INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMMUNICATION, COMPUTER AND POWER (ICCCP'09)

MUSCAT, FEBRUARY 15-18, 2009

Performance Enhancement of Gas Turbines by Inlet Air Cooling

Mr. Ishaq Al-Tobi1
Abstract Cooling the gas turbine inlet air can improve
the gas turbine performance by increasing its output power substantially. This is because decreasing the gas turbine inlet temperature will increase its density, causing a higher mass flow rate and thus resulting in increased turbine outlet power and efficiency. This paper presents the performance of two gas turbines; single shaft engine and two shafts engine, when two methods of inlet cooling are applied to them. These two methods are vapour compression refrigeration and vapour absorption refrigeration. The thermodynamic law is used to analyse the two methods of refrigeration and their behaviour with different operating conditions. The simulation results obtained using the vapour compression refrigeration system shows a 27% increase in output power for the single shaft engine and about 20% increase in power for the two shafts engine at an ambient temperature of 50oC. The corresponding Figures for these two engines when vapour absorption refrigeration is used are 31.8% and 26.7% respectively. It has been concluded from this study that both methods of cooling are technically feasible. Index Terms Gas turbine; gas turbine inlet cooling; vapour compression refrigeration; vapour absorption refrigeration

to meet the demand of their customers at higher ambient temperatures due to this reduction in output power. Note that in hot countries, such as Oman, the electricity demand has its peak on the summer due to large demand for air conditioning. Cooling the inlet air to the compressor from 50oC to 15oC will prevent the 24% loss in the output power. Furthermore, this power could be increased more than the rated capacity up to about 107% of the rated capacity, as shown in Figure 1, when the inlet air temperature is cooled to 0oC. Many power plants use gas turbine inlet cooling to prevent the loss of power output when ambient temperature is higher than the ISO standard temperature of 15oC.
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Power output, % of rated

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I. INTRODUCTION T is well known that gas turbines produce less power when the ambient temperature is hotter. This is mainly due to the fact that the inlet air temperature is higher which means that the air density is lower, which reduces the mass flow rate through the engine [1]. Turbine inlet cooling is defined as cooling the air before it enters the compressor of the gas turbine. The main reason for turbine inlet cooling is to increase the power output of the gas turbine when the ambient temperature is higher than the standard conditions. The rated capacity of all gas turbine are usually based on the standard ambient conditions of 15oC and 14.7 psia at sea level which is selected by the International Standards Organisation (ISO). Figure 1 shows typical characteristics of gas turbine behaviour with ambient temperature variations. The actual characteristics of a particular gas turbine with ambient temperature depends on its actual design however the general trend and behaviour shown in Figure 1 is still valid for all gas turbines. Figure 1 shows that the rated capacity of the gas turbine decreases to about 76% when the ambient temperature increased from 15oC to 50oC. This means that the power producers may not be able
Petroleum Development Oman L.L.C, Power System Department, P.O. 81, Mina al-Fahal, Muscat-113, Sultanate of Oman (phone: 968-241013; fax: 968-24381357; e-mail: altobiishaaq@hotmail.com)
1

Ambient temperature (oC) Fig. 1 Variations in gas turbine output power with ambient temperature.

The study in this paper included an investigation to the performance of gas turbine when two methods of gas turbine inlet cooling are employed to a single shaft engine and a two shafts engine. The two refrigeration methods which are considered and studied in this paper are vapour compression refrigeration and vapour absorption refrigeration. In both systems the required refrigeration is provided by a refrigerant vaporising in the evaporator. However, in the vapour absorption refrigeration system the mechanical process of the vapour compression refrigeration is replaced by a chemical process. This means that the vapour absorption refrigeration system has an advantage of the possibility of using the waste heat from the gas turbine in order to drive the absorption system as discussed later in this paper. II. EFFECT OF AMBIENT TEMPERATURE As it was mentioned earlier in this paper the gas turbine performance is greatly affected by ambient temperature variations. This is due to the fact that the useful work from the gas turbine is equal to the difference between the turbine work and the compressor work. The following equation

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describe the affect of ambient temperature variation on the behaviour of gas turbine are as explained by Prof. Pilidis [2].
. . W = m a + f C p hot (T3 T4 ) m a C p cold (T2 T1 )

Turbine Entry Temperature TET (K)

1397

1540

(1)

IV. INFLUENCE OF AMBIENT TEMPERATURE VARIATIONS IN THE ENGINES PERFORMANCE Figures 3 and 4 show the performance of the single shaft and the two shafts engines with ambient temperature variations from 0oC to 50oC for constant TET. As it can be seen from these Figures, the output power of the engines decreases as the temperature increases at constant TET (Turbine Entry Temperature). This variation in power output is explained as follows. These Figures show the effect of ambient temperature on power output, thermal efficiency and SFC as a percentage of ISA variation. These Figures show very clearly how increasing the ambient temperature will cause the output power of the engine to decrease. Increasing the ambient temperature from ISA condition (15oC) to 50oC is going to decrease the output by about 27% for the single shaft engine and for two shafts engine by about 24%.
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Power Efficiency SF

Where W: total compression work T : Temperature

a + f : Total mass flow air and fuel Cp : Specific heat at constant pressure Conceder an ideal cycle (Figure 2) during normal day the cycle will be given by 1n, 2n, 3, 4; while on a hot day the cycle will be as shown by 1h, 2h, 3, 4. It becomes apparent that the compression work on the hot day is larger than during the cold day. .

Entropy Fig. 2 Gas turbine performance on normal and hot day.

III. THE ENGINES The aim of the investigation in this report is to study and evaluate the inlet cooling methods used to increase the power output for an industrial gas turbines. Thus it was important to model a real engine in order to be able to see the enhancement in the performance of the engines caused by the refrigeration systems. In this paper two engines models have been selected which are based on similar characteristics engines to the single shaft GE MS9001E and the two shafts GE LM6000. The specifications of the two engines models that have been used in the simulation program are as shown in Table 1. In order to investigate the performance of the selected engines, a computer program called Turbomatch was used. Turbomatch is a computer program developed by the school of Mechanical Engineering at Cranfield University (UK) to facilitate design point and off-design performance calculations for gas turbine engines [3]. By means of code words, various pre-programmed routines known as bricks can be selected to simulate the action of different components of the engine, resulting finally in different engine output parameters such as engine power, fuel consumption, thermal efficiency, specific fuel consumption (SFC), etc, together with detail of the different individual component performance at various stations in the engine.
Table 1: Single shaft and two shafts engines specifications

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Fig. 3 Single shaft engine performance ISA and variation with ambient temperature
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Fig. 4 Two shafts engine performance ISA and variation with ambient temperature

Single Shaft Engine Power Output (MW) Overall Pressure Ratio Inlet Mass Flow (kg/s) 121.3 12.40 404.0

Two Shaft Engine 40.7 12.25 126.6

V. VAPOUR COMPRESSION REFRIGERATION SYSTEM Most refrigeration systems as shown in Figure 5 utilise the vapour compression cycle to produce the desired refrigeration effect. With the vapour compression cycle, a working fluid, called the refrigerant, evaporates and condensates at suitable pressure for practical equipment

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design. The refrigerant that is used for the vapour compression refrigeration analysis in this paper is ammonia. The vapour compression refrigeration has some advantages comparing to the vapour absorption refrigeration. The major advantage is that it depends only on electricity for operation despising the thermal source needed for absorption cooler. But for the purpose that the compression system used in this study waste heat from the exhaust of the gas turbine is available which means that this could be a disadvantage compared with the absorption system. The major advantage of the vapour compression system is that it has a lower installation costs and also the space required is less compared with the vapour absorption refrigeration method. Sanjee, ..etc [4] mentioned that there are more than one hundred instillations in which inlet air cooling is successfully applied to aeroderivatives, but only a handful of instances for large industrial type combustion turbines. An example presented by the previous mentioned authors where vapour compression refrigeration is used to enhance the performance of a GE Frame 7EA in Camden in New Jersey. Refrigeration using the vapour compression cycle takes place in a continuous cycle with four distinct stages as shown in Figure 5. These four stages are as describe below[5]: First, at point 1 in Figure 5 the refrigerant vapour enters the suction inlet of the compressor at low pressure and a given temperature. The compressor raises the pressure of the refrigerant vapour so that the refrigerant saturation temperature is slightly higher than the temperature of the cooling fluid used in the condenser. This causes a rise in the enthalpy of the refrigerant. For the purpose of analysis in this paper the compression process is assumed to be isentropic. This means that the entropy at the inlet and the outlet of the compressor are the same (point 1 and 2 respectively in Figure 5). Next, the refrigerator vapour flows into the condenser (point 2 in Figure 5), where it gives up heat to the cooling fluid. The refrigerant condenses at constant pressure, and leaves the condenser (point 3 in Figure 5.) as a liquid. This causes the entropy of the refrigerant to drop. The refrigerant then flows through the expansion valve, inside which a narrow orifice is designed to cause a drop in the refrigerant pressure. This will cause some of the liquid refrigerant to vapour. This causes the temperature of the refrigerant to fall. Finally, the refrigerant, now a mixture of liquid and vapour, flows through the evaporator. Here, it absorbs heat from the evaporator, which evaporates the liquid content to yield a saturated vapour. It is important that the full evaporation of the liquid is achieved by the evaporator in order to avoid any mechanical damage that may occur to the compressor due to any liquid droplet carryover which may damage the compressor blades.

Fig. 5 Vapour compression refrigeration cycle

VI. PERFORMANCE OF THE ENGINES WITH THE VAPOUR

COMPRESSION REFRIGERATION SYSTEM

Turbomatch models are used to simulate the engines performance for the new conditions introduced by the refrigeration system. Figures 6 and 7 show the output power without and with the refrigeration system for the single shaft and the two shafts engines respectively. The percentage improvement in the output power for the combined system, gas turbine and vapour compression refrigeration, compared to simple cycle performance for the two engines is as shown in Figure 8. It is clear from these Figures that there is a large improvement in the gas turbine output power when using the vapour compression refrigeration system. Figure 8 shows that at 50oC there is about 27% increase in power for the single shaft engine and about 20% increase in power for the two shafts engine. The slope of the gas turbine performance curve as a function of inlet air temperature describes the capacity enhancement that can be achieved by cooling inlet air. The steeper the curve, the more power output per degree of reduction in inlet air temperature and this explain the difference in the percentage power enhancements achieved for the two different engines. The percentage improvement in power output for the two shafts engine is less than that for the single shaft engine due to less steeper curve which is mainly due to the lower air mass flow of the engine.
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Fig. 6 Single shaft engine power output with and without inlet cooling

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assumptions are assumed throughout the analysis process of the system, such as component and all interconnecting pipes are perfectly insulated and adiabatic to the surroundings.

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Fig 7 Two shafts engine power output with and without inlet cooling
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Improvement in Gas Turbine Power with Refrigeration System (%)

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Fig. 9 Vapour absorption refrigeration cycle

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VIII. PERFORMANCE OF THE ENGINES WITH THE VAPOUR

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ABSORPTION REFRIGERATION SYSTEM

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Ambient Temperature ( C)
Two Shafts Single Shaft Engine

Fig 8 The percentage improvement in gas turbine power with vapour compression refrigeration system

VII. VAPOUR ABSORPTION REFRIGERATION SYSTEM The vapour absorption system consists of a condenser, an expansion device and an evaporator as in the vapour compression system, and in addition, an absorber, a solution pump, a generator, and a pressure reducing valve to replace the compressor that is used in the vapour compression system. The schematic representing of the system is shown in Figure 8 in which the different components of the system are arranged in according to their pressures and temperatures, where the upper side is high pressure and high temperature and the lower side is low pressure and low temperature. In this diagram the refrigerating effect is shown as Q . e and the heat rejected in the condenser as Q . c . The compressor work is replaced by the heat supplied in the generator Q . g and the pump work W . p . Because as mentioned previously the mixing process of the refrigerant coming from the evaporator with the solution is exothermic, cooling must be done in order to remove latent heat of the refrigerant vapour as it is changes into the liquid state by absorption by the weak solution. This heat rejected is denoted by Q in Figure 9.
. a

Turbomatch is used to simulate the performance of the gas turbines without and with the absorption refrigeration system. Figures 10 and 11 show the output power variations for the single shaft engine and the two shafts engine respectively with and without inlet cooling with the absorption refrigeration system. Figures 12 and 13 show the percentage improvement in the output power and thermal efficiency with variations of ambient temperatures for both engines respectively.
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Combined Cycle Output Power (MW)

Fig. 10 Single shaft engine output power with and without the vapour absorption refrigeration system

The thermodynamic theory is applied to aqua-ammonia vapour absorption refrigeration system for the purpose of gas turbine inlet cooling. The mathematical and numerical technique based optimisation of thermal system is not always possible due to plant complexities. Therefore, some SQU-2009 ISSN: 1813-419X

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Output power (MW)

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IX. COMPARISON BETWEEN THE BEHAVIOUR OF THE ENGINES WITH THE VAPOUR COMPRESSION REFRIGERATION SYSTEM AND WITH THE VAPOUR ABSORPTION REFRIGERATION SYSTEM Figure 14 shows the percentage improvement in the single shaft engine power with the vapour compression refrigeration system and with the vapour absorption refrigeration system. From this Figure it can be seen that the vapour absorption refrigeration system gives about 32% increase in output power at an ambient temperature of 50oC whereas the vapour absorption refrigeration system gives about 27% increase in power at the same ambient temperature. This means that at this ambient temperature the single shaft engine with the vapour absorption system will have about 5% more power output compared to the engine output with the vapour compression refrigeration system. This percentage difference in output power between the two different methods of inlet cooling is large when accumulated as the total power improvement that is going to be achieved from the system over a long period of time. The different in the output power of the engines with the two different methods of inlet cooling is mainly due to the fact that in the vapour compression refrigeration system a large amount of power is required in order to run the compressor in the system; whereas, in the vapour absorption refrigeration system only small amount of power is required to run the system to run the solution pump. Figure 15 shows the pump power required by the vapour absorption system and the corresponding power required by the compressor in the vapour compression refrigeration system for the temperature range between 15oC and 50oC in order to keep the inlet temperature of the single shaft engine at a temperature of 10oC. It can be clearly seen from this Figure that the solution pump work required in the vapour absorption system is very small compared to the work required by the compressor is the vapour compression refrigeration system. This is why the solution pump work is ignored in the previous analysis that is done in this study and this is why it results a constant output power from the engines.
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Fig. 11 Two shafts engine output power with and without the Vapour absorption refrigeration system
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Power Improvement Efficiency Improvement

Fig. 12 Single shaft engine performance with the vapour absorption refrigeration system
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Fig. 13 Two shafts engine performance with the vapour absorption refrigeration system

% Power improvement

It is clear from these Figures that there is a large improvement in the performance of the gas turbines using the vapour absorption system. At 50oC ambient temperature for single shaft engine and for the two shafts engine there is about 31.8% and 26.7% improvement in output power compare to the simply cycle operation performance output, and also the efficiency improve by 10.5% and 8.9% respectively for both engines. The reason for these changes is due to the reduction in the gas turbine inlet temperature.

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Fig. 14 The percentage improvement in the single shaft engine power with the vapour compression refrigeration system and with the vapour absorption refrigeration system

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Power Plant, CALDWELL Energy Company Publication. Wang, S.K., Handbook of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, McGraw-Hill, 2nd Edition, 2001.

Work (kW)

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Solution Pump Work (kW) in the vapour absorption system Compressor Work (kW) in the vapour compression system

Fig. 15 The solution pump work for the vapour absorption system and the compressor work for the vapour compression system

X. CONCLUSION The analysis done in this paper shows that both methods of inlet cooling; vapour compression refrigeration and vapour absorption refrigeration; are technically feasible for the two gas turbines examined in this study. This technical feasibility, whilst evaluated only for two particular engines, is likely to apply for many other gas turbine engines. The engines performance with the vapour absorption system increased the power output of the engine more than 32%. On the other hand, the performance of the engine with the vapour compression refrigeration system showed less than 27% improvement in the output power. Also the analysis performed in this study showed that the compressor in the vapour compression refrigeration system use more than 25% of the power improvement by the system. On the other hand, the power required by the solution pump in the vapour absorption system was found to be very small compare to the work required by the compressor in the vapour compression system. Although during this analysis many assumptions have been made, the method that are followed can be considered as efficient tool and method for making a first selection of gas turbine inlet cooling among identified alternatives.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to thank Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) for their financial support, without which my graduate and undergraduate study could not have possible. REFERENCES 1. Walsh, P.P., and Fletcher, P., Gas Turbine Performance, 2nd Edition, Oxford Blackwell Science Ltd., 2004. Pilidis, P., Gas Turbine Theory and Performance, Lecture Notes for Thermal Power Module, Cranfield University, 2004-2005. The Turbomatch scheme Program manual, SME Cranfield University, 2004. Sanjee Jolly, Donald, W., and Joseph, A., Inlet Air Cooling for a Frame 7EA based Combined Cycle

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