Set for 5 seconds. Test to see if browser knows the width of the test image. Vol 4 No 1 article 14 of 18 Science Jet-powered power plants You might not expect to see jet engines bolted to the floor, but if you walk into a new power plant chances are that's just what you'll find. Today they also drive propeller planes, helicopters, boats, the odd tank, and more recently, electric power plants. The gas turbine concept consists of nothing more than a hollow tube with spinning fans at either end that are connected to each other by a shaft.
Fuel is injected at the center and ignited.
The outrushing of gases produces thrust while the spinning turbine drives the air compressor in a continuous cycle. Coal, oil, conventional natural gas, and even nuclear power plants make high-pressure steam to drive steam turbines which in turn spin electric generators. In a gas-fired turbine power plant, natural gas directly fuels a gas turbine attached to a generator. These turbines are designed to maximize spin, unlike a jet airplane's turbine which is configured to maximize thrust. But there's still plenty of hot gas rushing out of a power plant's turbine.