Reply to thread

Regenerative or recuperative gas turbines have one big problem with modern, high-pressure ratio engines:  the air exiting the compressor is hotter than the air exiting the power turbine. This means that the regenerator (or recuperator; there is a difference but it's not important thermodynamically) will cause an increase in fuel consumption, which defeats the entire purpose. The AGT-1500*, which has a recuperator, gets very little benefit from the recuperator at high powers, but it does help maintain a good sfc (iirc, the sfc of the AGT1500 is about .4 lb/hp-hr) down to near-idle power. The aeroderivative of the AGT1500, the PLT-27, got rid of the recuperator because it was not a net benefit in aircraft operation.