Reaction Design Launches ENERGICO

SAN DIEGO, CA. Sept. 22, 2008 - Reaction Design, the clean technology chemistry leader, today announced the release of ENERGICO™, a revolutionary new simulation package for the gas turbine industry that uses the power of detailed chemistry to accurately model combustion in a virtual environment. By using ENERGICO to model and test new combustor designs, companies can save millions in gas turbine development costs and substantially reduce time-to-market when compared to traditional physical prototype testing.

ENERGICO is a complex system design simulation tool that works by applying detailed chemistry technology to solve the toughest gas-turbine engineering problems related to emissions reduction and stability. The product enables virtual simulation of combustion stability so engineers can pinpoint and assess the causes of lean blow-off, a major issue in gas turbine design, which is impossible to accurately predict without a product like ENERGICO. Other modeling tools such as computation fluid dynamics (CFD) software do not support the level of chemistry detail necessary to model lean blow-off, and are much more time intensive while providing less accuracy and modeling stability.

“In field trials using real-world customer design problems, ENERGICO solved critical combustion issues substantially faster than with conventional modeling, test and debugging methods,” said Bernie Rosenthal, CEO of Reaction Design. “ENERGICO delivers higher quality predictions across a much broader operating envelope, including diverse fuel sources and variable environmental conditions and usage scenarios. We believe this technology will be a catalyst in advancing the use of sustainable fuels and reducing environmental impacts in both stationary and transportation turbine engines.”

ENERGICO can effectively predict the effects of multiple alternative/opportunity fuels, including biofuels, syngas and blast-furnace gases, on combustors without the need for a physical prototype. The platform also models environmental variables and can simulate under a variety of operating conditions – from tropical jungles to the arctic tundra. These abilities increase the robustness of gas turbines and enable service teams to investigate the causes of turbine downtime in a virtual lab setting. Used to its full potential, ENERGICO reveals details about the combustion process not previously visible without requiring a specialized understanding of complex kinetics. This results in fewer, better-directed experimental tests to validate design and process.

Reaction Design is also at the forefront of combustion modeling that addresses emerging regulations governing emissions of nitrogen oxide (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons and particulates. ENERGICO can simulate the chemistry performance for any continuous flow combustion device using virtually any type of fuel to predict its emissions output. User-defined algorithms within the tool can be fully customized for specific requirements targeted at applications such as gas turbines, boiler and furnace burners, flares and incinerators, and continuous chemical reactors.

"In an effort to reduce industrial pollutants, international regulations governing NOx, a known green house gas, and CO combustion output will continue to tighten severely as environmental and health effects become more apparent," said Roberta Gamble, Director, Energy and Power Systems, Frost & Sullivan. "To conform with these new standards and regulations on a global basis, the power generation industry will need new technologies and design methodologies that reduce emissions across a multitude of operating environments and within the context of a very diverse fuel landscape."

In customer validation trials, ENERGICO delivered accurate combustion simulation results to help reduce emissions and improve combustion stability. During the trials, three major gas turbine manufacturers each ran virtual simulations on different, well-understood, turbine designs in order to compare ENERGICO results with physical prototype experimental data. In every case, ENERGICO predicted NOx and CO levels that were within five percent of actual emissions for each design, using different fuel sources such as natural gas and syngas. Customers reported that this data was far more accurate than estimates delivered by their CFD simulations, and that the data was available weeks-to-months sooner than when using traditional methods.

ENERGICO represents a multi-year, multi-million dollar technology investment by Reaction Design, and inspired by the proven CHEMKIN combustion simulation package that was developed nearly thirty years ago at the Sandia National Laboratory. Reaction Design is the exclusive developer and distributor of CHEMKIN, the de facto standard for modeling gas-phase and surface chemistry that provides engineers ultra-fast access to reliable answers that save time and money in the development process.

Availability:

Reaction Design’s ENERGICO product for gas turbine combustor and burner development is available today. For more information, please visit www.reactiondesign.com. For pricing information, please contact the Reaction Design sales team at 1-408-550-1920.