Gas Turbine Exhaust Energy Margin in a Combined Cycle Power Plant

Author(s):  
Paul B. Johnston

Margining gas turbine exhaust energy exposes the EPC (Engineering, Procurement & Construction) contractor to risk when developing overall plant performance guarantees. The objective of this paper is to explain the nature of this risk, recognize its significance and propose ways of mitigation. Sharing risk between the Developer and the contractor should be apportioned to maximize value for the project. Attention is focused on 2 on 1 combined cycle power plants, but the results are relevant for all types of gas turbine based power and cogeneration facilities. Risk mitigation alternatives discussed include both assessment of margins to the bottomline performance and the application of performance corrections at the time of field testing. Allowing for corrections leads to enhanced overall plant performance guarantees.

Author(s):  
R. W. Jones ◽  
A. C. Shoults

This paper presents details of three large gas turbine installations in the Freeport, Texas, power plants of the Dow Chemical Company. The general plant layout, integration of useful outputs, economic factors leading to the selection of these units, and experiences during startup and operation will be reviewed. All three units operate with supercharging fan, evaporative cooler, and static excitation. Two of the installations are nearly identical 32,000-kw gas turbines operating in a combined cycle with a supplementary fired 1,500,000-lb/hr boiler and a 50,000-kw noncondensing steam turbine. The other installation is a 43,000-kw gas turbine and a 20,000-kw starter-helper steam turbine on the same shaft. The gas turbine exhaust is used to supply heated feedwater for four existing boilers.


Author(s):  
S. Can Gülen

A supercritical steam bottoming cycle has been proposed as a performance enhancement option for gas turbine combined cycle power plants. The technology has been widely used in coal-fired steam turbine power plants since the 1950s and can be considered a mature technology. Its application to the gas-fired combined cycle systems presents unique design challenges due to the much lower gas temperatures (i.e., 650 °C at the gas turbine exhaust vis-à-vis 2000 °C in fossil fuel-fired steam boilers). Thus, the potential impact of the supercritical steam conditions is hampered to the point of economic infeasibility. This technical brief draws upon the second-law based exergy concept to rigorously quantify the performance entitlement of a supercritical high-pressure boiler section in a heat recovery steam generator utilizing the exhaust of a gas turbine to generate steam for power generation in a steam turbine.


Author(s):  
Akber Pasha

In recent years the combined cycle has become a very attractive power plant arrangement because of its high cycle efficiency, short order-to-on-line time and flexibility in the sizing when compared to conventional steam power plants. However, optimization of the cycle and selection of combined cycle equipment has become more complex because the three major components, Gas Turbine, Heat Recovery Steam Generator and Steam Turbine, are often designed and built by different manufacturers. Heat Recovery Steam Generators are classified into two major categories — 1) Natural Circulation and 2) Forced Circulation. Both circulation designs have certain advantages, disadvantages and limitations. This paper analyzes various factors including; availability, start-up, gas turbine exhaust conditions, reliability, space requirements, etc., which are affected by the type of circulation and which in turn affect the design, price and performance of the Heat Recovery Steam Generator. Modern trends around the world are discussed and conclusions are drawn as to the best type of circulation for a Heat Recovery Steam Generator for combined cycle application.


2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (12) ◽  
pp. 57-57
Author(s):  
Lee S. Langston

This article presents an overview of gas turbine combined cycle (CCGT) power plants. Modern CCGT power plants are producing electric power as high as half a gigawatt with thermal efficiencies approaching the 60% mark. In a CCGT power plant, the gas turbine is the key player, driving an electrical generator. Heat from the hot gas turbine exhaust is recovered in a heat recovery steam generator, to generate steam, which drives a steam turbine to generate more electrical power. Thus, it is a combined power plant burning one unit of fuel to supply two sources of electrical power. Most of these CCGT plants burn natural gas, which has the lowest carbon content of any other hydrocarbon fuel. Their near 60% thermal efficiencies lower fuel costs by almost half compared to other gas-fired power plants. Their installed capital cost is the lowest in the electric power industry. Moreover, environmental permits, necessary for new plant construction, are much easier to obtain for CCGT power plants.


2014 ◽  
Vol 492 ◽  
pp. 568-573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yinka Sofihullahi Sanusi ◽  
Palanichamy Gandhidasan ◽  
Esmail M.A. Mokheimer

Saudi Arabia is blessed with abundant solar energywhichcan be use to meet its ever increasing power requirement. In this regard, the energy analysis and plant performance of integrated solar combined cycle (ISCC) plant with direct steam generation (DSG) was carried out for Dhahran, Saudi Arabia using four representative months of March, June, September and December. The plant consists of 180MW conventional gas turbine plant and two steam turbines of 80MW and 60MW powered by the solar field and gas turbine exhaust. With high insolation during the summer month of June the plant can achieve up to 25% of solar fraction with ISCC plant efficiency of 45% as compared to gas turbine base of 38%.This can however be improved by increasing the number of collectors or/and the use of auxiliary heater .


Author(s):  
Isaac Shnaid

The modem combined cycle power plants achieved thermal efficiency of 50–55% by applying bottoming multistage Rankine steam cycle. At the same time, the Brayton cycle is an attractive option for a bottoming cycle engine. In the author’s US Patent No. 5,442,904 is described a combined cycle system with a simple cycle gas turbine, the bottoming air turbine Brayton cycle, and the reverse Brayton cycle. In this system, air turbine Brayton cycle produces mechanic power using exergy of gas turbine exhaust gases, while the reverse Brayton cycle refrigerates gas turbine inlet air. Using this system, supercharging of gas turbine compressor becomes possible. In the paper, thermodynamic optimization of the system is done, and the system techno-economic characteristics are evaluated.


Author(s):  
Lothar Bachmann ◽  
W. Fred Koch

The purpose of this paper is to update the industry on the evolutionary steps that have been taken to address higher requirements imposed on the new generation combined cycle gas turbine exhaust ducting expansion joints, diverter and damper systems. Since the more challenging applications are in the larger systems, we shall concentrate on sizes from nine (9) square meters up to forty (40) square meters in ducting cross sections. (Reference: General Electric Frame 5 through Frame 9 sizes.) Severe problems encountered in gas turbine applications for the subject equipment are mostly traceable to stress buckling caused by differential expansion of components, improper insulation, unsuitable or incompatible mechanical design of features, components or materials, or poor workmanship. Conventional power plant expansion joints or dampers are designed for entirely different operating conditions and should not be applied in gas turbine applications. The sharp transients during gas turbine start-up as well as the very high temperature and high mass-flow operation conditions require specific designs for gas turbine application.


Author(s):  
A. Zwebek ◽  
P. Pilidis

This paper describes the effects of degradation of the main gas path components of the gas turbine topping cycle on the Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) plant performance. Firstly the component degradation effects on the gas turbine performance as an independent unit are examined. It is then shown how this degradation is reflected on a steam turbine plant of the CCGT and on the complete Combined Cycle plant. TURBOMATCH, the gas turbine performance code of Cranfield University was used to predict the effects of degraded gas path components of the gas turbine have on its performance as a whole plant. To simulate the steam (Bottoming) cycle, another Fortran code was developed. Both codes were used together to form a complete software system that can predict the CCGT plant design point, off-design, and deteriorated (due to component degradation) performances. The results show that the overall output is very sensitive to many types of degradation, specially in the turbine of the gas turbine. Also shown is the effect on gas turbine exhaust conditions and how this affects the steam cycle.


Author(s):  
A. Hofstädter ◽  
H. U. Frutschi ◽  
H. Haselbacher

Steam injection is a well-known principle for increasing gas turbine efficiency by taking advantage of the relatively high gas turbine exhaust temperatures. Unfortunately, performance is not sufficiently improved compared with alternative bottoming cycles. However, previously investigated supplements to the STIG-principle — such as sequential combustion and consideration of a back pressure steam turbine — led to a remarkable increase in efficiency. The cycle presented in this paper includes a further improvement: The steam, which exits from the back pressure steam turbine at a rather low temperature, is no longer led directly into the combustion chamber. Instead, it reenters the boiler to be further superheated. This modification yields additional improvement of the thermal efficiency due to a significant reduction of fuel consumption. Taking into account the simpler design compared with combined-cycle power plants, the described type of an advanced STIG-cycle (A-STIG) could represent an interesting alternative regarding peak and medium load power plants.


Author(s):  
Takeharu Hasegawa

Our study found that burning a CO-rich gasified coal fuel, derived from an oxygen–CO2 blown gasifier, with oxygen under stoichiometric conditions in a closed cycle gas turbine produced a highly-efficient, oxy-fuel integrated coal gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power generation system with CO2 capture. We diluted stoichiometric combustion with recycled gas turbine exhaust and adjusted for given temperatures. Some of the exhaust was used to feed coal into the gasifier. In doing so, we found it necessary to minimize not only CO and H2 of unburned fuel constituents but also residual O2, not consumed in the gas turbine combustion process. In this study, we examined the emission characteristics of gasified-fueled stoichiometric combustion with oxygen through numerical analysis based on reaction kinetics. Furthermore, we investigated the reaction characteristics of reactant gases of CO, H2, and O2 remaining in the recirculating gas turbine exhaust using present numerical procedures. As a result, we were able to clarify that since fuel oxidation reaction is inhibited due to reasons of exhaust recirculation and lower oxygen partial pressure, CO oxidization is very sluggish and combustion reaction does not reach equilibrium at the combustor exit. In the case of a combustor exhaust temperature of 1573 K (1300 °C), we estimated that high CO exhaust emissions of about a few percent, in tens of milliseconds, corresponded to the combustion gas residence time in the gas turbine combustor. Combustion efficiency was estimated to reach only about 76%, which was a lower value compared to H2/O2-fired combustion while residual O2 in exhaust was 2.5 vol%, or five times as much as the equilibrium concentration. On the other hand, unburned constituents in an expansion turbine exhaust were slowed to oxidize in a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) flue processing, and exhaust gases reached equilibrium conditions. In this regard, however, reaction heat in HRSG could not devote enough energy for combined cycle thermal efficiency, making advanced combustion technology necessary for achieving highly efficient, oxy-fuel IGCC.


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