Next generation industrial gas turbines
Ceramic components offer distinct advantages over their metallic counterparts in high temperature applications, such as industrial gas turbines. The expected gains in efficiency could translate to significant financial and environmental benefits. For this reason, the CERCO project was granted funding to deliver a technically feasible solution. Materials scientists with the Institute for Energy of the EC's Joint Research Centre (JRC), a CERCO partner, investigated the potential of a common ceramic: zirconium dioxide (ZrO2). They employed low temperature Metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) to deposit extremely thin layers of ZrO2 on Nextel 720 multifilament fibre tows. The challenge involved not only developing and refining the MOCVD procedure, but extending it to perform continuous deposition. During the lifetime of CERCO, the JRC's Institute for Energy managed to achieve a coating capacity of several thousand metres of Nextel 720 multifilament fibre tows in a relatively short period of time. The ZrO2-coated materials were then used by the CERCO consortium to construct highly robust components for the new gas turbine.
