Roll-Royce launches $223-million R&D project for gas turbine engines

Rolls-Royce Industries Canada Inc, Lachine PQ, has secured a world product mandate for the firm's Industrial Trent family of gas turbine engines. It will undertake a $213.3-million R&D project to develop a new line of natural gas-powered industrial engines with lower emissions and greater efficiency and will target power generation and natural gas compression.

Head office approval of the R&D project was secured with the assistance of Technology Partnerships Canada, which is making a $53.3-million investment, which will be repayable by the firm's Energy Business unit. With the project, Rolls-Royce will expand the scope of its gas turbine engines activities and its presence in the Montreal area, where it has maintained a facility for more than 50 years.

Gas turbines are rapidly replacing coal, oil and nuclear power to supply new generating capacity at public power utilities, although the escalating cost of natural gas has slowed the trend.

Increased efficiency and more stringent environmental regulations have largely been behind the growing popularity of gas turbine engines, and the latest R&D project will aim to enhance turbine efficiency and develop combustors that substantially reduce nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide emissions. The turbines will be in the 5-75 megawatt power range.

The Canadian division consists of the gas turbine business that developed a 50 megawatt natural gas-based engine for terrestrial power applications including power co-generation and peak power for utilities. It won the mandate to re-engineer the Trent 800 engine for industrial purposes in the early 1990s when it announced a $140-million investment.

The Canada/Canada subsidiary agreement on industrial development helped secure the mandate with a $17-million, interest-free loan (R$, September 30/92). Of the 1,500 staff in Roll-Royce's Canadian operations, 580 are employed by the Energy Business unit, including more than 130 R&D personnel.

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