As in 1998, the non-aviation segment of the gas turbine market has experienced the fastest rate of growth. This represents 41 percent of the total gas turbine market, up from 36 percent in 1998. There are several reasons for the boom in the power generation market. They turn out fewer pollutants than other major combustion energy converters. A gas turbine power plant burning natural gas will emit much less nitrogen oxide and as much as 43 percent less carbon dioxide than a coal-burning steam plant of the same output.
Gas turbines incur relatively low capital and operating costs.
Electric utilities in North America, facing deregulation, are placing record orders to replace old equipment and to increase electrical power reserve margins, which have gotten to be dangerously low, especially in the U.S. Midwest. This has filled the order books and production lines of the major gas turbine manufacturers for at least the next two years. In an effort to meet new environmental regulations and to lower NO x emissions even more, the gas turbine industry has run into a combustion instability problem called humming, which can lead to severe engine vibrations that can permanently damage a turbine. Von Ohain received the R. Tom Sawyer Award from ASME's International Gas Turbine Institute in 1990. There is another problem, not strictly technical, which became more acute in 1999.