Exergy, Economic and Environmental Analyses of Gas Turbine Inlet Air Cooling with a Heat Pump Using a Novel System Configuration

Gas turbines incur a loss of output power during hot seasons due to high ambient air temperatures, and input air cooling systems are often used to partly offset this problem. Here, results are reported for an investigation of the utilization of a heat pump to cool the inlet air of a gas turbine compressor. The analyses are carried out for two climates: the city of Yazd, Iran, which has a hot, arid climate, and Tehran, Iran, which has a temperate climate. The heat pump input power is obtained from the gas turbine. The following parameters are determined, with and without the heat pump: net output power, first and second law efficiencies, quantities and costs of environmental pollutants, entropy generation and power generation. The results suggest that, by using the air-inlet cooling system, the mean output power increases during hot seasons by 11.5% and 10% for Yazd and Tehran, respectively, and that the costs of power generation (including pollution costs) decrease by 11% and 10% for Yazd and Tehran, respectively. Also, the rate of generation of pollutants such as NOx and CO decrease by about 10% for Yazd and 35% for Tehran, while the average annual entropy generation rate increases by 9% for Yazd and 7% for Tehran, through air-inlet cooling. The average increase of the system first law efficiency is 2% and of the system second law efficiency is 1.5% with the inlet-air cooling system. OPEN ACCESS Sustainability 2015, 7 14260