الملخص الإنجليزي
Abstract :
One of the main problems of the combined cycle gas turbine plants is the sensitivity to
the air intake temperature. The increase in the intake temperature reduces the plant's
output and efficiency. In Bahrain, the air temperature reaches around 48 °C during
summer, negatively impacting the power plants' performance.
Based on technical and economic analysis, this thesis investigated the feasibility of
adding different air intake cooling systems on combined cycle gas turbine plants in
Bahrain. Fogging and evaporative cooler systems have been selected to represent the
evaporative cooling method. In addition, mechanical and absorption chillers have been
chosen to represent the refrigeration cooling method.
The selected combined cycle gas turbine plant for this work contains two gas turbines
combined with a steam turbine. The total design output of the selected plant is 491 MW.
The plant has been modeled and simulated in Ebsilon professional software based on
the collected manufacturer data and Bahrain's climate data for 2022.
The technical analysis results have shown that the waste heat absorption chiller, internal
steam absorption chiller, mechanical chiller, fogging system, and evaporative cooler
increased the annual plant generation by 6.85%, 6.23%, 5.89%, 5.16%, and 4.33%,
respectively. In addition, the fogging system, waste heat absorption chiller, and
evaporative cooler increased the annual plant efficiency by 0.16%, 0.12%, and 0.10%,
respectively. On the other hand, the mechanical and internal steam absorption chillers
reduce the annual plant efficiency by 0.78 % and 0.46%, respectively.
The economic analysis results have shown that net present values of the waste heat
absorption chiller, fogging system, internal steam absorption chiller, mechanical
chiller, and evaporative cooler were $ 124 M, $ 113 M, $ 101 M, $ 95 M, and $ 85 M
respectively.
This research has concluded that the waste heat absorption chiller is the best alternative
to cool the air intake of the gas turbines operated on a combined cycle arrangement in
Bahrain, provided that the plant has a reasonable waste heat source. Otherwise, the
fogging system should be prioritized, followed by the internal steam absorption chiller,
mechanical chiller, and evaporative cooler, respectively
