Exergetic Investigation of a Combined Cycle Power Plant: A Case Study

Nowadays, energy demand continuously rises while energy stocks are dwindling. Discovering new energy resources in addition to using current resources more effectively are crucial for the world this century. One of the methods to utilize energy resources effectively is to generate electricity from thermal combined cycle power plants (CCPP). Conducting performance analysis is a necessity to achieve effective operating conditions of thermal plants. The current paper offers a theoretical analysis of exergy losses of a typical CCPP over at various temperature and relative humidity ranges. Exergy destruction and the exergy efficiencies of each component of a thermal plant are calculated as well as subjecting them to parametric analysis. Energy and exergy efficiencies of the CCPP in the current study were 48.19% and 46.49%, respectively. Exergy destruction of a CCPP decreases with increasing ambient temperature and relative humidity. Exergy efficiency of a CCPP drops with increased ambient temperature. It is found that the combustion chamber is responsible for most of the exergy destruction amongst the system components.