Design of a Heating Chamber for Air Turbines: A Method of Optimizing Its Efficiency

Increasing comfort, conveniences and reducing carbon-emission into the atmosphere have been the research focus of many researchers in various field of science. SDGs have one of her goals to be zero carbon emission. In order to achieve this goal, carbon combustion must be eliminated in heat engines. This can be done by developing thermodynamics processes that would not use organic fuel as their working fluid. Following this knowledge, researchers found the use of abundant natural resources such as solar, water, wind, and air known as renewable energies also hydrogen and synergy gases as replacement to carbon combustion. However, due to high first cost of these renewable energies and their low mechanical and overall efficiencies, they failed in some applications.

In order to increase the mechanical efficiency of air turbines, the internal energy of air must be increase. Therefore, this research paper developed a heating chamber for air turbines working on an isobaric expansion process in order to raise the temperature of air to the required temperature for it to roll turbine rotor blades efficiently. The heating compartment is intended to follow the adiabatic compression process of an air compressor section of the air turbine layout. The heating compartment has it heat source to be an electric heater and the compressed air as it heat sink. The thermal and economic efficiency of the heating chamber as a section of air turbine was determine using Levelized Cost Method of Moran.

The heating compartment raised the compressed air temperature to the required hot temperature at a constant pressure.