Abstract
The study was developed inside an integrated steel mill, located in Rio de Janeiro city, aiming to analyse the technical-economic feasibility of installing a new inlet air refrigeration system for the gas turbines. The technologies applied for such purpose are named Turbine Inlet Air Cooling (TIAC) technologies. The power plant utilizes High Fogging and Evaporative Cooling methods for reducing the compressor’s inlet air temperature, however, the ambient climate condition hampers the turbine’s power output when considering its design operation values. Hence, this study was proposed to analyse the installation of an additional cooling system. The abovementioned power plant has two heavy-duty gas turbines and one steam turbine, connected in a combined cycle configuration. The cycle nominal power generation capacity is 450 MW with each of the gas turbines responsible for 90 MW. The gas turbines operate with steelwork gases, mainly blast furnace gas (BFG), and natural gas. The plant has its own weather station, which provided significant and precise data regarding the local climate conditions over the year of 2017. An in-house computer model was created to simulate the gas turbine power generation and fuel consumption considering both cases: with the proposed TIAC system and without it, allowing the evaluation of the power output increase due to the new refrigeration system. The results point out for improvements of 4.22% on the power output, corresponding to the electricity demand of approximately 32960 Brazilian homes per month or yearly earnings of 3.92 million USD.
Highlights
Nowadays, the modern society requirement for energy is continuously raising and studies indicate an annual average growth rate of approximately 6% on the global electricity demand (Ibrahim, et al, 2018)
The principle for electricity generation on a combined cycle power plant is based on the high temperatures of the gas turbine (GT) exhaust gases, which are directed to a Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) providing enough energy for the steam to move a steam turbine
The power output gain curves associated with the relative humidity behave as expected
Summary
The modern society requirement for energy is continuously raising and studies indicate an annual average growth rate of approximately 6% on the global electricity demand (Ibrahim, et al, 2018). Following the environmental concerns regarding climate change, the need for optimization on energy generation processes is verified (Ersayin & Ozgener, 2015), (Chowdhury, et al, 2018). In this context, a way to utilize energetic resources more efficiently is to produce electricity via combined cycle power plants (Poullikkas, 2005). The principle for electricity generation on a combined cycle power plant is based on the high temperatures of the gas turbine (GT) exhaust gases, which are directed to a Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) providing enough energy for the steam to move a steam turbine. The combined cycle configuration can be designed to operate integrated with an industrial process that involves the formation of gases and water vapour, such configuration is utilized in industries worldwide to enhance the efficiency of powertrains, optimizing the energy generation process and reducing its inherent costs and environmental consequences (Ersayin & Ozgener, 2015), (Jeffs, 2008)
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