Reliability and efficiency are hot issues for manufacturers of microturbines, and companies like United Technologies, Ingersoll-Rand and General Electric look to ORNL for answers to some of their problems. Microturbines, which typically burn natural gas and can supply from 30 kilowatts to 500 kilowatts of electricity, operate most efficiently at temperatures approaching 1,200 degrees Celsius. Unfortunately, metallic components such as rotors have difficulty surviving in that environment, so the challenge is to develop ceramic rotors, which tolerate heat well, able to turn at speeds greater than 80,000 revolutions per minute and last 11,000 hours. Matt Ferber and Hua-Tay Lin of the lab?s Metals and Ceramics Division take a unique approach to the problem as they examine actual microturbine ceramic components after they have been in use for hundreds of hours. It?s the best way to see exactly what has happened ? or what is happening ? to the components. Microturbines can be used to provide electricity in remote locations or to supplement or replace electricity purchased from utilities.
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