EVENDALE, Ohio - GE Transportation announced that an LM6000 aeroderivative gas turbine recently completed the 500-hour power generation phase of endurance testing towards American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) certification. GE is seeking ABS certification to the Steel Vessel and the new Naval Vessel Rules for its LM6000.
GE plans to certify the LM6000 at a power level greater than 36 megawatts based on United States Navy standard day conditions (100oF). The 500-hour mechanical drive portion of testing will follow shortly, with GE on schedule to receive ABS certification in 2006.
The LM6000 being used in the ABS qualification test is a standard production LM6000PC liquid fuel engine, with no modifications required to meet ABS Naval Vessel Rules requirements.
"We recently conducted a borescope inspection of the LM6000 on test, witnessed by the U.S. Navy," said Karl Matson, general manager of GE Transportation's marine business, Evendale, Ohio. "The inspection revealed that all hardware is in excellent condition."
"By obtaining ABS certification, the LM6000 will be ideally suited for a number of the U.S. Navy's next-generation programs that require electric and mechanical drive service, such as the U.S. Navy's DD(X) and LCS programs," Matson added.
The LM6000 is already certified for commercial marine use by Det Norske Veritas (DNV), and is applied in a variety of marine power generation applications.
The LM6000
The LM6000 was introduced in 1990, and has become the most efficient simple cycle gas turbine in its class, with an efficiency of 41.9% at the ISO rating point. More than 590 industrial LM6000 gas turbines have accumulated over 10 million hours in service, with a fleet wide reliability of 99.9%.
The LM6000 has been operating for several years in diverse marine environments. In fact, LM6000s have accumulated more than 300,000 hours on floating, production, storage and off-loading vessels, and aboard commercial power barges and offshore platforms.
GE has gained extensive experience in applying its LM gas turbines in both mechanical and electric drive configurations. For example, LMs are used for military and commercial marine mechanical drive ship propulsion, as well as to drive compressors and gas re-injection pumps in industrial applications.
GE has proven the effective use of its LM gas turbines in marine electric drive applications. For instance, five GE LM2500 and 22 LM2500+ aeroderivative gas turbine-generator sets are slated for use or are successfully operating in electric drive configurations aboard 17 cruise ships.
GE Transportation's marine business is one of the world's leading manufacturers of marine products, including gas turbines (6,000 to 57,300 shaft horsepower), medium speed diesels (1,400 to 4,500 horsepower), and main reduction gearing for marine and diesel-electric industrial applications.