SBIR-STTR Award

Wireless High Temperature Sensor for Real Time Monitoring of Power Generation Turbine Engines
Award last edited on: 12/11/2019

Sponsored Program
STTR
Awarding Agency
NSF
Total Award Amount
$1,692,291
Award Phase
2
Solicitation Topic Code
MI
Principal Investigator
Reamonn Soto

Company Information

Sensatek Propulsion Technology Inc

1736 West Paul Dirac Drive Suite 113
Tallahassee, FL 32310
   (850) 321-5993
   N/A
   www.sensatek.com

Research Institution

Florida State University

Phase I

Contract Number: 1745661
Start Date: 1/1/2018    Completed: 9/30/2018
Phase I year
2018
Phase I Amount
$225,000
This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is for the development of a wireless sensor for continuous and real-time measurement of the high temperature in gas turbines. The new sensor offers turbine manufacturers and owners/operators the capability to place small-sized sensors in hard to reach areas in the turbine, and transmit sensed data wirelessly thereby enabling heat loads to be quantified. According to gas turbine engineers interviewed during National Science Foundation I-Corps program, increasing the firing temperature of a turbine by 100°C, due to accurate real-time temperature measurement, will result in 1% increase in efficiency. This translates to additional revenue of $48 million/year for a fleet of 100 turbines. In addition, these sensors can extend useful life by 10,000 - 25,000 hours per turbine due to enhanced maintenance planning, translating to an additional revenue of $76.7 Million ? $192 Million per turbine. In 2009, the United States Environmental Protection Agency established that emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants, leads to negative effects on human health and the environment. The new wireless sensor will help to design more efficient gas turbines and improve operations of existing turbines thereby reducing harmful emissions from power turbines. The intellectual merits of this project include: development of high-temperature sensing technology beyond its current stage; usage of newly developed materials (polymer-derived ceramics -PDC) for sensor applications; advancement of fundamental knowledge of process-property relationship of PDCs; improved sensor design and modeling; better understanding of sensor integration challenges and techniques for advanced sensing in gas turbine environment. The new wireless sensor is made of PDC. Advantages of PDC include high-temperature survivability, excellent oxidation/corrosion resistance, flexible manufacturing, and tunable electrical/mechanical properties. The sensor consists of a novel microstrip patch antenna for reliable wireless transmission of sensor data while keeping the overall volume of the sensor small so as not to distort gas flow profile in the turbine. High gain patch antenna will enable sensor to be interrogated at longer distances outside the turbine. The project objectives are: develop a wireless PDC sensor that can measure over 800°C to demonstrate high-temperature wireless sensing capability; demonstrate high-temperature wireless sensing beyond 50 cm; study sensor system implementation strategy in ultra-high temperature environment of a turbine engine; conduct preliminary investigation into sensor integration into existing turbine prognostic systems.

Phase II

Contract Number: 1853060
Start Date: 3/1/2019    Completed: 2/28/2021
Phase II year
2019
(last award dollars: 2021)
Phase II Amount
$1,467,291

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is that unplanned outages of power generation gas turbines are increasingly occurring which pose a risk of $1.6 billion to gas turbine manufacturers across an average fleet of 500 annually on power services contracts. Using these sensors to measure blade surface temperatures will replace the significant cost of unplanned outages, by revealing when combustors are over firing to enable operators to take corrective measures. According to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, power generation gas turbines accounted for 1.3 million tons of NOx and SOx emissions. NOx emissions are increased due to erroneous combustor firing. This project would also lead to acceleration of adoption for developmental engines owing to reduced cost and labor requirements associated with measurement instrumentation installation. Also, this can be used in monitoring harsh environment parameters in remotely inaccessible locations, while providing insight to control systems increasing the efficiency of systems in nuclear reactors and chemical processing plants. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop a polymer-derived ceramics (PDC) sensor system for gas turbine engine's blade surface temperature measurement. Currently, no sensors exist that can survive these harsh environments in-situ. This innovation combines unique, wireless, passive, corrosion-resistant PDC-based resonators bonded directly on the blade surface along with high temperature PDC-based antenna for operating in harsh environments. The research objectives are to miniaturize & optimize the sensor utilizing different PDCs; fabrication & validation of high temperature antenna; characterization of PDC material properties, microstructural changes, degradation of sensing performance, bonding mechanism evaluation after long term exposure to high temperatures (~1000C) in a furnace & burner rig. The prototype, including integrated multiple sensors, high temperature antenna & user data interface, will be operated on a rotating micro-turbine to demonstrate performance in actual operating environments. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.