# Anyone made an electric gas turbine?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-made-an-electric-gas-turbine/639205>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 29, 2012, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-made-an-electric-gas-turbine/639205 "2012-10-29T13:38:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 6

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**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-made-an-electric-gas-turbine/639205/6 "2012-10-29T15:49:12Z")

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> [@jz78817](#):
>
> if the energy addition to the system was strictly from the heater element(s,) it would be impossible to get any more energy out of the turbine than you put in to the heaters.

Well, yes, that much is obvious, but…

> [@](#):
>
> You would be fighting a losing battle trying to keep the heaters hot while the compressor is blowing air over them.

…this will depend entirely on how much electrical power is being dumped into the heaters, and whether the turbine can extract enough power to keep the compressor going. Not clear whether this is impossible with existing materials.

> [@](#):
>
> further, I don’t think simply heating air will get you any useful expansion. The big thing about burning chemical fuels is not just the heat the reaction produces, but the massive increase in gas volume from the combustion of the fuel.

I gather you’re talking about the increase in gas volume as a result of the additional mass of combustion products, namely CO2[sub]2[/sub] and H[sub]2[/sub]O, which would not be present in an electrically-powered gas turbine engine. Interesting point, and it makes me wonder about how big a factor this is in combustion-driven gas turbine engines. I was under the impression that gas turbine engines typically operate with a lot of excess air; not referring to high-bypass turbofan aircraft engines, but rather to simple/basic gas turbine engines moving far more air through the combustion chamber than is strictly needed to support combustion. If that’s the case, then the ratio of exhaust mass flow rate to intake air flow rate might be fairly close to 1:1.

I’m curious to hear from someone who works on jet engines and knows real world values for air flow rates and fuel flow rates.

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