ISSN 2360-7955
Abstract
Accepted August 28th, 2021.
Gas turbine shows great inverse effect on ambient air temperature the efficiency and net power output of the gas turbine increases with decrease in ambient air temperature. Nigeria with an average ambient air temperature of 31°C tends to experience a drop in gas turbine efficiency and net power output. In this research work, an open cycle gas turbine power plant generating electricity at a capacity of 450MW was used as a retrofitted study for the research by using Aspen HYSY V9 Simulation Model. The results showed that as the ambient temperature was lowered, the compressor work reduces, turbine net power output increases, specific fuel consumption reduces while the efficiency of the plant increased. It was observed that the evaporative cooler results in a drop in ambient temperature of 11.25°C leading to an increase of about 3.7% and 11.56MW in efficiency and net power output of the turbine respectively and also, 0.024kg/KWh drop in specific fuel consumption. Therefore, to increase the performance of an existing gas turbine plants in high temperature climates, retrofitting it with an air cooler will reduce the temperature to a value close to the design temperature before compression is necessary and it will tend to improve gas turbine performance in tropical country like Nigeria.
Keywords: Gas Turbine, Aspen HYSY V9 Simulation Model, Power Output, Gas Turbine Efficiency, Specific Fuel Consumption