Performance analysis of a gas turbine air heat recovery unit using GateCycle® software

The following article concerns the results of an analysis of a gas turbine (GT) with an air heat recovery turbine unit (AHRTU) using General Electric GateCycle® software. The analysis was conducted for five different variants of air heat recovery turbine units: (i) simple AHRTU, (ii) with air cooling by one intercooler, (iii) with air cooling by two intercoolers, (iv) with variable humidity before the compressor, and (v) with water injection into the compressor. Each variant was tested for four different air temperatures before air turbine (ATBAT): 573 K, 673 K, 773 K, and 873 K. For each air temperature before air turbine, computations were run for increasing compression ratios (CR): from 3 to 6.5 for variants 1 and 4 and from 3 to 12 for variants 2,3 and 5. The results were shown as graphs of specific power (SP) of the AHRTU versus compression ratio in the AHRTU.