Journal of Thermal Science Vol.16, No.

1 84―89

DOI: 10.1007/s11630-007-0084-4 Article ID: 1003-2169(2007)01-0084-06

Performance Improvement of Combined Cycle Power Plant Based on the

Optimization of the Bottom Cycle and Heat Recuperation

Wenguo XIANG (wgxiang@seu.edu.cn), Yingying CHEN

(Education Ministry Key Laboratory of Clean Coal Power Generation and Combustion Technology, Southeast Univer-
sity, Nanjing 210096, China)

Many F class gas turbine combined cycle (GTCC) power plants are built in China at present because of less emis-
sion and high efficiency. It is of great interest to investigate the efficiency improvement of GTCC plant. A com-
bined cycle with three-pressure reheat heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) is selected for study in this paper.
In order to maximize the GTCC efficiency, the optimization of the HRSG operating parameters is performed. The
operating parameters are determined by means of a thermodynamic analysis, i.e. the minimization of exergy
losses. The influence of HRSG inlet gas temperature on the steam bottoming cycle efficiency is discussed. The
result shows that increasing the HRSG inlet temperature has less improvement to steam cycle efficiency when it
is over 590ºC. Partial gas to gas recuperation in the topping cycle is studied. Joining HRSG optimization with the
use of gas to gas heat recuperation, the combined plant efficiency can rise up to 59.05% at base load. In addition,
the part load performance of the GTCC power plant gets much better. The efficiency is increased by 2.11% at
75% load and by 4.17% at 50% load.

Keywords: Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSG); Thermodynamic optimization; Exergy analysis; Com-
bined cycle power plant; Efficiency; Heat rate

Introduction and will be continuously expanded, reaching an esti-

In the current technology the most efficient energy
conversion system is the combined cycle power plant, i.e.
the arrangement of a gas turbine with a steam bottoming
cycle. In a typical combined cycle, exhaust heat from the
gas turbine is recovered in a heat recovery steam genera-
tor (HRSG). Major gas turbine manufacturing companies,
including General Electric, ABB-Alstom, Westinghouse
Siemens and Mitsubishi, offer the F class gas turbine
combined plants of power 250–400 MW, with efficiency
claimed up to 58%. Because the combined cycle offer
higher thermal efficiency and meet the need of air pollu-
tion deduction, such as sulfur dioxides, greenhouse gases,
solid particulates, the GTCC projects in China are now
mated 20,000 MW per year. In recent Chinese five-year
plan 54 GTCC installations are included, some of which
are in operation and the other are being built. Studies of
the thermal efficiency improvement of the GTCC power
plant are of great interest to GTCC Power Producer in
China and also essential for reducing energy consump-
tion. For this reason, how to increase the base load and
part load efficiency of a GTCC power plant is the major
purpose for this study. General Electric PG9351FA, a
combined cycle with three-pressure reheat heat recovery
steam generator (HRSG) is selected for study in this pa-
per.
The combined cycle process couples the Brayton cycle
with a bottoming Rankine cycle. The basic idea is to

Received: October 2006

Wenguo XIANG: Associate Professor
www.springerlink.com
Wenguo XIANG et al. Improvement of combined cycle power plant based on optimization of bottom cycle and heat recuperation 85

Nomenclature
CC combined cycle S entropy (kJ/kg)
C.C. combustion chamber SH superheater
Cg specific heat (J/kg K) T temperature (℃)
CW circulating water THP high pressure turbine
D mass flow (kg/s) TIP intermediate pressure turbine
EC economizer TIT turbine inlet temperature
EV evaporator TLP low pressure turbine
Ex exergy flow (W) W power (W)
G generator Greek letters
h enthalpy(kJ/kg) η efficiency(%)
HRSG heat recovery steam generator Subscripts
HP high pressure 0 ambient state
I exergy losses (W) g exhaust gas
IP intermediate pressure GT gas turbine
LP low pressure s steam
PP pinch point ST steam turbine
Qth total thermal input (W) w water
R regeneration in inlet parameter
RH reheater out outlet parameter

recover the energy contained in the exhaust gases from
gas turbine in a steam generation process. The gas tur-
bine - the “topping cycle” - provides, in a process con-
figuration with a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG),
about two thirds of the total useful power. The remaining
one third comes from utilization of the waste-heat in the
steam process, or “bottoming cycle”. In modern
heavy-duty gas turbine combined cycle with a triple
pressure reheat arrangement is widely used in order to
increase the power output of the steam bottoming cycle.
Study shows that the net efficiency of the combined cycle
with a triple-pressure reheat steam process is 2% more
than that of a dual pressure arrangement. The GTCC
power plant with a triple-pressure HRSG with steam re-
heat can easily reach an efficiency above 55%. The
ABB-Alstom combined cycle plant with GT26 reheat gas
turbines claims 58% efficiency and the same value to
Siemens V94.3A GTCC. A gas turbine, with steam cool-
ing of the turbine blades and nozzles, combined with an
advanced HRSG is reported to operate at an efficiency
level of 60% by GE.
To increase the power system efficiency, it is neces-
sary to optimize the HRSG, which serves as the critical
link between the gas turbine cycle and the steam turbine
cycle with the objective of increasing the steam turbine
output. HRSG performance has a large impact on the
overall performance of the combined cycle power plant.
HRSG optimization has been investigated in several
studies. Thermodynamic optimization is based on the
minimization of exergy losses, while the ther-
moeconomic optimization is based on the minimization
of the total HRSG cost [1]. Manuel Valdes performed
two kinds of analysis to the efficiency improvement of a
GTCC power plant: one thermodynamic and the other
thermoeconomic [2]. Energy and exergy analysis were
selected to study a combined cycle power plant by using
the data taken from its units in operation to identify the
potential for improving efficiency of the system. Study
shows that combustion chambers, gas turbines and heat
recovery steam generators (HRSG) are the main sources
of irreversibilities representing more than 85% of the
overall exergy losses[3]. Alessandro Franco proposes a
method to optimize the operative parameters of a HRSG
in order to improve the overall efficiency of combined
cycle plants. The method includes two different objective
functions: one given by the exergetic losses due to the
heat transfer between fluids; the other represented by a
cost, sum of the cost of the HRSG and the cost of the
exergy losses [4,5]. Optimization of heat recovery steam
generator (HRSG) with the use of parallel sections and of
limit subcritical conditions (up to 220 bar) is proposed in
his another paper. The HRSG optimization is sufficient to
obtain combined cycle plant efficiencies of the order of
60% while, joining HRSG optimization with the use of
AlstomGT26 gas turbine reheat and gas to gas recupera-
tion can lead the efficiency of the whole plant to the limit
value of 65%[6].
Regarding the gas turbine technology, much work
such as how to increase the firing temperature is done by
gas turbine manufactures, universities etc., in order to
raise the efficiency of gas turbine and its combined cycle.
But we should notice the problems that how to decrease
the compressor energy consumption under the same
pressure ratio and how to use the gas turbine exhaust
waste heat efficiently. Intercooling and reheat can be
used to increase gas turbine cycle efficiency, but in this
86 Journal of Thermal Science, Vol.16, No.1, 2007

paper more attention is paid to discussing the use of gas Table 1 Main data at base load for the GTCC simulation
turbine exhaust waste heat, especially when gas turbine Parameter (unit) Value
operated under part load. Ambient temperature (℃) 15
Atmospheric pressure (kPa) 101.32
Relative humidity 0.60
Assumption
Fuel: Natural gas, LHV (kJ/kg) 48686.3
Supply conditions after preheated (MPa/℃) 3.1/185
The thermal scheme of the GTCC power plant se-
GE PG9351FA gas turbine
lected for this study is shown in Fig. 1. The main charac- Gross power (MW) 256
teristics are: Maximum compression isentropic efficiency(%) 90
General Electric PG9351FA gas turbine. Combustion efficiency (%) 99
Three pressure reheat HRSG without supplementary Turbine’s isentropic-efficiency (%) 93
firing as displayed in Fig. 1. Electricity-generator's efficiency (%) 98.5
A high (HP), intermediate (IP) and low-pressure Turbine’s inlet-temperature (℃) 1350
(LP) steam turbine and the LP one has a double Turbine’s outlet-temperature (℃) 615
flow with down exhaust. Steam cycle with three pressure levels and re-heating
Deaerator condenser with a cooling system that has High-pressure steam (MPa/℃) 9.6/565
a wet tower. Intermediate-pressure steam and re-heating (MPa/℃) 2.2/565
Feedwater pumps: the LP pump at the condenser Low-pressure steam (MPa/℃) 0.39/295
outlet, the IP pump and the HP pump are responsi- Operating-pressure of Condenser (kPa) 4.82
ble for elevating the water pressure to high and in- HRSG
Gas-exiting temperature (℃) 70
termediate levels. LP bulb is used as the IP and HP
Steam turbine
feedwater tank. In addition, a circulating pump is Isentropic efficiency of high-pressure turbine 0.88
used to take most of the water from LP economizer Isentropic efficiency of intermediate pressure turbine 0.91
outlet to the inlet mixing with the condensate in or- Isentropic-efficiency of low-pressure turbine 0.90
der to ensure the economizer inlet temperature. Balance of plant
Natural-gas supply: the fuel is preheated by water Pump isentropic efficiency (%) 75
taken from IP economizer outlet and then to con- Net total electric power (MW) 396
denser. Net plant efficiency (%) 57.4

Fig. 1 The simplified thermal scheme of combined cycle with three pressure reheat heat recovery steam generator
Wenguo XIANG et al. Improvement of combined cycle power plant based on optimization of bottom cycle and heat recuperation 87

The most important parameters of the GTCC de- The exergy input to the steam turbine in Eq. (7) is
scribed above are presented in Table 1. Some of the data considered as the overall steam exergy from the HRSG
come from Qishuyan GTCC power plant, Jiangsu, China, and the exergy losses in the steam pipeline are negligible.
and the other are from the GE handbooks [7,8]. The data
are used to study the performance optimization of GTCC Results and Discussion
power plant.
Thermodynamic optimization at the base load
Methodology Based on the HRSG configuration the heat exchange
In order to evaluate the performance of a combined between steam/water side and gas side is simulated to
cycle, energy analysis and exergy analysis are used to analyze the steam parameter affection on the combined
establish the system model. The plant efficiency of the cycle efficiency. The thermodynamics optimization of the
combined cycle without supplementary firing can be ex- combined cycle is under subcritical condition and the
pressed as follows; result is shown in Table 2. The HP steam temperature and
WGT + WST the reheat steam temperature are remained 565℃, and
ηCC = = ηGT + (η R − ηGT )η HRSGη ST (1) when the HP and IP pressure is raised to the optimal
Qth
value the efficiency of steam bottoming cycle increases
and the plant exergy efficiency of combined cycle is from 38.6% to 39.2%, that of HRSG from 87.34% to
WGT + WST 89%,and that of combined cycle from 57.74% to 58.48%.
η Excc = (2)
Ef Also at 75% load, the plant efficiency of combined cycle
increased by 1.35%, and at 50% load by 3.18%.
According to the exergy flow balance of the whole
HRSG, considered as an open system, the exergy losses Table2 Comparison of the steam parameters before and after
I HRSG of the HRSG is given by: optimization at base load
I HRSG = Ex g ,in + Exw,in + Exs ,in − Exs,out − Ex g ,out (3) Pressure (MPa) Steam flow (kg/s) PP (K)
In Eq. (3) the terms Exw,in and Ex g ,out are zero design optimal design optimal design optimal
HP 9.62 21.7 77.86 82.00 6.8 5.5
because the inlet temperature of water is equal to the
ambient temperature, and the exhaust gas from the IP 2.16 2.82 10.9 7.70 13 8.9
HRSG can not be used any more, so the residual exergy LP 0.366 0.22 11.42 15.25 9 9
of the gas can be considered zero too. The exergy losses RH 2.36 2.82
related to the heat losses to the environment are not taken
into consideration also. Assuming the exhaust gas
pressure approaches atmospheric pressure, the exhaust Influence of HRSG inlet temperature on the effi-
gas exergy flow Exg can be expressed by: ciency of steam bottoming cycle
For a given HRSG configuration, the efficiency of the
⎡ Tg ⎤ steam bottoming cycle is the function of inlet gas tem-
( )
Exg ,in = c pg ⎢ Tg − T0 − T0 ln ⎥ ⋅ Dg
T0 ⎦
(4)
perature of HRSG, as shown in Fig. 2. From Fig. 2 it ap-
⎣
pears that there is an upper limit value for the inlet tem-
while the steam or the feedwater exergy Exw, s is perature of the exhaust gas to HRSG. This means that, the
calculated by: increase in HRSG inlet temperature over a value of
590℃ will lead to a less increase in the efficiency of
Exw, s = ⎡⎣( h − h0 ) − T0 ( s − s0 ) ⎤⎦ ⋅ Dw, s (5)
steam bottoming cycle. This can also be confirmed by the
*
so exergy loss rate η Ex analysis of the exergy losses rate in HRSG and turbine
, HRSG of the whole HRSG is
exergy efficiency, as shown in Fig. 4. By the temperature
defined as:
of 620℃, the exergy losses rate in HRSG will be mini-
* I HRSG
η Ex , HRSG = (6) mal.
Exg ,in
Eq.(6) represents the objective function which should Brayton cycle with partial gas to gas recuperation
be minimized during the thermodynamic optimization of It is meaningless to raise the HRSG gas inlet tem-
the HRSG. The exergy efficiency of steam turbine is perature in order to increase the steam cycle efficiency
given by: when the inlet temperature is over 590℃. If the tem-
WST perature is higher than 590℃, it is necessary to use part
η ExST = (7)
Exs ,out − Exs ,in of its exhaust energy in gas turbine side. For PG9351, the
88
Fig. 2 Steam bottoming cycle efficiency as a function of
HRSG gas inlet temperature
Fig. 3 Steam turbine exergy efficiency and HRSG exergy loss
as a function of HRSG inlet gas temperature
Fig. 4 GTCC with partial gas to gas recuperation
gas turbine exhaust gas temperature reaches 615℃ at
base load and even higher than 640℃ under 75% load.
An interesting method used to increase the efficiency of
the combined cycle plant is to heat the compressed air
through partial gas to gas recuperation heat exchanger,
with the thermodynamic scheme shown in Fig. 4. The
compressed air from compressor is divided into two
streams: one directly to combustion chamber and the
other to the exchanger and then to combustion chamber,
in which part of the compressed air takes in the heat re-
leased from the gas turbine exhaust gas. The gas tem-
perature can be regulated by controlling the ratio of the
Journal of Thermal Science, Vol.16, No.1, 2007
two flows. Partial gas to gas recuperation does not de-
crease the steam bottoming cycle efficiency, but can save
the fuel consumption in Brayton cycle and increase the
topping cycle efficiency.
PG9351FA combined cycle exergy efficiency as a
function of HRSG inlet temperature, i.e. the exhaust gas
temperature from the exchanger, is simulated, as shown
in Fig. 5 at the base load. The combined cycle exergy
efficiency gets increased after partial gas to gas recupera-
tion, and when the gas temperature from the exchanger is
600℃, the combined cycle exergy efficiency reaches its
maximum value, with the exergy efficiency of 55.3%.
Although the thermal efficiency of the whole combined
cycle plant is raised by 0.37% through partial recupera-
tion, the efficiency at the part load will get much better.
As shown in Fig. 6, the combined cycle will operate at
the best point when the gas to gas recuperation tempera-
ture is regulated at the point of 620℃ at 75% load. The
combined cycle plant efficiency is as high as 57.13%,
Fig. 5 GTCC thermal efficiency and exergy efficiency as a
function of HRSG inlet temperature
Fig. 6 Exergy efficiency as a function of HRSG inlet tem-
perature at part load
0.78% more than before the recuperation, 2.11% more
than without optimization. At the load of 50%, the best
efficiency of the combined cycle plant is 54.25%, 4.17%
more than that of original value. To Alstom GT26
post-combustion gas turbine combined cycle, the com-
Wenguo XIANG et al. Improvement of combined cycle power plant based on optimization of bottom cycle and heat recuperation 89
bined cycle efficiency gets even higher (>60%) as Ales-
sandro Franco has analyzed [6].
Conclusions
Combined cycle power plants meet the growing en-
ergy demand, and hence special attention must be paid to
the optimization of the whole system. Thermodynamic
optimization of HRSG can increase the efficiency of
combined cycle power plant. Under the subcritical condi-
tion, the efficiency of F technology GTCC plant can get
increased by at least 0.7% at base load from HRSG opti-
mization. As to the HRSG inlet gas temperature, it is
meaningless to raise the temperature in order to increase
the steam cycle efficiency when the inlet temperature is
over 590℃. If the temperature is higher than 590℃, it is
necessary to use part of its exhaust energy through gas to
gas recuperation. Recuperation can further increase the
plant efficiency, especially when gas turbine is operated
under partial load.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support
of NSFC (No.90410009) to this work.
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