Improving the efficiency of an industrial gas turbine by a novel inlet air cooling method

AbstractTurbine air inlet cooling is one of the available commercial methods to improve efficiency of existing gas turbines. The method has various types of air cooling which could be utilised almost for all installed gas turbines. In this study a new type of inlet air cooling has been proposed to improve performance of a gas turbine. The method has been applied to one of the Kangiran refinery gas turbines. The idea is to cool inlet air of the gas turbine by potential cooling capacity of the isoenthalpic pressure drop in the refinery natural gas pressure drop station. The study is part of a comprehensive programme aimed to enhance gas turbines performance of the Khangiran gas refinery. The results show that the gas turbine inlet air temperature could be reduced in the range of 4 to 25 K and the performance could be improved in the range of 1 to 3·5% for almost nine months.