China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Gas Power Cycles
Published in Kavati Venkateswarlu, Engineering Thermodynamics, 2020
Heat engines operating on gas cycles are of two types: internal combustion and external combustion engines. They may be cyclic or noncyclic. The reciprocating internal combustion engines in which combustion takes place inside the cylinder are noncyclic heat engines. Spark ignition and compression ignition engines belong to this category. Gas turbines are rotary engines in which combustion is either inside (open cycle) or outside (closed cycle) and are termed either internal combustion or external combustion engines. Spark-ignition, compression-ignition, and gas turbine engines operate on gas cycles. In external combustion engines, combustion takes place outside the cylinder as opposed to that of spark ignition and compression ignition engines. External combustion engines present several benefits over the internal combustion engines. Various fuels (even cheaper) can be burned in external combustion engines; complete combustion takes place due to the time available for combustion is more; and in addition to these advantages, since they operate on a closed cycle, the working fluid with best features can be utilized. For example, hydrogen and helium are the two prominent gases that are used in closed-cycle gas turbine plants used in nuclear power plants for the electrical power generation.
Safe, clean, proliferation resistant and cost-effective Thorium-based Molten Salt Reactors for sustainable development
Published in International Journal of Sustainable Energy, 2022
In the 1960s designs, high-temperature heat is inefficiently dumped to lower temperatures to match what the steam cycle could tolerate, which reduces heat exchanger efficiency significantly (Forsberg 2006). Since then, gas Brayton power cycles have been developed by the aircraft industry and also used widely in the utility industry with natural gas as preferred fuel (Forsberg 2006). Therefore, most Generation IV energy conversion systems, including TMSR, are based on the Closed Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) power cycle, that is, the Closed Brayton Cycle (CBC) (Juhasz, Rarick, and Rangarajan 2009), which reduces the inventory of fuel salt in the TMSR by up to 50% (Peterson 2003). Such reduction in fuel salt inventory is highly beneficial for waste, proliferation resistance and safety.