The US government has pledged around $5 million to help universities around the country to research and develop advanced gas turbine technologies.

The US government has pledged around $5 million to help universities around the country to research and develop advanced gas turbine technologies.

Ten university projects have been awarded funding from the Department of Energy (DOE) to further their research efforts in areas such as high-temperature materials science and cooling technologies that will enable the development of gas turbines that are more efficient than those currently available on the market.

The ten projects were selected competitively from 33 applications and will split $4 998 319 from the Office of Fossil Energy’s University Turbine Systems Research (UTSR) programme. The projects aim to develop solutions to specific technical challenges and barriers that must be overcome to enable the development of advanced systems that can operate reliably and efficiently when running on natural gas, syn-gas or coal-derived hydrogen.

Five of the selected projects will pursue research and development in combustion to facilitate the development of efficient, robust, reliable, and low emissions combustion systems with expanded high-hydrogen content (HHC) flexibility.

Another five projects will develop efficient and effective cooling techniques along with robust materials in response to increased turbine inlet temperatures and increased operating pressures in an effort to increase gas turbine outputs and efficiencies, while decreasing plant capital costs.