The European Micro Gas Turbine Forum is an initiative launched to foster the commercial deployment of micro gas turbines by setting the scenario where all stake holders have a platform to share knowledge and experience, collaborate and discuss a roadmap to move the technology forward.
The main objective of the forum is to make fast progress that would otherwise not be possible under business as usual scenario.
The Forum will be supported on three pillars:
- Advisory Board: comprising high level representatives of leading companies and academic institutions who will help to articulate the overarching aspects of the micro gas turbine roadmap.
- Micro gas turbine roadmap: an ambitious four-year plan starting 2017 and ending 2020 with clearly identified milestones that will be monitored at each meeting of the Forum.
- Annual meeting: will include presentations covering all aspects of the technology including design and performance, integration with application systems, economics, policy-related aspects and intellectual property sharing. In addition, selected papers from submissions on related case studies will be presented. The successful accomplishment of the declared milestones will be evaluated in a dedicated session of each meeting.
Abstracts
An extended abstract is required, maximum of two pages and should include a summary of the case study with illustrations if possible and an explanation of how the case study would fit with the theme of the forum objectives.
The deadline for submitting case studies are as follows:
- 20th October 2017: Deadline for abstracts
- 30th October 2017: Notification of acceptance
- 20th November 2017: Deadline of submission of complete case
- 30th November 2017: Notification of acceptance
Why Micro Gas Turbines?
Gas and steam turbines form the backbone of the power generation system in the world. Whether for the direct (internal) combustion of natural gas and oil or for the indirect (external) firing of coal, biomass and nuclear fuel, this large rotating equipment achieve very high efficiency, environmental friendliness (to the extent possible depending on the fuel) and reliability simultaneously.
At the very low scale, there are certain features of this technology that set it apart from other direct competitors like reciprocating engines: compactness, weight, noise, environmental performance (virtually NOx-free operation), fuel flexibility, high-grade process heat and, very interestingly, adaptability.
Indeed, the ease of integration into different primary energy supply schemes is one of the winning features of micro gas turbines. Their potential has already been demonstrated when operating on conventional fossil fuels but also on landfill and flare gas, concentrated solar energy, external firing of biomass or waste heat from other power systems like high temperature fuel cells.
Unlike other prime movers which cannot adapt to such a diverse portfolio of heat sources (or require large modifications of the main components), all these applications share essentially the same core gas turbine engine with the combustion system being tailored to the characteristics of the primary energy supply.
Background
Out of the experience gained from the project Optimised Microturbine Solar Power generator – OMSOP co-funded by the Framework VII programme of the European Commission (www.omsop.eu), Professor. Sayma (City University of London, UK) and Professor Sánchez (University of Seville, Spain) organised the mini-symposium “The future of micro gas turbines “. The event took place on 26th and 27th of April 2017 and was attended by participants from different micro turbine-related disciplines, over forty professionals affiliated to industry and academia, spanning across areas such as product development (R&D), manufacturing and end-utilisation.
Invited speakers discussed potential applications for enhanced power generation efficiency, synergies with related technologies (turbochargers), industry-academia collaborative framework, intellectual property management and others. At the end of the meeting the following conclusions were collectively drawn:
- There is a niche market for micro gas turbines burning unconventional fuels in distributed power generation. For these applications, small outputs are needed as the fuel availability is often limited.
- There are certain technology gaps that must be filled before these engines can be deployed to the market with the requested specifications (performance and reliability) and cost.
- The micro gas turbine industry lacks cohesiveness as most interested parties work independently and in a sort of legislative limb where the regulations that apply are sometimes unclear. A need was identified for specialised micro turbine community.
The European Micro Gas Turbine Forum is co-organised by University of Seville (USE), an institution with over sixty thousand students and four thousand faculty members working in diverse areas from engineering to social and human science.
In these fields, USE holds a track record of first-class education, research and innovation over the last five centuries which is expected to help build a new industry around micro gas turbines, with the aim to ensure the long term sustainability of energy supply and the environment.
Professor David Sanchez is the lead representative of USE in the forum.
Find out more on the European Micro Gas Turbine Forum website.
Sponsors
- The European Turbine Network (ETN)
- Gold Sponsor - Samad Power
- Silver Sponsor - Dynamic Boosting Systems
- Silver Sponsor - HiETA Technologies
Advisory Board
- Abdulnaser Sayma, City, University of London, Professor of Energy Engineering
- David Sanchez, University of Seville, Professor of Energy Systems and Turbomachinery
- Alberto Traverso, University of Genova, Associate Professor of Energy Systems
- Radu Anghel, Capstone Turbine Corporation, Director Sales Europe, Russia & CIS
- Christer Bjorkqvist, European Turbine Network, Managing Director
- Mohsen Assadi, University of Stavanger, Professor, Faculty of Science and Technology
- Juan Manuel Carrasco Solis, University of Seville, Professor of Electronic Technology, Greenpower Technologies, Co-Founder and Partner
- Keun Ryu, Hanyang University, Republic of Korea, Director, Turbomachinery Laboratory
- Shaun Sullivan, Brayton Energy, R&D Program Manager
- Federico Cernuschi, RSE SpA - Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico, Head of Materials for Energy Research Group
- Vincent McDonell, University of California, Irvine, Adjunct Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering/Associate Director, Advanced Power and Energy Program.