Performance analysis of organic Rankine cycle power generation system for intercooled cycle gas turbine

Abstract

Intercooled cycle gas turbine has great potential in improving the output power because of the low energy consumption of high-pressure compressor. In order to more efficiently recovery and utilize the waste heat of the intercooled system, an organic Rankine cycle power generation system is developed to replace the traditional intercooled system in this study. Considering the effects of different kinds of organic working fluids, the thermodynamic performance of organic Rankine cycle power generation system is investigated in detail. On this basis, the sensitivity analyses of some key parameters are conducted to study the operating improvements of organic Rankine cycle power generation system. The results indicate that the integration of organic Rankine cycle and intercooled cycle gas turbine not only can be used for waste heat power generation but also increases the output power and efficiency of intercooled cycle gas turbine by selecting the organic working fluids of n-butane (R600), n-pentane (R601), toluene, and n-heptane. And compared to the others, organic Rankine cycle power generation system with toluene exhibits the best performance. The maximum enhancements of output power and thermal efficiency are 6.08% and 2.14%, respectively. Moreover, it is also concluded that both ambient temperatures and intercooled cycle gas turbine operating conditions are very important factors affecting the operating performances of organic Rankine cycle power generation system.