Optimization Concerns for Combined Cycle Power Plants: II — Optimum Fuel Gas Heating

Author(s):  
Walter I. Serbetci

As the second study in a sequence of studies conducted on the optimization of combined cycle plants [Ref. 1], this paper presents the effects of fuel gas heating on plant performance and plant economics for various 1×1×1 configurations. First, the theoretical background is presented to explain the effects of fuel gas heating on combustion turbine efficiency and on the overall efficiency of the combined cycle plant. Then, *CycleDeck-Performance Estimator™ and *GateCycle™ computer codes were used to investigate the impact of fuel gas heating on various 1×1×1 configurations. The configurations studied here are: 1) GE CC107FA with three pressure/reheat HRSG and General Electric PG7241(FA) gas turbine (Fig. 1), 2) GE CC106FA with three pressure/reheat HRSG and General Electric PG6101(FA) gas turbine and, 3) GE CC 107EA with three pressure/non-reheat HRSG with General Electric PG7121(EA) gas turbine. In all calculations, natural gas with high methane percentage is used as a typical fuel gas. Hot water from the outlet of IP economizer is used to heat the fuel gas from its supply temperature of 80 °F (27 °C). Heating the fuel gas to target temperatures of 150 °F, 200 °F, 250° F, 300 °F, 350 °F, 375 °F, 400 °F and 425 °F ( 66, 93, 121, 149, 177, 191, 204 and 218 °C), the combustion turbine power output, the combustion turbine heat rate and the plant power output and the corresponding heat rate are determined for each target fuel temperature. For each configuration, the heat transfer surface required to heat the fuel gas to the given target temperatures are also determined and budgetary price quotes are obtained for the fuel gas heaters. As expected, as the fuel temperature is increased, the overall efficiency (therefore the heat rate) improved, however at the expense of some small power output loss. Factoring in the fuel cost savings, the opportunity cost of the power lost, the cost of the various size performance heaters and the incremental auxiliary power consumption (if any), a cost-benefit analysis is carried out and the economically optimum fuel temperature and the corresponding performance heater size are determined for each 1×1×1 configuration.

Author(s):  
S. Can Gülen

Duct firing in the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) of a gas turbine combined cycle power plant is a commonly used method to increase output on hot summer days when gas turbine airflow and power output lapse significantly. The aim is to generate maximum possible power output when it is most needed (and, thus, more profitable) at the expense of power plant heat rate. In this paper, using fundamental thermodynamic arguments and detailed heat and mass balance simulations, it will be shown that, under certain boundary conditions, duct firing in the HRSG can be a facilitator of efficiency improvement as well. When combined with highly-efficient aeroderivative gas turbines with high cycle pressure ratios and concomitantly low exhaust temperatures, duct firing can be utilized for small but efficient combined cycle power plant designs as well as more efficient hot-day power augmentation. This opens the door to efficient and agile fossil fuel-fired power generation opportunities to support variable renewable generation.


Author(s):  
Dereje Shiferaw ◽  
Robert Broad

The purpose of this paper is to show how compact heat exchanger technology can offer energy savings and hence cycle efficiency improvements on new and existing gas turbine installations by being utilised for fuel gas heating. After a brief introduction to high temperature compact heat exchanger technology and comparison to traditional equipment, thermodynamic cycle analysis for a combined cycle gas turbine plant (CCGT) is used show the advantages of compact technology over conventional technology, analysing the fuel gas heating, to illustrate the overall savings. A case study is used to demonstrate an increase in net LHV electric efficiency in the range of 0.5 to 1.17 % achievable using high effectiveness compact diffusion bonded heat exchangers in fuel gas heating. Intermediate pressure and high pressure feed water heating is considered for increasing the fuel gas inlet temperature to the combustor. The model is built in Excel and is extended to a capital expenditure overview based on new or a retrofitting in existing plants.


2020 ◽  
Vol 178 ◽  
pp. 01033
Author(s):  
George Marin ◽  
Dmitrii Mendeleev ◽  
Boris Osipov ◽  
Azat Akhmetshin

The development of gas turbine technologies requires the search for new solutions to improve the efficiency of gas turbine plants. The energy characteristics of a gas turbine depend on many external factors the temperature and pressure of the surrounding air including the composition of the fuel gas. This paper considers the effect of fuel gas temperature. Natural gas, synthesis gas, and aviation kerosene are considered as fuel for a gas turbine. For research, a gas turbine of the GE 6FA model was selected and its mathematical model was created. The results of calculations of the effect of fuel temperature on the energy and economic characteristics of a gas turbine are presented. The dependences of the main characteristics of the turbine were obtained. At the same time, the turbine power is assumed constant since during possible operation as part of a combined cycle gas turbine unit it is necessary to maintain a constant temperature of the exhaust gases after the gas turbine. The assumption was made the costs of heating the fuel were not considered.


Author(s):  
Thormod Andersen ◽  
Hanne M. Kvamsdal ◽  
Olav Bolland

A concept for capturing and sequestering CO2 from a natural gas fired combined cycle power plant is presented. The present approach is to decarbonise the fuel prior to combustion by reforming natural gas, producing a hydrogen-rich fuel. The reforming process consists of an air-blown pressurised auto-thermal reformer that produces a gas containing H2, CO and a small fraction of CH4 as combustible components. The gas is then led through a water gas shift reactor, where the equilibrium of CO and H2O is shifted towards CO2 and H2. The CO2 is then captured from the resulting gas by chemical absorption. The gas turbine of this system is then fed with a fuel gas containing approximately 50% H2. In order to achieve acceptable level of fuel-to-electricity conversion efficiency, this kind of process is attractive because of the possibility of process integration between the combined cycle and the reforming process. A comparison is made between a “standard” combined cycle and the current process with CO2-removal. This study also comprise an investigation of using a lower pressure level in the reforming section than in the gas turbine combustor and the impact of reduced steam/carbon ratio in the main reformer. The impact on gas turbine operation because of massive air bleed and the use of a hydrogen rich fuel is discussed.


Author(s):  
R. K. Bhargava ◽  
C. B. Meher-Homji ◽  
M. A. Chaker ◽  
M. Bianchi ◽  
F. Melino ◽  
...  

The strong influence of ambient temperature on the output and heat rate on a gas turbine has popularized the application of inlet fogging and overspray for power augmentation. One of the main advantages of overspray fogging is that it enhances power output as a result of decrease in compression work associated with the continuous evaporation of water within the compressor due to fog intercooling. A comprehensive review on the current understanding of the analytical and experimental aspects of overspray fogging technology as applied to gas turbines is presented in this paper.


Author(s):  
K. K. Botros ◽  
H. Golshan ◽  
D. Rogers ◽  
B. Sloof

Gas turbine (GT) engines employed in natural gas compressor stations operate in different modes depending on the power, turbine inlet temperature and shaft speeds. These modes apply different sequencing of bleed valve opening on the air compressor side of the engine. Improper selection of the GT and the driven centrifugal gas compressor operating conditions can lead to larger bleed losses due to wider bleed valve openings. The bleed loss inevitably manifests itself in the form of higher overall heat rate of the GT and greater engine emission. It is therefore imperative to determine and understand the engine and process conditions that drive the GT to operate in these different modes. The ultimate objective is to operate the engine away from the inefficient modes by adjusting the driven gas compressor parameters as well as the overall station operating conditions (i.e. load sharing, control set points, etc.). This paper describes a methodology to couple the operating conditions of the gas compressor to the modes of GT bleed valve opening (and the subsequent air bleed rates) leading to identification of the operating parameters for optimal performance (i.e., best overall efficiency and minimum CO2e emission). A predictive tool is developed to quantify the overall efficiency loss as a result of the different bleed opening modes, and map out the condition on the gas compressor characteristics. One year’s worth of operating data taken from two different compressor stations on TransCanada Pipelines’ Alberta system were used to demonstrate the methodology. The first station employs GE-LM1600 gas turbine driving a Cooper Rolls-RFBB-30 centrifugal compressor. The second station employs GE-LM-2500+ gas turbine driving NP PCL-800/N compressor. The analysis conclusively indicates that there are operating regions on the gas compressor maps where losses due to bleed valves are reduced and hence CO2 emissions are lowered, which presents an opportunity for operation optimization.


2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Abdel Rahman ◽  
Esmail M. A. Mokheimer

Cooling the air before entering the compressor of a gas turbine of combined cycle power plants is an effective method to boost the output power of the combined cycles in hot regions. This paper presents a comparative analysis for the effect of different air cooling technologies on increasing the output power of a combined cycle. It also presents a novel system of cooling the gas turbine inlet air using a solar-assisted absorption chiller. The effect of ambient air temperature and relative humidity on the output power is investigated and reported. The study revealed that at the design hour under the hot weather conditions, the total net power output of the plant drops from 268 MW to 226 MW at 48 °C (15.5% drop). The increase in the power output using fogging and evaporative cooling is less than that obtained with chillers since their ability to cool down the air is limited by the wet-bulb temperature. Integrating conventional and solar-assisted absorption chillers increased the net power output of the combined cycle by about 35 MW and 38 MW, respectively. Average and hourly performance during typical days have been conducted and presented. The plants without air inlet cooling system show higher carbon emissions (0.73 kg CO2/kWh) compared to the plant integrated with conventional and solar-assisted absorption chillers (0.509 kg CO2/kWh) and (0.508 kg CO2/kWh), respectively. Also, integrating a conventional absorption chiller shows the lowest capital cost and levelized electricity cost (LEC).


Author(s):  
Tadashi Tsuji

Air cooling blades are usually applied to gas turbines as a basic specification. This blade cooling air is almost 20% of compressor suction air and it means that a great deal of compression load is not converted effectively to turbine power generation. This paper proposes the CCM (Cascade Cooling Module) system of turbine blade air line and the consequent improvement of power generation, which is achieved by the reduction of cooling air consumption with effective use of recovered heat. With this technology, current gas turbines (TIT: turbine inlet temperature: 1350°C) can be up-rated to have a relative high efficiency increase. The increase ratio has a potential to be equivalent to that of 1500°C Class GT/CC against 1350°C Class. The CCM system is designed to enable the reduction of blade cooling air consumption by the low air temperature of 15°C instead of the usual 200–400°C. It causes the turbine operating air to increase at the constant suction air condition, which results in the enhancement of power and thermal efficiency. The CCM is installed in the cooling air line and is composed of three stage coolers: steam generator/fuel preheater stage, heat exchanger stage for hot water supplying and cooler stage with chilled water. The coolant (chilled water) for downstream cooler is produced by an absorption refrigerator operated by the hot water of the upstream heat exchanger. The proposed CCM system requires the modification of cooling air flow network in the gas turbine but produces the direct effect on performance enhancement. When the CCM system is applied to a 700MW Class CC (Combined Cycle) plant (GT TIT: 135°C Class), it is expected that there will be a 40–80MW increase in power and +2–5% relative increase in thermal efficiency.


Author(s):  
Majed Sammak ◽  
Egill Thorbergsson ◽  
Tomas Grönstedt ◽  
Magnus Genrup

The aim of this study was to compare single- and twin-shaft oxy-fuel gas turbines in a semiclosed oxy-fuel combustion combined cycle (SCOC–CC). This paper discussed the turbomachinery preliminary mean-line design of oxy-fuel compressor and turbine. The conceptual turbine design was performed using the axial through-flow code luax-t, developed at Lund University. A tool for conceptual design of axial compressors developed at Chalmers University was used for the design of the compressor. The modeled SCOC–CC gave a net electrical efficiency of 46% and a net power of 106 MW. The production of 95% pure oxygen and the compression of CO2 reduced the gross efficiency of the SCOC–CC by 10 and 2 percentage points, respectively. The designed oxy-fuel gas turbine had a power of 86 MW. The rotational speed of the single-shaft gas turbine was set to 5200 rpm. The designed turbine had four stages, while the compressor had 18 stages. The turbine exit Mach number was calculated to be 0.6 and the calculated value of AN2 was 40 · 106 rpm2m2. The total calculated cooling mass flow was 25% of the compressor mass flow, or 47 kg/s. The relative tip Mach number of the compressor at the first rotor stage was 1.15. The rotational speed of the twin-shaft gas generator was set to 7200 rpm, while that of the power turbine was set to 4800 rpm. A twin-shaft turbine was designed with five turbine stages to maintain the exit Mach number around 0.5. The twin-shaft turbine required a lower exit Mach number to maintain reasonable diffuser performance. The compressor turbine was designed with two stages while the power turbine had three stages. The study showed that a four-stage twin-shaft turbine produced a high exit Mach number. The calculated value of AN2 was 38 · 106 rpm2m2. The total calculated cooling mass flow was 23% of the compressor mass flow, or 44 kg/s. The compressor was designed with 14 stages. The preliminary design parameters of the turbine and compressor were within established industrial ranges. From the results of this study, it was concluded that both single- and twin-shaft oxy-fuel gas turbines have advantages. The choice of a twin-shaft gas turbine can be motivated by the smaller compressor size and the advantage of greater flexibility in operation, mainly in the off-design mode. However, the advantages of a twin-shaft design must be weighed against the inherent simplicity and low cost of the simple single-shaft design.


Author(s):  
Matthias Hiddeman ◽  
Peter Marx

The GT26 gas turbine provides an additional degree of flexibility as the engine operates at high efficiencies from part load to full load while still maintaining low NOx emissions. The sequential combustion, with the EV burner as the basis for this flexibility also extends to the ability to handle wide fluctuations in fuel gas compositions. Increased mass flow was the main driver for the latest GT26 upgrade, resulting in substantial performance improvements. In order to ensure high levels of reliability and availability Alstom followed their philosophy of evolutionary steps to continuously develop their gas turbines. A total of 47 engines of this upgrade of the GT26 gas turbine have been ordered worldwide to date (Status: January 2010) enhancing the business case of power generators by delivering superior operational and fuel flexibility and combined cycle efficiencies up to and beyond 59%.


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