Integrated absorption refrigeration and gas turbine power plant system: Performance enhancement through intake air cooling

Meeting the world's electricity demands relies significantly on gas turbine power plants; however, extremely hot ambient temperatures can seriously affect these plants.In this study, a gas turbine power plant and an absorption refrigeration cycle for intake air cooling are proposed as a new integrated system.The unique aspect of this setup is that the gas turbine's exhaust gases power the absorption chiller's generator.The chiller's evaporator cools the atmospheric air before entering the compressor.This leads to a reduction in the compressor's work and an enhancement in the power plant's thermal efficiency.The study investigates the impact of inlet air temperature variations on the power generated, energy efficiency, and exergy efficiency of a power plant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Also, mathematical modeling and analysis of both Brayton and absorption cycles are reported utilizing EES software.The findings assess that the power generated, energy efficiency, and exergy efficiency enhance considerably as the compressor inlet air temperature drops.The highest net generated power reaches about 61.91 MW at an inlet air temperature of 15C, while the lowest value of about 57.22 MW is recorded at 50C.In addition, at 15C inlet air temperature, the cycle energy efficiency and exergy efficiency are increased by about 8.2% and 50.5%, respectively, compared to 50C inlet temperature.Therefore, the novelty of the current work is enhancing system efficiency without more fuel consumption.