Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Different Gas Turbine Axial Compressor Water Washing Systems

Abstract

Nowadays the climate change is widely recognized as a global threat by both public opinion and industries. Actions to mitigate its causes are gaining momentum within all industries. In the energy field, there is the necessity to reduce emissions and to improve technologies to preserve the environment. LCA analyses of products are fundamental in this context. In the present work, a life cycle assessment has been carried out to calculate the carbon footprint of different water washing processes, as well as their effectiveness in recovering Gas Turbine efficiency losses. Field data have been collected and analyzed to make a comparison of the GT operating conditions before and after the introduction of an innovative high flow online water washing technique. The assessments have been performed using SimaPro software and cover the entire Gas Turbine and Water Washing skids operations, including the airborne emissions, skid pump, the water treatment and the heaters.