Environmental Protection Coating System for Refractory Metal Alloys (EPCS for RMAs)

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Program:
ULTIMATE
Award:
$699,956
Location:
East Hartford, Connecticut
Status:
ALUMNI
Project Term:
04/22/2021 - 04/21/2023
Website:

Technology Description:

The drive for higher fuel efficiency and higher core power of gas turbines used in electric power generation and aircraft propulsion requires higher peak operation temperatures in the hottest sections. Current state-of-the-art refractory metal alloys (RMAs), although highly resistant to heat and wear, tend to oxidize in the gas turbine environment. Raytheon Technologies Research Center aims to develop an environmental protection coating system (EPCS) for RMAs to radically improve long-term protection in the harsh gas turbine environment via four major technical innovations: (1) a multi-layer self-healing environmental barrier coating (EBC) that protects against the combustion gas environment, (2) an oxidation resistant diffusion barrier on the alloy surface to enhance coating stability, (3) synergistic integration of the EBC with the diffusion barrier to extend coating life, and (4) physics-based modeling to accelerate coating development and optimization.

Potential Impact:

Combining development of new ultrahigh temperature materials with compatible coatings and manufacturing technologies has the potential to increase gas turbine efficiency up to 7%, which will significantly reduce wasted energy and carbon emissions.

Security:

Coal-fired and nuclear-powered plant electricity generation is uneconomical, unsafe, outdated, and/or contributes to significant CO2 emissions. Increasing gas turbine efficiency is critical to ensuring that plants can effectively deploy their capacity to the grid, increasing energy security.

Environment:

Improving gas turbine efficiency can significantly reduce carbon emissions from air travel, which represents 2% of all global carbon emissions.

Economy:

By 2050, a 7% efficiency improvement in the natural gas turbines used for U.S. electricity generation could save up to 15-16 quads of energy; in civilian aircraft turbines, 3-4 quads of energy could be saved for U.S. air travel.

Contact

ARPA-E Program Director:
Dr. Philseok Kim
Project Contact:
Dr. Xia Tang
Press and General Inquiries Email:
ARPA-E-Comms@hq.doe.gov
Project Contact Email:
xia.tang@rtx.com

Partners

University of Wisconsin

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Release Date:
04/21/2020