NEWTOWN, Conn. -- Fincantieri is primarily a shipbuilder, yet when a ship design team seeks a powertrain that stresses low cost, reliability, and economical operation, the search will begin and end with diesels. When that design team seeks a powertrain that will provide high power output at a minimum weight and volume, it will go directly to gas turbines. Steam turbines no longer have any real significance for the marine market. In fact, the only type of ship that still uses steam turbines is the nuclear-powered surface combatant, and the number due to be built in the next decade can be counted on the fingers of one hand. None of those vessels are candidates for Fincantieri steam turbines.
Much the same pattern applies to the civilian shipbuilding industry. Fincantieri has a major position in cruise liner construction, but the last such ship to have steam turbines was completed in 1984. Container ships are primarily equipped with diesels, although a few high-speed (28-30 kt) ships of this type have been built with gas turbines. There was a brief period when liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers were equipped with steam turbines so that they could use boil-off from their cargos as fuel, but the development of LNG-fueled diesels and gas turbines has resulted in the eclipse of this application.
The redeeming factor here is the use of a steam turbine to generate power on board the cruise liner Carnival Horizon. Using heat recovered from the exhausts of the five primary propulsion diesels provides an interesting extrapolation of established combined-cycle technology and may open a new, if limited, market for Fincantieri's steam turbine range.
Land-Based Applications
The almost total elimination of the steam turbine as a maritime propulsion system is not reflected in its land-based applications. Around 180 steam turbines are sold each year for such applications. These sales largely emanate from Southeast Asia and Australia, where additional electrical capacity is greatly needed. In these areas, coal and oil remain the preferred fuels due to their widespread availability and low cost.
Elsewhere, the growth of combined-cycle installations has opened the door to steam turbine sales as simple-cycle gas turbine generating stations are modernized to combined-cycle operation. This trend is reinforced by the fact that an increasing number of industrial complexes have become frustrated with their often unreliable national electrical grids, and in response have installed their own power generation facilities. In theory at least, Fincantieri's steam turbines could contribute to this solution, although diesels and smaller gas turbines offer strong competition. The key here is infrastructure availability; a railway capable of delivering coal and oil may push the power generation choice toward steam turbines, while the presence of an established gas pipeline will favor the use of gas turbines.
An exhaustive study of contract and installation data suggests that sales of the Fincantieri steam turbine line are at a low and intermittent level. This small scattering of sales is primarily in the biomass sector. As interest in exploiting renewable resources grows, the application of these turbines to generate power may increase, but it is likely that more prominent producers of steam turbines will be the prime beneficiaries of this trend.
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