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Augmentation of gas performance using air coolers

Article in Applied Thermal Engineering · February 2004

DOI: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2003.09.006

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 Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 415–429
www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Augmentation of gas turbine performance using air coolers

a,* b
M.M. Alhazmy , Y.S.H. Najjar
a
Department of Thermal Engineering and Desalination Technology, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80204,
Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jordan University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 3030,
Irbid 22110, Jordan
Received 29 November 2002; accepted 15 September 2003

Abstract
This paper studies the performance enhancement of gas turbine power plants by cooling the air at plant
intake. A comparison between using two different types of air coolers, namely water spraying system and
cooling coil, is performed. The power plant performance characterized by the plant efficiency and net power
generated is examined in addition to the mass of water condensable from the exhaust gases for the purpose
of reusing it in cooling after proper recycling. The performance characteristics are examined for a set of
design and operational parameters including ambient temperature, relative humidity, turbine inlet tem-
perature and pressure ratio. The results show that spray coolers are capable of boosting the power and
enhancing the efficiency of the gas turbine power plant in a way that is much cheaper than the cooling coils,
however, it operates more efficiently at hot and dry climates. Condensing water from the exhaust may help,
partially, in providing the make-up water for such a system in dry climates. Cooling coils give a full control
on the compressor inlet conditions, however they consume considerable amount of power, causing a large
drop in the overall plant performance.
Ó 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Gas turbine; Power augmentation; Air coolers; Spray cooler; Cooling coil

1. Introduction

Gas turbines have been used for power generation in several regions in the world. Different
geographical locations have different climatic conditions (average temperature and humidity).
Cooling the air at compressor intake helps increasing the density of air flowing into the plant and

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +966-2-642-000x68259; fax: +966-2-695-2182.
E-mail address: mhazmy@kaau.edu.sa (M.M. Alhazmy).

1359-4311/$ - see front matter Ó 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2003.09.006
416 M.M. Alhazmy, Y.S.H. Najjar / Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 415–429

Nomenclature

Cpa air specific heat at constant pressure

Cpg flue gases specific heat at constant pressure
COP coefficient of performance of the cooling coil cooler
f fuel to air mass ratio
ha enthalpy of ambient air
h0 total enthalpy
ma air mass flow rate
mf fuel mass flow rate
mg flue gas mass flow rate
mtot total mass flow rate
mw water mass flow rate
MMf molar mass of the fuel
P total pressure
Q heat load on the cooling coil cooler
rc pressure ratio
sfc specific fuel consumption
Ta ambient temperature
T0 total temperature
W power consumed by the cooling coil
wn net power produced by the plant
wt specific turbine work
/ relative humidity
gth thermal efficiency
x humidity ratio (also, specific humidity)
Dhc fuel caloric value
Numbers in the subscripts are used to denote state

hereby increasing the power generation. The weather in far deserts (hot and dry) is different from
that of coastal regions in which humidity is considerably higher. This paper studies the perfor-
mance enhancement of standard gas turbine power plants using coolers at the air intake. The
effect of using two different types of air coolers, water spraying system and cooling coil, are ex-
amined. Each of the two proposed coolers modifies air temperature and humidity differently.
Moreover, each system has a different cooling capacity that would limit the minimum attainable
temperature at the compressor inlet.
Several attempts have been reported in which different cooling methods were proposed to
enhance the performance of gas turbine power plants in high temperature ambient conditions.
Johnson [1] presented a discussion of the theory and operation of evaporative coolers for in-
dustrial gas turbine installations. Calculations of parameters to predict the performance of
evaporative cooler were included, in addition to installation, operation, feed water quality and the
causes and prevention of water carry-over.
 M.M. Alhazmy, Y.S.H. Najjar / Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 415–429 417

Ondryas et al. [2] investigated using chillers at the air intake to boost gas turbines power in
cogeneration plants during high ambient temperatures. Three types of chillers, namely absorption
chillers, mechanical (electric driven) chillers and thermal energy storage were examined. Motive
energy for the chillers is steam from the gas turbine exhaust or electrical energy for mechanical
chillers. Description of the chilled water distribution in the inlet air system was given and the
overall economics of the power augmentation benefits was investigated. It had been reported that
air chilling could be effectively used to boost power during high ambient temperature and the
benefits from peak power production can outweigh the cost.
Mercer [3] reported on different cooling techniques for the gas turbine inlet air. It is reported that
chillers utilizing thermal storage systems increase the gas turbine output by 25% during peak cooling
periods. Evaporative coolers, on the other hand, give an increase of 10–15% in the power output.
Several other articles report on using inlet air cooling techniques to improve the power output
of gas turbines are available in the literature. It has been reported that directing a controlled spray
of water into the compressor inlet will result a 10–20% increase in power output [4,5]. Water
fogging is another cooling method, it is reported that a power enhancement by 10% [5] to 20% [6]
would be reached.
Elliott [7] reported that a gain of 1% in the output power can be achieved for every 1.8 °F (1.6
°C) drop in the inlet air temperature using water chillers. In addition AxEnergy (power systems
manufacturer) advertising a 1% power increase for every 2 °F temperature decrease using an inlet
fogging systems [6].
Guinn [8] presented a simulation that provides an hour-by-hour calculation of performance
enhancements of a 2800 kW gas turbine. Two types of inlet coolers, namely water chiller and
evaporative cooler, have been investigated. The performance of the gas turbine using an intake
cooler for time varying annual climatic conditions has also been evaluated. Using an evaporative
cooler enhances the plant output by 1.81–3.05% depending on the climatic conditions. Using
chilled water coolers, in the other hand, increases the power output by 5.70–7.67% depending on
the climatic conditions.
Kolp et al. [9] presented an analysis for the effect of various forms of inlet air heating, cooling and
supercharging on a 40 MW General Electric LM6000 gas turbine. It is reported that the reduction
by 28 °C of the inlet temperature would increase the power by 30% and decrease the heat rate by
4.5%. Sample cases were sited to illustrate the optimization of gas turbine inlet systems, taking into
account site conditions, incremental equipment cost and subsequent performance enhancement.
De Paepe and Dick [10] presented a technological and economical analysis of water recovery in
steam injected gas turbines. Thermal analysis of different types of condensers for water recovery was
performed in addition to the economical analysis of investments costs and exploitation costs. It is
shown that the injection of steam into the cycle increases its thermal efficiency, and water con-
sumption is the major drawback of these systems. Installation of water condensers demands initial
and operational costs, however, the pay back time of these coolers varies from 1.5 to 9.5 years.

2. Cycle analysis

Fig. 1 shows a sketch of the system studied in the present paper. Shown is a standard gas
turbine power plant with an intake air cooler. The gas turbine power plant consists of compressor,
418 M.M. Alhazmy, Y.S.H. Najjar / Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 415–429

Water
2 3 4 Condenser
Combustion
Cha mber
1
Air cooler
Wn
Compressor Turbine
a

Fig. 1. Schematic of the gas turbine cycle.

combustion chamber and turbine. Two types of air coolers: water spraying system and cooling
coil, are proposed for investigation in this study. The water spraying system is an evaporative
cooler, modeled as an adiabatic saturator, and the cooling coil is used to resemble a typical re-
frigeration system. The performance of the power plant is examined with each air cooler. In order
to simplify the analysis an isentropic efficiency function of the pressure ratio is assigned to the
compressor and the turbine, while the combustion chamber is assumed to be insulated. The
working fluid passing through the compressor is assumed to be an ideal mixture of air and water
vapor, while that passing through the turbine is assumed to be an ideal mixture of flue gases and
water vapor. Air, water vapor and flue gases are assumed to behave as ideal gases.

3. Air coolers

The water spraying cooler is modeled as an adiabatic saturator that delivers air to the com-
pressor with 100% relative humidity (saturated air). The air temperature drops to the wet bulb
temperature as a result of passing through the water spraying cooler. The air exit temperature is
dictated by both the ambient air temperature and relative humidity.
A sketch of the spray cooler is shown in Fig. 2. Ambient air enters the cooler at Ta and /a .
Adding an adequate quantity of water to air stream in the spray cooler raises the air moisture
content and decreases its temperature. If the spray cooler is assumed to be large and insulated this
cooler resembles the classical adiabatic saturation process. Analysis of this process is available in

Cooling Water
m l, h l

a ma
ma 1
ωa ω1
ha h1

Fig. 2. Spray cooler.

 M.M. Alhazmy, Y.S.H. Najjar / Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 415–429 419

the thermodynamics literature. Following the notations of Cengel and Boles [12] applying mass
and energy balances on the cooler as shown in Fig. 2 leads to,
Cpa ðT1
Ta Þ ¼ x1 hfg1 þ xa ðhga
hl1 Þ ð1Þ
where xa and x1 are the humidity ratios (the ratio of the mass of water vapor to the mass of air)
before and after the cooler, respectively. In general x is related to the water vapor pressure at
saturation temperature, and its value at the cooler exit is evaluated according to the following
relation,
0:622Pg1
x1 ¼ ð2Þ
P1
Pg1
where P1 is the pressure at the air intake and Pg1 the saturation pressure of water at the intake
temperature. Eqs. (1) and (2) are coupled through the temperature T1 and x1 , hence a trial and
error scheme is needed to solve for them.
A sketch of the cooling coil cooler is shown in Fig. 3. The cooling coil cooler operates in a
different way than the water spray cooler; however, the temperature and relative humidity of fluid
leaving the cooler depend on the coil temperature and on the relative humidity of ambient air.
Ambient air enters the cooling coil cooler at Ta and /a . Air passing over the outer surface of the
coil experiences a drop in temperature and possibly a decrease in specific humidity (x). The coil
temperature can be adjusted to allow air to reach certain desired temperature. In this case the
cooling load to be removed using the cooling coil can be estimated, hence, the power input to the
associated refrigeration system can also be evaluated. The cooling load (Q) removed from the air
flowing at ambient conditions into the power plant can be estimated in a rate form using the first
law of thermodynamics as follows,
Q ¼ ma Cpa ðT1
Ta Þ ð3Þ
where Cpa is the specific heat of the dry air at constant pressure, and T1 is the temperature at the
compressor inlet fixed at 5 °C using the cooling coil. This value is selected according to Ondryas
et al. [2] as the minimum temperature below which condensation is possible. Assuming that this
load is removed using a typical refrigeration machine having a fixed coefficient of performance,
the power needed to operate such machine is estimated from the following relation,
Q
W ¼ ð4Þ
COP

Fig. 3. Cooling coil.

420 M.M. Alhazmy, Y.S.H. Najjar / Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 415–429

4. Gas turbine cycle

A standard gas turbine cycle is considered for the present analysis. The cycle consists of a
compressor, a combustion chamber and a turbine. Air enters the compressor at T1 , P1 and /1 ,
these values may be different from the ambient conditions due to the air cooler. For a pressure
ratio rc , the pressure of the fluid leaving the compressor can be calculated as,
P02 ¼ rc P01 ð5Þ
where P01 and P02 are the total pressures of moist air entering and leaving the compressor, re-
spectively. Using the polytropic relations for ideal gases, the total temperature of the fluid leaving
a compressor having an isentropic efficiency gc can be calculated as follows,


T01 c
1
T02 ¼ T01 þ rc c
1 ð6Þ
gc
where c is the ratio of the specific heats. The compressor isentropic efficiency gc can be evaluated
using the relations presented by Korakianitis and Wilson [11] as,


rc
1
gc ¼ 1
0:04 þ ð7Þ
150
The compression work wc per unit mass of the working fluid can be estimated for an adiabatic
compressor using the first law of thermodynamics as follows,
wc ¼ Cpa ðT02
T01 Þ þ xðhg2
hg1 Þ ð8Þ
where hg1 and hg2 are the enthalpies of saturated vapor at the compressor inlet and exit, respec-
tively.
In the present analysis the turbine inlet temperature is a predetermined parameter, hence, the
mass of fuel needed to reach a certain desired turbine inlet temperature is obtained by applying
the first law of thermodynamics to the combustion chamber. The first law of thermodynamics for
an insulated chamber can be written as,
X X
mi hi ¼ mi hi ð9Þ
inlet exit

The inlet streams are the moist air coming from the compressor and the fuel needed for the
combustion process. The exit stream is the flue gas (combustion products). Eq. (9) can be written
as,
ma ha02 þ mw hw02 þ mf hf ¼ mg hg þ mw hw03 ð10Þ
where m is the mass flow rate, h is the specific enthalpy of each stream, and subscripts a for air, w
for water vapor, f for fuel and g for flue gas. Air and combustion products are assumed to behave
as ideal gases, hence Eq. (10) can be written as,
Cpa ðT02
298Þ þ f Dhc ¼ xðh03
h02 Þ þ ð1 þ f ÞCpg ðT03
298Þ ð11Þ
where x is the specific humidity, Cpg is the specific heat of the flue gas at constant pressure, f is the
fuel to air ratio defined as f ¼ mf =ma , and Dhc is the caloric value of the fuel. Rearranging the
variables in Eq. (11) yields,
 M.M. Alhazmy, Y.S.H. Najjar / Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 415–429 421

Cpg ðT03
298Þ þ xðh03
h02 Þ
Cpa ðT02
298Þ

f ¼ ð12Þ
Dhc
Cpg ðT03
298Þ
The combustion chamber delivers the working fluid to the turbine at the desired temperature T03 .
The working fluid flowing through the turbine consists of the flue gases and water vapor with a
total mass mtot equals to,
mtot ¼ ma þ mw þ mf
ð13Þ
mtot ¼ ma ð1 þ x þ f Þ
The polytropic relations for ideal gasses can be applied to determine the temperature of the fluid
leaving the turbine as follows,

c
1 !
1 c
T04 ¼ T03 þ gt T03
1 ð14Þ
rc

where gt is the isentropic efficiency of the turbine estimated using the relation given by Kora-
kianitis and Wilson [11] as,


rc
1
gt ¼ 1
0:03 þ ð15Þ
180
The power produced by the turbine per unit mass of flue gases is evaluated using the first law of
thermodynamics for an adiabatic turbine to get,
wt ¼ ð1 þ x þ f Þ½Cpg ðT03
T04 Þ ð16Þ
Hence, the net specific power obtained from the gas turbine power plant is,
wn ¼ wt
wc ð17Þ
The thermal efficiency of the gas turbine power plant can be calculated as,
wn
gth ¼ ð18Þ
f Dhc
The mass of water condensable form the exhaust gas can be easily estimated using the ther-
modynamic relations of gas mixtures. By assuming that the water vapor behaves as an ideal gas
the partial pressure of water vapor in the mixture is the same as the mole fraction. Water vapor in
the exhaust gas comes, in general, from two sources: the moisture accompanying air entering the
compressor and the combustion process. By knowing the humidity ratio and the fuel composition,
for complete combustion, the mole fraction of the water vapor can be determined. The knowledge
of the mole fraction and the total pressure are sufficient to evaluate the amount of water vapor in
the exhaust gas as follows,


af
mv ¼ ma x þ 18:2 ð19Þ
MMf
where MMf is the fuel molar mass and a is the number of moles of water vapor produced by
burning one mole of fuel.
422 M.M. Alhazmy, Y.S.H. Najjar / Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 415–429

5. Results

In order to establish a systematic comparison between the effects of the two coolers, the per-
formance of the gas turbine power plant is examined for the restricted set of operational and
design conditions shown in Table 1 when using the fluids properties shown in Table 2. The power
plant performance characterized by the plant efficiency and net power is shown in addition to the
mass of water condensable from the exhaust gases to reusing it after proper recycling. The selected
variables are the ambient temperature (Ta ) and relative humidity (/), in addition to the turbine
inlet temperature (T03 ) and the pressure ratio (rc ).
To establish a reference for comparison, the mentioned performance characteristics are ex-
amined for three different plant configurations. The first configuration is a simple gas tur-
bine power plant without an air cooler. The second and third configurations are the same gas
turbine power plant but with water spray cooler and cooling coil, respectively. The results of the
simple power plant configuration are used as a reference with which the results from the other two
configurations are compared (Table 3).
The design point is fixed at the ambient conditions of 45 °C, 80% relative humidity, 1500 °C
turbine inlet temperature and a pressure ratio of 12. The off design points are selected in the
vicinity of these values as listed in Table 1. Figs. 4–8 show the performance characteristics re-
sulting from a systematic change of one design parameter and keeping the rest fixed at the design
point conditions.

Table 1
Operational and design parameters
Parameter Design point
Ta (°C) 25 30 35 40 45 50
/a 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
T03 (°C) 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600
rc 6 7 8 10 12 15

Table 2
Physical properties of the fluids
Component Property
Air Specific heat For 200 K < T < 800 K
Cpa ¼ 1:0189134  103
1:3783636  10
1 T
þ 1:9843397  10
4 T 2 þ 4:2399242  10
7 T 3
For 800 K < T < 2200 K
Cpa ¼ 7:9865509  102 þ 5:3392159  10
1 T

2:2881694  10
4 T 2 þ 3:7420857  10
8 T 3
Flue gas Specific heat Cpg ¼ 1:0887572  103
1:4158834  10
1 T
þ 1:9160159  10
3 T 2
1:2400934  10
6 T 3
þ 3:0669459  10
10 T 4
2:6117109  10
14 T 5
Water vapor All properties Properties are obtained using CATT software [13]
Fuel Caloric value, Dhc 42 500 (kJ/kg)
 M.M. Alhazmy, Y.S.H. Najjar / Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 415–429 423

Table 3
Performance response at part load conditions
Parameter Cooling coil Spray cooler Reference plant
Power generation
T0a 10.4 1.2 1.3
T03 )17.1 )12.6 )12.7
/ 5.0 0.5 )0.7
rc )3.4 )1.7 )1.5
Efficiency
T0a 10.4 1.1 1.1
T03 )5.4 0.8 0.8
/ 5.0 0.5 0.5
rc )3.9 )6.1 )6.1
Water
T0a )22.0 )23.7 )24.7
T03 )12.4 )12.9 )13.3
/ 0.0 )1.4 )14.0
rc 4.1 4.6 4.7

1.2
1.05
1.1

1.0 0.95

W/Wd 0.9 η/ηd

0.85
0.8
0.75
0.7

0.6 0.65
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2
(a) Ta /Tad (b) Ta /Tad


Fig. 4. Relative change in power (W/m3air ) and efficiency with ambient temperature: ( ) reference plant, () spray cooler
and (M) cooling coil.

The spray cooler reduces the air inlet temperature by 15 °C for hot and dray ambient conditions
(50 °C and 40% relative humidity) and by 2.62 °C for cold and humid conditions (25 °C and 90%).
While the cold coil fixes the air inlet temperature to the desired value of 5 °C making a tem-
perature drop of 20–40 °C and demanding an operational power that varies with ambient con-
ditions.
Part (a) of Fig. 4 shows the change in power generated from the three configurations with
ambient temperature plotted relative to the power generated by the reference plant at the design
point. Similarly part (b) shows the relative change the plant efficiency with the ambient temper-
ature for the three configurations relative to the efficiency of the reference plant at the design
point. The spray cooler boosts the power 1.5% for cold humid conditions (Ta ¼ 25 °C and
424 M.M. Alhazmy, Y.S.H. Najjar / Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 415–429

1.08 1.05
1.04 1.00
1.00 0.95
0.96
W/Wd 0.92 η /ηd 0.90
0.85
0.88
0.84 0.80
0.80 0.75
0.76 0.70
0.72 0.65
0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2
(a) φ /φ d (b) φ /φ d


Fig. 5. Relative change in power (W/m3air ) and efficiency with relative humidity: ( ) reference plant, () spray cooler
and (M) cooling coil.

1.1
1.15
1.05 1.0
0.95 0.9
0.85
0.8
W/Wd 0.75 η /ηd
0.65 0.7
0.55 0.6
0.45
0.35 0.5
0.25 0.4
0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1
(a) To3 /To3d (b) To3 /To3d


Fig. 6. Variations relative power (W/m3air ) and efficiency with T03 : ( ) reference plant, () spray cooler and (M) cooling
coil.

1.05 1.1
1.00 1.0
0.95
0.9
0.90
0.85 0.8
W/Wd η /ηd 0.7
0.80
0.75
0.6
0.70
0.65 0.5
0.60 0.4
0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4
(a) rc /rcd (b) rc /rcd


Fig. 7. Variations relative power (W/m3air ) and efficiency with rc : ( ) reference plant, () spray cooler and (M) cooling
coil.
 M.M. Alhazmy, Y.S.H. Najjar / Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 415–429 425

2.0
2.20 1.8
1.6
1.70
mw /m wd

mw /m wd
1.4
1.2
1.20
1.0

0.70 0.8
0.6
0.20 0.4
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2
(a) Ta /Tad (b) φ /φd

2.2 2.3
2.0 2.1
1.8 1.9
1.6
1.7
mw /m wd

mw /m wd
1.4
1.2 1.5
1.0 1.3
0.8
1.1
0.6
0.4 0.9
0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4
(c) To3 /To3d (d) rc /rcd

Fig. 8. Variations of the mass condensable water (kg/kgair ) with the four operational parameters: ( ) reference plant, 
() spray cooler and (M) cooling coil.

/ ¼ 80%) due to a 2.62 °C drop in the air inlet temperature. This enhancement increases to 1.95%
for hot and humid conditions (Ta ¼ 50 °C and / ¼ 80%) as the inlet air temperature drops by 3.95
°C. An average increment of 0.57% for each 1 °C drop in inlet temperature is achieved. This effect
is expected since the spray cooler increases the density of air by reducing its temperature besides
increasing its moisture content. Similar results could be expected from using a cooling coil,
however, the power needed to operate the external refrigeration machine maintaining the cooling
coil must be considered. Air leaves the cooling coil saturated at a fixed temperature of 5 °C (which
is below the dew point temperature of the entire operational range of ambient conditions) re-
gardless of the ambient conditions. Therefore, the turbine output for this configuration becomes
independent of the ambient conditions. During cold ambient conditions the cooling coil causes a
20 °C drop in inlet air temperature and during hot ambient conditions a 45 °C drop is achieved.
The power needed to maintain the cold coil increases with ambient temperature, by extracting this
power from the turbine output the net power generated by the power plant drops considerably.
The output of the turbine increases by 10% for cold and humid conditions (Ta ¼ 25 °C and
/ ¼ 80%) as the temperature drops by of 20 °C. The net power generated from the plant suffers a
reduction of 6.1% after subtracting the power required to maintain the cold coil from the turbine
output. For hot and humid operational conditions (Ta ¼ 50 °C and / ¼ 80%) the cold coil reduces
the inlet temperature by 45 °C and enhances the turbine output by 18%, however, the overall
426 M.M. Alhazmy, Y.S.H. Najjar / Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 415–429

power generated from the plant reduces by 37.6% after subtracting the power consumed in re-
frigeration.
The efficiency of the reference plant and that using a spray cooler are approximately the same.
Spray cooler increases the efficiency of the power plant by 3.25% for cold humid conditions. For
hot humid conditions the spray cooler reduces air temperature by 3.95 °C causing a minor in-
crease of 0.18% in the plant efficiency. The improvement of the plant efficiency is decreasing as
the ambient temperature increases, simply because the inverse relation between air density and
temperature. Large deterioration in the efficiency of the cold coil configuration occurs at high
temperature due to the increasing cooling load. The cold coil enhances the turbine output by
increasing the density of inlet air. An increase of 10–18% in the turbine output can be attained
depending on the ambient conditions. The power extracted for refrigeration must, unfortunately,
be included since the integrated system (plant and cooler) are considered in the present study.
Hence, during hot and humid conditions the overall efficiency of the plant reduces by 30%. During
cold humid conditions, in the other hand, the improvement of the turbine output overcomes the
cooling load needed for refrigeration and a 5% increase in the plant efficiency is achieved.
Fig. 5 shows the change in relative power and efficiency of each of the three configurations with
ambient relative humidity. Increasing the ambient relative humidity means an increase in the
moisture content, hence, the density of the air flowing into the plant. The relative power generated
from the plant using the spray cooler decreases by 0.4% as the ambient relative humidity increases
by 10%, which can be attributed to the method of operation of the spray cooler. When the am-
bient air has high humidity, the temperature drop across the spray cooler is very small (zero if
incoming air is saturated). A 10% decrease in the ambient relative humidity causes a 5% im-
provement of the power output. This is because both the moisture added by the spray cooler and
temperature drop increase as the relative humidity decreases. For the plant using the cooling coil,
the net power output decreases as the humidity increases, obviously because more moisture need
to be removed by condensation. The net power generated from this configuration decreases by
5.1% as the relative humidity increases by 10%. A reduction of 10% in the relative humidity of
ambient air elevates the net power by 5%.
The efficiency of each configuration drops as the ambient relative humidity increases. The ef-
ficiency of the reference plant and that using a spray cooler are approximately the same. For the
plant using cooling coil the efficiency drops considerably with increasing ambient humidity. This is
because more moisture is to be removed by condensation. An increase of 10% in the relative
humidity of the ambient air reduces the efficiency of the plant using the cooling coil by 5.1%, and
reduces the efficiency of the reference plant and the plant using spray cooler by 0.5%. A decrease
of 10% in the relative humidity of the ambient air increases the efficiency of the plant using cooling
coil by 5% and the efficiency of the reference plant and that using spray cooler by 0.5%.
Increasing the turbine inlet temperature (T03 ) in the reference plant (Fig. 6) increases, as ex-
pected, the power output and reduces the plant efficiency. The result is the same when a spray
cooler is used. The power generated from the reference plant increases by 13% for a 10% increase
in T03 , and decreases by 12% for a 10% reduction in T03 . For a 10% increase in the turbine inlet
temperature the power generated from the spray cooler configuration increases by 15% relative to
the power generated from the reference plant at design point. An 11% reduction in this power
occurs due to a 10% decrease in T03 . Increasing the turbine inlet temperature augments efficiency
of the configuration using the cooling coil. This is simply due to the fact that the cooling load on
 M.M. Alhazmy, Y.S.H. Najjar / Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 415–429 427

the coils is independent of T03 , however, the power generated from the turbine increases with the
turbine inlet temperature. The power generated from the plant using the cold coil increases by
16% for a 10% increase in T03 , and decreases by 14% for 10% reduction in T03 .
The efficiency of the reference plant and the plant using the spray cooler have similar relations
with T03 . The efficiencies of the reference plant and that using the spray cooler decrease by 1.7% as
T03 increases by 10%, while a 10% drop in T03 causes a 1% improvement in these efficiencies. The
efficiency of the plant using the cold coil increases by 3% when T03 increases by 10% and decreases
by 4% for a 10% drop in T03 .
Fig. 7 shows that both the power generated and the efficiency from the three configurations
increase with increasing the pressure ratio. Nevertheless, the plant using the spray cooler has the
highest values for the entire range. The variations in the power and efficiency of the three con-
figurations have similar relation with pressure ratio. This is expected because the cooling load on
both coolers is independent of pressure ratios. A 10% increase in the pressure ratio elevates the
power generated from the plant using the cold coil by 1.4% and has a negligible effect the power
generated from the reference plant and the plant using the spray cooler. A 10% reduction in the
pressure ratio, however, reduces the power generated by the reference plant by 1.5% and that
generated by the spray cooler and the cold coil configurations by 1.6% and 2.7%, respectively. A
10% increase in the pressure ratio increases the efficiency of the plant using cold coil by 5.7% and
the efficiency of each of the reference plant and that using spray cooler by 7.2%. A reduction of
10% in the pressure ratio reduces the efficiency of the plant using the cold coil by 5.2% and the
efficiency of each of the other two plants by 6.1%.
The four parts of Fig. 8 show the variation of mass of water condensable from the exhaust of
the three considered configurations with operational parameters. The mass of condensable water
increases with ambient temperature for the three configurations. This is because the mass of
water vapor contained originally within the ambient air increases with temperature for the same
relative humidity level. Moreover, the two coolers increase the density of the air flowing into the
system, so more mass of the ambient air (and water vapor) are introduced to the plant. The
spray cooler operates by adding moisture to the inlet air hence the mass of water condensable
from this configuration is even more. Increasing the ambient relative humidity increases, ob-
viously, the mass of condensable water. Increasing the turbine inlet temperature means more
fuel should be burned and more water vapor may be expected in the flue gases due to com-
bustion of hydrocarbon fuels. Increasing the pressure ratio leads to less fuel consumption, hence
fewer mass of water vapor in the exhaust gases. At design point conditions, the mass of water
condensable from the spray cooler and the cooling coil configurations are higher than that
condensable from the reference plant by 79% and 70%, respectively. As the ambient air tem-
perature increases by 10% the mass of condensable water increases by 32.7% for the reference
plant, by 46.1% for the cold coil configuration and by 55% for the spray cooler configuration. A
10% drop in the ambient temperature, however, causes a 24.6% increase in the mass of water
condensable from the reference plant, a 33.8% increase for the plant using the cold coil and a
43% increase for the plant using the spray cooler. Increasing the ambient relative humidity
increases the mass of water condensable from the reference and spray cooler configurations.
Increasing the ambient relative humidity has no effect on the mass of water condensable from
the plant using the cold coil, simply, because this cooler delivers saturated air at fixed tem-
perature.
428 M.M. Alhazmy, Y.S.H. Najjar / Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 415–429

Increasing the turbine inlet temperatures requires using more fuel, for this reason an increase of
10% in the turbine inlet temperature causes a 12.4% increase in the mass of water condensable
from the reference plant, 23.6% from the plant using the spray cooler and 21.6% from the plant
using the cold coil. A 10% decrease in the turbine inlet temperature reduces the mass of water
condensable from the reference plant by 13%, the mass of water condensable from the spray
cooler configuration by 23% and that condensable from the cold coil configuration by 21%.
Increasing the pressure ratio increases the temperature of air entering the combustion chamber.
In this way less fuel is needed to reach the desired turbine inlet temperature. Increasing the
pressure ratio by 10% decreases the mass of water condensable from the reference plant by 6.7%,
and the mass of water condensable from spray cooler and the cold coil configurations by 11.8%
and 9.8%, respectively. Reducing the pressure ratio by 10%, in the other hand, causes a 4.7%
increase in the mass of water condensable from the exhaust of the reference plant, an 8.2% in-
crease in the mass of water condensable from the exhaust of the spray cooler configuration and a
6.9% increases in the mass of water condensable from the exhaust of the cold coil configuration.

6. Conclusions

The spray coolers appear to be capable of boosting the power and enhancing the efficiency of
the gas turbine power plant in a way that is less expensive than cold coils. Although the per-
formance of spray coolers is deeply influenced by the ambient temperature and humidity, they
operate efficiently during hot and dry climatic conditions. The present analysis shows that the
spray cooler reduces the temperature of incoming air by 3–15 °C, enhancing the power by 1–7%
and improving the efficiency by 3%. These results agree with Refs. [6,7]. Increasing the relative
humidity deteriorates the performance of such coolers considerably. Providing the water needed
for the operation of these coolers may be a challenge in some areas, however, condensing the
water from the exhaust system is a method for recovering partially the make-up water for spray
coolers in dry climates.
Cold coil gives a full control on the compressor inlet conditions; however it demands a quite
large operational power. Extracting this power from the gas turbine output reduces the overall
plant performance. Cooling coil improves the turbine output by 10% during cold humid condi-
tions and by 18% during hot humid conditions, however net power generated from the plant
drops by 6.1% and 37.6%, respectively. Other means like energy storage at non-peak load periods
might make such a configuration economically feasible, but with higher initial cost.

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