Decarbonizing materials sourcing and machining in the gas turbine sector, through a cost-carbon footprint nexus analysis

The energy industry is committed to support sustainable development, balancing environmental, social and economic benefits. Turbomachinery products, in particular gas turbines, have not only to overcome the barriers imposed by: performance, lifetime and costs requirements, but to be more environmentally sustainable. The goal of this work is to integrate quantitative analysis of sustainability, based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), with company costs assessment methods, to provide a new multicriteria optimization methodology. This has been applied to the single components of the gas turbine and has shown that the Second Stage Low Pressure Turbine (LPT) Case can be sourced from different suppliers, reducing both: the costs of supply and the Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions. The LCA analysis provides also an environmental characterization of materials, machining operations and coating processes, which are necessary to realize the gas turbine parts. The findings allow to compare conceptual design alternatives of gas turbines, according to the Design for the Environment principles and can be extended also to other industrial sectors.