Enhancing the efficiency and power of the triple-pressure reheat combined cycle by means of gas reheat, gas recuperation, and reduction of the irreversibility in the heat recovery steam generator

The main methods for improving the efficiency or power of the combined cycle are: increasing the inlet temperature of the gas turbine (TIT), inlet air-cooling, applying gas reheat, steam or water injection into the gas turbine (GT), and reducing the irreversibility of the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG). In this paper, gas reheat with recuperation was applied to the regular triple-pressure steam-reheat combined cycle (the Regular cycle) by replacing the GT unit with a recuperated gas-reheat GT unit (requires two gas turbines, gas recuperator, and two combustion chambers). The Regular cycle with gas-reheat and gas-recuperation (the Regular Gas Reheat cycle) was modeled including detailed modeling of the combustion and GT cooling processes and a feasible technique to reduce the irreversibility of its HRSG was introduced. The Regular Gas Reheat cycle and the Regular Gas Reheat cycle with reduced-irreversibility HRSG (the Reduced Irreversibility cycle) were compared with the Regular cycle, which is the typical design for a commercial combined cycle. The effects of varying the TIT oil the performances of all cycles were presented and discussed. The results indicate that the Reduced Irreversibility cycle is 1.9-2.15 percentage points higher in efficiency and 3.5% higher in the total specific work than the Regular Gas Reheat cycle, which is 3.3-3.6 percentage points higher in efficiency and 22-26% higher in the total specific work than the Regular cycle. The Regular Gas Reheat and Reduced Irreversibility cycles are 1.18 and 3.16 percentage points; respectively, higher in efficiency than the most efficient commercially-available combined cycle at the same value of TIT. Economic analysis was performed and showed that applying gas reheat with recuperation to the Regular cycle could result in an annual saving of 10.2 to 11.2 million US dollars for a 339 MW to 348 MW generating unit using the Regular cycle and that reducing the irreversibility of the HRSG of the Regular Gas Reheat cycle could result in an additional annual saving of 11.8 million US dollars for a 439 MW generating unit using the Regular Gas Reheat cycle. (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd.