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Power station steel research could cut electricity bills
January 24, 2003Pioneering materials research could ensure that consumers' electricity bills stay as low as possible in the future.
The work is contributing to the development of steels that enable power to be generated with maximum efficiency - a key factor in minimising the cost of the electricity produced.
The research is taking place at Loughborough University with funding from the Swindon based Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the power industry.
Modern power stations generate electricity using steam-powered turbines. To achieve maximum efficiency, steam temperatures need to be kept as high as possible for as long as possible. This means that pipe work and other steam-carrying channels could be required to operate at temperatures of up to 6500C for up to 40 years. However at the moment it is impossible to check what happens to these steels after 40-50 years because most of the advanced steels now used in power stations have only been in service for up to 20 years. This also makes the development of better steels difficult.
The project at Loughborough has therefore devised mathematical models that show how power station steels behave at the nanoparticle level. The small changes that take place at this scale determine the strength of the steel. (One nanometre is one thousand millionth of a metre.) Therefore the models provide the only way in which designers of electricity generating plants can forecast the behaviour of different steels on this timescale.
The initiative involves studying the microstructure of steels after long-term exposure at various temperatures and using this information to verify the models' accuracy. The models can then be used to predict how a steel's properties could be changed using heat treatment or other techniques.
The project team at the University's Institute of Polymer Technology and Materials Engineering is led by Professor Roy Faulkner, who says: "Our work could have tangible benefits, in terms of improving power station operation and keeping down the price of the electricity we all use in so many aspects of our lives".
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
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