GAS TURBINE BASED POWER PLANTS

(Open Cycle & Combined Cycle)

Refer to text books for addl. points / ideas

For internal circulation only

GAS TURBINE BASED POWER PLANTS

TURBINES: Machines to extract fluid power

from flowing fluids
Steam Turbine

Water Turbines

Wind Turbines

High Pressure, High Temperature gas

Generated inside the engine
Expands through a specially designed TURBINE

Gas Turbines

Aircraft Engines
Power Generation

GAS TURBINE BASED POWER PLANTS

Gas Turbines
Invented in 1930 by Frank Whittle
Patented in 1934
First used for aircraft propulsion in 1942 on Me262 by
Germans during second world war
Currently most of the aircrafts and ships use GT for
propulsion.
Used for power generation
Manufacturers: General Electric, Pratt &Whitney,
Rolls Royce, Honeywell, Siemens Westinghouse,
Alstom, BHEL.

GAS TURBINE BASED POWER PLANTS

Gas Turbine
Hot gases move through a multistage gas turbine.
Like in steam turbine, the gas turbine also has
stationary and moving blades.
The stationary blades
guide the moving gases to the rotor blades
adjust its velocity.
The shaft of the turbine is coupled to a generator.

GAS TURBINE BASED POWER PLANTS

Types of Gas Turbine Power Plants
The gas turbine power plants can be classified mainly into
two categories. These are : i). Simple or open cycle gas
turbine power plant and ii). Closed cycle gas turbine
power plant.
Open Cycle (simple cycle) Gas Turbine Power Plant: In this
type of plant, the atmospheric air is charged into the
combustor through a compressor and the exhaust of the
turbine is also discharged to the atmosphere.

Combined Cycle Gas Turbine Power Plant: The combined

cycle aims at utilizing the heat of exhaust gases from the
gas turbine thus, improve the overall plant efficiency.
The popular designs are:
1. Heating feed water with exhaust gases.
2. Employing the gasses as combustion air in the steam
boiler.

GAS TURBINE BASED POWER PLANTS

Types of Gas Turbine Plants

Simple Cycle
Operate When Demand is High Peak Demand
Operate for Short / Variable Times
Designed for Quick Start-Up
Not designed to be Efficient but Reliable.
Not Cost Effective
Combined Cycle
Operate for Peak and Economic Dispatch
Designed for Quick Start-Up
Designed to Efficient, Cost-Effective Operation

GAS TURBINE BASED POWER PLANTS

Main Components of GT based Plant (Open Cycle)

Inlet system
Air Compressor
Regenerator
Combustion Chamber
Gas Turbine
Alternator
Starting Motor

Gas Turbine Based Power Plant s (Open cycle)

fuel
compressed
air

Compressor

Combustion
Chamber

hot
gases

2-2-16

Gas
Turbine

Gen

air

gases
to the
stack

Gas turbine based power plants

Inlet system: Collects and directs air into the gas
turbine. Often, an air cleaner and silencer are part of the
inlet system. It is designated for a min. pressure drop
while maximizing clean airflow into the gas turbine.
Air compressor:
Sucks in air and compresses it, thereby increasing
its pressure.
The air compressor and turbine are mounted at
either end on a common shaft, with the
combustion chamber between them.
Gas turbines are not
self starting. A starting
motor is used.

Gas turbine based power plants

Combustion chamber:
In the combustion chamber, the compressed
air combines with fuel and the resulting
mixture is burnt. The output power of the
gas turbine is directly proportional to the
combustor firing temperature.
The greater the pressure of air, the better the
fuel air mixture burns.
Modern gas turbines usually use liquid fuel,
but they may also use gaseous fuel, natural
gas or gas produced artificially by
gasification of a solid fuel.

Gas turbine based power plants

Gas Turbine:
Hot gases move through a multistage gas
turbine.
Like in steam turbine, the gas turbine also has
stationary and moving blades.
The stationary blades
guide the moving gases to the rotor blades
adjust its velocity.
The shaft of the turbine is coupled to a
generator.

Gas Turbine Based Power Plants

Working principle :
Air is compressed(squeezed) to high pressure by a
compressor.
Then fuel and compressed air are mixed in a
combustion chamber and ignited.
Hot gases are given off, which spin the turbine wheels.

Gas Turbine driving a Jet Engine

R. Shanthini
Aug 2010

15

GAS TURBINE BASED POWER PLANTS

Brayton Cycle Gas Turbine Cycle (open cycle)

Efficiency is 20 to 30% whereas that of steam power

plant is 38 To 40%

GAS TURBINE BASED POWER PLANTS

Advantages
Storage of fuel requires less area and handling is
easy.
The cost of maintenance is less.
It is simple in construction. There is no need for
boiler, condenser & other accessories as in the case
of steam power plants.
Gas turbine plants can be used in water scarcity
areas.
Less pollution and less water is required.

GAS TURBINE BASED POWER PLANTS

Disadvantages
66% of the power developed is used to drive the
compressor. Therefore the gas turbine unit has a
low thermal efficiency.
The running speed of gas turbine is in the range
of (10,000 to 30,000 rpm) and the operating
temperature is as high as 1100 12600C. For this
reason special metals and alloys have to be used for
the various parts of the turbine.
High frequency noise from the compressor is
objectionable.

GAS TURBINE BASED POWER PLANTS

What is a Combined Cycle Power Plant?

A combined cycle system uses the same heat energy

to generate power by using two different
thermodynamic cycles.
The advantage : high overall efficiency of the plant
electrical energy out compared with heat energy in is
greatly improved over either the simple gas turbine
cycle or simple steam turbine cycle.
This plant uses two distinctly different thermodynamic
cycles to perform useful work (generate electricity).
The Brayton (Gas Turbine) Cycle
The Rankine (Steam Plant) Cycle.

GAS TURBINE BASED POWER PLANTS

Combined Cycle:

Gas Turbine (Brayton) Cycle

The plant contains a gas and a steam turbine.

The hot exhaust gases of the gas turbine
feed a steam generator which supplies a
steam turbine. The gas turbine is similar to a
large aircraft engine.
Both turbines drive a generator and produce
electrical power.
The

plant

efficiency

Gas/Oil Fuel

Generator

Combustion
Turbine

Compressor

Hot
Exhaust
Gases

Air

Steam (Rankine) Cycle

Generator

Steam Line

Warm
Exhaust
Gases

Cooling Tower

Steam
Turbine

Heat Recovery
Steam Generator

Feedwater Pump

Condenser

is

high.

GAS TURBINE BASED POWER PLANTS

Schematic of a Combined Cycle Power Plant
Heat recovery steam generator
Gas turbine plant

Steam turbine plant

Air

Electrical
energy
6

Life steam

Fuel

Electrical
energy
5

10

11

Exhaust gas
9

Gas turbine plant:

1
2
3
4

Air intake
Compressor
Gas turbine
Heat recovery
steam generator
5 Generator
6 Transformer

Steam turbine plant:

7
8
9
10
11
12

Steam turbine
Condenser
Feeding pump
Generator
Transformer
Circulating pump

Cooling tower
Condensate

12

Cooling
air

Fresh water

GAS TURBINE BASED POWER PLANTS

GAS TURBINE BASED POWER PLANTS

Adv. & Dis-adv. (combined cycle)

Advantages
High efficiency
Less cost per unit (KW) ?

Disadvantages
Complexity
Fuel requirement

GAS TURBINE BASED POWER PLANTS

Applications of gas turbine:

drive pumps, compressors and high speed cars.
aircraft and ships.
Power generation (used for peak load and as
stand-by unit).

End of Unit 2, Part 2

Thanks