TABLE OF CONTENTS "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit."
Aristotle
Although this is not intended to be a chapter on the business economics of gas turbines, it would be unfair to not point out to the reader how intimately financial considerations literally shape a gas turbine's components. A basic explanation of the primary hardware is followed by some detailed design cases, but these first pages provide the economic frame of mind to fully appreciate those cases.
Specification of a gas turbine and gas turbine system that then fits its working role well requires:
Understanding of all hardware components technically and economically (including life cycle usage, spares costs, and repair costs).
Knowledge of case histories that point out potential benefits and pitfalls for one's own application.
The economics of the above two factors and how they form the overall "cost per fired hour" figures for a given application.
In the working lifetime of anyone alive today, gas turbines will be a major and growing player in 80% of the global economy (power generation, process industries, energy, and fuels). They will increase their currently small role in the remaining 20% (domestic sector) of the economy. Factors that currently limit their more widespread use are:
The global abundance of coal.
The global glut of residual fuel that only a handful of gas turbine models can burn successfully.
Other favored forms of power generation such as hydro (in countries rich in this resource such...
