A Microturbine in the Basement

Associate Mechanical Engineering Professor Harsha Chelliah has a vision of an energy-efficient building whose electricity is generated by an individual microturbine. The turbine would be fueled by syngas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide that could ultimately be produced from sewage or municipal waste. To make this system even more efficient, he would capture the waste heat from the turbine for heating and cooling purposes. With assistance from Andrew Voegele (Aero '08), he is taking the first steps toward reaching this goal, modifying a Capstone C30 microturbine to burn syngas.

“We are starting by using natural gas, a fuel that's typically used with microturbines, and making a series of measurements,” Voegele explains. “We will then use thermodynamic modeling software to predict the optimal mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide in syngas, which when combined with methane provides similar volumetric flow rates and heating values.” Voegele has also learned to use a computational fluid dynamics software package that will enable him to forecast the stability of the syngas combustion.

Voegele first encountered Chelliah in a thermodynamics class and got his start doing research by simply asking him if he had any projects available. “This is a great opportunity for me,” Voegele says. “I really like the modeling process, and I'd like to pursue working with modeling in the future.”