ISSN Online: 2379-1748
ISBN Flash Drive: 978-1-56700-472-4
ISBN Online: 978-1-56700-471-7
3rd Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference (TFEC)
Effects of Evaporative Cooling on the Performance of Dry-Cooled Natural-Gas Combined-Cycle (NGCC) Power Plants
Resumo
This study analyzes the use of water for evaporative cooling in natural gas combined-cycle (NGCC) power plants. Water can be used to pre-cool the air at the inlet of the gas turbine and/or at the inlet of the dry-cooled condenser to enhance the power plant performance, particularly at days of high ambient temperature when its reduced electricity generation conflicts with increased electricity demand. A NGCC power plant model was built in ASPEN HYSYS including the gas turbines, the heat-recovery steam generator, and the steam cycle with the dry-cooled condenser by using in-house MATLAB subroutines. The model was validated at the design conditions against published experimental data. The modeling results showed that evaporative cooling at high ambient temperature and low humidity conditions can have significant benefits for the performance of dry-cooled NGCC power plants.