MTU has unveiled the first piece of hardware for the European
CLEAN ultra-efficient engine program--a new heat exchanger which
will extract waste heat from the exhaust and recycle it into the
engine, cutting fuel burn by as much as 20%.
Marine and industrial turbine engines routinely use recuperators,
but previous attempts to build recuperative engines for aviation
use have been frustrated by problems of weight, complexity and
cost. MTU has worked extensively on the technology needed to produce
heat exchangers from flattened, oval-section tubes, providing
maximum area in minimum space and weight. The prototype here contains
more than four miles of tubing.
It will be incorporated into a demonstrator engine that will be
tested next spring in Stuttgart University's altitude chamber.
The complete CLEAN engine, sponsored by the European community,
will incorporate a geared fan and MTU high-speed low-pressure
turbine, and will run late in the decade.
