Using Steam Turbines to achieve genuine sustainability

Boris Johnson said at COP 26 that steam turbines were ‘Doomsday machines’. Wrong!

They currently generate 85% of the world’s electricity and will do for the foreseeable future.

Ian will give an introduction to how steam turbines work, relationship to the steam Rankine Cycle, how steam turbines can be optimised to maximise whole-system cycle efficiency, particularly by utilising the heat energy which is generated at the same time as the power.Using steam cycles sustainably could help achieve the UK’s 2050 energy and environment targets, which current policies and technologies are unlikely to reach.

Ian Arbon is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer, a Registered European Engineer and a Chartered Environmentalist, with an MSc in ‘Renewable Energy and the Environment’ and an MBA. This year marks his 50 years of experience in the renewable energy sector (originally using steam turbine technology) and he is past MD of several engineering-sector manufacturing companies, including Peter Brotherhood Ltd, the UK’s last remaining steam turbine manufacturer. He now runs Engineered Solutions, a Sustainable Engineering and Management consultancy. He was also the Lead Author of IMechE’s 2009 and 2020 ground-breaking Reports on ‘The Energy Hierarchy’.