Advanced Cooling for IGCC Turbine Blades

Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plants are an attractive alternative to current coal fired technologies. Industrial Gas Turbines (IGT) engine manufacturers seek to produce engines capable of operating at higher temperatures by using closed loop steam cooling in place of compressor discharge air to raise inlet firing temperatures from approximately 1260oC to around 1427oC. This will enable higher combustion efficiency, improved fuel efficiency, and lower emissions. Turbine blade and vane survivability at higher operating temperatures is the key to improving engine performance. Innovative cooling approaches are a critical enabling technology to meet this need. This proposal addresses two important aspects of the problem. First is the need to increase ceramic core manufacturing process capability (quality and reliability) to enable advanced cooling features to be incorporated in future turbines. Second is the need to rapidly and economically produce new turbine blades whereby advanced designs can be empirically tested and optimized. Mikro Systems proposes to apply its patented Tomo Lithographic Molding process (TOMO