This Desk-Sized Turbine Can Power More Than 10,000 Homes
Check out this desk-size turbine that could power a small town of about 10,000 homes.
As noted by MIT, The unit is driven by “supercritical carbon dioxide,” which is in a state that at very high pressure and up to 700 °C exists as neither a liquid nor a gas. A revolutionary technology, a small turbine, has the ability to provide enough energy to power a small town. Experts from GE Global Research have unveiled a revolutionary device—a small turnbie—that can produce enough power to provide energy for around 10,000 homes, they claim.
The device is entirely eco-friendly. Powered by entirely green means, the device has been hailed as an unprecedented breakthrough in the search for finding new, revolutionary eco-friendly forms of energy production. Similar—larger-turbines have existed for years.
These traditional devices weigh tons and need steam to function correctly. However, this revolutionary turbine weights around 150 pounds, and runs on carbon dioxide. Using “supercritical carbon dioxide” to fuel a small town As explained by experts, the device channels carbon dioxide into the turbine, where its exposed to high heat and extreme pressure. This causes the carbon dioxide to morph into a physical state, where it acquires a form somewhere between gas and liquid.
The next process sees the turbine transfer half the energy produced by the chemical reaction, turning it into energy.
The Carbon dioxide not used by the machine in the initial phase is moved to be cooled before repeating the process. This allows carbon dioxide to continually circulate within the internal mechanism of the turbine ensuring that there is no waste product to the process. Check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDNADjH6NlY Engineers from GE Global Research explain that the current model of their miniature-sized turbine allows carbon dioxide to produce around 10,000 kilowatts of energy, which they say is enough ‘juice’ to power a small town. As noted by MIT, “Steam-based systems are typically in the mid-40 percent range; the improvement is achieved because of the better heat-transfer properties and reduced need for compression in a system that uses supercritical carbon dioxide compared to one that uses steam.
The GE prototype is 10 megawatts, but the company hopes to scale it to 33 megawatts.” This, of course, is an initial design of the turbine. Further development hopes to see this small turbine become a fully-developed technology that could be scaled up to the pain where it has the ability to produce around 500 megawatts, which, researchers say, could be enough energy to power an entire city.
The best part? It’s eco-friendly and doesn’t produce waste. Our civilization has come to the point where we need to look out for tomorrow. If we are to continue living on Earth, we must research new ways of producing energy in a more sustainable and eco-friendly way. Source: Desk-Size Turbine Could Power a T.
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