Brayton Energy - Research and Development in Alternative Energies - Hampton, NH - 603-601-0450

ICRTec wins NREL Outstanding Venture Award

brayton — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:57:22 +0000

ICRTec was selected from over 300 presenting companies for one of two Outstanding Venture Awards at the recent NREL 2011 Clean Energy Venture Awards, sponsored by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. ICRTec is Brayton’s partner in the development of the Next Generation Microturbine, a 350 kWe, a high efficiency intercooled recuperated gas turbine with a ceramic hot section. NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

Full press release details can be found here: NREL News Release NR-5311

Photo (click to enlarge):

The Wilson Solar Cooker

brayton — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 12:44:39 +0000

Brayton has begun assembly and testing of David Gordon Wilson’s Solar Cooker. The following marketing materials outline the device, its purpose, and its goals.

This video was made by Theodora Vardouli, Derek Allen Ham, and Eric Uva, as part of their work
for an entrepreneurship course taught by Professor Fiona Murray, Sloan School, MIT, May 2011.

Brayton and Southwest Solar Technologies demonstrated World’s Second Dish Brayton System

brayton — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:18:57 +0000

Though a few notable projects have tested gas turbines on small solar towers with mirror fields, there have only been two truly Dish-Brayton demonstrations. The first, in 1984, was led by Sanders Associates, using a microturbine designed by Allied Signal (Torrance, CA), a Lajet 460 dish, and a Sanders receiver. On August 30, 2011, Brayton and SST successfully tested the world’s second dish-Brayton. This system employed the SST 320 Sq. meter dish, with a purpose-built gas turbine and receiver designed and built by Brayton Energy. The Dish-Brayton is believed by many engineers to offer substantially better reliability and a long (60,000 hour) maintenance-free life as compared to the Dish-Stirling.

Brayton Wins SBIR Phase-2 to Demonstrate Undersea Compressed Air Storage Sub-Systems

brayton — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:08:51 +0000

The successful Phase-1 created a viable undersea air storage design, focusing the design on early demonstration in Hawaii. With support from the Hawaiian Electric Company, the Brayton UCAES team will be expanding our survey of the Hawaiian Islands looking for the best demonstration site for an 80 MWH pilot plant. On our Phase-2 project, the team will build and demonstrat the critical technology subsystems while developing a financeable plan for the pilot plant.

Brayton Represented at the ASME International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI) Annual Conference

brayton — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 16:05:09 +0000

Jim Kesseli, Chair or the Microturbine and Small Gas Turbine Committee of the IGTI, and Shaun Sullivan, Committee Organizer participated in the well-attended program in Vancouver BC. The conference and committee demonstrated its long commitment to small turbomachinery and heat exchangers (recuperators) with seven sessions and roughly 30 papers by researchers in the field of small turbomachinery.

Brayton Demonstrates Ceramic Turbine and Hot Section Operation

brayton — Mon, 30 May 2011 13:02:11 +0000

Brayton completed the assembly and commission testing of the USA’s first microturbine with an operating ceramic turbine and hot section. In the 1990’s, the Japan Ministry of Industry and Technology sponsored and demonstrated the first ceramic microturbine, a 300 kWe recuperated engine. Brayton’s program expects to build upon the earlier experience to create a cost-effective engine for CHP and vehicular applications. To date, the engine has been tested to a TIT of 1100 C, a level well above that of current metal-based microturbines.

Professor David Gordon Wilson Joins Brayton Team

brayton — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:58:24 +0000

The author of “Design of High Efficiency Turbomachinery and Gas Turbines”, Dr. Wilson is well-known in the industry as a teacher, gas turbine designer, and inventor. Professor Wilson has joined Brayton as a staff consultant to support Brayton’s Next Generation Microturbine initiative. Dr. Wilson (Professor Emeritus at MIT) will be applying his significant expertise to the design of ceramic hot sections and regenerators for gas turbines. The engineering staff at Brayton are excited to have the opportunity to work with one the of the gas turbine industry’s leading researchers.

Brayton and Alanthus Begin Work on 5kWe Hybrid Dish-Brayton for the US Military Portable Power

brayton — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 13:53:00 +0000

Brayton and Alanthus have teamed up to create a fuel-flexible rapid deployment Dish-Brayton package for the US Department of Defense. The mini-turbine will substantially defray or eliminate the need for fuel while the sun is out, and surpass the efficiency of the conventional GPS military diesel engine when no solar power is available. Bear Davis at Brayton will lead the program.

Brayton wins Small Business Innovative Research project to pursue novel compressed energy storage system design

brayton — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:50:06 +0000

The award for ‘Undersea Compressed Air Energy Storage’ enables Brayton researchers to further develop energy storage subsystems which may be combined with our existing 200 kWe multi-fuel CAES turbo-alternators system. Brayton is partnered with the University of New Hampshire Ocean Engineering Department and other utility supporters.

Brayton enters Joint Development Agreement with Google

brayton — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:24:58 +0000

Brayton Energy has signed a JDA and initiated the second phase of our engineering project with Google. The accelerated project is directed at designing and building a solar activated power tower, employing a purpose-built recuperated gas turbine engine in the power range of 1 to 5 MWe. This project utilizes all of Brayton’s experience in gas turbines, recuperators, and the high temperature solar receiver.