Mercury vapour turbine

This example of combined cycle generation was not widely adopted because of high capital cost and the toxic hazard of the mercury potentially leaking into the environment.

Metallurgical developments have allowed steam-only plants to increase in efficiency over time, making the mercury vapour turbine obsolete.

The Electrical Year Book, 1937,[2] contained the following description of a mercury vapour turbine operating in commercial use: The advantage of operating a mercury-vapour turbine in conjunction with a steam power plant lies in the fact that the complete cycle can be worked over a very wide range of temperature without employing any abnormal pressure.

The Hartford Electric Light Co. (U.S.A.) has a 10,000kW turbo-generator driven by mercury vapour, which reaches the turbine at 70 lb.

Power plants designed by William Le Roy Emmet were constructed by General Electric and operated between 1923 and 1950.