Economic analysis of condensers for water recovery in steam injected gas turbines

Steam injection cycles are interesting for small power ranges because of the high efficiency and the relatively low investment costs. A big disadvantage is the consumption of water by the cycle. Water recovery is seldom realized in industrial practice. In this paper an analysis of the technical and economical possibilities of water recovery by condensation of water out of the exhaust gases is made. Three gas turbines are considered : the Kawasaki M1A-13CC (2.3 MWe), the Allison 501KH (6.8 MWe) and the General Electric LM1600 (17 MWe). For every gas turbine two types of condensers are designed. In the water cooled condenser finned tubes are used to cool the exhaust gases, flowing at the outside of the tubes. The water itself flows at the inside of the tubes and is cooled by a water to air cooler. In the air cooled condenser the exhaust gases flow at the inside of the tubes and the cooling air at the outside. The investment costs of the condensers is compared to the costs of the total installation. The investment costs are relatively smaller if the produced power goes up. The water cooled condenser with water to air cooler is cheaper than the airmore » cooled condenser. Using a condenser results in higher exploitation costs due to the fans and pumps. It is shown that the air cooled condenser has lower exploitation costs than the water cooled one. Pay back time of the total installation does not significantly vary compared to the installation without recovery. Water prices are determined for which water recovery is profitable. For the water cooled condenser the turning point lies at 2.2 Euro/m; for the air cooled condenser this is 0.6 Euro/m.« less