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Thermodynamic modelling and simulation of advanced

combined cycle for performance enhancement
Sanjay1 , O Singh2 , and B N Prasad1
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Adityapur, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, HBTI, Kanpur, India
The manuscript was received on 7 February 2008 and was accepted after revision for publication on 13 June 2008.
DOI: 10.1243/09576509JPE593

Abstract: This paper deals with the development requirements of a gassteam combined cycle
power plant with the aim to achieve plant efficiency in excess of 62 per cent through various
possibilities of performance enhancement in topping cycle and bottoming cycle. For this study,
the reference-combined cycle configuration (MS9001 series) power plant of General Electric has
been considered. The innovation possibilities include the increase in rotor/turbine inlet temperature; development of advanced high-temperature blade material with superior thermal barrier
coatings; advanced inlet duct and compressor inlet design to minimize loss; improved individual
component efficiencies; improved turbine blade cooling techniques; better blade cooling mediums; incorporating intercooling and reheat either separately or in combination with the simple
gas turbine cycle using higher cycle pressure ratio; improved gas turbine exhaust heat utilization in the heat recovery steam generator, minimize stack gas temperature; as well as best shaft
system configuration. This study quantifies each of these development possibilities and shows
that on incorporating these factors in the reference cycle it could offer the combined cycle plant
efficiency above 65 per cent.
Keywords: combined cycle, reheat gas turbine, modelling, performance enhancement
technologies

INTRODUCTION

Combined cycle power plants are one of the most

attractive power plants across the world. Researchers
and manufacturers in a number of countries are trying
to develop the combined cycle power plants with an
efficiency of more than 60 per cent. The US Department of Energy has been funding a development
project, Advanced Turbine System (ATS), in which a
natural gas-fired combined cycle power plant was to
achieve a thermal efficiency above 60 per cent [1].
Presently, the leading combined cycle power plant
manufacturers are capable of supplying equipment
that can achieve efficiency varying from 57 to 60
per cent at ISO conditions. But there exists a lot

Corresponding

author: Department of Mechanical Engineering,

National Institute of Technology, Adityapur, Jamshedpur 831014,

Jharkhand, India. email: ritsanjay@rediffmail.com
JPE593 IMechE 2008

of scope for enhancing the efficiency of the combined cycle. In this work, an attempt has been made
to develop a thermodynamic model, which incorporates the important development possibilities in
a reference-combined cycle configuration based on
the MS9001 series gas turbine with a triple pressure
heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) with reheat.
It has been estimated here that such a combined
cycle has the potential of achieving plant efficiency
above 62 per cent [2]. Also, in light of the regulations to limit CO2 emissions from gas-fired power
plants, post-combustion carbon-capture is becoming
a necessity. The development possibilities considered
in this study may be helpful in making up for the
large drop in overall efficiency if a gas-fired combined cycle plant is equipped with post-combustion
CO2 capture. The governing equations developed earlier by the authors [3] have been used to develop a
computer code for predicting the performance of the
combined cycle. The model is validated by comparing
the performance results with the known performance
Proc. IMechE Vol. 222 Part A: J. Power and Energy