Turbines have been the world's energy workhorses for generations, harkening back to primitive devices such as waterwheels (2,000 years ago) and windmills (over 1,000 years old). Today, turbines not only power aircraft and vehicles of all sorts, they are the heart of almost all of the world's electric generating systems.

As the Nation scrutinizes its energy choices, the need persists to remove environmental concerns over the use of fossil fuel resources, while at the same time promote delivery of reliable, affordable, diverse, and environmentally sound energy.

These advanced turbines will enable power producers to switch to coal-derived syngas or coal-derived hydrogen as the primary fuels, while at the same time allowing the capture of CO₂ that results from energy production. In short, advanced turbines are needed to provide secure U.S. electric power production that is clean, efficient, affordable, and adaptable to CO₂ capture. NETL's Turbine research is at the forefront of attaining these goals, which will enable the continued use of coal our Nation's most abundant fossil energy resource.

NETL's in-house Turbine R&D group uses unique facilities to evaluate new concepts in combustion, advanced sensors, and turbine materials. In particular, NETL is evaluating new approaches to combustion and combustion control that may be used to operate hydrogen combustors with very low NOx emissions. New concepts for thermal barrier coatings, coupled to advanced substrates are being jointly explored with academic research groups.