite modest as their duty was not as base load
generators but as emergency supply/standby units. Although the fleet of engines is now considerably
reduced, particularly with the closure of the Hoverspeed operation in Dover some years ago, Proteus
engines still form a vital strategic role at the Nuclear power stations and will retain an operational duty
to the end of this decade.
BS decided to contract and build number of Olympus and Proteus powered stations in various
configurations in the next few years.
The Olympus engine was first introduced in 1950 and is probably most well known as the Concorde
engine. This engine was installed by the Royal Navy in the Frigate HMS Exmouth in a re-fit completed in
1968. Then in 1980/ 85 they were used as the most impressive marine power plant being the engines for
the HMS Invincible, HMS Illustrious and HMS Ark Royal aircraft carriers each ship being powered by four
Olympus engines. The TM3B engines used on the aircraft carriers provide 97,000shp on two shafts, this
being 18,000kW each engine or 72,000kW total shaft power.
At that time BS had a demonstrator Olympus generation set in one of the bays in Hams Hall "A" power
station. Originally rated at 15MW it was uprated to 17.5MW in 1964. The unit was based on an aero
Olympus 201 (the 202 went into the Vulcan) and had a heavy industrial style, two-stage power turbine.
Between 1962 and 1969 a significant number of the Olympus engines were installed in power stations as
standby generating turbine sets for use in peak lopping. Bristol Siddeley acted as main contractor on
most of the Olympus plants. The sets were rated at 17.5MW as individual units or 70MW as multiple
units. The power stations with Olympus engines included Croydon, Rye House, Hams Hall, Tilbury,
Ferrybridge, Ratcliffe, Aberthaw, Fawley, Ironbridge, Eggborough and Townhill [20]. The first of these
was at Hams Hall in 1965.
In 1966 Bristol Siddeley was bought by Rolls-Royce however they have continued to develop and market
Bristol-designed engines. Between 1964 and 1980 BS/ RR supplied the UK’s CEGB with 32 units totalling
875MW installed capacity.
B2
British Thomson Houston (BTH)
British Thomson Houston, from 1928 part of AEI and based in Rugby, United Kingdom played a significant
role in the development of the Whittle engine. The 1937 Power Jets’ first prototype jet engine was built
and tested at the BTH factory at Rugby. BTH had a major role in developing it.
The first ever merchant vessel to be fitted with a gas turbine propulsion system was the Anglo Saxon
Petroleum Company Tanker GTV “Auris” 12,000 tons d.w. fitted with a BTH 1200hp gas turbine
generating set for electrical propulsion in 1951. In 1951 the owner replaced one of four diesel engines
with a 1200hp gas turbine. The first Atlantic crossing solely under the power of a marine gas turbine was
made with this British Thomson Houston gas turbine in March 1952 [10].
In 1954 BTH manufactured two of the 2,000/ 2,500kW class machines for Nairobi South Power Station in
Kenya. These were single line sets with the turbine driving the compressor and the alternator, via speed
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reducing gears. It had a single combustion chamber mounted vertically at the side of the set and bolted
to the bottom half of the casing. In 1961 HMS Ashanti was fitted with AEI gas turbine for main
propulsion.
Finally BTH, as part of AEI, was bought by GEC in 1967 and in 1968 the gas turbine business was merged
into English Electric to form GEC Alsthom.
B4
Brush Electrical Engineering
The Brush Electrical Company is based in Loughborough, United Kingdom. The original company was
established in Lambeth, London and in 1889 the works moved from Lambeth to Loughborough. In 1970 it
became part of Hawker Siddeley Power Engineering.
Little information has been found about Brush gas turbines other than in 1954 they made a 2000/
2,500kW class gas turbine. The Brush machine was designed to run at either 3000 or 3600 rpm, being
directly coupled to an alternator and was installed at Ashford Common in Middlesex. [7][14]
B5
Budworth Turbines
David Dutton Budworth was an ex Rover design engineer who established his business in Harwich, Essex
in 1947 producing small aero gas turbines and in 1952 he started building small industrial gas turbines.
The Budworth 50 HP industrial gas turbine was packaged and marketed very successfully as an
instructional unit. These were sold to educational establishments, universities and technical colleges
worldwide. This is claimed as a great achievement for such a relatively small company. There were
three different machines produced by Budworth, the Brill 50hp, the Puffin 180hp and the Blowfly 300hp.
Between 1966 and 1971 there were 100 of these small gas turbines produced. Most of them were the
50hp version supplied to educational establishments around the world.
David Budworth died as a result of a flying accident on Oct 25th 1974 and in 1975 the company was
acquired by Noel Penny and incorporated into his small aero engine turbine business. Noel Penny was
also a former designer at Rover. That company stopped trading in the late 1980s.
C1
Centrax Gas Turbines
Centrax Limited is a privately-owned company based in Newton Abbot, Devon in the South West of
England, a company founded in 1946 by Richard H Barr OBE and Geoffrey R White. Towards the end of
the Second World War, Richard Barr who had worked for Frank Whittle on his Power Jets team went into
the design and production of a small 250 hp aero turbine as he saw the market for industrial turbines for
road transport or possibly for industrial power generation. In 1947/8 he began manufacturing a 160hp
industrial gas turbine designed for use in an automotive environment, potentially for road transport. The
engine was exhibited as an example of the application of gas turbines to industry at the British Trade Fair
in London in 1948.
Richard Barr turned to the area he had become very skilled at blade-making, and as a result he was able
get contracts to make blades for companies such as Napier, Ruston, Allen and then later Armstrong
Siddeley and others. Because of the huge demand for blades in the new industry of jet engines the
business ‘took off’ and the Blades Division was created. Centrax grew from 3 people to 600 people in 4
years specifically making blades.
After this early success, Centrax began manufacturing a series of gas turbines mainly for industrial roles,
such as powering emergency standby generator sets. The most successful gas turbine at this time was
the CS600-2, designed in the 1960s. It was a single-shaft, constant speed unit designed for operation in
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arduous conditions. The Centrax industrial turbines became successful in many areas of industry
including providing back-up power for many banks and other companies using the early computers of
the 60s and 70s.
The CS600 engine was introduced by Centrax in 1962 with a rating of 600hp (450kW). This was then
uprated to 730hp (545kW) in 1962 then 914hp (680kW) in 1963 and 1,010hp (750kW) in 1964.
Centrax continues to manufacture gas turbines in Newton Abbott, Devon today. The current models
produced are the KB3 (2,700kW), KB5 (3,950kW) and KB7 (5,330kW) being based on the Rolls Royce 501
engine. Since 2007 they have had a licence to package the Rolls Royce Industrial Trent 60.
C2
C A Parsons & Co
The C A Parsons Company was founded by Charles Algernon Parsons in 1889 and based in Newcastle
upon Tyne, United Kingdom. Until it was taken over by Rolls Royce in 1989 it had been in existence for
100 years manufacturing turbines, compressors and other machinery.
A new history of the Parsons gas turbine activity has been specially written for this history project by
John Bolter, formerly the Chief Turbine Engineer and Engineering Director of C A Parsons in Newcastle
upon Tyne. The paper of John Bolter is to be published separately.
The involvement of Charles Parsons in the gas turbine story began with his patent of 1884 where he
described the principles of his “multiple motor turbine”. From 1937 to 1942 the Parsons Company
worked on various designs for an industrial gas turbine with a rating of 500 bhp. The results of this work
were presented to the IMechE in London during February 1948 and published in June 1948. [5]
The contribution of Parsons to the development of the gas turbine is summarised as follows:
In 1945 the first Parson's gas turbine was completed and experiments carried out at the Heaton
works of C A Parsons. The design of this machine had started in 1938.
In 1948 a 15,000kW gas turbine was ordered for the British Electricity Authority (BEA) at Dunston
Power Station, near Newcastle. It was commissioned in 1955. This was a three shaft machine with
reheat, inter-cooling, heat exchanger, a pressure ratio of 8:1 and overall thermal efficiency of
27.66%.
In 1948 a 10,000kW gas turbine was produced for the NGTE at Pyestock. This machine, which was
commissioned in 1951, had inter-cooling, a pressure ratio of 5.5:1 and an overall thermal
efficiency of 27.2%.
In 1949 a 2,170bhp (2022kW) “Air Bleed” gas turbine was ordered for the NGTE at Pyestock. This
machine was commissioned in 1956 and had a pressure ratio of 4.05:1. It did not have any heat
exchangers and the output from the unit was in the form of compressed air.
In 1950 a 2,500kW class gas turbine was developed as an advanced design with separate
compressor and work turbines. The turbine was directly coupled to the alternator at 3000rpm
with or without a heat exchanger. One machine was installed in Heaton works in 1954 and a
second produced for Singapore and installed at the Pasir Panjang power station.
In 1952 at the request of the UK Government Parsons also developed a coal fired gas turbine
locomotive in conjunction with the North British Locomotive Company. This unit had a rating of
1800hp [37].
In 1954 the first use of a gas turbine in an armoured fighting vehicle was when a unit specifically
developed for tanks by Parsons was installed and trialled in a British Conqueror tank
By 1959 the company decided not to continue with the small gas turbine market. They did prepare
designs for a 30,000kW unit with a nine stage compressor and a three stage turbine. This gas
turbine did not materialise.
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In 1977 C A Parsons became part of Northern Engineering Industries (NEI) and in 1989 part of RollsRoyce. Then in 1997 the power generation division of Siemens acquired the business. Siemens
continues manufacture of generator spindles at the much-reduced 'Parsons Works' in Heaton, Newcastle
upon Tyne, although the Parsons name itself is no longer used as a trade name.
E2
English Electric Company
The English Electric Company was formed in 1918 and it took over the company Willans and Robinson of
Rugby and the Willans Works. The company gas turbine activities were based initially based at the
Willans Works in Rugby and later moved to Whetstone, Leicestershire, United Kingdom. In 1951 English
Electric was already devoting considerable effort into the production of gas turbines with a range from
2,000kW to 20,000kW being manufactured at the Rugby works.
In 1954 a 2,000/ 2,500kW class gas turbine with axial / centrifugal compressor was developed. The first
of these went to Ashford Common. A 20,000kW unit was designed for central power station use and
differed from other machines at the time by having no heat exchanger and the thermal efficiency
improved by using a higher pressure ratio. [13]
Between 1956 and 1964 there were 26 industrial (heavy duty) gas turbines manufactured by English
Electric. A number went to Iraq for oil pumping duty. In 1960 one 2,750hp (2,000kW) unit was used in an
EE locomotive. The two largest industrial gas turbine operating in the UK at that time were the
20,000kW machines for RAE Bedford installed in 1955. These were of the twin shaft type with heat
exchangers and installed for power generation to drive the blowers at the RAE Bedford aircraft research
facility. Refer to Chapter 10.
E3
English Electric Gas Turbine Department Whetstone
In 1955 the English Electric part of the gas turbine story moved from Rugby to Whetstone about 20 miles
north. The Whetstone gas turbine facility had been established in 1942 by Power jets as a jet engine
factory and was the site where most of the Whittle engine testing was carried out. This site also became
a research centre for the gas turbine division of GEC. We are especially privileged to have a first hand
account of the work done at Whetstone from Steve Reed, who was employed at Lincoln and Whetstone,
and has contributed to much of this history.
Included in the achievements of English Electric were:
1960 First gas turbine generating station in Indonesia (3 x 2,000kW) Shell Indonesia
1961 First gas turbine generating station in India (3 x 2,000kW) Oil-India Private-Ltd
1964 First large gas turbine set employing multiple aero gas generators enters service at Earley,
Reading England a 56,000kW unit with two twin jet power turbines to drive a single generator
1967 First gas turbine generating station in South Africa (2 x 22,200kW) City of Johannesburg
EE/ GEC were a main contractor to the CEGB for the peak lopping gas turbines using Avon aero engines
as gas generators. Between 1964 and 1980 the UK’s CEGB installed 63 of the EE/ GEC units totalling
2260MW installed capacity. EE/ GEC supplied a further 21 units totalling 405MW to other countries. The
total worldwide for this type of installation by EE/ GEC came to 84 units produced with 2665 MW
capacity.
The record of gas turbines produced in Rugby and Whetstone by English Electric and subsequently GEC/
Alsthom shows that in total some 595 machines were produced for UK and overseas installation
including power generation, mechanical drive and off-shore applications.
In 2003, at the time of the sale of the Alstom small gas turbine business, this was designated as the
Alstom Power Technology Centre with manufacturing being carried out in Lincoln.
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E2
General Electric Company (GEC) UK
The Fraser and Chalmers Company had been started in the USA by two young men from Scotland who
formed a company in London around 1890 at Erith, Kent. The British company expanded into steam
plant, milling machinery and general engineering. Fraser and Chalmers factory was bought by the
General Electric Company (GEC). An earlier link to Alsthom has been discovered being a licence
agreement between Fraser and Chalmers and Rateau.
In 1965 GEC sold out their turbo generator business to C A Parsons as part of a rationalisation in the
turbine industry required by CEGB. In 1967 GEC acquired AEI then after acquiring AEI, in 1968 GEC itself
was merged with English Electric and the gas turbine business, based at Whetstone, Leicester became
known as GEC Gas Turbines Limited.
J1
John Brown & Co/ John Brown Engineering
The John Brown Company (JBE) was based in Clydebank, Scotland. In 1948 John Brown entered the field
of gas turbines with an experimental machine based on a Pametrada design. At the same time they had
entered into a licence agreement with Esher-Wyss of Switzerland allowing them to market and to
produce the Esher-Wyss closed cycle design gas turbine. This relationship lasted until 1962 when they
temporarily abandoned gas turbine manufacture.
The initial phase of John Brown’s gas turbine business was most interesting as they built closed cycle gas
turbines to run on Peat. This work on closed cycle systems is closely linked to that of Escher Wyss of
Switzerland. This work was carried out for NOSHEB and the Scottish Peat committee throughout the late
1940s and early 1950s. There was also a 12,500kW closed cycle machine installed in the Carolina Port
power station in Dundee and a 7,000kW closed cycle machine installed in the Foleshill Coventry gas
works.
There was a pause in the manufacture of gas turbines on Clydebank as in 1962, due to the difficulties
experienced in Scotland, the manufacture of gas turbines stopped. In 1965 JBE resumed gas turbine
manufacture under a new licence arrangement with GE, USA. The GE manufacturing licence resulted in
some 552 GE machines being produced by John Brown in Clydebank until it came to an end in 1999 when
GE bought back the gas turbine business.
Initially the agreement with GE was for John Brown Engineering to manufacture Frame 3 and Frame 5
gas turbines for a period of 7 years. This was later extended by 10 years and finally lasted 34 years. This
arrangement allowed JBE to manufacture GE turbines for both exportation to the USA (called re-imports)
and to other markets.
The first GE machines left Clydebank in 1967 and between 1967 and 1999 JBE supplied 90 -MS3002, 2 MS5001 and 45 - MS5002 gas turbines for mechanical drive applications. In the same period the
company manufactured 4 - MS3002, 265 - MS5001, 1 - MS5002, 92 - MS6001, 4 - MS7001, and 49 MS9001 gas turbines for power generation. In total 552 GE gas turbines were manufactured at
Clydebank. In 1999 the gas turbine business of John Brown Engineering was sold to GE and
manufacturing of turbines on Clydebank ceased after 51 years.
L1
Joseph Lucas (Gas Turbine Equipment)
The Joseph Lucas Company, in addition to their aero engine work, has had quite an involvement in the
development of the industrial gas turbine starting from 1940. A company named Joseph Lucas (Gas
turbine Equipment) designed combustion chambers for gas turbines. In the 1948 paper of C A Parsons
[5] it is mentioned that a Lucas combustion chamber had been included in the trials.
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L2
British Leyland Gas turbines
In 1968 the Leyland Motor Company absorbed both Austin and Rover gas turbines to form the British
Leyland Gas Turbine Company. The leading design engineer was Noel Penny, formerly at Rover. Leyland
continued production of the Austin 250hp engine until 1969. The Rover design was much more
successful and the manufacture of the Rover designed gas turbines continued until 1973.
British Leyland introduced their gas turbine powered truck at Earls Court in 1968 this had a 350/ 400hp
engine. This was followed by the gas turbine for the British Rail high speed train (APT-E) which went on
trial in 1972. In 1973 British Leyland stopped the production of gas turbines mainly because diesel
engines were coming on stream producing more power by the adoption of turbo charging, and were also
more economical. After this Noel Penny decided to establish his own company and this would have
been around 1973-74.
M1
Metropolitan Vickers (Metrovick)
Metropolitan Vickers, part of AEI was based at Trafford Park in Manchester, United Kingdom. This was
known as the Barton Dock Road site. Metrovick started work on gas turbines around 1947 and one of
the gas turbine team in Trafford Park was Frank Harris. We are especially privileged to have a first hand
account of the work done in those early days from Trevor Wick who was also employed in the gas
turbine department.
The first British axial-flow jet engine was the Metrovick F2 known as the Beryl engine. This engine was
followed by the Sapphire design. MV was eventually persuaded to hand over the Beryl/Sapphire design
to Armstrong Siddeley.
In 1947 a Metrovick gas turbine installation in the MGB2009 became the world’s first ever gas turbine
propelled ship. The world’s first gas turbine ship was powered by a Metropolitan Vickers engine. This
Royal Navy vessel went to sea in July 1947 and was designated Motor Gun Boat 2009. The turbine, rated
at 2500hp, was named the “Gatric”. [7]
A Metrovic gas turbine of 1948 was the first ever generating set to run in parallel with the British
National Grid System. This was a Turbo Jet engine driving a power turbine for a 2,000kW generating set
and known as the E.G.T.P.
In 1952 Metrovick supplied a 15,000kW gas turbine, which was installed in Trafford power station
becoming the first to enter service for the BEA. This being one of two similar gas turbines ordered at the
time, the other being from C A Parsons. This unit differed as it was a two shaft arrangement; one driving
the HP compressor and the other the LP compressor and the alternator, the HP shaft ran at a higher
speed.
In 1952 Metrovick developed a 3000 hp version of their gas turbine for locomotive traction and this was
put into service by British Railways in April 1952 using fuel oil. This unit, intended for overseas railways,
had considerably more power than developed by current locomotives in use in the UK at the time.
In 1954 a 2,000/ 2,500kW class gas turbine was developed and the first one was installed at the
Metropolitan Water Board Ashford Common pumping station. Another machine, slightly lower output,
was procured by a British Oil Company and sent to Venezuela.
This Metrovick gas turbine department worked independently until 1958 when they were amalgamated
with the BTH team in Rugby as AEI eventually becoming part of GEC Gas Turbines.
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P1
Power Jets
The Power Jets Company was formed in 1936 by Frank Whittle. The company was incorporated and
Whittle received permission from the Air Ministry to serve as honorary chief engineer and technical
consultant for five years. Whittle then went to BTH at Rugby and contracted them to build a "WU"
(Whittle Unit), his first experimental jet engine.
The WU engine was built in Rugby and fired for the first time on 12 April 1937 at the nearby Power Jets
facility in Lutterworth, Leicestershire. They then moved to a new site at Whetstone. In 1944 Power Jets
was nationalised and after that they became a government owned consulting group.
R2
Rolls-Royce
From the 1940s until the 1960s R-R and its original absorbed companies did not get into industrial power
generation. It was left to English Electric, Ruston and AEI to develop industrial machines as it was not R-R
area of expertise.
In 1953 Rolls Royce developed the RM60 gas turbine for the marine application with an output of 6000
hp. The machine was a lightweight compound unit built from aero engine technology. The RM60 was for
the Royal Navy HMS Grey Goose, which had 2 x RM60 engines [13]. No more were built.
RR consists of a number aero engine companies that, as a result of political motivation were absorbed
into BS and RR in 1960. Then in 1966 RR absorbed BS. RR however had an entirely different approach to
industrial gas turbines. They sold only gas generators to main contractors such as AEI, English Electric,
GEC and Stal Laval. When RR took over BS, Ansty became the Industrial and Marine Division and main
contracting was dropped except for marine work for the MoD.
Rolls Royce had become involved in rail propulsion on at least two occasions, one with the M45 (a joint
RR/SNECMA engine) at the time of the TGV. The other occasion was when BR had problems with the
Rover engines in their high speed train. These two ventures were not pursued.
RR industrialised the largest version of the Avon, the Mk 533, to become the Industrial Avon Mk 1533.
The first unit was installed in 1964 into gas pipeline duty by TransCanada at their Caron Station,
producing around 10 MW. Most of the power generation Avon’s were sold to the CEGB through the
previous mentioned main contract companies when it decided to overcome the grid weakness exposed
by the east Kent blackout in the early 1960s. There were many of these sold outside of UK by GEC.
During the following 40 years or so the Avon has been uprated several times, but mostly for the oil and
gas industry rather than power generation. The CEGB Avon’s were all Mk 1533B and matched to an
equivalent final nozzle diameter of 24.5 inches. Sales to CEGB ran from 1963 to 1967.
The RR 501 industrial gas turbine has a rating of 5,000kW.
The RB211 engine was originally developed for the TriStar and entered service in 1972. It is a three shaft
design. During 1974 the industrial version of the RB211 was launched but with the oil & gas industry in
mind. These units have also been used for power generation and are rated 25,000 to 44,000kW. The
RB211 is still being uprated and new models are being marketed.
The Trent 800 is a three shaft engine that first went into service in the Boeing 777 and first ran in August
1990. The Industrial Trent Gas Turbine is a derivative of this engine and is designed for power generation
and mechanical drive. It delivers up to 64,000kW of electricity at 42% efficiency.
The Marine Trent is a derivative of the Trent 800, with gearbox, that produces 36,000kW for maritime
applications. It will power the Royal Navy's next generation of aircraft carriers.
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The WR-21 is a development introduced in the 1990s. This is an Intercooled Recuperated (ICR) gas
turbine rated at 21MW for marine propulsion and powers the Royal Navy Type 45 ships.
Rolls Royce has supplied some 5200 industrial gas turbines worldwide.
The Rolls Royce Heritage Trust and a number of former Rolls-Royce engineers have all kindly provided
information and technical papers as their contribution to this history and that is most appreciated.
R3
Rover Company
Rover was based in Solihull, West Midlands, United Kingdom; being a British motor car manufacturing
company founded in 1878. The Rover Company did not, as many may assume, only make gas turbines
for automobiles but they also manufactured industrial gas turbines too. The Rover gas-turbines were
manufactured for a variety of stationary applications for emergency pumps and marine use as a gasturbine is light and can be run quickly up to power.
The Whittle "W2B" aero engine was designed by Power Jets, and a complete set of drawings passed to
the several firms. The first and second W2Bs to be tested by Power Jets were actually manufactured by
the Rover Company at the Rover gas turbine plant at Barnoldswick in Lancashire in 1942. Rover was
involved in design changes to that engine however in early 1943 the W2 was transferred to Rolls-Royce.
Rover became famous for its Rover gas turbine car of the 1950s. In 1950 the Rover designer F. R. Bell
and Chief Engineer Maurice Wilks unveiled the first car powered with a gas turbine engine. [74] The first
prototype Rover gas turbine engine was running by February 1947. The Rover gas turbine car JET1 with
100bhp was demonstrated to the public in March 1950 achieving a speed of 85 mph. The updated
version with an engine of 230 bhp went on to achieve a speed of 152 mph.
The gas turbine for JET1 consisted of a single stage centrifugal compressor with a maximum speed of
52,000 rpm, driven by a single stage axial turbine re-designed so that it took only sufficient power from
the gas stream to drive the compressor and fuel and oil pumps. A second single stage power turbine was
added to take the remaining power from the gas stream to drive front and rear differential units.
They also had a model IS60 educational set, which sold worldwide to all major Universities Institutes and
Colleges thus having a great influence on future Gas Turbine use and applications.
In November 1950 a former RAF 60ft sea rescue launch “Torquil” was modified to be driven by two
Rover gas turbines. In 1954 Rover made a unit of 60hp rating designated “Neptune”. Rover also had
marine gas turbines with their 120hp “Aurora” and 300hp “Snowdon” models. *13]
Between 1954 and 1973 a total of 1052 Rover gas turbines were produced, 777 of these being the 60hp
rated units. Over 200 units were used for water pumping applications, 474 for auxiliary power
generation and over 250 were educational units for colleges and universities. It is interesting to note
that the Royal Air Force purchased 199 Rover auxiliary generators.
In 1968 Rover became part of British Leyland combining Austin turbines and Rover turbines into Leyland
Gas Turbines. They continued production of gas turbines at Solihull for road vehicles, power generation,
pumps and rail traction. The production of Rover gas turbines stopped in 1973.
R4
Ruston & Hornsby
The Ruston and Hornsby Company based in Lincoln, United Kingdom was established in 1918 although
with origins in a much earlier company. From the time it was established, Ruston has always been
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involved in the design and manufacture of power units; steam, gas, and diesel, and since 1946, the gas
turbine and so Ruston Gas Turbines.
In 1946 following on from the work of Frank Whittle on jet engines and gas turbines, Ruston set up a
small specialist team, known as the Internal Combustion Development Group, to investigate the
feasibility of designing a gas turbine. It was shortly after Power Jets completed their work that G.B. R.
“Bob” Feilden was invited to take charge of Ruston work in the gas turbine field. A team of young
enthusiastic engineers was then created to design the first Ruston industrial gas turbine. It is recorded
that it was no exaggeration to say that every single component of the original 3CT engine and the
subsequent TA turbine was stressed out individually. Subsequently the output of the TA engine has
been increased by some 50% mainly by using materials and technology more recently available.
This same approach to design has been adopted by those who have been involved in the development of
the more recent engines. They have, of course, taken advantage of the advance in metallurgy and
technology and have had the help of computers to speed their calculations.
It is believed that between 1954 and 1980 over 900 of these Ruston gas turbines were produced. This
sums up as almost 2,000,000 bhp or 1,450MW of capacity. The totals for each of the Ruston models up
to the year 1980 were TA 563, TB 231, TD 36, TE 65 and TF 12.
Ruston 3CT Engine
This machine had initial trials in 1949. The 3CT was a prototype two shaft open cycle engine. In
1950 the engine was demonstrated to engineers of the leading British and overseas technical
press.
Ruston TA Engine
The Ruston TA was first introduced in 1954 with a rating of 1,260bhp. Before design work was
done on the prototype turbine itself, considerable development was carried out on the
combustion chamber design. The fuels tested included gas oil, residual fuels, creosote (CTF 50),
creosote pitch (CTF 200), washed sewage gas, peat and water gas tar produced from town gas.
Full scale production of the TA engine started in 1952 and in that same year the first order was
received for an oil field application for an oil company in the Middle East.
Long before the common concept of “total energy” was thought of, Ruston was installing TA gas
turbines with exhaust heat recovery systems. The first TA turbine to be put to work in the USA on
this basis was at the Park Plaza shopping centre in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1956.
Ruston TD Engine
In 1967 the design of a 3MW single shaft engine known as the TD4000 (4,000bhp), was begun. It
was introduced in 1970 with a rating of 3870 bhp. During its design, the concept of similarity
envisaged at the time the decision to build the larger development vehicle was taken, was
departed from to achieve a reduction in bulk particularly to the combustion chamber layout and to
achieve a reduction in cost, which applied largely to the compressor.
An arrangement using four combustion chambers angled back over the compressor casing was
selected for the TD4000 engine, which achieved a useful reduction in the overall size of the engine.
The approach to the design of the compressor was to achieve a reduction in production costs by
reducing the number of profiles from 14 to 4 thus a substantial reduction in blade (bucket) costs
was achieved with virtually no loss in aerodynamic efficiency.
Ruston TB Engine
The TB was first introduced in 1969 with a rating of 3000 bhp. Although the technology used for
the TB was closely similar to the earlier engines provision was made in the basic design to
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incorporated new materials and technology at a later stage and it was further developed, from its
original rating of 3000bhp, in a number of steps (i.e. 4000 bhp, 4900bhp, 5200bhp and finally
5400bhp) to its final rating of 5400bhp in the 1990's and ceased production for new unit sales in
the early 2000's. These increases resulting from improved metallurgy, higher firing temperatures,
air cooled blading etc. many improvements being reverse engineered into the product based on
technology advances used in the Tornado (SGT200) etc
Ruston TE Engine
The TE was first introduced in 1960 with a rating of 430bhp.
Ruston TF Engine
The TF was first introduced in 1962 with a rating of 1960bhp.
Today Siemens still support all of the Ruston models identified above and in 2010 even built an
entirely 'new' TB5000 gas generator (for an existing User) from 100% new parts.
6.
The European Companies
The 1951 book “The Industrial Gas Turbine” by Dr E.C. Roberson lists twelve European manufacturers as
being already active in industrial gas turbine manufacture. [6] The European companies were in many
ways the leaders in the field. Those active during the period 1940-1990 included:
A4
Alsthom/ Alstom
Alsthom commenced experimental work with free piston engines as early as 1940. It is reported [6] that
in 1951 they had a 5,000kW open cycle gas turbine under construction. This work was based at their
factory in Belfort.
In 1968 Alsthom merged with GEC of the United Kingdom to form GEC Alsthom. This included the gas
turbine businesses of Ruston, English Electric, AEI, BTH and Metrovick. The change of name from
Alsthom to Alstom took place in 1998.
From around 1965 until 1999 Alsthom were a manufacturing associate of GE (General Electric USA). GE
had Manufacturing Associate agreements with a number of international suppliers. Under these
agreements, the international supplier purchased the rotor and hot gas path parts from GE, USA. The
international supplier then built the rest of the machine, and it was sold as a GE designed gas turbine.
Alsthom was one of these international suppliers. The Frame 9 machine was special as it was developed
in Belfort, France and first manufactured in Belfort and the first unit installed in Paris during 1977.
In 1999 Alstom acquired the gas turbine business of ABB, which included the entire ABB range of gas
turbines. That same year GE purchased back the GE manufacturing facilities of Alstom thus separating
the Alstom ABB gas turbines from the GE business.
In 2004, Alstom sold their small industrial gas turbine businesses; (3-15MW) mainly in the UK and the
medium sized GT business (15 - 50 MW) mainly in Sweden, to Siemens leaving Alstom with a reduced
range of gas turbines. These are the GT24, GT26, GT13E2 and the GT11N, all originally ABB designed.
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B3
Brown Boveri & Co
The Brown Boveri Company (BBC) was originally based in Baden, Switzerland and founded in 1891 by
Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown and Walter Boveri. An additional manufacturing facility was built in Birr
in the late 1950s. In the first decades of its history BBC was the world leader in the industrial gas turbine
field and made some really outstanding achievements including:1939
1941
1946
1966
First commercial gas turbine for power production rated at 4,000kW for Neuchatel
First gas turbine locomotive 2,200hp for the Swiss Federal Railways
First large gas turbine plant 27,000kW unit
55,000kW gas turbine is tested in Mannheim
The first BBC gas turbine to enter service was in 1933, this was the Holzwarth (explosion concept) fired
on blast furnace gas fuel at a German Steel Plant [52]. Hans Holzwarth of Germany had began a series of
experiments in 1905, his design depending on an explosion of the fuel air mixture in order to generate
sufficient pressure rise to derive useful work from the turbine. Air at a very low pressure of some 30 to
40psig (2-2.7barg) was used to scavenge the turbine combustor in which fuel was subsequently sprayed
and allowed to burn raising the pressure to some 170 to 200psig (11.7-13.8barg). This elevated pressure
opened a valve that allowed the high pressure and hot gas to expand through the turbine. Turbines
based on this principle had outputs up to 20 megawatts. It is recorded that the efficiencies of
compressors and turbines at that time were too low for practical application [52].
In 1936 the Sun Oil Company of Philadelphia was developing the Houdry Cracking process for oil
refineries and asked Brown Boveri and Company to adapt their axial flow compressor from the Velox
boiler to this process. During the shop testing it was necessary for Brown Boveri to provide a
combustion chamber in order to simulate the heat of the carbon burning process within the Houdry
process. This was an expansion turbine and with this set up in their own shops, Brown Boveri realised
that the compressor, combustor, and turbine provided for a workable gas turbine, which could be turned
to power production. This was the event that led Brown Boveri to produce a gas turbine that was
installed at Neuchatel in Switzerland for stand by service in 1939. The Neuchatel gas turbine had an
output of 4,000kW with a turbine inlet temperature of approximately 1020°F (550°C) and an efficiency of
17.4 percent. Professor Aurel Stodola supervised the acceptance tests.
In 1939 the Swiss Federal Railways ordered a GTEL gas turbine electric locomotive with a rating of
1,620kW (2,170 hp) from Brown Boveri. The BBC gas turbine locomotive was completed in 1941 when it
underwent testing before entering regular service. In 1949 the Brown Boveri completed the BR 18000,
an 1,840kW (2,470hp) GTEL that had been ordered by the Great Western Railway for express passenger
services in the UK.
In the space of forty years from 1940 to 1980 Brown Boveri and associates produced over 400 gas
turbines, 310 being for power generation, 17 compressor drives, 17 marine and 52 process applications.
In 1946 a 27,000kW turbine was supplied to the North Eastern Power Supply Co in Switzerland. By 1966
a 55,000kW machine was under test at Brown Boveri works in Mannheim, Germany. In 1975 the largest
unit rating had reached 118,000kW.
Boveri Sulzer Turbomachinery Co (BST) was a temporary joint venture created between Brown Boveri
and Sulzer for the manufacture of turbo machinery during the 1960s and 1970s. This ended when the
two parent companies separated the joint venture, leaving Sulzer retaining the capacity to manufacture
the smaller turbines.
In 1988 the Neuchatel gas turbine was recognised by ASME as a historic mechanical engineering
landmark. The Neuchatel Gas Turbine was taken out of service only in 2002 (after 60 years service) and it
has since been preserved and re-located to a permanent museum at the Brown Boveri (now Alstom) gas
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turbine development facility in Birr, Switzerland. The Neuchatel unit has been carefully rebuilt and is now
displayed in a specially built house.
On the merger with ASEA the company changed its name to ABB in 1988. In 1999 the ABB turbine
business was taken over by Alstom Power.
E4
Escher Wyss
Escher Wyss AG (EW) based in Zurich, Switzerland, was an industrial company with a focus on
engineering and turbine construction. The company's headquarters were in Zurich until 1969 when it
was taken over by Sulzer AG.
This company pioneered the development of the closed air cycle gas turbine, which is attributed to Prof.
Dr. Ackeret of ETH Institute, Zurich and Prof. Dr. Keller of Escher Wyss, Zurich [58]. The basic patent was
registered in Berne in July 1935. In 1939 when BBC in Baden was installing the first open cycle gas
turbine Escher Wyss in Zurich was putting a closed air cycle gas turbine into operation.
The manufacturing licences and collaborators of Escher Wyss included: John Brown Engineering, GHH
Germany, Fuji Electric and La Fleur Corporation all of whom constructed a number of closed cycle gas
turbines. The closed cycle plants were used mainly in combined power and heating plants.
Escher Wyss aimed to have a cycle operating as close as possible to the Carnot Cycle having two
intercoolers with the compressor and recuperation of the turbine waste heat used to preheat the air to
the compressor. The simple cycle of that time achieved 17% efficiency with a turbine inlet temperature
at 540 °C whilst the closed cycle with 700 °C achieved an efficiency of 31.6%. The Escher Wyss plant
could be operated at a constant 650 °C.
The work of Escher Wyss on the closed cycle is described in a paper published in 1967 [16]. In that paper
they report on progress with seven closed cycle plants. The seven were Ravensburg Germany (2,300kW),
Toyatomi Japan (2,000kW), Coburg Germany (6,600kW), Kashira Russia (12,000kW), Nippon Kokan Japan
(12,000kW), Oberhaussen Germany (14,300kW) and Haus Aden Germany (6,370kW). At that time the
earliest CC gas turbine had run for 60,000h and the more recent 30,000h. They were being fired on coal,
natural gas, blast furnace gas and mine gas. The turbine inlet temperatures on these plants were
between 660 and 720 °C. In 1966 the first ever closed cycle helium gas turbine was produced.
In total 24 Escher Wyss closed cycle plants were built by EW and its the associated companies. According
to one source most of these operated successfully. This technology was transferred to Sulzer in 1969,
and then to Brown Boveri. The name changed to ABB in 1988 and in 1999 to Alstom Power.
The transfer of the technology resulted in closed cycle gas turbines taking a back seat as the successor
companies had different ideas as to the future of the gas turbine. There was no new activity after 1981.
K1
Kongsberg
Kongsberg manufacture the KG2 range (1,900kW) and the KG5 (3,110kW) all radial gas turbine first
introduced in 1968.
The Beginning
Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk AS (KV), founded in 1814, was originally a small arms manufacturer wholly
owned by the Norwegian Government.
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In the spring of 1964 work on the design of a small industrial gas turbine, the KG2, commenced. The
basic reason for selecting the gas turbine option was that it represented an advanced mechanical
product with a market growth potential. Another factor was that KV had contacts with Boeing and P&W.
The market assessment called for a small industrial machine and the design philosophy was aiming at a
robust and simple design. A centrifugal compressor was selected, but it took longer to decide upon
combining it with a radial inflow turbine. The contacts with P&W and their consultant on radial turbines
played a significant role in the decision. P&W also assisted in the development of the combustor, but
the concept and the layout work was performed by a team of KV engineers. In a little over 3 years, two
prototypes were designed, manufactured and initially tested in Kongsberg.
Sales & Applications
In 1968 the first KG2, rated at 1,200kW, had a simple cycle thermal efficiency of 15.4%, and was
delivered to the Norwegian Water & Electricity Board. This was used as a stand-by/emergency power
generation set on the island of Røst in Lofoten Norway.
When the first oil was found by Phillips Petroleum in the Ekofisk field, a new market opened up. A
number of KG2 units were sold and installed on the new oil platforms, both for continuous and stand-by
power generation.
The references and experience gained in the North Sea led to sales to other oil companies around the
world. Indonesia, the Middle East, Dubai and Abu Dhabi were amongst the first to recognise the
newcomer in the market. In parallel sales efforts directed at the stand-by market in Europe continued.
Although the KG2 was a simple design it had about the same fuel consumption as the competitors in the
same power range and managed well in the competition. The application engineers were quite inventive
and enthusiastic and came up with a number of new solutions. The mobile unit was a complete power
station in a trailer, including control room.
In the marine market the TurboSafe and Turb-Inert systems were installed in many super-tankers, mostly
Norwegian, but also the Maersk line and the major oil companies were among the customers.
TURBOSAFE was a stand-by/emergency generating set, which could be mounted outside the engine
room due to its low weight. The Turb-Inert system used an afterburner in the exhaust to burn out the
remaining oxygen such that the empty tanks could be filled with an inert gas. Compressor bleed through
an ejector was used to remove the inert gas when it was necessary to enter for cleaning etc. A direct
driven sea water pump set was also developed and installed on supply ships for fire fighting purposes.
In the first 8 years around 500 engines were sold and in total, including license manufacturing and spares
a total of around 1000 units have been built.
Technical
The “All radial” configuration is unique to the KG2. The rotor consists of a single stage centrifugal
compressor mounted back to back with a single stage radial inflow turbine. The overhung rotor is
supported by hydrodynamic bearings at the cold end. Both radial bearings and also the thrust bearing
are of the tilting pad type.
The manufacturing technology in the 1960s was such that both the compressor and the turbine stage
had to be split in 2 pieces. The compressor had an investment cast inducer section and a forged and
machined impeller section with straight radial blades. Both were made from a precipitation hardening
stainless steel. Likewise the turbine consisted of a forged and machined impeller section and an
investment cast Exducer section. The Exducer is made from Inconel 713LC and the turbine from Nimonic
90. The compressor diffuser has 3 stages of precision cast vanes mounted between the side walls.
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The combustor is of the reverse flow can type with a centre tube to achieve even temperature
distribution. The fuel nozzles could be pure liquid or gas, but a dual fuel version was early introduced.
The combustor is tangentially mounted to the centreline and hot gases from the combustor are directed
into the nozzle guide vanes via a scroll or volute. The nozzle guide vanes are made from a precision cast
cobalt alloy and are un-cooled.
A special feature with the radial inflow turbine compared with an axial multi-stage turbine is that for a
given turbine inlet temperature (TIT), and efficiency, it will have a lower average metal temperature. This
is utilised by running the radial turbine with a higher TIT for the same metal temperature. A temperature
difference in the order of 120 to 130°C is typical. Also the metal temperature will be the highest at the
inlet tip where the stresses are zero and as the temperature decreases inward from the tip, the
(centrifugal), stress increases. This is utilised to design a rotor blade with a “constant” creep life. It
requires a material with an optimal combination of creep and tensile strength.
Initially the turbine impeller was made from Nimonic 90, but in the first upgrade in 1972 the material
was changed to Waspaloy and this has been kept since. The new cycle parameters involved increasing
the nominal speed to 18000 rpm thereby increasing the mass flow to 12.5 kg/s and the pressure ratio to
3.9. The TIT could also be raised due to the new impeller material, giving a nominal rating of 1,530kW at
base load.
The last upgrade of the KG2 was done in 1987 when a new compressor stage was introduced. It was a
modern, backward curved compressor made from a single piece Titanium forging. It raised the PR to 4.5
and the mass flow to 15 kg/s, thus increasing the power to 1,930kW.
Since 1987 Kongsberg have been part of Dresser-Rand and it continues to develop, market and
manufacture Kongsberg designed gas turbines.
S1
Siemens
The Siemens Company resumed gas turbine activities in Mülheim/ Ruhr, Germany in 1948. The project
was described as “P1” and initially was exclusively theoretical activities, which yielded the statement that
an open-cycle gas turbine for commercial power plant operation should be designed for turbine inlet
temperatures of 620 to 640°C and a pressure ratio 4.0:1. Compressor efficiency was then estimated as
86% and turbine efficiency as 89%. Based on this data, the overall efficiency of such an open cycle gas
turbine was estimated to be 17.6% in base load operation. At a pressure ratio of 12.5:1 the efficiency
was estimated to be 24.3%, however such a compressor was too expensive. Based on the calculations
performed by Friedrich, two concepts for heavy-duty gas turbines were proposed to the board members
of Siemens-Schuckert Werke at the end of 1948. These were the open-cycle gas turbine in the size of 2
to 30 MW and the closed-cycle gas turbine—based on the Ackeret-Keller-Process—in the output range of
30 to 100 MW.
It was then decided to proceed with further development activities. One of the first projects designed
was a 40 MW multi-shaft gas turbine configuration with dual inter-cooling for the compressors;
recuperator and dual reheat of exhaust gas. Based on a turbine inlet temperature of 640°C and a
pressure ratio of 9.0:1 the estimated efficiency was 34%. In parallel Friedrich began design work on an
experimental axial-flow gas turbine compressor. [38]
VM 1 Gas Turbine
1956. The first Siemens gas turbine was named VM 1 and designed for an output of 1.5 MW at the
turbine coupling. Design work began on this turbine in 1954 concurrent with the compressor and
combustion chamber test runs. It was decided to build a turbine for driving a compressor only and to use
a nozzle to simulate the influence of the turbine for driving a generator. The 3-stage compressor turbine
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itself was designed for a 620°C turbine inlet temperature. In 1956, all components were assembled and
the first Siemens gas turbine made its first test run. In March 1957 this first gas turbine was shut down to
continue the test series with three other units, however, the design work for the planned VM 2 unit was
stopped due to two other gas turbine projects. [38]
VM 3 Gas Turbine with Recuperator
1957. While the first VM 1 test machine was still being manufactured in 1952, the possibility of using an
additional 2,800kWel machine to supply electric power to the Siemens-Schuckert Werke plant in
Nuremberg was considered. This gas turbine was to be very similar to the VM1 but equipped with a
recuperator for the purpose of improving thermodynamic efficiency. Ultimately this gas turbine was set
up in the testing lab at the Mülheim turbine plant. Despite its modest turbine inlet temperature of only
650°C (necessitated by its uncooled blading) it achieved an efficiency of 26 %. Long-term tests were
performed with this machine, including operation on fuel oil and to a lesser extent heavy fuel oil, until it
was finally removed from service in 1968 after ten years of operation. [38]
VM 5 - First Commercial Gas Turbine
1958. During 1956, Siemens began planning work on the construction of a 5,600kW gas turbine for
commercial operation on blast-furnace gas. Construction of the compressor had already begun when a
contract was signed in 1958 by the Siemens-Schuckert Werke and the smelting plant operated by
Dortmund-Hörder-Hütten-Union for the supply of this gas turbine to drive a blast furnace blower. The
VM 5 gas turbine used to drive a blast furnace blower lives on as according to a statement by ThyssenKrupp, this machine was operated from 1960 until March 1998. Thereafter the gas turbine and the blast
furnace, along with the entire steel works, was dismantled and shipped to China. The steelworks is
currently being installed at the Handan Iron & Steel plant (located some 200 km south of Beijing). [38]
Series VM 80 and VM 51
In 1959 once it had been demonstrated that the Siemens-Schuckert Werke could build functional gas
turbines, the question arose as to how one could establish a position on the market. Developing what
was then the world’s largest single-shaft gas turbine and thus occupying a market segment with no
competitors was the strategy to be followed. To achieve this objective, the proven VM 3 mechanical
design was used as the basis for developing a larger machine within the prevailing technical limits. This
initially involved adherence to a two-casing design, however with dimensions increased as far as
possible. A gas turbine was produced that had a compressor mass flow of 184 kg/s, a pressure ratio of
6.0:1, a turbine inlet temperature of 720°C, and uncooled turbine blading. In terms of performance, this
machine produced an electric output of 23.4 MWel at an efficiency of 32%, measured at the generator
terminals. In 1959 the first order for the construction of such a gas turbine, known as the VM 80, was
placed by the Munich utility Stadtwerke München where it began commercial operation in September
1961. A second VM 80 was added in 1964. Three additional gas turbine plants of this design were
ordered for power plants. Until 1996, the last of the two machines at the München-Sendling CHP plant
had logged about 2,700 starts and 165,000 calendar operating hours. [38]
In 1961 the transition was made to the key design features, which have been retained until the present
by Siemens gas turbines: a common rotor shared by the compressor and turbine, supported in two
bearings and a single casing. These developments included:
1970 V93
51 MW
1970 V94
86 MW
1977 V93.2
73 MW
1985 V94.2
148 MW
1994 V94.3
213 MW
1996 V94.3A 232 MW
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The last two mentioned gas turbine developments were both installed at Didcot Power Station in the UK.
These have been followed by a continuous programme of development. The Westinghouse gas turbine
business was sold to Siemens in 1998 to become Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation.
New Nomenclature
In 2004 the gas turbine programmes of the merged companies of Siemens including Ruston, Stal-Laval
and Westinghouse have been joined under a uniform nomenclature. This nomenclature has removed
many of the well known gas turbine names renaming these under a common identification using the
“SGT” series *47].
Siemens 50 Cycle Machines (2004)
Previous Name
New Name
Previous Name
New Name
Previous Name
New Name
Typhoon
Tornado
Tempest
Cyclone
SGT-100
SGT-200
SGT-300
SGT-400
GT35
GT10B
GT10C
GTX100
W251
SGT-500
SGT-600
SGT-700
SGT-800
SGT-900
V64.3
V94.2
V94.2A
V94.3A
SGT-1000F
SGT5-2000E
SGT5-3000E
SGT5-4000F
Table 2 Siemens new Nomenclature
S4
Sulzer / Brown Boveri Sulzer (BST)
Boveri Sulzer Turbomachinery Co. (BST) was a temporary joint venture created between Brown Boveri
and Sulzer for the manufacture of turbo machinery during the 1960s and 1970s. This ended when the
two parent companies separated the joint venture, leaving Sulzer retaining the capacity to manufacture
the smaller turbines.
7.
American Industrial Gas Turbine Companies
American companies active in the field of the industrial gas turbine during the period 1940-1980 have
included amongst others:
A2
Allison
According to Allison, because General Electric lacked the resources to turn out the huge number of jet
engines forecast in World War II (WWII), it enlisted Allison as a manufacturer. WWII ended before GE
could get a jet engine into production, but it maintained its subcontracting arrangement with Allison.
In 1995 the Allison Engine Company was bought by Rolls-Royce.
A3
Allis Chalmers (USA)
This company has its origins in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. In 1941 the US Durand committee awarded
contract to Allis Chalmers and Westinghouse but Allis Chalmers dropped out of the gas turbine race in
1943. A 3500-HP Allis Chalmers Gas Turbine was tested during World War II at the Engineering
Experiment Station, but this gas turbine was not ready for application until after the war.
It was reported that in 1951 Allis Chalmers were developing both a rail traction gas turbine and an
experimental marine gas turbine both to be operated on coal. The rail traction unit was under the
sponsorship of the Coal Research Inst. The marine unit was for the US Navy.
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E1
Elliott Turbomachinery (USA)
William Swan Elliott was the founder of the original Elliott Company in 1910. Elliott Turbomachinery
Company Inc was formed in 1981 when they became part of the Carrier Corporation.
Elliott had five gas turbine developments under way in 1951 and the range of sizes were from 2379 –
3,910bhp (1,775-2,920kW). Two of these turbines were for rail traction projects and the other three
were for marine applications. Since 2000 Elliott Turbomachinery has been part of Ebara. Today they
manufacture compressors.
G1
General Electric (Heavy Duty)
The General Electric Company (GE) heavy duty gas turbine division is based in Schenectady, New York,
USA. In 1918 GE started a gas turbine division when Dr. Stanford A. Moss developed the GE turbosupercharger engine during WWI. [62]
Alan Howard, who led the GE development of the gas turbine first became involved with the steam
turbine activities of the company in 1941. He played a key role in the development of the gas turbine in
Schenectady for both aeronautical and land based applications. He was on a wartime subcommittee on
jet and turbine power plants of the American National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.
A 3,500kW gas turbine was installed by GE in Belle Island plant of Oklahoma Gas and Electric in 1949. The
key paper describing the start of the GE work in the field of the industrial gas turbine is the ASME “Belle
Island” paper presented in November 1984 [31]. A similar 3,500kW gas turbine was installed at El Paso in
1953 and was still in operation 50 years later. Between 1966 to 1976 there were over 1400 gas turbine
units installed in the USA each rated more than 3,500kW and right at the start gas turbines are also
utilised in mechanical drive applications and not just power generation.
In 1949 the first GE gas turbine locomotive went into service on a number of American railroads. Work
had actually started on the locomotive engines before WWII under J.K. Salisbury. One of these
locomotive engines was a slightly modified 3,500kW GE gas turbine as installed at the Belle Isle Station.
Union Pacific was the only railroad in the United States to own and operate the gas turbine locomotives.
The turbine drove an alternator/generator to supply electricity to electric motors mounted on the axles.
Union Pacific's gas turbine fleet totalled 55 locomotives. The first ten production turbines, with 4,500hp
were delivered in 1952, then fifteen more were ordered in 1954 and then thirty units of a larger model,
were delivered between 1958 and 1961 with a rating of 8,500hp (6,340kW). These locomotives were
replaced by more efficient diesel locomotives and in 1970 the turbines stopped running [63].
In the 1950s GE introduced their frame gas turbines scaled in size and units appeared with ratings of
16,000kW and 23,200kW. By 1965 there were further developments with increased firing temperatures
and higher pressure ratios appearing. The first ever GE combined cycle plants were the City of Ottawa
11MW FS3 and the Wolverine Electric 21MW FS5 installed in 1967.
In 1970 the Aluminium Smelter in Bahrain (ALBA) became the first ever gas turbine powered aluminium
smelter in the world. Traditionally smelters had always used hydro power and been located where hydro
was in abundance. In Bahrain they employed the Frame 5 unit with 24,000kW rating and they eventually
installed 25 F5 machines in one line.
In 1970 the Frame 7 gas turbine appeared with a rating of 47,200kW and a turbine inlet temperature of
900oC. Then very quickly after that in 1972 the 7B with a rating of 51,800kW appeared.
GE entered into a joint venture with Alsthom in the early 1970s to develop the Frame 9 single shaft
machine to operate at 50 cycles. The first F9 machine was installed by EDF in Paris during 1975 it had a
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rating of 80,700kW but this was only used for peak lopping duty. Five further units were built in 1979
(model 9B) these being for the Dubai Aluminium Smelter and thus the Frame 9 was used at base load for
the first time in Dubai. The base load duty of the aluminium smelter proved to be an important testing
ground for the Frame 9 machine.
The Model E gas turbines started to appear in 1980 onwards and the unit ratings increased above
100MW. By 1988 the F7F arrived and that had a rating of 147,000kW with a pressure ratio of 13.5 and
turbine inlet temperature of 1260oC. In the 1990s the “E” range of machines continued to develop and
were widely used but with inlet temperatures around 1120oC. A further step was then taken in 1991 with
the “FA” range and inlet temperatures reaching 1316oC and the 9FA producing 240,000kW.
A major difference in design approach was introduced as the GE older B and E class gas turbines had a
hot end drive requiring an exhaust collector to the side or vertically upwards. These gas turbines were
designed with simple cycle duty in mind since they were developed before combined cycles came into
vogue but later applied in this duty. The F class gas turbines were developed with the combined cycle
specifically in mind and had cold end drive to allow for an axial exhaust to heat recovery (HRSG).
It is planned that later advances in technology will be covered in a further edition of the history (Part 2).
These have included the H and J technologies, materials technology (including single crystal, ceramics,
thermal barrier coating and advanced cooling technology).
GE Energy has kindly provided presentation materials, tables and technical papers as their contribution
to this history and that is most appreciated.
G2
General Electric Company (Aero Derivatives)
GE started work on the aero jet engine in 1941 based on the Whittle design. The aero engine company is
based in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Their first engine TG180 test flight was in 1942. The present day aeroderivatives all have their origins in the work during WWII.
Between 1959 and 1970 GE developed the LM series of aero-derivative engines. The first LM turbine
appeared in 1968 and was the LM1500 rated at 13.3MW. This was designated as the first 60 second start
engine and installed at Millstone Point Nuclear station, CT, USA. The LM2500 aero-derivative was first
used in 1969 in a marine application for the US Navy. This engine was then used for a pipeline
application in 1971 and in 1979 the LM2500 with an output of 20,515kW was installed on the Statfjord B
platform in Norway.
These engines are widely used today in power generation, mechanical drive and marine applications. The
range includes:LM500
LM1600
LM2500
LM6000
LMS100
6,000shp/ 4,500kW
19,120shp/ 13,700kW
33,600shp/ 25,000kW
57,330shp/ 42,750kW
100,000kW
Powers military patrol boat and commercial fast ferries
Powers high-speed ferries and high-speed yachts
Fast ferries, coast guard cutters, supply and cruise ships
Used on offshore platforms in marine environments
Simple cycle power generation - High efficiency
There is a huge and ongoing discussion in the industry about maintenance aspects and overall economics
of aero-derivatives versus heavy industrial. Aero-derivatives however do have two advantages over
heavy industrial types, these being performance in simple cycle mode and fast start.
A recent survey has shown that aero-derivatives of all manufacturers have now taken 21% of the total
market for industrial gas turbines.
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S2
Solar Turbines
Solar Turbines Inc is based in San Diego, USA and was formerly the Solar Aircraft Company formed in
1929. In the late 1940s, Solar won a U.S. Navy contract to develop and manufacture a 35kW (45hp) gas
turbine to power portable pump units for fighting fires aboard ships. After that they were awarded
another Navy contract to build 300kW (400hp) gas turbine to generate shipboard electrical power. Then
in the 1950s they earned another contract for the U.S. Navy calling for development of a 750kW
(1000hp) engine for high-speed boat propulsion. The result was the Saturn gas turbine, which entered
production in 1960.
The Saturn engine went on to become the World's most widely used industrial gas turbine with some
4800 units in 80 countries. It remains in production today in two up-rated and enhanced configurations.
Solar recognised that to win over customers from reciprocating equipment, the company would have to
offer fully factory-assembled-and-tested turbo machinery packages, such as complete gas compressor
sets, pump-drive packages and generator sets, rather than bare gas turbine engines.
Work began in the mid-1960s on the Centaur gas turbine, which entered service in 1968 at 2,015kW
(2,700hp). Today's Centaur 40 gas turbine delivers 3,520kW (4,700hp). In 1973, after 46 years, Solar left
the aircraft/aerospace industry to concentrate its resources on industrial gas turbines, turbo machinery
systems and support services. [64]
Since 1981 Solar Turbines has been part of Caterpillar. The Company continues to market, design and
manufacture Solar gas turbines today.
W1
Westinghouse
The contribution of Westinghouse in the development of the industrial gas turbine is really most
remarkable.
Westinghouse was originally based in Pennsylvania, USA and the Westinghouse Combustion Turbine
Systems Division (CTSD) originally located, along with the Steam Turbine Systems Division (STSD) in
Tinicum Township (Delaware County, Pennsylvania), near the Philadelphia International Airport.
Westinghouse innovations included "the first combustion turbine used commercially in the United
States, first use of cooled blades and vanes in an industrial unit, and the World's largest and most
efficient combined cycle plant." The first commercial unit [2000hp W21] was fuelled by natural gas, and
installed in 1949 at the Mississippi River Fuel Corporation and became "the first in the world to operate
for more than 100,000 hours."
In 1943 the first American designed and manufactured jet engine went on test at Westinghouse. They
were the only American company to develop its own aero gas turbine without access to the work done
by Whittle.
In 1945 Westinghouse developed the W21 industrial gas turbine having a 2,000hp (1,500kW) rating. By
1948 Westinghouse had built a 4,000hp (3,000kW) gas turbine locomotive for the Union Railroad using
two W21 engines. When the railway decided scrap the locomotive and to go the diesel route these two
engines were used for gas pipeline pumping and a power plant for peaking power generation.
In 1952 the single shaft W81 was introduced with an output of 5,700kW and 21% thermal efficiency. At
that time a whole fleet of gas turbine designs was investigated.
The W31 rated at 2,200kW was introduced in 1956 and the W121 rated at 9,000kW introduced in 1959.
In the early 1960s the 18,000kW W191 having a PR of 7:1 sold over 182 machines. The W191 evolved to
become the W251 rated at 40,000kW.
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In 1976 the Westinghouse Development Centre had the capability of full-scale testing of compressor,
combustor, turbine, and auxiliary system components over the entire range of operating conditions
(exhaust system designs were developed at reduced scale). It was sized to enable full-scale combustion
testing, which required a large, motor-driven air compressor. It also required a gas-fired heater to
simulate combustor inlet conditions. The lab included a high-bay area to accommodate a full-size gas
turbine, for testing and development purposes, as well other facilities needed to support the staff who
operated the facility. [65]
The Westinghouse 501 series of gas turbines was introduced from 1968-1998. These included:
1968
1973
1976
1982
1995
1992
1998
501A
501B
501D
501D5
501D5A
501F
501G
45,000kW
80,000
95,000
107,000
121,000
186,000
249,000
In 1998 the Westinghouse turbine business was purchased by Siemens, however, the Westinghouse
designs are still being marketed within the Siemens ranges of gas turbines today. Up to 1992
Westinghouse had built some 915 gas turbines of their design including 227 of their Model 501 rated at
159MW.
Siemens 60 Cycle Machines (2004)
Previous Name
New Name
V84.2
W501D5A
V84.3A
W501F
W501G
SGT6-2000E
SGT6-3000E
SGT6-4000F
SGT6-5000F
SGT6-6000G
Table 3
8.
The Japanese Companies
In Japan the first gas turbine power plant was No.1 gas turbine for generator unit installed in 1949 at the
domestic oil company, Maruzen Oil Company. This was a 1,640kW single shaft machine and the
manufacturer was Tokyo Shibaura Turbine Co. predecessor of the Toshiba Corporation.
Around 1950 several turbine companies in Japan started prototype gas turbines and these included:
H1
Hitachi Ltd
I1
IHI Co
M3
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI)
M4
Mitsui Shipbuilding and Engineering Co
T1
Toshiba Corporation
Japan’s gas turbine research was focused on developing a jet engine for aviation applications. In August
1945, Japan’s first flight using a domestic jet engine succeeded. However, when World War II ended, jet
engine research was terminated. Although jet engine research was discontinued, gas turbine research
for land and sea applications continued. In 1949, Japan successfully test operated a 2,000 HP industrial
gas turbine.
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In the first half of the 1950s, many domestic manufacturers started to develop prototype gas turbines
and various gas turbine models were created. This work mainly focused on improving the gas turbine
heat cycle to compensate for the lack of efficiency of compressors and turbines. In 1959, a wholly
domestic gas turbine was accepted for use only in private power plants. From the late 1950s, to the
beginning of the 1960s, domestic gas turbine suppliers partnered with US and European countries to
manufacture simple cycle industrial gas turbines for the market.
In the beginning of the 1960s, the Japanese economy made an extra ordinary improvement. Electrical
appliances became readily available in most standard homes, and, in 1965, the spread of air conditioners
made electricity demand peak in the summer. Since the gas turbine power plant had a short
construction period and was easy to start and shut down, many large, advanced gas turbine power
plants were built as peak-savers. It was a transition period from first generation gas turbines that used a
non-cooling turbine blade to second generation gas turbines that used as forced air cooling turbine blade
(bucket). The high performance and high efficiency gas turbines now operating in the market are
improved and refined versions of the second generation gas turbines.
In 1978, the “Moonlight Project” started and the Engineering Research Association for Advanced Gas
Turbines was formed by 6 national research institutes along with 14 companies striving to develop a 100MW gas turbine that could achieve more than 55% LHV combined cycle efficiency. The combination of
the advanced technologies of each gas turbine manufacturer throughout the 10-year project laid the
foundation of Japan’s unique third generation gas turbines.
In 1980, the combined cycle era began. Its efficiency exceeded that of the conventional power plants
that were most popular at that time and the number of combined cycle power plants increased
tremendously. Eventually large gas turbines began to replace conventional steam turbine power plants
and their efficiency increased in line with the market needs.
In 1990, a fourth generation gas turbine improved performance rapidly with a firing temperature
increased from 1300°C to 1500°C. The improvements were made possible by an increase of material
strength due to the development of super alloys and the adoption of crystal formation control, advanced
turbine blade (bucket) cooling technology, blade coating technology and continuing improvements of
dry low-NOx combustor, which was the world’s first proven premix fuel gas firing technology. In 2007
the world’s highest efficiency combined cycle power plant of 59%LHV was achieved by a domestic
1500°C class gas turbine.
Acknowledgement is given to the Japan Internal Combustion Engine Federation (JICEF) for their
assistance with this section and the Japan National Museum of Nature and Science for permission to
publish the text [57].
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has achieved a great deal in the development of the industrial gas
turbine and has been at the forefront of gas turbine technology. MHI has worked with Westinghouse
Electric since 1923 when it first entered into a licence agreement for electrical equipment. Since 1965
MHI has had a technology exchange (cross licensing) agreement with Westinghouse Corporation for gas
turbine technology and resulting from this agreement is manufacturing the advanced class of gas
turbines. One technical paper published by MHI [45] revealed that up to 2004 it had supplied 429 gas
turbines worldwide with 12 different fuels combinations.
9.
Research Establishments
There were many research establishments, which all played a notable part in the development of the
industrial gas turbine. The following are amongst the more important of these:
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R1
Whetstone Gas Turbine Establishment
This facility was located in Whetstone, Leicestershire and from 1941 became the centre of gas turbine
development activity. This was initially established to meet the needs of Power Jets for a purpose built
factory. It is claimed that this was the World’s first green-field site for the design, research, development
and production of jet engines.
It is in Whetstone that the testing and manufacture of the Whittle engine took place. The work on gas
turbine research sponsored by the British government was carried out at Whetstone until the NGTE was
established at Pyestock. In 1955 after the transfer to Pyestock this became the centre of gas turbine
activity for English Electric and later GEC, then GEC Alsthom.
Gas turbine testing was still being carried out at Whetstone in 2004 when the Royal Navy electric ship
propulsion test facility was in operation. That last facility was in fact the proving of the 40MW gas
turbine-electric motor units to be used in the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers now under
construction in the UK. In August 2004 an official IDGTE technical visit was made to Whetstone, the site
was still occupied by Alstom and electric ship propulsion testing was in progress in a new purpose built
unit. The IDGTE visitors were also able to see the place where the Whittle engines were tested and the
old Whittle test building was still in existence at that time.
R2
UK Fuel Research Station
The UK Department of Scientific and Industrial Research unit was located in East Greenwich, London and
was engaged in the development of the combustion aspects and blade (bucket) fouling in coal-fired gas
turbine plant. [7]
R3
UK National Physical Laboratory
The NPL Teddington, Middlesex was involved in research into the properties and behaviour of metals at
high temperatures. [7]
R4
UK National Gas Turbine Establishment (NGTE)
Pyestock. For more than fifty years the NGTE at Pyestock was the centre of development and testing of
the gas turbine in the United Kingdom. It is claimed that in the first twenty years of its life it was the
largest facility of its type in Europe. The work carried out there included testing of Concorde's Olympus
jet engines and endurance checking of all gas turbines to be installed in the ships of the Royal Navy.
In 1941 Power Jets continued to expand the Whetstone facilities and started engine component
manufacture then in 1946 Power Jets was brought into the civil service and named The National Gas
Turbine Establishment. In 1948, under the leadership of Roxbee Cox, a centralisation plan was
implemented which would create one new site by moving the existing test facilities at Whetstone to
Pyestock on a site north of the existing Pyestock site.
At the same time, in 1951, the UK Government was keen to develop the gas turbine for marine
propulsion and the Admiralty started directly collaborating with NGTE in basic research into many
aspects of gas turbine technology [7].
In 1955 Whetstone ceased to be part of the The National Gas Turbine Establishment and key staff,
equipment and facilities moved to the new Pyestock site. The Whetstone site then became part of
English Electric before being merged into the GEC.
In 1991 NGTE, RAE, ARE, and others became DERA (the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency). It is
believed that gas turbine research work at Pyestock continued until July 2001 when DERA was split and a
public company known as QinetiQ was formed. By then gas turbine research had matured and
computer simulations took over. This resulted in Pyestock being run down and closed.
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Additional historical information on the NGTE is available on a web site put together by Simon Cornwell
[51] together with photographs. Another related article on the NGTE is by Phil Retter [56].
R5
Pametrada
The Parsons Marine Engineering Research and Development Association, Pametrada, was based at
Wallsend-on-Tyne, United Kingdom. This organisation was located by the River Tyne and funded by
Industry. The firms supporting Pametrada by pooling their gas turbine research activity included General
Electric Co (UK), Centrax, Harland & Wolff, Blackburn & General Aircraft Co and the marine engineering
works of the shipbuilders. [32]
The survey of Power Jets of 1951 [7] records that Pametrada had designed and built a 3500 hp gas
turbine for use for ship propulsion and that unit was under test in 1951. It is also recorded that John
Brown built a Pametrada designed gas turbine.
A history of the Wallsend Research Station is written in a book by R.F. Darling [32] and this gives an
enthusiastic account of the research performed at the Parsons Marine Engineering Turbine Research and
Development Association and subsequently at the British Ship Research Association (BSRA).
It was said that in 1945 it was an exciting time to start a marine based career. From the beginning
Pametrada strove and succeeded in keeping Britain technologically in the forefront in maritime related
areas. In July 1952 Pametrada were advertising for staff to work on gas turbine design, testing,
combustion and research [66]. Pametrada merged with the British Ship Research Association (BSRA),
also in Wallsend, in 1962 and this brought together two similar organisations. In 1967 government
funding was being given to BSRA.
R6
Japan
In Japan in 1978 the Engineering Research Association for Advanced Gas Turbines was formed by six
national research institutes along with 14 companies.
10.
A Few Noteworthy Early Installations
There have been many milestone gas turbine projects, all of which have played a notable part in the
development of the industrial gas turbine. Just three have been selected here.
UK1
Ashford Common Pumping Station
The Ashford Common pumping station was built for the Metropolitan Water Board, London between
1952 and 1955. This generating station included three similar 2,500kW gas turbines. There was one
machine from English Electric, one from Metrovick and one from Brush Electrical. Ashford common
pumping station is still in existence at this time although the gas turbines are no longer in service.
A most interesting aspect of this installation is that the three gas turbines and the building are still in
existence today, more that 55 years since it was built.
UK2
RAE(B) Gas Turbine Generating Station
The Gas Turbine Generating Station at the Royal Aircraft Establishment “RAE(B)”, Thurleigh, Bedford in
the United Kingdom. The facility was constructed from 1948 to 1958, and was Government owned. It
was located on two main sites; the Wind Tunnels Site (colloquially known as Twinwoods) and the Airfield
Site (sometimes referred to as Thurleigh Airfield). RAE(B) was conceived after the 2nd World War as the
National Aircraft Establishment (NAE). The NAE was planned to have a 7 mile long runway incorporating
the wartime Airfields of Thurleigh and Little Staughton (this was when it was thought that larger and
faster aircraft would require longer runways); a communications Airfield at Twinwoods (made famous by
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Glen Miller) and a site in between that would house Aircraft factories and Hangars (this site eventually
became the Wind Tunnels Site).
The Wind Tunnels Site had five major wind tunnels including a Low Speed Tunnel, a Transonic Tunnel, a
Hypersonic Tunnel, a Supersonic Tunnel and a Vertical Spinning Tunnel. The Gas Turbine Generating
Station housed two English Electric Gas Turbine units each rated at 20MW 50 Hz. The generators were
capable of being operated at frequencies below 50Hz, therefore the station was very often referred to as
the Variable Frequency Generating Station. It is understood that the only other place such Gas Turbines
were sited was in Canada.
The two at RAE(B) were really something quite special having four shafts laid out in an “H” format each
comprising 2 HP Sets, an LP set and a Turbine Generator Set. Air was drawn in through large banks of
filters into the Low Pressure Compressor driven by a Low Pressure Turbine; air from the LP Compressor
was fed through large ducting and heat exchangers into the inlets of 2 HP Compressors from which some
air was bled through Combustion Chambers (fired with Gas Oil, similar to Diesel Oil) which was then
mixed with the remaining air before entering the 2 HP Turbines (that drove the HP Compressors). The
exhaust from the HP Turbines was fed through further large ducting into 2 LP Turbines one of which
drove the LP Compressor and the other the Generator. Balancing ducts, controlled by valves, would
adjust air/gas flows as required. The exhaust from the LP Turbines was discharged through 4 large
chimneys. The chimneys were designed such that heat recovery units could be installed at a later date,
but never were.
The plant has now been removed however in 2010 the gas turbine building and chimneys were still there
to be seen with “Google Aerial Photographs”. The chimneys can be seen between the Generating
Station and the adjacent Wind Tunnel Plant Building.
Thanks is given to Alstom Rugby, several former members of staff at RAE(B) and the RAE(B) historical
association for their assistance in providing information about this unique gas turbine installation.
UK3
Proteus Generating Plant - West Country
The Oldest Aero Derivative Still in Service. An IDGTE survey of 2003 found that after 44 years of
operation the world’s first aero derivative gas turbine powered industrial power generator had been decommissioned earlier that year. A 2.7 MW Proteus unit was sited at Princetown in the West Country,
commissioned 11th December 1959, was also the first gas turbine to have remote starting and control.
With some of the West Country towns being at the end of relatively small capacity and lengthy grid
transmission lines, the Proteus sets installed at St Mawes, Mevagissy, Porlock, Princetown and Linton
provided emergency supply back-up and stability to the local electricity system. Over the years as
demand increased, the grid systems were enhanced with a new HV lines feeding these towns and with
the introduction of these higher capacity lines the requirement for the Proteus diminished. Ironically
with privatisation of the electricity industry and relatively recent change in trading arrangements, a new
business opportunity arose. The Proteus sets had probably ran for more hours in the last five years than
in the previous twenty-five.
The Princetown engine has now been re-located to the Museum of Internal Fire in North Wales and the
rest scrapped [47]. This leaves the Proteus engine 10004 as the oldest operation unit. Built in Jan 1961,
10004 was sold and installed at the English China Clay site in Cornwall. When this site closed after failure
of the ac generator, the engine was purchased by Magnox to support the gas turbine installations at
Wylfa and Oldbury Nuclear power stations.
Since this report was made in 2003 the Museum of Internal Fire has now re-commissioned the
Princetown engine and a ceremony took place in June 2010 at which time the IMechE has given a this
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engine a heritage award. Additional information is to be found in the paper of the South Western
Electricity Historical Society [47].
List of Industrial Gas Turbine Manufacturers
Code
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
A6
B1
B2
B3
B4
B5
C1
C2
E1
E2
E3
E4
G1
G2
H1
I1
J1
K1
L1
L2
M1
M2
M3
M4
N1
P1
R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
S1
S2
S3
S4
T1
T2
U1
W1
Name of Gas Turbine Manufacturer
Country
W.H. Allen Engineering
Allison Gas Turbine Division
Allis Chalmers
Alsthom / Alstom
Associated Electrical Industries
Austin Motor Company
Bristol Siddeley
British Thomson Houston (BTH)
Brown Boveri / ABB - Baden
Brush Electrical
Budworth Turbines
Centrax Gas Turbines
C A Parsons & Co
Elliott Turbomachinery
English Electric Company/ General Electric Company (GEC) – Heavy Industrial
English Electric Company/ General Electric Company (GEC) – Aero Derivatives
Escher Wyss
General Electric Company (USA) – Heavy Industrial
General Electric Company (USA) – Aero Derivatives
Hitachi
IHI
John Brown & Co/ John Brown Engineering
Kongsberg/ Dresser-Rand
Joseph Lucas (Gas Turbine Equipment)
Leyland Gas Turbines
Metropolitan Vickers (Metrovick)
Mercier (Societe COMET)
Mitsubishi Heavy industries (MHI)
Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding
Nuovo Pignone
Power Jets
Rateau
Rolls-Royce
Rover Company
Ruston & Hornsby (R&H) - Ruston
Russian / Soviet States
Siemens - Schuckert Werke
Solar
Stal-Laval/ ASEA
Sulzer / Brown Boveri Sulzer (BST)
Toshiba Corporation
Turbomeca
United Technologies/ Turbo Power & Marine/ Pratt & Whitney
Westinghouse
UK
USA
USA
France
UK
UK
UK
UK
Switzerland
UK
UK
UK
UK
USA
UK
UK
Switzerland
USA
USA
Japan
Japan
UK
Norway
UK
UK
UK
France
Japan
Japan
Italy
UK
France
UK
UK
UK
Russia
Germany
USA
Sweden
Switzerland
Japan
France
USA
USA
Table 4 Industrial Gas Turbine Manufacturers
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Company Acknowledgements:
The Author thanks the following companies and organisations who have directly contributed to the
research by providing comments and assistance leading to the publication of this history:
Alstom Rugby
Centrax Turbines UK
Gas Turbine World
General Electric USA
IDGTE - The Institution of Diesel and Gas Turbine Engineers
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IMechE - The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (Library)
Japan Internal Combustion Engine Federation
Kongsberg / Dresser-Rand (Norway)
Mott MacDonald
Museum of Internal Fire
Parsons Brinkerhoff
Rolls Royce Heritage Trust (Derby, Coventry, Bristol)
Siemens (Germany, USA, Newcastle and Lincoln)
Solar Turbines USA
South Western Electricity Historical Society
Steamship Rotterdam Foundation
About The Author – A Short Biography
Ronald Hunt is currently Deputy President of IDGTE. He has worked as a
consulting engineer in the field of Power and Energy for more than 30 years and
he currently advises in the field of Thermal Power Generation, CCGT, CHP,
Cogeneration, Boiler Plant, Steam and Gas Turbines. He qualified in engineering
at the Rutherford Advanced College of Technology in Newcastle-upon-Tyne where
he studied Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics and Combustion Engineering. His
professional career commenced at the Willans Turbine Works in Rugby, UK
where he worked as a Steam Turbine Design Engineer working for the General
Electric Company (formerly English Electric Company).
He is also a member of the ISO International Standards Committee for gas turbines and cogeneration
systems. His expertise encompasses basic engineering design, project feasibility, steam and gas turbines,
cycle configuration, economic analysis, specification, project development, technical studies as well as
site and failure investigations. He has a special interest in plant performance including thermodynamics,
fluid mechanics and combustion engineering.
He has held several important project management assignments including the overall responsibility for
the site supervision, commissioning and successful completion of major gas turbine and combined cycle
power plant projects. During his career he has worked and lived overseas for extended periods. The gas
turbine related projects he has been directly involved with include Aluminium Bahrain, Barking Power UK,
Damhead Creek UK, Derwent Cogeneration UK, Dubai Aluminium, Kerawalapitiya Sri Lanka, Paka CCGT
Malaysia, Pinjar Western Australia, Rades CCGT Tunisia, Sines Cogeneration Portugal, Tanjung Priok
CCGT Indonesia and a significant number of gas turbine plants in the Thailand.
Comments are invited on this paper – Contact [email protected]
Last page
Ronald Hunt
- 48 -
Printed: 14/01/2011
Paper 582 Version 2

History of the Industrial Gas Turbine Part 1 The First Fifty Years

Transcription

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