No abstract

The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details.

This paper describes the design and optimization of an ‘air-curtain’ type seal using a fluidic jet to reduce tip leakage losses on a small high-speed single stage axial turbine device. The application will essentially demonstrate proof of concept for turbomachinery applications, opening the door for the development of future designs for applications in all scales of turbomachine. CFD is used to develop and optimize the seal design. The performance benefit from applying the new seal is predicted. These calculations illustrate the importance of accurately accounting for the effects of the sealing jet on shroud shear forces, in addition to leakage flow reduction, when determining the overall gain in turbine output power from the improved sealing. It is planned to validate the new seal design in full-scale turbine tests, during the next phase of the work.

There are around 40 new geothermal power projects commissioned in each of the last few years. Growth of the market is around 5% annually and current installed capacity is about 13,300 MW with about the same in development in 24 countries. These figures are impressive, but they do not bear comparison with any of the fossil fuels. However, few will realise that the global oil industry has a cryptic geothermal power potential that is equal to the entire current output of the geothermal industry. The oil industry is ageing. Many areas still produce copious quantities of oil, but the oil comes with an unwanted by-product, water. The volume of water produced is typically is 10-20 times that of the oil; and the water is hot-in some places very hot (>100°C). In a recent study we showed that the power depleted oil production platforms of the North Sea's North Viking Graben produce sufficient hot water to deliver around 60% of the power requirement for each field. A review of global oil and hence water production has enabled us to calculate that power production alone from waste water from producing oilfields could be at least 15,000 MW.

The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Exploitation of geothermal energy offers a consistent and secure low carbon energy supply. Geothermal energy resources are associated with a variety of geological settings, are available at temperatures ranging from a few tens of degrees to several hundred degrees and may be used for the provision of heat, power or both. Their exploration, assessment and exploitation draws from a wide range of techniques. Improvements in deep drilling and energy conversion technologies mean that many countries could develop geothermal energy systems. There are both economic and technical risks and challenges associated with geothermal energy exploitation, however the potential for geothermal resources to provide low carbon and continuous power, heat or both means they have the potential to be an increasingly important part of the energy mix for many areas of the globe.http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jopae AbstractExploitation of geothermal energy offers a consistent and secure low carbon energy supply. Geothermal energy resources are associated with a variety of geological settings, are available at temperatures ranging from a few tens of degrees to several hundred degrees and may be used for the provision of heat, power or both. Their exploration, assessment and exploitation draws from a wide range of techniques.Improvements in deep drilling and energy conversion technologies mean that many countries could develop geothermal energy systems. There are both economic and technical risks and challenges associated with geothermal energy exploitation, however the potential for geothermal resources to provide low carbon and continuous power, heat or both means they have the potential to be an increasingly important part of the energy mix for many areas of the globe.