The higher firing temperature reflects the higher efficiency of the gas turbine. However, using higher temperatures is limited as it may cause a rupture, bending, or failure of the turbine blades. Hence, the development of an effective internal cooling system of the gas turbine blade is essential. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure the lowest possible penalty on the thermodynamics performance cycle. To find out the better cooling channel design with high heat transfer while the lowest pressure drop, researchers are working over the years both experimentally and numerically. This study reviews the overall internal cooling, such as using rib turbulators, dimples, jet impingement, pin fins, guide vane, etc. of the gas turbine blade.

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Air compressors, a key fluid power technology, play an important role not only in industrial plants but also in office buildings, hospitals, and other types of facilities. The efficient use of the air compressor is crucial to control unnecessary inefficiencies that cause high energy consumption. This study aims to provide energy and exergy analysis on air compressors for different industries. Detailed case studies are also analyzed. The case study focuses on the energy and exergy analysis of the compressed air system of foundry industries. The results indicate that applying the six improvement recommendations yield significant amounts of energy and cost savings as well as significant improvements in the overall performance of the system. The payback periods for different recommendations are economically feasible and worthwhile to use. The suggested improvement methods can provide high costs with a low payback period.

This study presents an analytical method that can be used to enhance the power production rate and the energy-saving at wastewater treatment plants. The digester used at wastewater treatment plants produce digester gas by anaerobic digestion, with which biofuel production can be achieved. Biofuels can be used to meet some of the energy requirements of the wastewater treatment facility through Combined Heat and Power (CHP) gas engines (co-generation). Using Micro Gas Turbine (MGT), a CHP technology can be introduced in Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs). The combination of MGTs and absorption chillers is a promising technology as it produces electricity, heating, and cooling simultaneously. The study demonstrated how the waste heat of MGTs could be used to drive absorption chillers. In this analytical study, a detailed technical and economic analysis is provided on the tri-generation system, i.e., the integration of MGTs and absorption chillers driven by waste digester gas of the wastewater treatment plants. It can meet the heating and cooling demands of the plants, which promote the reduction of utility costs. The technology presented is also useful for other thermal energy users.

The primary objective of this study is to achieve net-zero-energy (NZE) wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) by utilizing energy efficiency opportunities (EEO's), combined heat and power (CHP) systems, and other renewable energy sources, e.g., solar, water, and wind powers. This study discusses an innovative energy solution for WWTPs in the United States, and one of the WWTPs with a flow capacity of 1.5 million gallons per day (MGD) was selected as a case study. An optimization tool, Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) software, is used in this study to find the best energy system configuration to run the system. An energy audit for one WWTP in early 2020 and the report is used to do this study. The proposed EEO's were able to reduce WWTP energy consumption by about 11%. The excess anaerobic digester gas was utilized in a CHP system to cover about 42% of the facility's consumption. Also, 3% of the utility energy consumption can be claimed by microturbines in the aeration tanks. Another two renewable energy systems, solar photovoltaic (PV) with 29% and water turbines with 15%, contribute to covering 100% of the WWTP energy consumption and achieving an NZE WWTP.