An Alternate Approach to the Application of MHD Power Generation Technology in a Utility Environment

The magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) power generation technology offers an attractive generation potential to the electric utilities. This paper presents an alternate approach to accelerate the commercial deployment of this new technology. By retrofitting an existing generating station, the MHD system concept can be demonstrated in a utility environment as early as 1986. It is shown that this approach may be technically feasible. This accelerated approach could supplement the current national MHD program which places emphasis on large-scale, base-load applications.