Exergetic and Environmental Analysis of 100 MW Intercooled Gas Turbine Engine

This chapter presents energy, exergy, and environmental analysis of 100 MW intercooled gas turbine engine inspired from LMS 100 GE, a state-of-the-art aeroderivative gas turbine engine, which offers the highest simple-cycle thermal efficiency today. The proposed models have been modeled using a software package called IPSEpro and validated with manufacturer’s published data. In fact, most gas turbine engines are designed using energetic performance criteria based on the first law of thermodynamics. Exergetic performance criteria is based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics (Yilmazoğlu and Amirabedin, 2011), which when combined are considered more efficient in energy-resource use owing to the way in which locations, magnitudes, and types of wastes and losses in the system are determined. The performance of gas turbine engine was investigated using different loads and ambient temperatures on two configurations. The first include intercooling gas turbine (ICGT) system (Case I), whereas the second is simple-cycle gas turbine (SCGT) engine (Case II). Results show that intercooler system improves gas turbine performance, whereas they have negative impact on combustion chamber due to reduction in inlet temperatures. Load reduction causes an adverse effect on performance, whereas ambient temperature reduction causes the reverse. From an environmental perspective, the present study has developed a new exergetic–environmental indicator to relate the efficiency with nature of exhaust gases in order to measure environmental impacts and increase the lifespan of energy resources. All environmental indicators show ICGT as more appropriate to environment in comparison to SCGT. Furthermore, it achieved the lowest level of CO₂ emissions per KWh.