Effect of regenerative effectiveness on the performance of simple gas turbine

Abstract

The deregulation of the power and energy sector introduced a strong element of competition. Power plant operators try to develop techniques to maximize profits in the dynamic power industry. New methods of improving and optimizing simple gas turbine power plants are needed to enhance operational decision making and therefore to maximize power plant profitability by reducing operational and maintenance cost and increasing revenue. In this work, the thermodynamic model equations of both a simple gas turbine and regenerative gas turbine cycle were used to analyses the effect of increase in the regenerative effectiveness to the performance of the simple gas turbine. Microsoft Excel 2010 software was used to carried out the analysis. It was observed that for the simple gas turbine the thermal efficiency, heat rate, specific fuel consumption and heat addition have a constant value of 35.4%, 9630Btu/Kwh, 0.2768kg/Kwh, 44237.8Kw, all through, while for the regenerative gas turbine cycle as the value of the regenerative effectiveness increases from 0.8 to 1.0, the thermal efficiency increases from 41.1% to 65.0%, the heat rate decreases from 8753Btu/Kwh to 5536 Btu/Kwh , specific fuel consumption decreases from 0.248945122Kg/Kw.h to 0.157432413 Kg/Kw.h and heat addition reduces from 39782.5Kw to 25158.4Kw. It was seen clearly that the regenerative gas turbine cycle has higher thermal efficiency compare to the simple gas turbine, and as the regenerative effectiveness of the regenerative gas turbine cycle increases the performance of the regenerative gas turbine increases.