Abstract
A novel heating technology is presented to analyze the influence of inlet air heating on gas turbine efficiency under partial load. This technology uses the waste heat of a low-temperature heat sources, which includes but is not limited to the exhaust gas of a combined-cycle heat-recovery steam generator or a single-cycle gas turbine. A calculation model of the equilibrium running point is used for the given load and the characteristic curves of the compressor and the turbine to study the mechanism of the inlet air heating technology. Then, the equilibrium running line is calculated and drawn in the characteristic curves of the compressor and the turbine. The factors for gas turbine efficiency are discussed through the calculated equilibrium running line. The results show that an increase in inlet air temperature has considerable potential for improving gas turbine efficiency due to the increase in compressor and turbine efficiency. This finding is different from traditional viewpoints. Meanwhile, each partial load has an optimum heating temperature which becomes higher when the load is lower.
Highlights
Heavy-duty gas turbines and their combined cycles have the advantages of high thermal efficiency, clean emission, and good flexibility
−15 ◦ C, and the maximum value is 31.1% at 38 ◦ C, thereby suggesting an efficiency improvement of nearly 5%. These findings indicate that the lower the inlet air temperature, the lower the gas turbine efficiency
The improvement of gas turbine efficiency at low temperatures from −15 ◦ C to 15 ◦ C can be explained by the increased values of compressor and turbine efficiencies relative to turbine inlet temperature even when the rise in inlet temperature results in the increase in compressor power consumption and decrease in compression ratio under the 90%, 70%, and 50%
Summary
Heavy-duty gas turbines and their combined cycles have the advantages of high thermal efficiency, clean emission, and good flexibility. Inlet air cooling technology is suitable for gas generator sets that undertake basic load, increasing the load during high-temperature periods. Inlet air cooling technology is suitable for gas generator sets that and the rated power capacity. The unit basically operates under partial load; inlet air cooling is inappropriate. An inlet air heating system that uses the waste heat of low-temperature heat source Figure 2 was built in 0 plant in Tianjin Figure 3. Thelow-temperature low-temperatureheat heatsource sourceincludes, includes,but butisisnot not improving gas turbine efficiency under Figure partial load. The inlet air temperature is traditionally believed to cause reduced gas turbine efficiency due to the resulting increase in the compressor power consumption. Results show that a higher inlet air temperature than that of ISO standard conditions has considerable potential for improving gas turbine efficiency under partial load
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