Gas Turbine Handbook : Principles and Practices

The Gas Turbine's Future 285
reduce the quantity of parts handled and relax the requirement for
tight dimensional tolerances between parts. Today manufacturers have
access to advanced design tools such as computational fluid dynamics
(CFD) to optimize compressor and turbine aerodynamic designs and
computer aided drafting and computer aided machining (CADCAM)
software.
The gas turbine still has not found its place in land transportation
use (automobiles and trucks). This application has been stifled in the
past due to high production and maintenance cost. However, a hybrid
electric car application may utilize the microturbine generator as a
range extender. In this capacity it will provide a constant power source
to continuously charge the on-board battery pack.
The gas turbine (turbofan, turbojet, and turboprop) will continue
to be the major player in aircraft applications for the next 100 years.
In the next 10 years, alone, over 76,000 gas turbines—turbojet and
turbofans—will be built 7 . Also, the gas turbine will be used to a greater
extent in marine applications, primarily in military applications but
also in cruise ships and fast-ferries. However, the greatest advances
will be in land based, stationary, power plant applications. It is here
the gas turbine will demonstrate its growth potential, flexibility, and
adaptability.
Future energy growth can be projected from assumptions of
future economic, population, energy supply, and energy price estimated
growth—approximately 2% per annum growth average. The trend
clearly shows energy needs increasing two-fold to seven-fold by the
middle to the end of the 21 st Century.
Considering that America uses 25 % of the world’s energy
consumption today. To supply just the world’s energy demand by 2050,
we’ll need to build at least 4 times the current capacity (10,224.4 million
tons oil equivalent in 2004). 2,8
References
1. New Horizons,” Lee S. Langston, Power & Energy, June 2005
2. GEOHIVE - Global Statistics, web site www.GEOHIVE.com
3. “Electrification Will Enable Sustained Prosperity,” Henry R.
Linden, Illinois Institute of Technology, Power Engineering,
October 1996.
4. Making Biomass Energy A Contender,” George Sterzinger,
Technology Review, October 1995