Analysis of Integrated Cooling Systems for Gas Turbine Power Plants

With the current increase in electricity consumption and energy demand, most of the research focus is shifted towards the means of increasing the power plants efficiency in order to produce more electricity by using as less fuel as possible. Gas turbine power plants specifically have been under the study in the recent years due to its feasibility, low capital cost, simple design, compact size and higher efficiency compared to steam turbine power plants. There are a lot of operating conditions that affect the performance of the gas turbine which includes the inlet air climatic conditions, mass flow rate and the turbine inlet temperature. Many improvements and enhancements became applicable through the advancement in the material and cooling technologies. Cooling techniques could be used to cool the inlet air entering the compressor by utilizing evaporative coolers and mechanical chillers, and to cool the turbine blades in order to avoid a decline in the life of turbine blades due to unwanted exposure to thermal stresses and oxidation. Internal convection cooling, film cooling and transpiration cooling are the three main techniques that can be used in the process of turbine blades cooling. The main objective of this proposal is to improve the durability and performance of gas turbine power plants by proposing the usage of integrated system of solid desiccant with Maisotsenko cooler in the turbine blade cooling and inlet air cooling processes. Four configurations were presented and the results were an increase in the efficiency of the gas turbine cycle for all the cases specially the two stage Maisotsenko desiccant cooling system where the efficiency increased from 33.33% to 34.17% as well as maintaining the turbine inlet temperature at a desired level of 1500°K.