Impact of the use of a hybrid turbine inlet air cooling system in arid climates

Cooling the air entering the compressor section of gas turbine power plants is a proven method of increasing their power output, especially during peak summer demand, and it is increasingly being used in power plants worldwide. Two turbine inlet air cooling (TIAC) systems are widely used: evaporative cooling and mechanical chilling. In this work, the prospects of using a hybrid turbine inlet air cooling (TIAC) system are investigated. The hybrid system consists of mechanical chilling followed by evaporative cooling. Such a system is capable of achieving a significant reduction in inlet air temperature that satisfies the desired power output levels, while consuming less power than the conventional mechanical chilling. Furthermore, less water than conventional evaporative cooling can be used, thus combining the benefits of both approaches is proposed in this study. Two hybrid system configurations are studied. In the first configuration, the first stage of the system uses water-cooled chillers that are coupled with dry coolers such that the condenser cooling water remains in a closed loop. In the second configuration, the first stage of the system uses water-cooled chillers but with conventional cooling towers. An assessment of the performance and economics of those two configurations is made by comparing them to a conventional mechanical chilling and using realistic data. It was found that the TIAC systems are capable of boosting the power output of the gas turbine by 10% or more (of the power output of the ISO conditions). The cost operation analysis shows clearly that the hybrid TIAC method with wet cooling has the advantage over the other methods and It would be profitable to install it in the new gas turbine power plants. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.