Advanced Coal-Fired Turbine Ship Propulsion Systems

A direct coal-fired turbine is a very light engine for powering ships. Weight savings over a diesel engine nearly make up for the added weight associated with fuel bunkering when converting from oil to coal-firing. A method of hot-gas-particulate cleanup based on fragmentation using pulsed CO
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lasers is discussed as a means of providing adequate turbine blade lifetime. Two cases, a cargo ship and large merchant tanker are considered. Present value of fuel savings equates to the value of a coal-fired turbine For a ten-year lifetime, the value of the turbine due to fuel-lost savings is projected to be roughly 48 M$ for the cargo ship and 194 M$ for the tanker.