Taurus™ 65 Gas Turbine Product

Abstract

This paper will review the Taurus 65 gas turbine product, the newest member of Solar Turbine’s product line. The Taurus 65 is a 6.3 MW, 32.9% efficient single shaft gas turbine specifically designed for the combined heat and power (CHP) market with low emissions and excellent exhaust heat capacity. It leverages the reliability and durability of the Centaur® and Taurus product technology. The 13-stage compressor includes the Centaur 50 compressor plus two new aft stages. The combustion system adopts Solar’s proven SoLoNOx™ technology and has a guaranteed NOx emission of 15 ppmv (15% O2). The newly designed three-stage turbine incorporates the proven Taurus 70 high efficiency design with advanced cooling and material technologies developed in the Mercury™ 50 turbine engine. Solar developed a new Taurus 65 package system design utilizing 6 Sigma methodologies. The new design incorporates features that allows for quick installation and easy operation and maintenance. A Kaizen service event successfully demonstrated the field maintenance and engine removal on the first package built. The Taurus 65 universal package design will become the standard design for the Centaur 40, Centaur 50 and Taurus 60 products, and will have the same footprint as the current Taurus 60 package. The first Taurus 65 gas turbine started development test during the fourth quarter 2004. The development test results have been excellent. A Taurus 65 gen-set unit will start endurance testing during the third quarter 2005 at Solar’s San Diego facility. The first production unit will be available for shipment in the first quarter 2006. The New Product Introduction (NPI) process, 6 Sigma process, and Kaizen processes were utilized during the product design, development and introduction phases.