b'Power & Energy | Engineer InnovationEvery time you plug one of your manyturbine in which chemical energy is devices into a power socket, its easy totransformed by combustion into pretend that the electrical energy thatthermal energy. We explore the use of flows through the wires is somehowhi-fidelity simulation to understand and generated from a clean power sourcemitigate thermo-acoustic oscillations such as wind, hydro, solar or nuclear. that can occur as a consequence of using non-conventional fuel mixtures, This is a complete fantasy. Across theincluding those running completely on world, less than a quarter of electricitysynthetic fuel. comes from renewable sources (wind, hydro, solar and biomass). About aUltimately all thermal (coal, gas, oil or tenth comes from nuclear. More thannuclear) power stations work by two-thirds comes from the combustionconverting that thermal energy into of hydrocarbon fossil fuels (coal, naturalrotational kinetic energy that is used to gas and oil). Every kilowatt-hour ofdrive an electricity-producing generator. electricity that you consume comes atIn our second article, Cooling a Full the cost of a puff of carbon-dioxide thatScale Turbo Generator, we explore will ultimately contribute to human- how Simcenter is helping to increase made climate change.the reliability, efficiency of the electricity generation process, while at Not all hydrocarbons are equally dirtythe same time reducing cost and though. Thankfully oil is almostmaintenance overheads. Clean energy obsolete for large scale powersources must be both dependable and generation (due to the economics of itsaffordable if they are going to replace fluctuating price), and natural gas isthe dirty power sources that currently much cleaner than coal. In comparisonfuel our economy.with a brand-new coal-based power station, a modern natural gas turbineOf course, none of this will really save generates 50 to 60 percent less COperour planet and our species, unless we 2MWh of electricity generated. As wecan address the elephant in the room. transition towards a clean-energyAlthough gas turbines can be deployed future, gas turbines play an essentialto even out the fluctuations in the wind role in providing a buffer between theand solar supply, electricity grids still intermittent green energy sources (solarrequire an always on base capacity and wind) and the always-on base- that is almost entirely provided by aging load sources (mainly nuclear and coal).nuclear power stations, and carbon Gas turbines are what keeps the powerbelching coal fired facilities. Unless we on when the sun isnt shining, and thecan rapidly bring new nuclear capacity wind isnt blowing.online, the climate will continue to suffer the consequences of an over But in the longer term thats not goodreliance on coal. enough. For gas turbines to feature in our zero-carbon future, manufacturersIn our third article, Delivering Next-need to find ways to operate themGeneration Nuclear Reactors we visit robustly using carbon-free syntheticthe worlds first Generation III+ nuclear fuels such as ammonia and hydrogen. power-plant, which has been designed with the aid of a comprehensive In this issue of Engineering Innovation,Simcenter digital twin. And then finally, we examine how Simcenter is beingwe look at how Simcenter is being used used at both ends of the gas turbine tofrom the earliest stages of the design of bring about that transition. The firsta new nuclear reactor in, Driving article, A Clean Energy Future,Digitalization in the Nuclear concentrates on the hot end of the gasIndustry.5'