| Holzwarth gas turbine | |
|---|---|
 A Holzwarth gas turbine prototype on the test bench at the Körting Brothers workshop in 1908 | |
| Classification | Gas turbine |
| Application | Electrical power generation |
| Fuel source | Coal gas, Blast furnace gas, Fuel oil or Coal dust |
| Inventor | Hans Holzwarth |
| Invented | 1903 |
| Total Units | 8 single-stage 2 dual-stage |
| Manufacturers | Körting Brothers, Thyssen and Brown, Boveri & Cie |
The Holzwarth gas turbine is a form of explosion, or constant volume, gas turbine where an air–fuel mixture is admitted, ignited and then exhausted from combustion chambers controlled by valves. The Holzwarth gas turbine is named after its developer Hans Holzwarth (1877–1953) who designed several prototype engines used for testing and experimental service in Germany and Switzerland between 1908 and 1943.
Early efforts to build practical gas turbines struggled with the low efficiency of contemporary turbo compressors as these consumed almost all of the energy supplied by the turbine. In a Holzwarth gas turbine, high compressor efficiency is not needed since almost all the pressure rise takes place in sealed combustion chambers. The drawback of this approach is the high heat losses to the surrounding water jacket and correspondingly low cycle efficiency.
The last and largest Holzwarth gas turbine was a 5,000-kilowatt (6,705 hp) unit supplied to the Thyssen steelworks in Hamborn during 1938. The turbine was run experimentally until 1943 when it was damaged during an air raid. The machine was not repaired, and no further Holzwarth gas turbines were built.