MAN Diesel & Turbo has developed in-house and introduced a new generation of gas turbines for industrial applications. The new range adds the 6 – 8 MW output class to its portfolio of industrial gas turbines.
“Besides high reliability in continuous operation, the main focus of this development was to minimise exhaust gas emissions in order to comply with the most stringent environmental requirements in the world,” said Dr. Markus Beukenberg, head of gas turbine development at MAN. A significant reduction in the emissions of nitrogen oxides is brought about by dry low-NOx (DLN) combustion chambers while at the same time the claimed efficiency level of 34% guarantees optimum fuel utilisation with regard to CO2 emissions and operating costs. “This new series also focused on the exhaust gas temperatures of the machines in order to enable optimised steam generation for CHP cogeneration or for process applications,” said Dr. Beukenberg.
The new turbine family will be mainly used as generator drives in energy generation. Further possible applications include driving mechanical components, eg compressors.
A new test stand was built at the Oberhausen works, Germany, specifically for the comprehensive test runs of the prototype, which lasted several months. In addition to the test stand itself, the complete measurement facilities and instrumentation were fundamentally redesigned. Thus the period from ‘first fire’, the initial test run of the completely assembled unit, up to operation under full load took only one week. This fact as well as further detailed tests successfully demonstrated the high load capacity of the turbine.
The turbines are delivered as pre-mounted units on a base frame, complete with oil unit and ancillary units. The prototype was initially designed as a twin-shaft type which will be followed by a single-shaft design and variants with further increased output. A modular design with unsplit casings creates the prerequisites for an efficient and cost-optimised service life.