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Siva Sankar
Siva Sankar
www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng
Abstract
The gas turbine engine is characterized by its relatively low capital cost compared with steam power
plants. It has environmental advantages and short construction lead time. However, conventional
industrial engines have lower eciencies especially at part load. One of the technologies adopted
nowadays for improvement is the ``combined cycle''. Hence, it is expected that the combined cycle
continues to gain acceptance throughout the world as a reliable, exible and ecient base load power
generation plant. In this article, 12 research investigations, carried out by the author and associates
during the last 10 years are briey reviewed. These cover 12 gas turbine systems which would contribute
towards ecient use of energy. They entail fundamental studies in addition to applications of combined
systems in industry including: the closed gas turbine cycle; the organic Rankine cycle; repowering;
integrated power and refrigeration; cryogenic power; liqueed natural gas (LNG) gasication; and inlet
air cooling. 7 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Gas turbines; Combined cycles; Energy utilization; Conservation
1. Introduction
The gas turbine is known to feature low capital cost, high exibility, high reliability without
complexity [1], short delivery time, early commissioning and commercial operation, and fast
starting and loading. The gas turbine is further recognized for its better environmental
performance manifested in the curbing of air pollution and reducing the greenhouse eect.
E-mail address: y_najjar@hotmail.com (Y.S.H. Najjar).
1359-4311/01/$ - see front matter 7 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 1 3 5 9 - 4 3 1 1 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 3 3 - 8
408
Open-cycle gas turbine engines exhaust higher-grade heat to the atmosphere than steam
turbines reject to their condensers. The combined cycle uses the exhaust heat from the gas
turbine engine to increase the power plant output and boost the overall eciency to more than
55% [2,3], substantially above that of the simple cycle and even higher than that of
supercritical-pressure reheat steam power plants. In places where high fuel costs prevail, this
can yield outstanding rates of return [4].
Gas turbines are increasingly used in combination with steam cycle, either to generate
electricity alone, as in combined cycles, or to cogenerate both electrical power and heat for
industrial processes or district heating [5]. Natural gas-red combustion turbines and
combined-cycle plants are forecast to capture over 47% of the international and 80% of the
U.S. new-generation market in the next decade.
These combined cycle power plants generate electric power at lower costs than conventional
steam plants of the same rating [6]. Short lead-time gas turbine enables utilities to meet
unexpected load growth at low cost, because combined cycles can be built in small increments
[7].
Since combined cycles use only well proven equipment, their operating reliability,
availability, and maintainability (RAM) are very good. By the year 2000, the worldwide
capacity of combined cycles used by utilities is expected to reach about 45,000 MW [4,8]. At
the same time, a substantial fraction of the electricity produced by independent power
producers will be generated by combined cycle [9].
The dual advantages of eciency and exibility make gas turbine based cycles the dominant
energy converters for the production of world's electricity today and in the foreseeable future.
GE estimates that industry orders for all kinds of power generation within the next decade will
total to 1027 gigawatts: 26% for combined cycles; 10% for simple-cycle combustion turbines;
37% for steam; 6% for nuclear; 17% for hydropower; and 4% for renewables [10]. However,
currently gas turbine systems account for over 50% of the new capacity installed [11].
2. System analysis
2.1. Achieving higher thermal eciency
High eciency is expected to be one of the main design goals of the rapidly growing world
market. Worldwide electric power consumption is expected to grow by 60% between now and
the year 2010 [12]. The rising importance of eciency will manifest itself by the rising share for
combined-cycle plants in the fossil-red power plants.
The main factors which help achieving higher eciency are mainly:
.
.
.
.
.
.
intercooling
increased gas turbine inlet temperature
advanced gas turbine cooling techniques
blade coating
reduced auxiliary power consumption
hydrogen cooled generators
409
410
CT24
4 KA24-2
2021
8 163
4 182
59
Sequential annular combustor
60
< 50 (at 15% O2)
242
1720
411
combustor, thus increasing the electrical output of the gas turbine [20]. Referred to as the
STIG, this system is gaining acceptance especially for aero-derivative gas turbine engines
[21,22]. In comparison with STIG, the combined cycle has relatively higher eciency, lower
capital cost with large capacities and wider surge margins.
Conversely, STIG has complete modularity, which provides improved exibility in part-load
operation. STIG also features lower NOx emissions, less water requirements for steam
412
Table 2
ATS performance characteristics
Cycle conguration
Industrial ATS
Utility ATS
Allison
Solar
General Electric
Westinghouse
Simple
Recuperated
13
1315
30:1
9
41
5
1093
9:1
9
43
400
1426
23:1
9
> 60
420
1510
29:1
9
> 60
injection, and starts faster from cold [23]. Due to the fewer pieces of equipment needed, it
entertains lower capital cost and higher reliability. It also has higher peak load capability [24].
Comparing the relative merits of the two systems, actual tendency is towards more
expansion in combined-cycle power plants, which use well-proven equipment for both gas and
steam turbosets.
2.3. Repowering with combined cycles
The combined-cycle plant is a promising mode of energy recovery and conservation, and is
an economically interesting proposition. Conversion of simple-cycle gas turbine facilities into
combined-cycle plants oers clear-cut benets whenever rising power demands must be met
[25,26]. These benets include dramatic improvements in eciency at all loads, and improved
operating reliability with relatively low-cost additions to existing power facilities.
One of the options open to many utilities with existing steam units is repowering, which
involves the installation of gas turbines and heat recovery steam generators (HRSG) to convert
Fig. 5. Comparison of subcritical and supercritical heat exchangers. Above 220 bar, there is no sudden phase change
between water and steam.
413
the steam plant into combined-cycle operation [27]. One obvious incentive for repowering over
new construction is the savings in capital investment. These are derived mainly from the use of
existing equipment and structures, the use of owned land, existing transmission capacity, and
the sharing of infrastructure with other units. Other important advantages are lower operation
and maintenance costs resulting from the sharing of existing support facilities and sta, shorter
and less complicated relicensing by designing within the stations' existing thermal discharge
permits and intake structures [28].
There are also some disadvantages to repowering, however, such as added complexity that
can result when matching old equipment with modern high-eciency equipment. Furthermore,
there is a potential for an increase in the frequency of maintenance of refurbished equipment
[28]. Retrotting existing steam turbine power plants with a gas turbine topping cycle can, in
general, greatly enhance their eciency to levels comparable with those of plants originally
constructed as fully-red combined cycles [29]. Economic analyses reveal that signicant fuel
savings justify the capital investment [29,30].
Necessary modications for repowering include modications in the furnace evaporator
(radiation section). Boiler repowering is the most dicult match because performance of the
conversion is strongly dependent on the type of the boiler and air supply. Unless there is a
good match between gas turbine exhaust conditions and boiler ow, the economics can be
marginal [31]. Pollution levels should drop with removal of inecient boilers.
Pressurized uidized bed combustor (PFBC) plants combine the advantages of uidized bed,
such as fuel exibility and reduced emissions, with the higher eciency of combined-cycle
plants. Furthermore, they can be built in smaller volumes due to their compact nature.
Pressurization increases the amount of air and coal that can be supplied to the uidized bed, at
similar uidizing velocities. A higher bed level can be used, which increases contact time
between solid and gases, which in turn leads to a higher combustion eciency [32]. In addition,
very ecient desulphurization is achieved within the uidized bed, where dolomite or limestone
functions as a sulphur sorbent. Nitrogen oxide formation is also low due to the modest bed
temperature of 8508808C. In one such application, where a gas turbine was used to repower
an existing coal-red plant, a net plant output of 81 MW was achieved at 41.5% eciency
[32,33].
2.4. Recent advances with combined cycles
During the last decade, the need was felt to develop a new generation of plants that can
operate with improved eciencies and availabilities, accept lower-quality fuels, be low in
capital costs, and have short design and construction lead times [34]. On a worldwide basis,
reserves of oil are dwarfed by the massive reverses of coal, with lifetimes, at the present rates
of combustion, measured in hundreds of years [35]. Hence, the challenge was to convert the
energy contained in coal into a more convenient form in an ecient, economical and
environmentally acceptable manner.
The coal gasication process was proposed to achieve these goals, in an eort to convert
coal to a low- or medium-heating-value gas for utility and industrial use [3639]. The
converted fuel could be methanol to fuel peaking gas turbines [40]. Because the enthalpy of
combustion of the fuel gas is only about 1/8 of that of natural gas, the gas turbine combustor
414
needs to be modied to burn the low-heating-value gas [41]. The high eciency of the
integrated gasication combined cycle (IGCC) is realized by extending the working
temperature range of steam power plant. The present range is between 338C, as set by the
condenser, and about 5608C, as set by the economic selection of materials for the boilers and
turbines. The extended range becomes 3312008C, resulting in a potential eciency of 55%
[42].
2.5. Some methods of improving combined-cycle performance
The main categories of combined cycles may be classied by (a) the rate of excess air
utilized, (b) the number of steam pressure levels used in heat recovery [43], (c) the availability
of supplemental ring and (d) the use of steam reheat [1].
A novel heat-recovery process for improving the thermal eciency of a gas turbine in
electric power generation was suggested by Higdon and associates [44]. The process uses an air
saturation unit to evaporate heated water (below its boiling point) into the combustion air.
The resultant mass ow of water vapor through the rest of the system reduces the power
required to compress air and permits better utilization of the otherwise wasted heat. The
authors calculated the eciency of the system to be 54.8%, as compared to 47.9% for an intercooled, steam-injected system.
A chemically recuperated gas turbine was suggested [40] for recovering the waste exhaust
heat from gas turbines by employing a methane-steam reformer (MSR) instead of using an
HRSG. The MSR reforms natural gas into hydrogen and other gases to fuel the turbine, and
promises low emission levels. With intercooling and reheat, a modied CF6-80C2 aircraft
engine is predicted to provide 60% eciency.
Compressed air energy storage (CAES) emerged as an innovative method of meeting peakdemand requirements of electric utilities. Excess power produced during low-load periods is
utilized to compress air and store it; the stored energy then returned to the system during
peak-load periods [45].
An ice storage system (ICS), similar in concept to CAES, was selected for peaking stations
[46]. The ICS was used for precooling of suction air during high-cost peaking situations via ice
made by low-cost o-peak electric power.
Optimum pressure ratio and peak temperature were found to vary signicantly with the
types of cooling technology employed. Using steam rather than air for rotor cooling was found
to improve the results. Gyarmathy [47] studied the relative merits of various load control
methods involving xed and variable-geometry gas turbine compressors. The results implied
exceptional merits for compressor guide vane adjustment, serving to maintain gas turbine
exhaust temperature at high levels during part-load operation.
3. Discussion of some relevant research studies
This paper is not intended to review the vast literature on research, development and
projects related to gas turbine combined cycle. It focuses on summarizing several research
investigations carried out by the author and associates, during the last ten years, in the eld of
415
gas turbine combined system. The studies are divided into fundamental studies, combined
systems and inlet-air cooling.
3.1. Fundamental studies
3.1.1. Comparison of modeling and simulation results for single and twin-shaft gas turbine engines
[49]
There is now a major emerging market for twin-shaft engines based on aeroderivative gas
turbines. In this work, performance analysis is carried out at design and part load conditions
for single and twin-shaft engines (Figs. 6 and 7).
After choosing typical characteristic running lines; operating variables such as air mass ow,
turbine inlet temperature, and exhaust temperature, in addition to performance parameters
such as power (P ), eciency Zgt ), and specic fuel consumption (SFC), were evaluated and
plotted against compressor pressure ratio rc ). A computer program was specially designed for
such calculations. The results showed superior performance of the twin-shaft engine. At part
load rc 8), the percentages of performance parameters relative to their values at design
rc 10), are shown in Table 3 as follows: when thermodynamic properties were assumed
constant with temperature, P = 19 and 67%; Zgt 60 and 91%; and SFC = 169 and 110%
for single and twin-shaft engines, respectively. However, with variable properties, the
corresponding percentage of performance parameters are P = 20 and 57%, Zgt 66 and 88%,
and SFC = 151 and 114%. These results are shown in Figs. 811 and Tables 3 and 4.
3.1.2. Optimum performance of a simple gas turbine engine used as a source of compressed air
[50]
A simple gas turbine unit is used as a source of compressed air (Fig. 12). The turbine
produces just enough work to drive the compressor. The part-load performance of the cycle is
analyzed to estimate the equilibrium running line on the compressor characteristics for dierent
operating conditions of pressure ratio, maximum cycle temperature and the amount of air bled
o (Figs. 13 and 14). Specic fuel-air consumption is also determined as the quantity of fuel
consumed to produce 1 kg/s of bled air (Fig. 15). Performance calculations show that the
maximum cycle temperature is relatively the most inuential parameter. Hence, operation
along an isothermal equilibrium line gives the best performance.
416
3.1.3. Comparative performance of closed-cycle gas turbine engine with heat recovery using
dierent gases [51]
The unique features of the closed-cycle gas turbine engine (Fig. 16) have been recently
contributing towards its adoption in a multiplicity of applications such as power plants, space,
and marine power supplies. Therefore, research is reactivated to serve its furture developments.
In this study, a performance analysis is carried out using dierent gases such as Helium,
combustion gases, air, and CO2. Operating variables are turbine inlet temperature T03,
compressor pressure ratio Rc and inlet temperature T01. A computer program is tailored to
calculate specic work WS and overall eciency Zo over a wide range of operating variables
(Figs. 17 and 18). Results show that Helium gives relatively higher Ws, but Zo starts to drop
early after a low optimum Rc. Air and combustion gases oer nearly equal performance.
3.2. Combined systems
3.2.1. Performance analysis of gas turbine air-bottoming combined system [52]
The gas turbine engine has low capital cost compared with steam power plants. It has
environmental advantages and short construction lead time. However, conventional industrial
engines have lower eciencies. One of the technologies adopted nowadays for improvement is
the utilization of combined cycles.
In this study, an air-bottoming cycle (Fig. 19), instead of a steam cycle is suggested and
analyzed. Besides reducing the cost of hardware of the installation, the system could achieve a
thermal eciency of about 49%, which does not deteriorate at part load as it happens with the
basic gas turbine engine.
Parametric analysis of the system was performed using a specially designed computer
program, enabling variation of the main independent variables, namely Rc, T03 and rc over
Table 3
Performance at D.P
Single shaft
Twin shaft
Wn (kJ/kg)
Zgt (%)
Power (mW)
SFC (kg/kWh)
343.6
333.74
35
33.8
20
19.43
0.243
0.250
417
Fig. 8. Variation of mass ow rate of hot gases with compressor pressure ratio.
wide ranges, taking into account the losses in dierent components and variable
thermodynamic properties. (Figs. 2022).
Results show that a gain of 30% in power and 30.5% in eciency is possible when using the
combined system relative to the basic gas turbine engine (Table 5).
3.2.2. Cogeneration by combining gas turbine engine with organic rankine cycle [53]
The gas turbine engine is known by its relatively low eciency, especially at part load.
Therefore, to conserve energy and reduce the operating cost, waste heat is recovered by
418
Fig. 10. Variation of percentage of power output with compressor pressure ratio.
combining a heat-exchange gas turbine cycle with a closed organic Rankine cycle (ORC)
(Fig. 23). A computer program was made to calculate the individual and combined cycle
performances, namely the work and eciency of each. The variables considered were: gas
turbine pressure ratio R1; maximum cycle temperature T6; uid-air mass ratio FAR; and type
of working uid for the ORC.
This analytical study shows that R22 gives the highest improvement in work and eciency
(Table 6) but among these uids, R113 is the optimum choice because it gives the smallest,
hence the most economic size of turbo-expander due to its higher relative molecular mass.
Fig. 11. Variation of gas turbine eciency with compressor pressure ratio.
419
Table 4
O-design performance
Arrangement
Properties
Power (%)
Eciency (%)
SFC (%)
Single shaft
Twin shaft
Single shaft
Twin shaft
Constant
Constant
Variable
Variable
19
67
20
57
60
91
66
88
169
110
151
114
Fig. 13. Variation of quantity of air bled o, mb , with compressor pressure ratio, rc and maximum cycle
temperature ratio, t, as a parameter.
420
Table 5
Performance of the gas turbine engine, air-bottoming cycle and the combined system at the design point of Rc =
10, T03 = 1400 K and rc = 2
W (kJ/kg)
Z (%)
SFC (kg/kWh)
371.6
112.5
484.1
37.4
27.9
48.8
0.2262
0.3039
0.1736
421
422
423
Table 6
Performance of heat-exchange gas turbine cycle and combined cycle with dierent working uids at design
conditions (R1 = 3, FAR = 1, T6 = 1100 K), WHEC = 146.15 kJ kg1
a , ZHEC 29:31%
Working uid
E. CC (%)
E. improvement (%)
R12
R22
R113
R114
43.72
45.20
41.16
41.07
49.16
54.21
40.43
40.12
233.8
241.74
220.15
219.6
60.00
65.41
50.63
50.26
424
Maximum cycle temperature, and pressure ratio are relatively the most important parameters.
Economic analysis indicates very good rate of return on investment, with a payback period of
three years for the combined system
3.2.3. Repowering a steam power plant by means of a uidized-bed combustion and a two-shaft
gas turbine [54]
Utilities have been adopting repowering as an option in their plans to meet the growth in
loading. In this work, repowering of older and marginally ecient steam plant by conversion
to combined-cycle operation is carried out by the addition of a twin-shaft gas turbine engine
Fig. 23. Schematic drawing for the combined cycle (CC) comprising heat-exchange gas turbine cycle (HEC) and
organic Rankine cycle (ORC).
425
and replacing the boiler by a pressurised uidized-bed combustor (PFBC) (Fig. 24). The lowpressure compressor rotates at variable speed to provide the PFBC with the required mass of
air to satisfy various load conditions. A computer program was designed for computations of
performance. Four arrangements were studied, namely the basic System 1 with a heat
exchanger interposed between the gas turbine and the PFBC, in addition to circulating the
condensate of the steam plant through the gas turbine intercooler; System 2 circulates direct
cold water; System 3 cancels the heat exchanger; System 4 cancels the heat exchanger and
raises the turbine inlet temperature to 12508C to anticipate the future performance of advanced
systems (Tables 79). Results show that System 2 achieves marginal improvement, whereas
System 3 achieves 7.3% higher power and 4% higher eciency relative to System 1, while
System 4 achieves 33.4 and 13.2%, respectively.
3.2.4. A gas turbine integrated with a combined power and refrigeration closed system [55]
Closed-cycle gas turbines (CCGT) have numerous advantages, among which are the
exibility of utilizing waste heat at low and high temperatures, the possibility of using a variety
of fuels, the ability to use high pressures and thereby reduce the cost of turbo machines, and
controlling the part-load output eciently by varying the gas pressure and mass, rather than
the turbine inlet temperature. In this study, the waste energy in the exhaust gas of 1 MW gas
turbine engine is partly recovered in a heat exchanger, to heat Helium which drives the
turbinecompressor system in two closed cycles (Fig. 25). Fig. 26 shows the TS diagram for
the cycle. The hot cycle produces power, whereas the cold cycle provides a refrigerating eect
to liquefy nitrogen at a rate of about 1300 ton/day. A parametric study using a specially
designed computer program, to simulate running conditions over a wide range, shows that
such a system could produce the cooling eect with an overall eciency of about 60% at a
compressor pressure ratio of 2.5 (Fig. 27).
426
Table 7
Comparison of performance results and their percentage changes at design point for the dierent systems, relative to
System 1
System 1
System 2
change %
System 3
change %
System 4
change %
Pgt, (MW)
Pst, (MW)
Pcc, (MW)
Zgt , (%)
Zst , (%)
Zcc , (%)
23.9
24.3
1.7
30.5
27.6
54.1
126
66.4
65
2.1
66.4
0
66.4
0
90.3
89.3
1.1
96.9
7.3
120.5
33.4
36.4
35.8
1.6
42.5
16.8
52
42.9
43.8
42.9
2
43.8
0
43.8
0
41.6
40.7
2.2
43.3
4
47.1
13.2
0.347
0.354
2
0.332
4.3
0.306
11.8
3.2.5. Cryogenic power conversion with regasication of LNG in a gas turbine plant [56]
The gas turbine combined cycle continues to gain acceptance throughout the world as a
reliable, exible and ecient baseload generation plant, particularly where natural gas is
available. In this work, a cryogenic circuit is combined with a gas turbine power plant burning
LNG (Fig. 28). A computer program is devised to calculate performance, namely, power and
overall eciency for the combined system over a wide range of operating variables Rc and T3.
In Table 8, the performance of the combined system relative to the basic gas turbine engine at
design conditions is given.
Thermoeconomic evaluation of a 2000 MWe gas turbine power plant shows that addition of
a cryogenic circuit may save about 6259 ton/year of LNG and 39 MW of power (Table 9). The
payback period is less than 1.5 year (Table 9).
3.2.6. Combined gas turbine engine with water desalination system [57]
The daily load schedule of a power plant is aected by the type of activities which
may vary between day and night as in industry; and from summer to winter as in the air
conditioning load in tropical regions. Hence, load management may play an important
Table 8
Performance of the gas turbine engine combined with cryogenic circuit at design point
Performance parameter
Values
294.04
33.89
5.728
3.568
2.16
0.66
1.95
1.95
0.0187
0.2289
0.032
427
Table 9
Saving in fuel and power over a year for a 2000 MWe gas turbine power plant
Saving
Values
6801.80
127.19
129.67
2.48
62,595.20
87,633.25
39.00
role in improving the load and capacity factors by increasing the average daily load and
reducing the dierence between the peak and the valleys. This may lead to improvement
in overall performance. This study is concerned with a power generation system where
steam and gas turbine power plants are interconnected through electrical network. It is
known that, at part load, gas turbine eciency decreases sharply in comparison with
428
Fig. 26. Temperature entropy diagram for combined power and refrigeration system.
Fig. 27. Variation of non-dimensional performance parameters with non-dimensional pressure ratio.
429
Fig. 28. Schematic diagram of the combined gas turbine engine and the cryogenic system.
steam turbine, which remains nearly unaected. Hence, if the spinning reserve and
capability reserve are obtained from stream units, the gas turbine stays running at full
load most of the time.
The excess power could be used to run vapour compression desalination system VCS, and
the exhaust energy could be utilized in HRSG to produce distilled water from a multi-stage
ash desalination plant (MSF) (Fig. 29).
Performance analysis shows that this integrated system could save as much as 66% in fuel
consumption and produce about 4.75 million m3/year distilled water (Table 10).
Thermoeconomic analysis shows that the additional investment could be paid back within 3.3
years (Table 11).
Table 10
Overall improvement in the integrated system performance when connected with VCS and MSF
Season
Pac (MW)
Improvement (%)
Zo (%)
Improvement (%)
sfco (kg/kWh)
Improvement (%)
High
Low
19.31
19.31
19.2
102.8
48.7
48.7
74.87
198
0.1739
0.1739
42.8
66.43
430
Fig. 29. Schematic drawing for a single shaft engine cogeneration integrated with a multi-stage ashing and vapour
compression distillation systems.
$ millions
Engine with VCS
12.336
20.04
3.535
4.626
8.161
1.4803
0.37008
2.609
4.46
3.701
3.333
8.0126
2.505
10.518
2.4048
0.6016
0.7439
3.75
6.768
2.96
431
The performance of this combined system, namely power, eciency Z and specic fuel
consumption (SFC ) is studied and compared with simple cycle. The variables in this
parametric study are mainly compressor pressure ratio, turbine inlet temperature (T03) and
ambient temperature (Ta).
Results show that the combined system achieves gains in power, Zov and SFCov of about
21.5, 38 and 27.7% (Table 12). The performance of the combined system shows less sensitivity
to variations in operating variables. Thermoeconomic evaluation shows that the combined
system is viable with a payback period of 3.7 years (Table 13).
Table 12
Comparison of performance at the design point
Performance
Without cooling
With cooling
Percentage improvement
Power (MW)
sfc (kg/kWh)
Eth
sfcov [kg/kWh]
Eth.ow
50
0.2419
0.35
60.7497
0.2385
0.3549
0.1749
0.484
21.4994
1.4055
1.4000
27.7
38.28
432
Table 13
Results of economic evaluation of the cogeneration system per 1 kg/s of engine air ow
Items
Cost ($)
Investment-added cost
Absorption (M/c)
Suction air-cooler
Heat-recovery boiler HRB
Investment subtotal
Engineering and sundries (10%)
Saving by phasing out new engine
Net investment
Running cost ($/year)
Added fuel cost
Saving in electricity
Saving in steam
Net annual saving ($)
Payback period (years)
28158
5000
70156
103314
+10331
14110
99536
5711
+12360
+20088
26737
3.7
3.3.2. Performance of a heat-pipe based waste-heat recovery and utilization system for a gasturbine engine [59]
The results of a modeling and simulation study on the combined performance of a combined
power system are presented. The combined system comprises an industrial, simple-type gas
turbine engine and a heat-pipe-based waste-heat recovery and utilization system, and the
engine itself comprises an axial-ow compressor, tubular combustion chambers and an axialow turbine (Fig. 31). A water-in-steel type two-phase thermosyphon loop extracts waste
energy from the stack of the gas turbine and delivers it to the generator of an aqua-ammonia
absorption chiller, to produce chilled water which cools ambient air via a cooling tunnel; the
Fig. 31. Schematic arrangement of the waste-heat recovery and utilization system.
433
cooled air is fed to the intake of the gas turbine compressor. Net power output of the overall
system, when utilizing the water-in-steel heat-recovery system, is improved by 12% even when
the inlet air to the turbine is cooled to a modest 208C; this is true for both the base load and
75% part-load operation (Fig. 32). Considerably higher boosting of output power is possible if
the inlet air is cooled to lower temperatures. One of the most striking ndings of the modeling
and simulation study is that the thermosyphon heat-recovery system is capable of producing
considerably more cold air than is required by the gas turbine engine. It is further concluded
that the thermal eciency of the engine does not deteriorate with rising ambient temperatures,
as is the case in a system without the heat-recovery and utilization system (Fig. 33).
3.3.3. A heat pipe assisted heat-recovery and utilization system [60]
An experimental facility is described for the recovery, by means of heat-pipes, of waste heat
from exhaust gases, and the utilization of the recovered energy to cool ambient air (Fig. 34).
To this end, heat of combustion gases, generated in stainless steel combustion chamber, is
recovered from the stack by means of a heat-pipe system. The recovered heat is utilized to run
an aqua-ammonia absorption chiller. Chilled water from the chillers is run through a fan-coil
type cooling tunnel to cool the intake air of a (conceptual) gas turbine engine to boost its
performance.
It is concluded from test results that the experimental facility performs well, and that it
behaves as predicted by modeling and simulation studies. The system is able to extract between
70 and 93% of the technically recoverable energy from exhaust gases (Table 14). This energy is
considered as the ratio of drop in exhaust temperature to the maximum potential temperature
dierence. Temperature gradients with time are shown for the dierent components of the
experimental facility at gas inlet temperature to the exhaust pipe Ti, exh of 3008C (Figs. 35 and
36).
4. Conclusions
The combined-cycle generation system features: high thermal eciency; low installed cost;
fuel exibility with a wide range of gaseous and liquid fuels; low operation and maintenance
Fig. 32. Variation of net power output W(n ) with ambient temperature.
434
costs; operating exibility at base, mid-range and daily start; high reliability and availability;
short installation times and high eciency in small capacity increments [48]. In particular:
. Combined cycles boost power output and thermal eciency by amounts as high as 60%.
. Gas turbines, when used in repowering to convert an existing steam plant to combined cycle,
oer savings in capital cost and improvement in plant eciency.
. Combined cycle, when integrated with coal gasication, holds promise in converting coal
into electric power in an ecient, economical and environmentally acceptable manner.
. Multitude of research works (utilizing gas turbine engines in combination with closed cycle,
organic Rankine cycle, repowering, integrated power and refrigeration, cryogenic power,
LNG gasication and inlet air cooling) predicted superior performance and economic
feasibility.
. Further advancements with alternative arrangements of combined cycles to suit dierent
applications will be seen in the near future.
435
Table 14
Temperature drop of exhaust gases in the heat and exchanger
Inlet temperature
Temperature drop
Ratio of recovery
154
140
106
46
71%
70%
93%
88%
38
142
231
83%
93%
73%
30
258
Not applicable
76%
436
. The gas turbine engine and its relevant combined cycles will continue to have increasing
portion in the installed future power capacity.
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