The Westinghouse Combustion Turbine Systems Division (CTSD), part of Westinghouse Electric Corporation's Westinghouse Power Generation group, was originally located, along with the Steam Turbine Division (STD), in a major industrial manufacturing complex, referred to as the South Philadelphia Works, in Lester, Pennsylvania near to the Philadelphia International Airport.
Before first being called "CTSD" in 1978, the Westinghouse industrial and electric utility gas turbine business operation progressed through several other names: Small Steam & Gas Turbine Division (SSGT) in the 1950s through 1971; Gas Turbine Systems Division (GTSD); and Generation Systems Division (GSD) through the mid-late 1970s.
The name CTSD came with the passage of energy legislation by the US government in 1978 which prohibited electric utilities from building new base load power plants that burned natural gas. Some participants in the industry decided to use the name "combustion turbine" in an attempt to gain some separation from the fact that the primary fuel for gas turbines in large power plants is natural gas.
Commonly referred to as a gas turbine, a modern combustion turbine can operate on a variety of gaseous and liquid fuels. The preferred liquid fuel is No. 2 distillate. With proper treatment, crude and residual oil have been used. Fuel gases range from natural gas (essentially methane) to low-heating-value gases such as produced by gasification of coal or heavy liquids, or as by-product gases from blast furnaces. Most gas turbines today are installed with dual- or multi-fuel capability to take advantage of changes in cost and availability of various fuels. Increased capability to burn high-hydrogen-content fuel gas has also been demonstrated, and the ability to operate on 100% hydrogen for zero carbon dioxide emissions is under development.
The story of Westinghouse gas turbine experience lists the many "firsts" achieved during the more than 50 years prior to the sale of the Power Generation Business Unit to Siemens, AG in 1998. As indicated below, the history actually begins with the successful development of the first fully US-designed jet engine during World War II. The first industrial gas turbine installation took place in 1948 with the installation of a 2000 hp W21 at Mississippi River Fuel Corp. gas compression station at Wilmar, Arkansas, USA.
Early history Westinghouse's history in the industrial and electric power steam turbine industry dates back to the late 1800s and early 1900s. The steam turbine manufacturing plant in Lester, PA was built in 1917-1919 and greatly expanding the company's manufacturing capacity.Photo cah.ucf.edu/ "The South Philadelphia Works" become a key part of the original Westinghouse Electric Company's industrial complex, complementing other large factories in East Pittsburgh, PA, and Hamilton, Ontario.
Westinghouse history with gas turbines began in the early 1940s with the contract signed in 1943 with the US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics to develop the first US-designed jet engine]. An outcome of this was the establishment in 1945 of the Aviation Gas Turbine Division, with headquarters in Kansas City, Kansas, until it closed in 1960.
During the late 1940s, Westinghouse began applying its gas turbine technology to industrial land-based prime movers. A summary of the early applications can be found in an ASME paper presented by Westinghouse engineers at the 1994 ASME International Gas Turbine Conference in the Hague. It is entitled "Evolution of Heavy-Duty Power Generation and Industrial Gas Turbines in the United States" and it also provides a summary of the Westinghouse gas turbine technology development through the mid-1990s. The following compilation is based on information in that ASME paper as well as other sources as cited, and upon personal accounts of Westinghouse engineers who had direct experience or close connections to the material presented.
Early Land-Based Applications Westinghouse's experience with land-based gas turbines started as early as 1945 with the development of a 2000 hp (~1500 kW) gas turbine generator set, the W21. It had a thermal efficiency of 18% (LHV). The first application of the W21 in an industrial setting was in 1948 as a gas-compressor drive installed at the Mississippi River Fuel Corp. facility located at Wilmar, Arkansas.Photo cah.ucf.edu Reports have it that this was the first industrial gas turbine in the world to accumulate 100,000 hours of operation before it was retired.
By 1948, Westinghouse also built an experimental 4000 hp gas turbine-driven locomotive with the Baldwin Company (Chester, PA) that used two of these units. Initial operation was on the Union Pacific Railroad burning distillate fuel oil. Later, operation was on the Pittsburgh and Lake Eire Railroad using residual oil fuel.
The vast majority of the early applications of Westinghouse land-based gas turbines were for industrial mechanical drives in the petrochemical industry, both in the US and abroad.
For industrial "total energy" applications, the important factor was that gas turbines, combined with heat recovery boilers, offered a higher power-to-steam ratio than the traditional back-pressure steam turbines used to supply both power and process steam. So, gas turbines were put to use for combined heat and power by the petrochemical industry, working hand-in-hand with companies like Westinghouse, well before the word "cogeneration" entered the modern lingo some 30 years later.
Westinghouse received acknowledgment for its pioneering work in the unique application of a W201 installed at U.S. Steelworks in Chicago (1960). The engine was used to drive a 12,500 scfm fan to blow air into a blast furnace, and the design requirement was to use blast furnace exhaust gas as its fuel. The engine was modified so that all compressor discharge could be removed and fed to an external burner, from which products of combustion were returned to drive the turbine. Typically, blast furnace gas has a heating value of less than 100 Btu/scf, one-tenth of that of natural gas.
Power generation applications In 1952, West Texas Utilities, Stockton, TX, helped pioneer power generation application of gas turbines with the installation of a Westinghouse model W81, rated at 5000 kW. That was followed by a second W81 in 1954 (possibly 1958 based on a second source). Both units were used in continuous (base load) operation and the exhaust heat from the second unit was used to heat feedwater for a steam boiler at the site. In 1959, it was integrated with a fired boiler to form a "combined cycle" (gas and steam) power generating system. Five years later, in 1964, the same utility installed the first pre-engineered combined cycle power plant at its San Angelo, TX, power station. The Westinghouse gas turbine used for that application was a supercharged model W301, nominally rated at 25 MW. The rating on the steam turbine was 85 MW, for an overall combined cycle plant output of about 110 MW, and the thermal efficiency achieved was more than 39%, the record for gas-fired power plants in the US for quite some time.
The W301, the first Westinghouse direct-drive (3600RPM) unit, was the immediate predecessor of the model W501, introduced in 1967/68 with an initial rating of 40 MW (ISO/gas). (Note: some ratings listed in early publications used NEMA site conditions, i.e., 1000 ft elevation and , which reduces power output by 7.5% below that at ISO (sea level, conditions.))
In 1967, Westinghouse supplied a 15 MW W191 pre-packaged gas turbine generator for a pioneering on-site industrial combined heat and power (CHP) or "cogeneration" application. The Southern California Edison Company (SCE) partnered with the Garden State Paper Company (GSP) to install and operate an on-site gas-turbine generator and heat recovery system to supply all the energy needs of a patented de-inking process to produce clean newsprint from used newspapers.
This unique early example of a "total-energy" system provided the operating flexibility, operating economics, site compatibility, and reliability to make it the ideal solution for both partners. SCE supplied both electricity and heat energy while GSP enjoyed the advantage of low cost, reliable on-site energy located at the process plant. The gas turbine generator was electrically tied to the SCE grid, which took the excess power generated. Henry Vogt Co. supplied the fired heat recovery boiler with a standby forced draft fan for backup duty. The plant went commercial in January 1967.
Dow Chemical's early venture into gas turbines
The first five production W501 engines were installed from 1968 to 1971 to supply power and steam at Dow Chemical facilities in Texas and Louisiana. The fact that Dow had previously installed four W301 units at its Texas Division, Freeport, TX, was key to their decision to go ahead with the follow-on orders for the larger W501 units.
In fact, the prototype supercharged W301 installed at Freeport, TX in 1965 was Dow's first venture into gas turbines for on-site power generation, and Westinghouse remained a major supplier of Dow's gas turbines for years to come.
The first W501A installed by Dow Chemical at its Freeport, TX, complex in 1968 was supercharged to enhance performance and available exhaust energy. Small "helper" steam turbine, coupled to generator was used for starting the gas turbine. In early applications, Dow typically used gas turbine exhaust as pre-heated "air" for fully fired boilers. Supercharging fans provided flow to boilers (via bypass duct) in event of gas turbine outage.
Salt Grass Combined Cycle – a major milestone Although not built as a Dow-owned facility on Dow property, the 300 MW Salt Grass Combined Cycle plant, using 4xW501 units (1xW501A, 3xW501AA), was built as a dedicated power supply for Dow's Freeport, TX, expanding operations. The plant was designed, built and owned by Power Systems Engineering (PSE) in 1970-1972. (PSE was later incorporated into DESTEC Energy after being acquired by Dow in 1989. DESTEC later morphed into Dynegy a major independent power generating company.) Unlike most industrial generating plants, there was to be no process steam requirement for the Salt Grass plant; all output from the plant was to be in the form of electric energy. The design objective was to use the largest gas turbines available and, based on prior experience, to use unfired heat recovery boilers for operating simplicity and improved reliability. All steam was used to drive 4 identical 25 MW steam turbines coupled to the gas turbines at the outboard end of the generators (which in turn were mounted on the cold compressor-end of the rotor). The plant comprised four separate single-shaft combined cycle units for maximum operating flexibility. It also included a start-up boiler to enable the steam turbines to be used to start the gas turbines.
Construction of the Salt Grass plant began in January, 1970 and the first GT unit was operational 12 months later, according to a joint PSE/Dow paper presented at the time. Westinghouse records show that he fourth GT was in commercial operation early in 1972, so the entire plant was completed in just over two years.
PSE was founded by two ex-Westinghouse engineers from the Houston field sales office, Tom McMichael (Sales Engineer) and Al Smith (District Manager). As such they both had a unique relationship with Dow and had been instrumental in previous Westinghouse business with Dow. According to a paper co-authored by Al Smith in 1971, the idea for the plant was conceived by PSE and Dow in early 1969. The Salt Grass plant was their first venture after they decided to go out on their own.
The blackout of 1965