The Automotive CGT (Ceramic Gas Turbine) Engine, a Japanese national project involving industry and government, has recently been awarded the Technology Prize by the Gas Turbine Society of Japan. Mitsubishi Motors Corporation has played a major role the project, being responsible for development of principal engine components and engine performance testing.

The prize was presented after the Society's 23rd Regular General Meeting held at the Machinery Promotion Association Building on 17 April. Mr Niwa, managing director of the Petroleum Energy Center, received the prize on behalf of the project.

The Gas Turbine Society of Japan's Technology Prize is awarded to new technologies used in revolutionary gas turbine and supercharger products and completed during the designated period * in this case, between November 1993 and October 1997. Inaugurated in 1982, this is the ninth time the prize has been awarded.

Development of automotive CGT

The gas turbine engine (metallic and employing air to cool high-temperature parts) is currently used as a power source in aircraft and electricity generators, and is characterized by its high power outputs, low emission levels and its ability to burn a variety of fuels. In small gas turbines, however, air cooling is not feasible and so combustion gas temperatures are restricted to the 1,000-degree centigrade level. This results in fuel consumption that is inferior to that of a comparable class of gasoline or diesel engine and has, to date, made the gas turbine engine unsuitable for use as an automobile power source.

The Automobile CGT project has as its objective the development of a revolutionary low-pollution and low consumption ceramic gas turbine as a new type of automotive power source. In the seven years from 1990 to 1996, the project has seen the participation of manufacturers from the oil, ceramics and automobile industries, coordinated by the Petroleum Energy Center.

Mitsubishi Motors and Toyota have worked with the Japan Automobile Research Institute (JARI) on the engine development. Mitsubishi Motors responsibilities extend to the development of the ceramic turbine, heat exchanger and the high-speed axle system and reduction gear and to engine performance testing. The results of the development work have been verified at Mitsubishi Motors test facilities (see end of the news ).

The prize-winning technology enhances the strong points of the conventional (metallic) gas turbine to realize diesel-matching thermal efficiency by increasing turbine rotor inlet temperatures to 1,350 degrees centigrade. This has been achieved through the use of ceramic materials, with their superior thermal characteristics, in the turbine blades, nozzles and other high-temperature components.

Unparalleled in a ceramic turbine project anywhere in the world, this achievement has been highly applauded both in Japan and overseas and now brings the prospect of an automobile CGT developed in Japan much closer.

With its low consumption (less carbon dioxide) and low emission characteristics, the ceramic gas turbine shows much promise as a generator engine in a hybrid vehicle or as a compact engine in a co-generation unit.