INDUSTRY NEWS

Capstone C1000 order

Capstone Turbine Corporation has received an order for the first C1000 microturbine system from an oil & gas producer in Southern California. The C1000 Power Package, a megawatt microturbine power system, can be configured into smaller 800 KW and 600 KW solutions — all within a single ISO-type container. Models are available that operate on natural gas, propane, landfill gas, digester gas, diesel, aviation and kerosene fuels.

Rather than flare the waste gas, a byproduct from the drilling process, the C1000 will use the associated gas as fuel to generate low-emission electricity onsite to power the plant’s pumps and infrastructure systems. The microturbine exhaust will heat water for the free-water knockout process— or three-phase separator process—to separate gas, oil and water.

Toshiba steam turbine

Toshiba Corp. has won a contract from Tri- State Generation and Transmission Association of Colorado, and Sunflower Electric Power Corporation of Kansas, to supply a 971 MW supercritical steam turbine and generator for theHolcombThermal Power Plant in Kansas. The supply of equipment is scheduled for July 2014, and plant operation is expected to start in 2017. Toshiba has supplied over 90 steam turbine generators for North American thermal power.

Siemens steam turbine

Siemens will deliver a steam turbine generator for a waste-to-energy plant in Plymouth, England, that is equipped with combined power and heat generation. The customer is the general contractor for the Water-Steam- Cycle — Imtech Deutschland GmbH. The 25 MW plant with a maximum process steam extraction of up to 30 m.t. per hour is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2012, with commissioning scheduled for 2014. Siemens is responsible for the delivery, installation, and commissioning of the SST-400 steam turbine, including gearboxes and oil system as well as the electrical generator and auxiliary systems.

MAN acquires bearing firm

Man Diesel & Turbo has completed the acquisition of Swiss-basedmagnetic bearing specialist Mecos Traxler. The deal followed several years of joint research and development and a first successful compressor train installation with Mecos’ magnetic bearing technology. Mecos offers magnetic bearings for compressors, turbines and other high-speed rotating machinery.

U.S. LNG prices could rise

A new study using the GPCM natural gas market forecasting system of RBAC, Inc. of Los Angeles predicts that if the U.S. becomes an exporter of LNG, prices could rise by more than $1.00. This will not occur until the 2018 timeframe as itwill takemany years for sufficient LNG export infrastructure to be constructed.

“A 6 bcf/day LNG export market could raise the price of gas at Henry Hub by more than $1.00 by 2018,” said Robert Brooks of RBAC. “Given that the industry is de-gearing away from natural gas due to low prices, it is unreasonable to expect it to increase production by more than 5 bcf/day between 2016 and 2018without a substantial increase in price.”

Turkish combined cycle

GE has secured contracts to supply equipment and services for a gas-fired power plant in the Erzin district of southern Turkey. Owned and operated by Akenerji, the Egemer ElektrikUretimcombined-cycle gas turbine power plant will generate 900 MW. The plant will add an incremental 1.6 % to Turkey’s installed generation capacity of 53 GW. For this plant, GE will supply two Frame 9FBs and three generators as well as signing a 12-year service agreement. It is scheduled for commercial operation in the third quarter of 2014.

Gasification in China

GE has signed a contract to provide gasification technology to China. One project will use 14,900-cubic-feet gasifiers with an operating pressure of 65 bar. These units will be installed at a coal chemical plant in Yulin, Shaanxi Province. Once completed in 2015, the facility is expected to process enough coal to produce about 25 million normal cubic meters of syngas per day, which will be used to make approximately 3.6 million tons of methanol per year making it the world’s largest single-phase coalto- chemical gasification project.

Voith Turbo promotion

Matthias Grawe has taken the helm of the Industry Business Division at Voith Turbo. The graduate engineer has been working for Voith Turbo for ten years, most recently as head of the Product Group Variable- Speed Drives at Crailsheim.

World’s smallest gas turbine Japan’s IHI Corp. has developed the world’s smallest and lightest gas turbine generator and plans to bring it to market by 2015. The generator weighing 1.2 kg with dimensions of 8 cm in diameter and 12 cm in length can offer a maximum output of 400 watts using propane, kerosene or light oil for the fuel, and can run continuously for three hours.

When packaged with all parts, including a silencer and cooling fan, it is as small as a suitcase: 42 cm in length, 58 cm in width, 20 cm in height and 13 kg in weight. It can be started and shut down with a single button and requires about 30 seconds until attaining an output of 200 watts and two and a halfminutes for a complete slowdown. The anticipated price tag is 2 million yen ($25,332).

530 MW of energy storage

A number of policy initiatives are underway that will impact the energy storagemarket in the U.S.—some directly and some indirectly. A notable initiative that has had a strong impact in the past year, and whose efforts will likely continue to make an impact in coming years, is the provision of matching funds by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to support energy storage projects.

According to a 2011 report by the Electricity Advisory Committee on energy storage activities in the U.S., the funds provided by the federal government totaled almost $185 million and supported projects valued roughly at $772 million in total. Associated with these projects was approximately 537MWof storage capacity, including storage for ancillary services (20 MW), distributed storage (7.5 MW), CAES (450 MW), and storage associatedwith renewable power (57MW).

Sulzer’s pump acquisition

Sulzer Pumps has acquired pump company Hidrotecar S.A. of Spain. This adds complementary products to its product range and reinforces its presence in water markets in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Sulzer Pumps develops and supplies centrifugal pumps worldwide.

Cryogenic LNG pump order

Atlas Copco Gas and Process has received an order of approximately $10 million from UTE TS LNG Dunkerque of Milan, Italy and Madrid, Spain. The order is for cryogenic Submerged Motor Pumps (SMP) to be installed at the Dunkerque, (France) LNG Terminal. The 13 low-pressure and 10 high-pressure third generation cryogenic SMP pumps are scheduled for delivery in Q2/2013. The new Dunkerque plant is said to be the largest plant of its type ever built in one phase. The massive LNG terminal will convert LNG to 13 BCMA (Billion Cubic Meters perAnnum) of natural gas.

Ohio turbines

Akron’s FirstEnergy Corp. has proposed adding 800MWof peaking generation at its Eastlake Plant in Lake County. Four new combustion turbines are needed to assure sufficient electric power in the East Coast- Midwest region as FirstEnergy prepares to close nine of its old coal-fired power plants, the company said. It is anticipated the new turbines would be in service by spring 2015, if the project moves forward.

Wood Group GTS contract

Wood Group GTS has received a five-year contract extension from Sacramento Power Authority (SPA) for the operation and maintenance (O&M) of its SPA CoGen III facility in Sacramento, California, bringing the total contract term to 10 years. SPA is a Joint Powers Authority formed by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) and the SMUD Financing Authority. The 160 MW SPA CoGen III project consists of a SiemensV84.2 gas turbine operating in cogeneration cycle, providing power and steam to the Campbell Soup facility adjacent to the power plant. Under this agreementWood Group GTS is responsible for care and custody of the plant, including daily operations and routine maintenance.

High-pressure marine gas

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has developed Japan’s first system for supplying high-pressure gas that will enable use of natural gas as fuel for marine engines. The company agreed with Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (MES) for delivery of the first unit. The use of LNG as fuel achievable with the new system will enable reduction of carbon dioxide emissions compared with use of heavy oil fuel. The system delivers LNG at 30 megapascals (MPa) gas by liquid pumping. It consists mainly of a unit to transfer LNG at high pressure according to fluctuations in the demand of the engine, a hydraulic unit as the power source, a unit to produce a compressed natural gas (CNG) by heating LNG to normal temperature, a CNG bottle unit to buffer the CNG pressure variation and gas combustion unit to safely dispose of low pressure off-gas and to use its exhaust as a heat source.

Rolls-Royce Trent XWB

The Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engine has taken to the skies for the first time, powering an Airbus A380 test aircraft in Toulouse, France. The aircraft flew with one of its four Trent 900 engines replaced by a Trent XWB. The Trent XWB is said to be the most efficient civil aircraft engine on offer in the world and will power the new Airbus A350 XWB. According to Rolls-Royce, the Trent XWB is the fastest-selling Trent engine ever, with more than 1,100 sold.

Kawasaki cogen

The Bridgewater Correctional Complex (BCC) recently completed the installation of a Gas Turbine Cogeneration System that helped to increase the overall energy efficiency of the facility while reducing emissions. For its efforts, this 785,000 square foot Massachusetts facility was awarded an EPA Energy Star CHP award. The CHP system employs a nominally rated 1.4 MWe (at ISO) Kawasaki GPB15X which generates nearly 80% of the facilities annual electricity demand. Equipped with Kawasaki K-Lean combustors, it meets NOx emission requirements without the need for add-on pollution controls.

Offshore wind boost

The U.S. Department of Energy recently unveiled a six-year, $180 million initiative for the development of offshore wind energy. An initial $20million will be available in 2012 as the first step in supporting up to four innovative offshore wind energy installations. According to DOE, offshore wind has 4,000GWormore in potential power generation in the U.S.

To support these new demonstration projects, the Energy Department will make available up to $180 million over six years, subject to congressional appropriations. DOE will focus this latest research and demonstration initiative on innovative technologies that will achieve large cost reductions over existing offshore wind technologies.