Mega-train turbine performance improvement through intake air cooling system dimensioning and design

Abstract

Gas turbines are a well-known rotating machines used in a variety of industrial sectors. However, the aforementioned turbines are highly sensitive to climatic changes such as variations in temperature and humidity, which can significantly affect their performance. Focusing on the being cited limitations, and aiming at the improvement of the system performances, it is important to control the ambient air temperature. In this context, the current study analyzes the design of an enhanced air-cooling system by putting forth a novel and practical method for raising output while lowering investment costs and ensuring steady and dependable operation. Firstly, the thermodynamic analysis of the realistic MS-7001 is carried out. Then, the feasibility of an air-cooling system for the MS-7001 turbine used at the Natural Gas Liquefaction complex – Skikda is conducted before starting the prototyping process. The proposed system uses a water evaporative cooler as a pre-cooler to reduce the temperature by around 12°C, while, increasing the relative humidity to around 90%, In order to ensure the thermal effectiveness of the system, a compressed air injection station is used for the production of a cold air at high pressure. CFD analysis results and conducted experiments on the proposed prototype have confirmed that it is effective and can be adapted to both wet and dry climates, even under hard variations. The adopted technique enhances the system efficiency and makes it possible to maintain the nominal operating point of gas turbines independently of external variations of atmospheric condition, without modifying their composition, which minimizes investment, development and maintenance costs.