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Kawasaki Announces Gas Turbine Retrofit in CA

October 06, 2002 by Jeff Shepard

Kawasaki Gas Turbines-Americas, a division of Kawasaki Motors Corp. USA (Grand Rapids, MI), announced that it has been selected by Sonoma Developmental Center (Eldridge, CA) to retrofit an M1A-13D Kawasaki gas turbine with Catalytica's Xonon Cool Combustion™ system. The retrofit will enable the 1.4MW gas turbine to operate with a 90-percent reduction in nitrogen oxides (NOx) to less than three parts per million. Sonoma Developmental Center will be the site of the first commercial application of a Xonon®-equipped gas turbine, with operation expected to commence by the end of the month.

The four- to six-week retrofit, which is currently underway, involves removing the current M1A-13D engine operating with a dry low emissions combustor configuration, and replacing it with an advanced M1A-13X engine incorporating Xonon Cool Combustion. Through the use of a catalyst instead of a flame, Xonon enables combustion at temperatures low enough to prevent the formation of NOx.

Hiro Matsumura, president of Kawasaki Gas Turbines-Americas, said, "We are pleased to offer Sonoma Developmental Center a unique solution for achieving ultra-low emissions with Xonon Cool Combustion. Applying Xonon to our engines enables clean power generation without the need for complex and costly exhaust cleanup devices that often utilize toxic substances to clean up the pollution after it has formed."