Combustion turbine operation and optimization model

Doctor of PhilosophyDepartment of Mechanical and Nuclear EngineeringDonald FentonCombustion turbine performance deterioration, quantified by loss of system power, is an artifact of increased inlet air temperature and continuous degradation of the machine. Furthermore, the combustion turbine operator has to meet ever changing stricter emission levels. Different technologies exist to mitigate the impact of performance loss and meeting the emission standard. However an upgrade using one or more of the available technologies has associated capital and operating costs. Thus, there is a need for a tool that can evaluate power boosting and emission control technologies in concert with the machine maintenance strategy. This dissertation provides the turbine operator with a new and novel tool to examine each of the upgrades and determine its suitability both from the cost and technical stand point. The main contribution of this dissertation is a tool-kit called the Combustion Turbine Operation and Optimization Model (CTOOM) that can evaluate both power-boosting and emission control technologies. It also includes a machine maintenance model to account for degradation recovery. The tool-kit is made up a system level thermodynamic optimization solver (CTOOM-OPTIMIZE) and two one-dimensional, mean-line, aero-thermodynamic component level solvers for the compressor (CTOOMCOMP1DPERF) and the turbine (CTOOMTURB1DPERF) sections. In this work, the cogeneration system as given by the classical CGAM problem was used for system level optimization. The cost function was modified to include the cost of emissions while the maintenance cost of the combustion turbine was separated from the capital cost to include a degradation recovery model. Steam injection was evaluated for NO[subscript]x abatement, power boosting was examined by both the use of inlet air cooling and steam injection, and online washing was used for degradation recovery. Based on the cost coefficients used, it was seen that including the cost of emissions impact resulted in a significant increase in the operational cost. The outcomes of the component level solvers were compressor and turbine performance maps. It was demonstrated that these maps could be used to integrate the components with the system level information