First Impulse Turbine in the U.S. Mining Industry

The United States Bureau of Mines has funded a research project to investigate the improvements made in the operation of mine refrigeration systems when a thermal energy recovery system is incorporated. The project involved the use of an impulse turbine-generator system which extracts energy from the incoming cooling water. The shaft work performed by the turbine not only produces electricity, but reduces the thermal energy gain of the incoming water. The reduction in thermal gain is equivalent to the shaft work extracted by the turbine. The system has been operating for more than nine months and has produced more than 800,000 kW-hr of power.