Advanced Gas Turbine Engine Exhaust Waste Heat Recovery System

Navy ships use of gas turbine engines for both main propulsion and shipboard electrical power generation. With a typical simple cycle gas turbine nearly 65% of the energy consumed is typically lost as waste heat. Safely and efficiently recovering electrical power from this source of energy equal to an amount of power to provide a 20% reduction in fuel consumption is the program goal. Also important is the avoidance of systems that are expensive, maintenance intensive or systems that employ working fluids that could be dangerous if they were to be released inside the closed confines of a ship. To meet these program requirements, Candent Technologies is developing a waste heat recovery system utilizing an air (Brayton) bottoming cycle with the requisite heat exchangers and turbomachinery. This system has the potential to exceed the program goal of 20% fuel savings, as well as remain low cost and safe for the crewmembers. The Phase I program performed thermodynamic analysis, system trade studies and the preliminary design of a waste heat recovery system for the Rolls-Royce 501K17/K34 engine used for auxiliary power on destroyers and cruisers. The Phase II program performs the final design, hardware fabrication and test of a full scale bottoming cycle engine.