Dr. Garth Hobson and Douglas Seivwright (holding Clean Air Leaders Award) in front of Waste Heat Recovery test rig.

Monterey Bay Air Resources District Recognizes Energy Research Efforts

On May 16 of this year, at its annual awards banquet, the Monterey Bay Air Resources District honored the efforts of Dr. Garth V. Hobson and Douglas L. Seivwright with a Clean Air Leaders Award for their work in extracting heat energy from a gas turbine exhaust flow and repurposing it for useful work. Each year, the Monterey Bay Air Resources District recognizes those individuals, organizations, and companies in the Monterey community who demonstrate leadership by their actions in ensuring good air quality. The award received by Garth Hobson and Doug Seivwright was in the category of developing and/or implementing policy and practices in the use of technology that efficiency contributes to decreasing outdoor air pollution.

The work stems from initiatives by the DoN to reduce its fossil fuel use by improving energy efficiency (i.e., reducing wasted energy) and shifting to renewable energy such as biomass, hydropower, geothermal, wind, and solar to meet operational and installation needs. One of the goals set by the DoN has mandated that 50% of the energy consumed by its shore installations and facilities come from renewable energy sources.  

The project, Waste Heat Recovery from Gas Turbine Exhaust, demonstrates the ability of extracting heat energy from the exhaust stream of an engine (between 60–65% of the energy created by the engine is lost to the exhaust) and applying the recovered energy to other requirements. Efforts have been geared toward developing a system that utilizes Carbon Dioxide (CO2) as the working medium in a power cycle which will offer higher thermal efficiencies and power density in power generation than one normally finds in standard steam cycles that are seen, for example, at Moss Landing. This approach has the potential of operating close to 50% efficiency and could aid in reducing emissions as much as 34%. This will aid in fewer natural resources being necessary for generating the same amount of power while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

This project was funded by multiple sponsors, including the Office of Naval Research-sponsored Naval Enterprise Partnership Teaming with Universities for National Excellence (NEPTUNE) program which is managed by the Energy Academic Group at the Naval Postgraduate School.

LEARN MORE

Email Garth Hobson gvhobson@nps.edu or Doug Seivwright dlseivwr@nps.edu.