Turbine trucks...

[BrendAn]

i remember a gas turbine backup generator on a minesite, somewhere in the goldfields. they had to make a tunnel of scrub in front of it with sprinklers , like a coolgardie safe.

apparently it would not work properly with 45 deg heat going into the intake.

[Geoff_H]

31 minutes ago, facthunter said:

Theres a lot of high temp exhaust with Turbines . They are ALL Carnot Cycle and the efficiency is a result of high  Combustion Temps  and PRESSURES. I've NEVER seen any  what you would  call HIGH pressures in an aircraft jet engine and you only get  IT at near PEAK REVS. Highest I've seen is an EPR of about 2.3.  That's AXIAL flow . Multiple  Stage, centrifugal ones could go higher but I know of NO examples. Turbines operated at Low Power and altitude have abysmal efficiency and non fan Turbines are a thing of the Past, in  aircraft. Also like Many Turbo chargers they can quickly ruin your Hearing. Some LARGE  Jet Aircraft engines HAVE been used in the ME  to generate  electricity but they sit on Lakes of OIL. They can be fired up and at  full Power within Minutes.  Pistons still  remain the Most efficient Dinasaur  derived Power Plant but their reliability Borders on Unacceptable  some times..  Nev

The smaller mines use 5MW diesel generators.  But most large mines use GTs.  Usually S&L GE aircraft derived 50/60MW with gearboxes to generators. A few Trent 70's exist and there redesigned to stationary generation rather poor (Rolls Royce aircraft derived).  But most new installations are purposely generation designed GT'S of 100MW and combined cycle with steam turbines using Heat recovery (GT exhaust) steam generators and steam turbines 60%+ efficiency.   GE have a steam cooled first stage turbine design that is rumoured to have 60% efficiency.  Aircraft derived engines are not favoured for power generation as gearboxes above 60MW don't seem to exist.  Power generation GTs run at 3000/3600RPM. However the GT that I worked on had Pratt and Whitney aircraft designed blades made under licence.  Power Generation GTs of 400MW are now reasonably common.