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In the present scenario, when the non-conventional energy resources are still under development stage for their full potential as a source of energy for our fast growing population, gas turbines are one of the most promising power generation technologies. The gas turbine based power utilities are also gaining acceptance across globe, because of increase in extraction of natural gas. Further reduction in the price of natural gas would also result in the number of gas turbine units installed across globe and thus it is important to carry out the environmental analysis of gas turbine based utilities. The gas turbines are employed in power generation in industries, aircrafts and marine propulsion units. The present exercise carries out thermodynamic performance analysis i.e. energy, exergy and emission performance analysis of an air-craft gas turbine. The gas turbine blades of present cycle are assumed to be cooled by air-film blade cooling technique.

This paper deals with effect of evaporative inlet air cooling on exergy and emission in basic gas turbine cycle. Inlet air cooled gas turbine based power plants are operational in various parts of the world. The article is an attempt to analyze thermodynamic and emission performance to these cycles. Rational efficiency of gas turbine for cooled inlet air at lower relative humidity is higher; also the exergy destruction in combustor is higher among all other components. For a fixed value of equivalence ratio, residence time, turbine-rotor-inlet temperature and two varying relative humidity effect of various values of compressor ratio on primary-zone-temperature, NOx, CO and UHC emission has been analyzed. It has been observed that the primary-zone-temperature and mass of NOX emission increases with increase in compressor pressure ratio whereas mass of CO and UHC emission decreases with increase in compressor pressure ratio.

An “APU” (Auxiliary Power Unit) is a small gas turbine engine to provide supplementary power to an aircraft and is located at the tails of larger jets. APU generators provide auxiliary electrical power for running aircraft systems on the ground. Applications include powering environmental systems for pre-cooling or preheating the cabin, and providing power for crew functions such as preflight, cabin cleanup, and galley (kitchen) operation and long-haul airliners must be started using pneumatic power of APU compressor. The Honeywell 131-9A gas turbine APU has 440 kW shaft power and 90 kW electric generator consuming 120 kg fuel/hour. Hybrid power systems based on fuel cells are promising technology for the forthcoming power generation market. A solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is the perfect candidate for utilizing waste heat recovery. This case deals with waste heat recovery from fuel cell exhaust using Brayton cycle as bottoming cycle for additional power production.

The integration of inlet air cooling to gas turbine based power utilities is a well accepted practice as this modification to the utility delivers superior utility performance. However, application of inlet-air cooling to drive turbines and specifically to marine mobility sector is rare in literature. Marine vessels are generally propelled by diesel engines, however large marine vessels specifically cruise ships and high speed naval vessels may have requirements of higher speeds and on-board power requirements which can fulfilled by gas turbine driving the propellers while on-board power needs can be met by steam turbine power generated from gas turbine exhaust heat. Such gas-steam combined cycles have the potential to become popular for high capacity marine vessels. The choice of gas turbine based combined cycle power plant for marine vessels in comparison to diesel engine powered vessel is also superior due to lower emission from the former.

In comparison to other thermal power cycles, gas turbine based energy conversion cycles exhibit superior thermodynamic performance as well as reduced emission. Gas turbine manufacturers and research & development (R&D) organizations are working on modification in basic gas turbine (BGT) cycle, which are intended to improve the basic gas turbine cycle thermodynamic performance and reduce emissions. The present work reports a comparison of thermodynamic performance, NOx and CO emission for basic and intercooled gas turbine (IcGT) cycles. Various cycle operating parameters such as compressor-pressure-ratio (rp,c), combustor-primary-zone-temperature, equivalence-ratio, and residence time of gas turbine based cycles has been examined. IcGT cycle exhibits higher gas turbine specific work and gas turbine efficiency in comparison to BGT cycle for the same rp,c and turbine rotor inlet temperature.