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1. Introduction - Firenze University Press

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As the mass flow rate of "AIRREST" increases, the compressor power and flow rate through the<br />

turbine increase, thus increasing the power output from gas turbine "GT". At the same time,<br />

increase in "AIRREST" flow rate, keeping the "B10" split fraction constant, decreases the input<br />

temperature to the turbine, which decreases the output power. A similar effect is seen for the<br />

variation of the "B10" split fraction. For fixed "AIRREST" flow rate, increased direct flow through<br />

the gas turbine results in lower gas turbine "GT" inlet temperatures. However, this results in smaller<br />

flow rates through "BHEX" and thus, the maximum energy in the heat exchanger is not extracted.<br />

When the flow to the heat exchanger is large, the air inlet flow temperature to the gas turbine<br />

decreases. The interplay of these effects emphasizes the importance of optimization.<br />

As aforementioned, it is advantageous to extract the maximum possible power from the gas turbine<br />

and transport less thermal energy to the bottoming cycle. Therefore, the air outlet temperature from<br />

the heat exchanger "BHEX" must be the maximum possible, while satisfying the minimum pinch.<br />

Fixing the pinch which occurs at the hot end to 10 K, for inlet temperature of combustion products<br />

1473.15 K, the outlet temperature of air must be 1463.15 K. However, it is seen that as air flow rate<br />

through the heat exchanger "BHEX" is increased, air outlet temperature begins to decrease after a<br />

point. Though larger air-flow through "BHEX" is expected to produce more power in gas turbine<br />

"GT", other deteriorative factors such as a higher air compression power required, and lower air<br />

outlet temperature in "BHEX" also come into play. It is seen from the optimization results of Table<br />

1, the local optimum occurs at lower flow rates, with maximum possible air outlet temperature from<br />

"BHEX".<br />

The amount of "GT" turbine blade cooling required is chosen according to performance maps [11<br />

Chart 5.16] and is specified as an optimization constraint. Performance maps specify the amount of<br />

cooling air required based on the turbine inlet temperature. As the optimizer searches for a local<br />

optimum, the turbine inlet temperature varies. Therefore, a constraint is added to meet the turbine<br />

blade cooling requirements. The average of the lower and upper limit of this range is chosen for our<br />

optimization studies.<br />

Based on the performance map:<br />

For faster convergence of the ASPEN Plus ® optimizer, the design specifications of the topping cycle<br />

have been implemented as optimization constraints. The split fractions of "B6" and "B3", which are<br />

treated as design specification variables earlier, are now treated as optimization variables. This<br />

means, in addition to the actual optimization constraints, design specifications also become<br />

optimization constraints, and in the process, design specification variables now become<br />

optimization variables. The minimum approach temperature for "BHEX" is also treated as an<br />

optimization variable.<br />

Table <strong>1.</strong> Results of Optimization of Topping cycle<br />

Variables Units Before Optimization After Optimization<br />

Molar flow rate of AIRREST kmol/s 5.665 9.28<br />

Molar flow rate of AIRMCM kmol/s 37.335 49.18<br />

Split fraction of B6 (BLDPROP) 0.1267 0.1189<br />

Split fraction of B10 (Stream 2) 0.73 0.7169<br />

Air outlet temperature from BHEX K 1463.15 1463.15<br />

ITM ΔP feed/permeate (%)<br />

ITM Recovery ratio<br />

Efficiency<br />

163<br />

<strong>1.</strong>1/0.6<br />

29.1<br />

25.33 %<br />

<strong>1.</strong>5/0.9<br />

30.51<br />

26.07%

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