Micro Gasturbine Integrated Design. Part 1: Thermodynamic Cycle, Combustor, Recuperator and Bearings

In the last years micro gasturbines for cogeneration power plants have been proved to be a promising technical solution for the distributed production of electricity and heat. In order to enhance the machine efficiency and make it competitive with internal combustion engines, it is necessary to improve the efficiency of each component of the GT: in the first part of the paper the focus will be put on the combustor, the recuperator and the bearings. Combustor and bearings are cutting edge technology and for them a brief description of the design procedure has been reported. The recuperator plays a key role in the cycle efficiency, since the reduction of the pinch point temperature difference can strongly enhance the overall efficiency.