SAY HI TO THE HYBRID POWER PLANT
When the wind doesn't blow or the sun doesn't shine, wind and solar farms cannot produce electricity. That's why utilities use natural gas turbines to step in and help them generate power when the weather is uncooperative. However, because these turbines can take 10 minutes to ramp up to full power, utilities often leave them on idle, burning fuel.
The solution: the world's first hybrid power plant, which launched in 2017 in Los Angeles and was a topic of keen discussion at the CIGRE power conference last week in Paris. Working with GE Power's Grid Solutions and Power Services businesses, Southern California Edison paired a 10-megawatt GE battery system with GE's LM6000 gas turbine. Engineers made the turbine by modifying a GE jet engine, and it can reach 50 megawatts in about five minutes. The battery takes over instantly whenever the grid needs more juice, giving the gas turbine time to fire up. The battery starts recharging when extra power comes in again.
Read more about the hybrid electric gas turbine here.
PIONEERING ULTRASOUND
GE ultrasound scanners can now help expecting parents see their baby in three dimensions and help doctors with many other things. But some of the company’s expertise in ultrasound imaging stems, oddly, from an Austrian engineer developing a distaste for beer.
In 1947, Paul Kretz left his family's brewing business and launched his own company, Kretztechnik. The firm — nestled in the Alpine village of Zipf, Austria — went on to scan metal with ultrasound to detect flaws and later invented the first commercially available real-time medical ultrasound machine and the first 3D ultrasound. After GE purchased Kretztechnik in 2001, it became the market leader in women's health ultrasounds. GE engineers in Zipf continue to improve ultrasound machines and equip them with many useful features. A doctor in Brazil, for example, is using it to help blind parents experience "seeing" their babies by touching 3D-printed models based on scans. Prenatal surgeons can operate on tiny hearts using 3D renderings of fetal organs.
Read more about ultrasound here.
BIG PLANES, BIG ENGINES
The giant Antonov An-124 freighter nicknamed "Ruslan" from Russian cargo airline Volga-Dnepr can open its nose up to swallow jet engines and sections of spaceships, among other payloads, and fly them to the farthest corners of the world. Now Volga-Dnepr is expanding its fleet with dozens of Boeing jets and plans to power them with GE90-115B engines, the most powerful jet engines in the world, according to Guinness World Records.
In July at the 2018 Farnborough International Airshow, Volga-Dnepr and British sister airline CargoLogic Holding signed a letter of intent to buy 29 Boeing 777 and five 747-8 cargo jets and power them with GE jet engines. Each 777 freighter will carry a pair of GE90-115B jet engines, while each of the 747-8 jets will rely on four GEnx-2B jet engines. This engine order alone is worth $2.5 billion at list price. GEnx engines have become the fastest-selling high-thrust GE engine in history; just in August, Indian airline Vistara selected GEnx-1b engines for 10 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.
Read more about the cargo jets here.
COOLEST THINGS ON EARTH ?
1. Reverse filter
Mechanical engineers at Penn State have designed a "reverse filter" that lets large objects through while excluding small objects. This invention could help keep germs out of wounds while surgeons operate in battlefields.
2. Spinal bridge
Scientists at the University of Minnesota have created a 3D-printed device that could help heal injured spinal cords by forming a “bridge” between living nerve cells on either side of the damage.
3. Shape-shifter
Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have designed a material that can morph into preprogrammed states in response to heat. For instance, a flat sheet of the substance can fold into an origami swan as it cools.
Plus, a new kind of neuron in the human brain in this week's Coolest Things on Earth.
— QUOTE OF THE DAY —
“Entrepreneurship is in our DNA. We look forward to even more industry-first innovations that will change how ultrasound is performed.”
— Roland Rott, general manager of Women’s Health Ultrasound at GE Healthcare
Quote: GE Reports. Image: GE.
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