U.S. Department of Energy invests $7Million to develop additive manufacturing and energy efficiency

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Resultado de imagem para us department of energy logoThe first piece of news is The Department of Energy (DoE) of United States of America has awarded a total of $7 million to projects intended to develop

“advanced, highly efficient, turbine-based technologies for coal-derived synthesis gas, coal-derived hydrogen, and natural gas.”

These projects include several featuring additive manufacturing.

Resultado de imagem para sandia national labsThe second piece of news, 3D printing is used by Sandia National Labs, but in this case to advance the production of energy from sustainable sources.

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GE and Siemens receive funding for advanced combustion turbines for combined cycle applications

 

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$7M in funding will be shared by 14 research projects intended to make more efficient use of fossil fuel resources. 3D Printing features in a project looking at advanced combustion turbines. In one award, GE will receive DoE funding of  $499,690 to investigate

“High-Temperature Additive Architectures for 65 Percent Efficiency.”

The project aims to develop advanced turbines with greater efficiency, enabled by additive manufacturing technology.

 

The GE Additive Arcam Spectra at RAPID. Photo by Beau Jackson.
The GE Additive Arcam EBM Spectra H. Photo by Beau Jackson.

The turbine designs focus on hot-gas-path inlet components and the project hopes to realise “novel and innovative component airfoil and end-wall architectures that provide cooling-flow savings while maintaining component durability.”

A second award from the DoE will be used by Siemens Energy valued at $494,394 . This research addresses, “Additive Manufactured Metallic-3D Ox-Ox CMC Integrated Structures for 65 Percent Combined Cycle Efficient Gas Turbine Components.” The funds will be used to develop a metal additively manufactured design and materials for advanced turbine vanes.

Specifically 3D oxide-oxide ceramic matrix composites (3D Ox-Ox CMC) are the focus of the research. If successful, additive manufacturing and the ceramic material are expected to lower the the cooling requirement by eliminating the need for film cooling. According to a press release,

AM-3D OX-OX CMC COMPONENTS IN ALL RELEVANT HOT TURBINE STAGES CAN REDUCE TOTAL COOLING AND LEAKAGE FLOW OF TURBINE COMPONENTS BY AT LEAST 50 PERCENT. THIS REDUCTION TRANSLATES TO AN INCREASE OF APPROXIMATELY 1.5 PERCENT IN COMBINED CYCLE EFFICIENCY.

3D printed nickel supper alloy turbine blades. Photo via: Siemens
 Siemens for 3D printed nickel supper alloy turbine blades. Image via: Siemens.

Sandia National Laboratories 2018 Technology Focus Award for 3D printing enabled wind turbine blades

Turning to renewable sources of energy, Sandia National Laboratories has won an award from the  Federal Laboratory Consortium for the application of 3D printing in production of wind turbine blades. 3D printing was used by Sandia to produce a mold for a wind turbine blade 13 meters (42.6 ft) in length.

3D printed wind turbine blade mold. Photo via Sandia National Laboratories.Sandia was reasonable for the design phase, while Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL) carried out the Additive Manufacturing phase of project. Recently, 3D Printing Industry saw first hand some of the industrial 3D printing equipment used at ORNL, including an impressive Strangpresse extruder.

The Strangpresse industrial extruder, as used by ORNL. Photo by Michael Petch.
The Strangpresse industrial extruder, as used by ORNL. Photo by Michael Petch.

Additive manufacturing system to manufacture the molds the design and production cycle can be significantly shortened. Traditional methods mean that 16 months are required between the design and eventual production of the experimental wind turbine blades. By using Additive manufacturing this time frame can be reduced to only 3 months.The Technology Focus Award winners were announced during the Federal Laboratory Consortium’s annual meeting, taking place in April 2018 in Philadelphia. Sandia received the award for taking a collaborative approach to solving the problem. A separate award for Excellence in Technology Transfer was also presented to the national lab, this was for the development of advanced nanomaterial films.

To read and watch videos about Additive 3D Printers click here.

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Article and featured image:

3D PRINTING INDUSTRY  Michael Petch 3D Printing for power generation boosted by U.S. Department of Energy, GE, Siemens and Sandia May 2nd 2018, 3dprintingindustry.com/news/3d-printing-power-generation-boosted-u-s-department-energy-ge-siemens-sandia-132939/, visited on May 2nd 2018;

SANDIA NATIONAL LABS‘s logo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandia_National_Laboratories visited on May 2nd 2018;

GE‘s logo http://1000logos.net/ge-logo/ visited on May 2nd 2018;

SIEMENS’ logo http://www.brandsoftheworld.com/logo/siemens-4 visited on May 2nd 2018;

US Department of Energy‘s logo https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/us-department-energy-doe-logo visited on May 2nd 2018;

Additive News’ has reedited this 3D Printing Industry’s article.

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