Energy Conversion and Management 215 (2020) 112946

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Energy Conversion and Management

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Performance improvement of biomass-fueled closed cycle gas turbine via T

compressor inlet cooling using absorption refrigeration; thermoeconomic
analysis and multi-objective optimization
V. Zare
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Urmia University of Technology, Urmia, Iran

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Compressor inlet air cooling is a practical and applied methodology to enhance the conventional open cycle gas
Biomass gasification turbine power plants. This methodology in this paper, is proposed to be applied on an innovative biomass-fueled
Exergy Closed Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT), in which the exhaust gas waste heat is utilized to run an ammonia-water
Thermoeconomic absorption refrigeration cycle for compressor inlet cooling. Thermoeconomic analysis is presented to investigate
Multi-objective Optimization
the two systems (with and without inlet cooling) and multi-objective optimization is conducted to compare their
Compressor inlet cooling
LCOE
performances at optimal operating conditions. Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) and exergy efficiency are
selected as the two rational objectives. The results indicated that, for all the practical range of operating con-
ditions, compressor inlet cooling significantly improves the system performance in terms of both thermo-
dynamics and economics, despite the additional costs imposed on the overall system by adding the absorption
refrigeration cycle. It is found that, under the optimal operating conditions, incorporation of compressor inlet
cooling results in an improvement of net power and exergy efficiency by 30.1%, meanwhile the LCOE would be
reduced by 22.5% when inlet cooling is employed.

1. Introduction thermochemical or biochemical routes. Gasification process is a ther-

mochemical route considered as the most favorable method for ob-
Searching for efficient power systems is a major issue of concern taining gaseous fuel from solid biomass, since it is a practically simple
regarding the current energy crisis. Besides, replacing the fossil fuels by and economically viable method [6]. Via the gasification process, bio-
renewables is an essential necessity nowadays concerning the global mass is converted to a synthesis gas referred to as syngas consisting
environmental problems. Among the renewables, biomass resources has mainly of H2, CO, CO2, N2 and a little amount of CH4. Syngas is a
received further attention for abundance and carbon-free power gen- valuable fuel for power generation purposes. Many researches are de-
eration [1]. voted to evaluation of syngas usage in GTs [7].
For power generation from biomass resources, Gas Turbines (GTs) Two types of GT cycles, operating based on Brayton cycle, are
are considered as preferred systems, due to having mature technology available in practical applications: (1) open cycle using air as the
and economical advantages [2]. However, a GT yields relatively low working fluid, and (2) closed cycle which can use other gases (such as
efficiency, as some heat is rejected to the atmosphere from GTs at high supercritical CO2 and helium) as the working fluid instead of air. From
temperature levels. Recovering this waste heat not only increases the another standpoint, GTs may be classified into: internally (IFGT) and
system efficiency, but also results in a reduction of environmental im- externally fired gas turbines (EFGT).
pacts [3]. In an EFGT there is no direct interaction of turbine blades with hot
Biomass is a biological and organic material with a great volume combustion gases and the thermal energy of combustion gas is trans-
which is derived from living organisms including human/animal wastes ferred via an Intermediate Heat Exchanger (IHE) to the cycle working
or plants [4]. Its various types are coming from various resources in- fluid. These systems has the benefit of reducing syngas cleaning costs
cluding forest products, agricultural crops, waste materials, etc. How- over the IFGT systems. Thus, lots of researches are focused on biomass-
ever, major resource of biomass is woody biomass which contributes fueled open cycle EFGTs, especially on CHP applications as the GT
about 64% to the resources followed by MSW by around 24% [5]. systems have good potential for combined heat and power generation.
Useful energy exploitation from biomass needs utilization of A small scale CHP-EFGT system with 70 kWe and 150 kWth capacity is

E-mail address: [Link]@[Link].

[Link]
Received 22 March 2020; Received in revised form 4 May 2020; Accepted 5 May 2020
Available online 20 May 2020
0196-8904/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
V. Zare Energy Conversion and Management 215 (2020) 112946

Nomenclature Pre Precooler

Rec Recuperator
A Heat transfer area (m2) T Turbine
C Heat capacity rate (kW/K) Abs Absorber
Ėx Exergy rate (kW) ARC absorption refrigeration cycle
h Enthalpy (kJ/kg) AWM Ammonia-Water Mixture
ir Interest rate BIG-GT Biomass Integrated Gasification-Gas Turbine
K Equilibrium constant c Cold stream
ṁ Mass flow rate (kg/s) CCGT Closed Cycle Gas Turbine
MC Moisture content on mass-basis CHP Combined Heat and Power
n plant operation years CRF Capital recovery facor
P Pressure (bar) CW Cooling water
Q̇ Heat rate (kW) GT Gas Turbine
r Pressure ratio EFGT Externally Fired Gas Turbines
s Specific entropy (kJ/kg.K) h Hot stream
T Temperature (K or °C) IHE Intermediate Heat Exchanger
w Moisture content pecentage OCGT Open Cycle Gas Turbine
Ẇ Power (kW) TIT Turbine Inlet Temperature
Z Cost ($) Th. V Throttling valve
Ż Cost rate ($/h) WHR Waste Heat Recovery Boiler

Subscripts and abbreviations Greek symbols

AP Air preheater ηex Exergy efficiency

C compressor ηen Energyefficiency
ch chemical ηT Turbine efficiency
Evap evaporator ηC Compressor efficiency
Gen generator ε Heat exchanger effectiveness
P Pump β exergy to LHV ratio
ph physical

investigated by Vera et al. [8] for an olive mill, which can yield an A literature review on biomass-fueled GT systems indicated that,
overall thermal efficiency of 65%. Iora et al. [9] investigated a 50 kWe researches are focused on conventional open GT system and literature
biomass-fueled CHP-EFGT system and reported electrical efficiency of lacks about employment of externally fired Closed Cycle Gas Turbine
21%. Application of fluidized bed combustor in a direct biomass fired (CCGT) which has many advantages over the open cycle GT as ex-
CHP-EFGT system is proposed by Gaderer et al. [10] and the in- plained before. Thus present work aims at proposal and investigation of
corporation of a high temperature IHE inside the system is simulated by CCGT system fueled by biomass gasification. Also as the system exhaust
CFD. temperature is relatively high, substantial amount of energy will be
Another alternative to enhance EFGT performance is combined wasted if not utilized. Regarding the temperature level of this flue gas,
Brayton-Rankine cycle. Soltani et al. [11] indicated that, the efficiency it can be used as a proper heat source to drive an ammonia-water
of biomass-fueled EFGT system could enhance considerably with Absorption Refrigeration Cycle (ARC) for cooling production. In this
adding a steam Rankine bottoming cycle. Combined EFGT and ORC work, this produced cooling is proposed to be used for the CCGT
systems fueled with biomass gasification is proposed by Khanmo- compressor inlet cooling to improve its performance.
hammadi et al. [12,13] and analyzed by exergoeconomic method. They In the context of GTs’ inlet cooling many research works are re-
calculated an exergy efficiency of 15.6%, for a base case operating ported, however, almost all of them are dealt with compressor air inlet
condition, while it may increase to 17.9% by optimization. In a novel cooling of open GT cycles. Inlet cooling would result in a decrease in
biomass-fueled GT-based CHP system, the EFGT system is combined compressor power consumption and increase in air density entering the
with a S-CO2 cycle to recover the flue gas waste heat [14]. It is con- system, as a result overall performance of GT is enhanced [20]. Dif-
cluded that, exergy efficiency increases by around 10% when the S-CO2 ferent methods for compressor inlet cooling are applied such as: vapor
cycle is combined with conventional EFGT system. Athari et al. [15,16] compression cooling [21], fogging system [15], evaporative cooling
investigated a combined EFGT-Rankine cycle with steam injection and [22], chilled water/ice storage [23] and absorption cooling [24]. Some
showed that, the steam injection enhances the efficiency by 0.5%. comparative analyses are carried out on different cooling methods to
Amirante et al. [17] proposed three configurations of biomass-fueled distinguish the better one for inlet cooling. It is reported that, each
EFGT-based combined cycles for application in rural areas. They re- method has some merits or drawbacks and brings about a specific range
ported that electrical efficiency of 10–17% is achievable for an ex- of power augmentation, meanwhile various technical and economical
perimental prototype of their proposed system developed at Politecnico features they have [25–27].
di Bari. Advanced exergy analysis of a combined cycle based on EFGT is Amongst the cooling methods, absorption refrigeration is a proper
performed by Soltani et al. [18], who reported that the unavoidable one since its required energy can be provided by WHR from the GT
exergy destruction is more than the avoidable one in system compo- system. Also, unlike the fog system no moisture and water droplets
nents. For decentralized power generation, an EFGT system fueled by would be added to inlet air and no negative effect such as erosion and
biomass-gasification is proposed and evaluated from energy and exergy corrosion (on turbo-machinery blades) would be resulted. However,
perspectives by Datta et al. [19]. They assessed thermal characteristics ARC requires higher maintenance costs compared to the other tech-
and sizing of the system as well as its performance at different operating nologies [28]. Ameri and Hejazi [29] investigated application of LiBr-
conditions. H2O absorption chiller for an installed GT power plant and reported

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that, the output power could increase by 11% and the chiller payback 2. Systems description
period is estimated to be about 4 years. For a GT-based combined cycle
power plant, performance enhancement is analyzed using inlet cooling Developing and application of CCGTs is recently growing due to
by ARC by Kwon et al. [30] who calculated a power augmentation of their advantages over the open cycle GTs, such as: flexibility in fuel
8.2% for the combined cycle. Ehyaei et al. [31] presented ex- utilization (biomass, nuclear, fossil and solar), utilization of various
ergoeconomic analysis of GT inlet cooling using absorption chiller and working fluids (air, S-CO2 and helium), attaining higher efficiency than
reported enhancement of about 30% for the exergy efficiency. Dizaji Rankine cycles (for high temperature heat sources) and smaller, com-
et al. [28] proposed integrated Maisotsenko cycle and absorption chiller pact and cheaper components [33].
as a novel method for inlet cooling of a GT and reported that the in- Considering these advantages, in this paper a CCGT is proposed for
tegrated system is a proper cooling technology for GT plants at various power production from biomass-gasification. Helium is considered as
ambient conditions. Singh [32] developed and analyzed inlet cooling working media of the CCGT for its advantages over air or other gases. A
for a combined cycle power plant by NH3H2O ARC driven by GT ex- review of helium working fluid usage in CCGTs is presented based on
haust waste heat. He found that, an additional power of 9440 kW is experiences in Germany and Japan by Cheon et al. [34].
generated in summer which improves the plant energyand exergy ef- Schematics of the proposed CCGT powered by biomass gasification
ficiency by 1.193% and 1.133%, respectively. is illustrated in Fig. 1. The syngas from the gasifier (stream 3) is com-
The literature review on biomass gasification-fueled GT systems busted in chamber with preheated air (stream 5) to produce hot com-
have revealed that, there is no research work on employment of CCGT bustion gases (stream 6). This gas flow with a temperature of around
for power generation in this field. As mentioned above the CCGT sys- 1400 K [35] can be used as a heat source to run a CCGT via an IHE. As
tems have many advantages compared to conventional open cycle GTs. shown in Fig. 1, CCGT consists of IHE, gas turbine, recuperator, pre-
As another important novelty of the present work is proposal and in- cooler and compressor. The heated helium in IHE (state 9) expands
vestigation of exhaust gas WHR for compressor inlet cooling of a CCGT through the GT and generates power, to run the compressor and gen-
system. This topic has not been considered in previously published erator. Exiting helium from the GT (state 10) flows through the re-
literature. As the considered working fluid in CCGT is helium, its cuperator and rejects heat to helium exiting from the compressor (state
temperature reduction in compressor inlet to around 0 °C is investigated 13). To reduce helium temperature before entering the compressor it
in this work. passes through the pre-cooler (state 11) in which it is cooled by CW
With regard to the surveyed literature, the main contributions/ob- flow coming from the environment (stream 15) to reduce the com-
jectives of present paper are as follows: pression work.
Even after using of the air preheater, the flue gas (state 8) contains
• Innovative externally fired biomass-fueled CCGT is proposed in considerable energy amount that would be wasted if not utilized.
which helium is aptly used as the working fluid. Further utilization of this energy, improves the system performance. In
• The exhaust waste heat from the proposed CCGT is investigated to the second proposed system (shown in Fig. 2), this waste heat is as-
be used for compressor inlet cooling using an ammonia-water ARC. sumed to be used to run an ammonia-water ARC. The provided cooling
• Comprehensive thermoeconomic comparison is made between the via the evaporator of ARC is utilized for compressor inlet cooling of
two developed systems. helium in CCGT (state 12a). Helium temperature at the pre-cooler
• A trade-off is made between the additional costs imposed by adding outlet (state 12) is about 350 K (depending on operating conditions)
ARC to the system and performance improvement via inlet cooling which may be reduced considerably to around 290–300 K by heat re-
by multi-objective optimization. jection through evaporator of ARC. Process details of ammonia-water

Fig. 1. Biomass integrated gasification-GT (BIG-GT) with closed cycle.

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Fig. 2. Biomass integrated gasification GT combined with ARC for compressor inlet cooling (BIG-GT with IC).

Table 1 3. Exiting syngas from the gasifier reaches equilibrium.

Input data [14,35,36] 4. Heat loss is ignored from the components to the environment.
Parameter Value
5. Ideal gas model is used for all the gas mixtures.
6. Turbine, compressor and pump are adiabatic working with proper
Ambient temperature (K) 298.15 values of isentropic efficiencies (given in Table 1).
Ambient pressure (bar) 1 7. For CCGT, pressure losses are taken into account (with the values
Biomass type Wood - CH1.44O0.66
given in Table 1).
Moisture content (%) 20
Biomass rate (kg/s) 1 8. In ARC system, the condenser and evaporator outlet streams are
Gasification temperature (K) 1073.15 saturated.
Combustion chamber outlet temperature (K) 1400
Recuperator and precooler effectiveness (%) 80
Other input data, design variables and assumptions are given in
IHE effectiveness (%) 80
Air-preheater effectiveness (%) 80
Table 1.
Turbine efficiency (%) 89
Compressor efficiency (%) 87 3. Modeling and analysis
Compressor inlet pressure (bar) 25
Pre-cooler pressure drop (bar) 0.4
Pressure drop in recuperator (high-pressure side) (bar) 0.8 In modeling of the proposed systems, the gisifier modeling as the
Pressure drop in recuperator (low-pressure side) (bar) 0.4 system driver requires more precision and attention. In this work
Pressure drop of He in IHE (bar) 1 equilibrium model, as an accurate and widely applied approach, is
Exhaust gas temperature (T8a) (K) 420 employed to simulate the gasifier reactor [38]. Based on this method,
Turbine inlet temperature (K) T6 − 50
Pumps isentropic efficiency (%) 85
all the reactions are in thermodynamic equilibrium, while the pyrolysis
Condenser and absorber temperatures (K) 303.15 products burn until reaching equilibrium state in reduction zone before
Generator temperature (K) 353.15 leaving the gasifier [39].
Evaporator temperature (K) 273.15
Interest rate (%) 12
Economic life of plant (%) 20
3.1. Gasification modeling
Annual operating hours 7500
In gasification modeling the species are assumed to react in a
completely mixed condition for an infinite period of time until reaching
ARC are described in literature [36] and are not discussed here for equilibrium state, from which the syngas composition leaving the ga-
summarization. sifier is predicted [40]. The chemical reaction of biomass gasification,
Following assumptions are made to model the proposed systems that takes place in the gasifier reactor, can be expressed as follows [14]:
[14,36,37]:
CHa Ob Nc + wH2 O + n (O2 + 3.76N2) → n1 H2 + n2 CO + n3 CO2 + n4 H2
1. Ambient air is an ideal gas composing of 21% O2 and 79% N2. O + n5 CH4 + n6 N2 (1)
2. Zero dimensional modeling is considered for gasifier reactor.
Where, CHa Ob Nc is the biomass chemical formula as given in

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Table 2
Governing energy/exergy equations for system components.
Component Energy-related equations Exergy balance

Turbine ηT =
dh
, ẆT =ṁ He (h9 − h10) Eẋ 9 = ẆT + Eẋ 10 + Eẋ D
vdp
Recuperator (h10 − h11) = (h14 − h13) ε =
T14 − T13 Eẋ 10 + Eẋ 13 = Eẋ 11 + Eẋ 14 + Eẋ D
T10 − T13
Precooler ṁ He (h11 − h12) = ṁ 15 (h16 − h15) ε =
T11 − T12 Eẋ 11 + Eẋ 15 = Eẋ 12 + Eẋ 16 + Eẋ D
T11 − T15
Compressor ηC =
vdp
, WĊ =ṁ He (h13 − h12a) Eẋ 12a + WĊ = Eẋ 13 + Eẋ D
dh
IHE ṁ He (h9 − h14 ) = ṁ 6 (h6 − h7 ) ε =
T6 − T 7 Eẋ 6 + Eẋ 14 = Eẋ 9 + Eẋ 7 + Eẋ D
T6 − T14
Air preheater ṁ 4 (h5 − h4 ) = ṁ 7 (h7 − h8 ) ε =
T5 − T4 Eẋ 7 + Eẋ 4 = Eẋ 8 + Eẋ 5 + Eẋ D
T 7 − T4
Generator ṁ 8 (h8 − h8a) = ṁ 17 h17 + ṁ 24 h24 − ṁ 23 h23 Eẋ 8 + Eẋ 23 = Eẋ 8a + Eẋ 17 + Eẋ 24 + Eẋ D
SHE ṁ 24 (h24 − h25) = ṁ 22 (h23 − h22 ) εSHE =
T24 − T25 Eẋ 22 + Eẋ 24 = Eẋ 23 + Eẋ 25 + Eẋ D
T24 − T22
Pump ηP =
ws
=
v18 (P19 − P18) ̇
WP = ṁ 21 (h22 − h21) Eẋ 21 + ẆP = Eẋ 22 + Eẋ D
wa h19 − h18
Throttling valves hin = hout Eẋ in = Eẋ out + Eẋ D
Absorber ṁ 27 (h28 − h27) = ṁ 26 h26 + ṁ 20 h20 − ṁ 21 h21 Eẋ 20 + Eẋ 26 + Eẋ 27 = Eẋ 21 + Eẋ 28 + Eẋ D
Evaporator ṁ He (h12 − h12a) = ṁ 19 (h20 − h19) Eẋ 12 + Eẋ 19 = Eẋ 12a + Eẋ 20 + Eẋ D
Condenser ṁ 17 (h17 − h18) = ṁ 29 (h30 − h29) Eẋ 17 + Eẋ 29 = Eẋ 18 + Eẋ 30 + Eẋ D

Table 3
Cost functions of system components [44–46]
Component Cost function

Gasifier kg
1600(ṁ drybiomass [ ])0.67
h
Combustion chamber 48.64ṁ air (1 + exp(0.018Tout + 26.4))
1
0.995 − Pout / Pin
Turbine 1536ṁ P
ln i (1 + exp (0.036Tin − 54.4))
0.92 − ηT Po
Compressor 75ṁ
0.9 − ηC ( ). ln
Pout
Pin
Po
Pi
IHE 4122(AIHE )0.6
Air-preheater 4122(AAP )0.6
Recuperator 4122(ARec )0.6
Precooler 2143(APre )0.514
Generator 130(Agen /0.093)0.78
Condenser 10000 + 324(ACond )0.91
Evaporator 1.3(190 + 310(ACond ))
Absorber 130(AAbs /0.093)0.78 Fig. 3. Model validation for ARC.
Pump 3450(ẆP )0.71
SHE 1.3(190 + 310(ASHE ))
Table 1 and w denotes moisture content of biomass, which is de-
termined using Eq. (2), where MC is the moisture content on mass-basis
Table 4 [40]:
Model validation for gasifier.
Mbiomass MC
Species Present work Zainal et al. [50] w=
18(1 − MC ) (2)
H2 21.66 21.06
CO 20.55 19.61 The seven unknown coefficients (n1– n6 and n , in Eq. (1)) are de-
CH4 1.011 0.64 termined by applying the mass conservation for 4 species (H, O, C and
CO2 12.36 12.01 N) and using chemical equilibrium constants for shift and methane
N2 44.42 46.68
formation reactions and applying energy balance for gasifier.
The shift and methane formation reactions occurred in gasifier with
the corresponding equilibrium constants are expressed as [14]:
Table 5
Model validation for CCGT. −1
n5 ⎛ P ⎞
CCGT performance parameters* Present work El-Genk and Tournier [51]
C + 2H2 ↔ CH4, K = ⎜ ⎟

n12 ⎝ ntot ⎠ (3)

Turbine power (MW) 552.8 538.8
Compressor power (MW) 248.3 243.8 0
Pre-cooler heat load (MW) 295.6 310.2 n1 n3 ⎛ P ⎞
CO + H2 O ↔ CO2 + H2, K1 = ⎜ ⎟

Recuperator heat load (MW) 970.7 966.5 n2 n4 ⎝ ntot ⎠ (4)

Helium mass flow rate (kg/s) 401.1 401.0
The energy balance for an adiabatic gasifier operating at a given
* Results are calculated for TIT = 900 °C, Q̇IHE = 600MW and rc = 2.10 as
gasification temperature can be expressed as [40]:
given in Ref. [51] for a nuclear power plant.
−0 −0 − −0 − −0 −
hf − wood + w × hf − H2 O + n × h6 = n1 (hf − H 2 + Δh H2) + n2 (hf − CO + ΔhCO )

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Table 6
Thermodynamic properties for proposed systems*.
BIG-GT BIG-GT with IC

Stream Fluid T (K ) P (bar) ṁ (kg/s) Eẋ (kW) Stream Fluid T (K ) P (bar) ṁ (kg/s) Eẋ (kW)

1 Biomass 298.2 1.0 1 17,591 1 Biomass 298.2 1.0 1 17,591

2 Air 298.2 1.0 1.739 7.712 2 Air 298.2 1.0 1.739 7.712
3 Syngas 1073 1.0 2.739 14,029 3 Syngas 1073 1.0 2.739 14,029
4 Air 298.2 1.0 17.47 77.47 4 Air 298.2 1.0 16.96 75.21
5 Air 840.8 1.0 17.47 4418 5 Air 823.2 1.0 16.96 4077
6 Flue gas 1400 1.0 20.21 15,719 6 Flue gas 1400 1.0 19.7 15,354
7 Flue gas 976.4 1.0 20.21 7843 7 Flue gas 954.4 1.0 19.7 7311
8 Flue gas 543 1.0 20.21 1878 8 Flue gas 536.7 1.0 19.7 1786
— — — — — — 8a Flue gas 420 1.0 19.7 867.7
9 Helium 1350 73.2 4.238 24,584 9 Helium 1350 73.2 4.108 23,829
10 Helium 932.6 25.9 4.238 15,049 10 Helium 935.2 26.1 4.108 14,644
11 Helium 684.4 25.4 4.238 11,567 11 Helium 566.9 25.6 4.108 9923
12 Helium 375.4 25.0 4.238 8665 12 Helium 351.9 25.2 4.108 8330
— — — — — — 12a Helium 286.2 25 4.108 8222
13 Helium 622.1 75.0 4.238 13,722 13 Helium 474.4 75.0 4.108 11,875
14 Helium 870.5 74.2 4.238 16,952 14 Helium 843 74.2 4.108 16,049
15 Water 298.2 1.0 81.27 0 15 Water 298.2 1.0 54.8 0
16 Water 318.2 1.0 81.27 218.3 16 Water 318.2 1.0 54.8 147.2
17 Ammonia 353.2 11.7 1.249 25,166
18 Ammonia 303.2 11.7 1.249 25,127
19 Ammonia 273.2 4.3 1.249 25,115
20 Ammonia 273.2 4.3 1.249 24,987
21 AWM 303.2 4.3 7.718 79,438
X = 0.534
22 AWM 303.2 11.7 7.718 79,439
X = 0.534
23 AWM 336.4 11.7 7.718 79,443
X = 0.534
24 AWM 353.2 11.7 6.469 55,081
X = 0.444
25 AWM 313.2 11.7 6.469 55,074
X = 0.444
26 AWM 313.4 4.3 6.469 55,073
X = 0.444
27 Water 298.2 1.0 44.27 0
28 Water 308.2 1.0 44.27 30.38
29 Water 298.2 1.0 38.4 0
30 Water 308.2 1.0 38.4 26.35

* rc = 3, T9 = 1350K , Tgen = 353.15K , Tevap = 273.15K

Table 7 reaction the energy balance is expressed as [35]:

Performance parameters for the considered systems. −0 − −0 − −0 −

Parameter BIG-GT BIG-GT with IC

∑ Xj (h f j + Δh )syngas,3 + ∑ Xj (h f j + Δh )air ,5 = ∑ Xj (h f j + Δh )products,6
j j j
GT power (kW) 9236 8898
Compressor power (kW) 5490 4075 (7)
ARC pump power (kW) — 0.473
Net output power (kW) 3746 4822 The other components are modeled applying mass and energy bal-
Energy efficiency (%) 24.76 31.88 ances as follows:
Exergy efficiency (%) 21.29 27.41
LCOE ($/MWh) 72.48 57.11 ∑ ṁ in − ∑ ṁ out = 0 (8)

−0 − −0 − −0 −
QĊ . V − WĊ . V + ∑ ṁ in hin − ∑ ṁ out hout = 0 (9)
+ n3 (hf − CO2 + ΔhCO2) + n4 (hf − H 2O + ΔhH 2O ) + n5 (hf − Ch4 + ΔhCh4 )+n6
−0 −
To model the heat exchangers, effectiveness is defined as [41]:
(hf − N 2 + ΔhN 2 (5) ̇
Qtransferred
ε=
Cmin (Th, i − Tc, i ) (10)
3.2. Combustion chamber in which, C denotes the heat capacity rate and Tc, i and Th, i are the en-
tering temperatures of cold and hot streams to the HE. For IHE for in-
In combustion chamber of considered systems, the syngas produced stance, the effectiveness is defined as:
in gasifier is reacted with hot air coming from air pre-heater. The
chemical reaction of combustion can be expressed by [35]: T6 − T7
ε=
T6 − T14 (11)
n1 H2 + n2 CO + n3 CO2 + n4 H2 O + n5 CH4 + n6 N2 + n' (O2 + 3.76N2)
→ n 7 CO2 + n8 H2 O + n 9 O2 + (n6 + 3.76n') N2 (6)
3.3. Exergy analysis
'
n denotes the air kilomoles entered to the chamber. n7 , n8 and n9 are
coefficients of combustion products. For an adiabatic combustion The true inefficiencies within a system can be identified by exergy

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Fig. 4. (a–d) Effects of compressor pressure ratio.

Fig. 5. (a–d) Effects of gas turbine inlet temperature.

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Fig. 6. (a–b). Effects of evaporator temperature on BIG-GT system with IC.

Fig. 7. (a–b) Effects of generator temperature on BIG-GT system with IC.

where Eẋ ph and Eẋ ch denote physical and chemical exergies as [14]:

Eẋ ph = ∑ ṁi ((hi − h0) − T0 (si − s0))

i (13)

−
⎡ ⎤
Eẋ ch = ṁ ⎢∑ x i ex 0, i + RT0 ∑ x i lnx i⎥
⎣ i i ⎦ (14)
In these equations, xi and ex0,i denote mole fraction and standard
chemical exergy of species in the mixture.
The biomass chemical exergy is expressed as:
ch
exbiomass = βLHVbiomass (15)

β indicates the ratio of exergy to LHV of biomass. Details on assessment

of these parameters is explained by the author in [35].
For the proposed biomass fueled CCGT systems the energy and ex-
Fig. 8. Effects of generator temperature on cooling production and compressor
inlet temperature.
ergy efficiencies are defined as:
̇
Wnet
ηen =
Table 8 ṁ biomass LHVbiomass (16)
Decision variables and their bonds.
̇
Wnet
Parameter Lower bond Upper bond ηex =
E1̇ (17)
rc (−) 2 6 ̇ denotes the net output power from the system as follows:
where, Wnet
T9 (K ) 1150 1350
Tevap (K ) 267.15 277.15 ̇
WTurbine ̇
− WCompressor (forBIG − GT )
Tgen (K ) 343.15 393.15 ̇ =⎧
Wnet
⎨WTurbine − WCompressor − Ẇ pump (forBIG − GTwithIC )
̇ ̇
(18)
⎩
The governing equations of energy and exergy analyses applied for
analysis in order to indicate the components with higher potential
system components are outlined in Table 2 for BIG-GT with IC system
improvement. Total flow-exergy of a stream includes four parts: phy-
according to Fig. 2.
sical, chemical, potential and kinetic exergy. The kinetic and potential
All the above mentioned equations are introduced into the simula-
exergy are usually neglected as velocity and elevation variations are
tion code which is programmed using EES software. The software ex-
small. Thus, exergy rate of any stream is defined as:
tracts the thermodynamic properties from its own library of property
functions and calculates all the unknown parameters including state
Eẋ = Eẋ ph + Eẋ ch (12) point thermodynamic properties and performance parameters. For

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V. Zare Energy Conversion and Management 215 (2020) 112946

Fig. 9. Mean Square Error (MSE) values for training, validation and testing steps.

Table 9
Parameters considered in genetic algorithm procedure.
Parameter Value

Population size 500

Maximum number of generation 600
Crossover probability 85%
Selection process Tournament
Mutation probability 1%

helium gas, the real (not ideal) gas properties are considered in mod-
eling.

3.4. Economic assessment

Economic aspects play vital role in evaluation and designing in-

novative power systems on which much attention must be paid. In this
respect, LCOE (Levelized Cost of Electricity) is a widely used criterion to
assess the economic feasibility of power plant and compare various
power systems [42]. In this paper economic comparison of the two
proposed systems is made using this factor, defined as [43]:
CRF . Zinvestment + ZO & M + Zfuel
LCOE =
PGnet (19)

Zinvestment and ZO & M denote total investment cost and annual op-
eration and maintenance cost. Zfuel denotes the annual fuel cost and
PGnet indicates annual net power generation by the system. Also, CRF is
the capital recovery factor as [43]:
ir . (1 + ir )n
CRF =
(1 + ir )n − 1 (20)

where, ir and n are the interest rate and number of system operation
years.
Estimation of Zinvestment for the overall system requires data on in-
vestment cost of system components. To estimate the capital cost of
components the cost functions are used as given in Table 3.
For the heat exchangers’ modeling and calculation of heat transfer
surfaces the LMTD approach is used as [47]:
Fig. 10. Two-dimensional Pareto front; (a) BIG-GT system, (b) BIG-GT with IC
Q̇ = UAΔTLMTD (21) system.

where, ΔTLMTD is the logarithmic mean temperature difference defined

as:
ΔTA − ΔTB
ΔTLMTD = ΔT
ln ΔTA (22)
B

In which, ΔTA and ΔTB denote for temperature differences between

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V. Zare Energy Conversion and Management 215 (2020) 112946

Table 10 inlet cooling would be investigated at various operating conditions. As

Optimal operating conditions. the combustion gas temperature is assumed to be constant (see Table 1)
Parameter BIG-GT BIG-GT with IC the key design/operating variables are: compressor pressure ratio of
Compressor pressure ratio 2.86 3.33 CCGT (rc ), gas Turbine Inlet Temperature (TIT) and generator and
Turbine inlet temperature (K) 1350 1350 evaporator temperature of ARC. Also, the performance criteria taken
Evaporator temperature (K) — 277.15 into account are: net power output (Wnet ̇ ) , energy efficiency (ηen ), exergy
Generator temperature (K) — 355.19
efficiency (ηex ) and LCOE.
Net output power (kW) 3753.0 4912.1
Energy efficiency (%) 24.81 32.48 Before presenting results of parametric study, thermodynamic
Exergy efficiency (%) 21.33 27.94 properties at each state point of the considered systems are presented
LCOE ($/MWh) 72.30 56.05 for a typical operating condition. These data are helpful to have a better
understanding of the proposed systems’ specifications.
For the given operating conditions in Table 6, the performance
hot and cold streams at heat exchangers’ end terminals. parameters are presented in Table 7. The figures given in this Table
The cost values obtained by these relations are converted to actual shows that, compressor inlet cooling results in a significant perfor-
values for year 2018 using Chemical Engineering Plant Cost Index mance improvement in terms of both thermodynamics and economics.
(CEPEI) by the following relation [48]: It can be observed that using inlet cooling, Wnet ̇ and ηex improves by
Cost2018 = Costref . (CEPCI2018/ CEPCIref ) (23) 28.7%, while LCOE decreases by 21.2%. For the system with inlet
̇ is the main reason for attaining a lower
cooling, the higher value of Wnet
The CEPEI for year 2018 is 638.1 [48]. LCOE.
To estimate operating and maintenance cost, maintenance factor of As it is clear, compressor power consumption for BIG-GT with IC
0.1 is considered [46]. Also for biomass cost, according to the literature system is 25.8% lower than that for BIG-GT system. This considerable
different values is reported and used [49] depending on the availability, lower value is a result of significant lower helium temperature at
production and transportation. In this work a value of 60 $/tonne is compressor inlet: T12a = 286.2K (see Table 6). At the same operating
considered. This cost can be converted to $/GJ based on the biomass conditions compressor inlet helium temperature for BIG-GT system is
LHV value which its unit is kJ/kg. found to be T12 = 375.4 K, as given in Table 6.
As it is well-known in Brayton cycles, most important design vari-
4. Results and discussion able is compressor pressure ratio (rc ). Effect of this factor on the sys-
tems’ performance is shown in Fig. 4(a–d). Fig. 4(a–d) indicates as a
4.1. Model validation general conclusion that, for all the rc values, the BIG-GT with IC has a
significantly better performance than BIG-GT in terms of all considered
To verify the accuracy of applied models, three validations for key performance parameters: Wnet ̇ , ηen , ηex and LCOE . As explained above,
subsystems of overall proposed system are presented. The key sub- this is due to the considerable lower compressor power consumption as
systems includes: gasifier, CCGT and ARC, modeling of each are vali- a consequence of inlet cooling. Decreasing the gas temperature at
dated separately using available data in literature. compressor inlet leads to a higher gas density (as a result of lower
As mentioned before, the gasifier is a key component on which the specific volume at lower temperatures), so regarding the relation of
performance of overall system depends. The gasifier modeling are va- w = ∫ dp / ρ its power consumption would be reduced. Fig. 4(c–d) in-
lidated by comparing the present results with reported data by Zainal dicates that, at nearly optimal values of rc , exergy efficiency of system
et al. [50] as given in Table 4 which gives species percentage of dry with IC is higher than the BIG-GT system by ~ 29.4%, also the former
syngas. Referring to this Table an acceptable agreement is observed. system has a lower LCOE by ~ 21.6%.
For the CCGT case, the obtained results are validated using those In analyzing the effects of rc , Fig. 4(a–d) indicates that all the four
reported by El-Genk and Tournier [51], as indicated in Table 5 which performance criteria can be optimized at a specific value of rc . This is
reveals a good agreement. why, as the rc increases both the compressor power consumption and
To verify the modeling results for ARC, exergy efficiency values are turbine power generation are also increased. At lower rc s than the op-
compared with given data by Aman et al. [36] as represented in Fig. 3, timum value, turbine power increment is dominant, so the net power
from which good agreement can be observed between the results. increases as depicted in Fig. 4(a), while at higher rc values the incre-
ment of compressor power consumption dominates, thus Wnet ̇ is de-
4.2. Parametric study creased. It is found that for BIG-GT with IC system, a maximum value of
̇ = 4852kW at rc = 3.3 is reachable, while for BIG-GT the maximum
Wnet
power value is Wneṫ = 3752kW at rc = 2.87 .
To compare the two systems’ performances a parametric study is
Regarding the variational trend for Wnet ̇ and definitions of ηen , ηex
carried out by which the performance enhancement using compressor

Fig. 11. Components’ exergy destruction.

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V. Zare Energy Conversion and Management 215 (2020) 112946

Fig. 12. Components’ investment cost rate.

and LCOE , variation of these parameters could be justified with respect decision variables on which the systems’ performance depend. These
to rc , as depicted in Fig. 4(b–d). It is seen that, at optimal values of rc on variables with their upper and lower bounds are given in Table 8.
which Wnet ̇ is maximized, the LCOE is minimized. The optimization is performed using Genetic Algorithm (GA) via a
Influences of Turbine Inlet Temperature (TIT) on system perfor- developed code in MATLAB software. The GA is a semi-stochastic global
mance are shown in Fig. 5(a–d). Referring to Fig. 5, for all the values of search method based on analogy with Darwin’s laws of natural selec-
TIT, inlet cooling results in a performance improvement by an average tion. Based on the Darwinian survival of fittest principle, GA operates
of 25%, the reason of which is higher net output power. Also as it is on a population of potential solutions to produce better and better
apparent, increasing TIT enhances the systems’ performance. Referring approximations to the optimal solution. In GA procedure, abundant
to Fig. 5(d), increasing TIT from 1150 to 1350 K, results in a decrease in populations are generated randomly, among which the ones with
LCOE from 66.4 to 57.1 $/MWh (reduction by 14.0%) for BIG-GT with greatest compatibility with the objective functions are selected and the
IC system, meanwhile its net power increases from 4101 to 4822 kW less compatible ones are crossed out. There are two important factors in
(enhancement by 16.6%). For BIG-GT system, however, the LCOE value this method; crossover and mutation probability. The crossover mixes
decreases from 80.6 to 72.5 $/MWh (reduction by 10.0%) and net chromosomes as parents to produce new chromosomes called offspring
power increases from 3341 to 3746 kW (enhancement by 12.1%). and the new generations have higher correspondence to the objective
A key design parameter of ARC is the evaporator temperature which functions. The mutation operator, however, causes chaotic variations in
affects the performance of BIG-GT with IC system. Fig. 6(a–b) shows the the structures of the genes and thus, makes the optimization process
effect of this variable. Referring to Fig. 6(a–b), increasingTevap improves away from the confined optimal. In tournament selection, each in-
all the performance parameters. As Tevap increases, COP of ARC is also dividual competes in exactly two tournaments with randomly selected
increases as reported in literature [36], as a result of which higher individuals, a procedure which imitates survival of the fittest in nature.
cooling values by evaporator is provided. Higher cooling via evaporator Several multi-objective GA procedures are available such as: vector
results in a lower compressor inlet temperature (T12a ). As a consequence evaluated GA (VEGA), non-dominated sorting genetic-algorithm
of lower T12a , compressor power consumption decreases, and Wnet ̇ would (NSGA) and a modified version of NSGA referred to as NSGA-II which
be increased as illustrated in Fig. 6(a). The increment of Wnet ̇ by in- eliminated higher computational complexity, lack of elitism and the
creasing Tevap is the main reason for reduction of LCOE, as depicted in need for specifying the sharing parameter [52]. This methodology is
Fig. 6(b) applied in the present paper.
Another design variable of ARC is the generator temperature, the In optimization procedure the values for objective functions at all
effect of which is presented in Fig. 7(a–b). Referring to this figure it is the considered range of decision variables are calculated by developed
seen that, with increasing Tgen the system performance firstly improves code in EES. Then Artificial Neural Network (ANN) method which is
and after reaching an optimum point it tends to be declined. These integrated to GA via a MATLAB code is used for prediction and opti-
variations are attributed to the fact that, as presented in Fig. 8, with mization of the objectives. This method is a good choice for optimizing
increasing Tgen the cooling production by ARC, (Qevaporatoṙ ) firstly in- of energy conversion systems [42]. ANN gives good results in deficient
creases and after reaching the maximum value it is decreased. As a involved or complex and ill-defined problems [53]. This method has
result as presented in Fig. 8, compressor inlet temperature, T12a , firstly is been used in various fields of energy-related engineering problems
decreased and then increases. A decrease in compressor inlet tem- [54]. Fig. 9 illustrates Mean Square Error (MSE) values for training,
perature results in a decrease in compressor power and increase in Wnet ̇
validation and testing steps of the applied ANN in this work.
and vice versa. Thus the variations of Wnet ̇ as shown in Fig. 7(a) is
The optimization parameters considered in the genetic algorithm
justified with regard to the variation of T12a as given by Fig. 8. procedure are listed in Table 9.
Results of multi-objective optimization, as Pareto optimal front, for
the considered systems are shown in Fig. 10(a–b). Referring to Fig. 10, a
5. Multi-objective optimization
competing relation between two objectives is observed. Each point lo-
cated on Pareto front represents a potential optimal solution. However,
To make a rational comparison between the two considered sys-
the highest ηex (best thermodynamic performance) is attained at point
tems, their performance is compared under optimal operating condi-
A, and the lowest LCOE (best economic performance) is reached at
tions. Also, as it is well-known the rational thermodynamic perfor-
point B. It is clear that, it is not practical to find a solution on which the
mance criterion is the exergy efficiency, meanwhile the LCOE is the
both objectives have their optimum values simultaneously (ideal point).
considered criterion based on which the economic performance of the
Usually, the closest point to the ideal solution on the Pareto-front is
considered systems is assessed. Thus, a two-objective optimization
selected as the final optimum solution.
considering ηex and LCOE as the objective functions is performed.
Using this fact, the final optimal points can be identified on Pareto
Results of parametric study shows that, there are four important

11
V. Zare Energy Conversion and Management 215 (2020) 112946

fronts as illustrated in Fig. 10(a–b). At these optimum points, for BIG- interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
GT system: ηex = 21.331% and LCOE = 72.304$/ MWh , while for BIG-GT ence the work reported in this paper.
with IC system: ηex = 27.941% and LCOE = 56.053$/ MWh . Therefore, it
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