May 2, 2019
BLUER SKIES AHEAD
An industrial dynamo, China now manufactures 20% of the world’s goods by value. But its skyrocketing economic growth has come at a cost — namely, to the country’s skies, which have become choked with smog so thick that in some cities it blocks out the sun, and has been linked to a rise in lung cancer. The Chinese government is seeking to quickly clear the air by mandating, among other things, sharp cuts in nitrogen oxide, or NOx, a pollutant emitted by power plants that burn fossil fuels. In the booming industrial city of Shenzhen, this has presented power producers with a stark choice: lower NOx emissions within a target deadline or suspend operations — or, at worst, shutter the plant.
Survival of the fittest: Enter GE, which recently helped five Shenzhen-area power stations upgrade the combustion systems of their GE 9E gas turbines. The update helps the plants slash their annual NOx emissions by up to 80% — well below the limit set by the Chinese government, and before an October deadline. It consists of smart software that analyzes mountains of data gleaned from the machines to keep them running as efficiently as possible, and “venturi-shaped” hardware that helps keep tabs on the fuel-air mix in the combustor. “It took us less than six months from receiving the request to complete the project,” said Zhaosheng Li, a GE senior manager.
What in the world does “venturi-shaped” mean? Find out here.
FRYERS CLUB
Everyone from Colonel Sanders to the celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten has a reason to thank Winston Shelton, who died last month in Kentucky at the age of 96: With his revolutionary cooking equipment, the prolific inventor changed the restaurant industry in the 20th century. Of course, that’s not to be confused with the part of his career where Shelton, as an employee of GE Home Laundry in Louisville, was responsible for several inventions that gave rise to the modern washing machine. But it was his association with Kentucky Fried Chicken that put the biggest feather in Shelton’s cap.
Colonel of inspiration: In 1965, Shelton launched a side business with his brother to test ideas that wouldn’t fit into his day job at GE. One was a fryer that could consistently turn out great chicken with minimal expertise by the employees tending it. In 1969 he introduced the Collectramatic, a self-filling fryer that helped fuel KFC’s dramatic growth over the next decade. In 1980, Shelton introduced CVap, a kind of oven that uses water vapor to hold food at warm temperatures while retaining its moisture and nutrients — an invention whose fans include famed chef Vongerichten, among many others.
Shelton didn’t just create some of the most influential kitchen technology of the 20th century — he also had a hand in the making of a famous Norman Rockwell painting of KFC founder Colonel Harland Sanders. Click here to find out how, and to learn more about Winston Shelton’s accomplishments.
CALIFORNIA LEADS THE WAY
When states like California set ambitious energy targets, like a carbon-free electricity system by midcentury, they’re not just committing themselves to a green future — they’re committing to a whole lot of work. That’s one takeaway from a forthcoming report released by the Energy Futures Initiative, founded in 2017 by former Energy secretary Ernest Moniz (you remember him — the guy with the great hair). Rapid decarbonization is feasible, EFI finds, but getting there will require “success across economic sectors,” including transportation, industry and agriculture, with “multiple technologies contributing to each.” One central component? Natural gas.
It’s only natural: In top-line findings for policymakers, the report says, “Natural gas generation will continue to play a key role in providing California’s electric grid with operational flexibility and enabling the growth and integration of intermittent renewables.” Intermittent renewables are those sources, like solar and wind, that aren’t always available, whether that’s because it’s a cloudy day or a breezeless one. And as GE has been demonstrating, natural gas has a role to play in the problem of intermittency. For instance, the world’s first hybrid power plant in Los Angeles uses natural-gas-burning turbines called peakers to pick up the slack when Mother Nature stops fueling the renewables.
Click here for an analysis of the report by MIT Technology Review editor James Temple, and here for EFI’s summary of the report (PDF).
— VIDEO OF THE WEEK —
— QUOTE OF THE DAY —
“If there ever was an engineer’s dream, this was it.”
— Winston Shelton, inventor
Quote: GE Reports. Image: Getty Images.
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