Inlet Air Cooling Methods for Gas Turbine Based Power Plants

Power generation from gas turbines is penalised by a substantial power output loss with increased ambient temperature. By cooling down the gas turbine intake air, the power output penalty can be mitigated. The purpose of this paper is to review the state of the art in applications for reducing the gas turbine intake air temperature and examine the merits from integration of the different air-cooling methods in gas turbine based power plants. Three different intake air-cooling methods (evaporative cooling, refrigeration cooling and evaporative cooling of pre-compressed air) have been applied in two combined cycle power plants and two gas turbine plants. The calculations were performed on a yearly basis of operation, taking into account the time-varying climatic conditions. The economics from integration of the different cooling systems were calculated and compared.