An assessment of the future of closed-cycle gas turbines

The closed-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) has not reached the worldwide level of success that was expected inspite of the strongly desirable features of this concept and the success of several large closed-cycle power plants operating in Western Europe today. However, an assessment of the CCGT's future has recently been made at the Institute of Gas Technology (IGT), and IGT has shown that due to innovative developments in technologies relevant to the development of CCGT's, coupled with worldwide changes in some economic factors, the CCGT could become a successful competitor of other externally fired power plants and also of internal combustion engines, especially in sizes ranging from 200 to 5000 kW. Documentation of data recently published in the technical literature and some recent relevant developments at IGT in the area of combustion, show a promising future for the cost. 13 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab.