Comparative Analysis of Different Inlet Air Cooling Technologies Including Solar Energy to Boost Gas Turbine Combined Cycles in Hot Regions

Cooling the air before entering the compressor of a gas turbine of combined cycle power plants is an effective method to boost the output power of the combined cycles in hot regions. This paper presents a comparative analysis for the effect of different air cooling technologies on increasing the output power of a combined cycle. It also presents a novel system of cooling the gas turbine inlet air using a solar-assisted absorption chiller. The effect of ambient air temperature and relative humidity on the output power is investigated and reported. The study revealed that at the design hour under the hot weather conditions, the total net power output of the plant drops from 268 MW to 226 MW at 48 °C (15.5% drop). The increase in the power output using fogging and evaporative cooling is less than that obtained with chillers since their ability to cool down the air is limited by the wet-bulb temperature. Integrating conventional and solar-assisted absorption chillers increased the net power output of the combined cycle by about 35 MW and 38 MW, respectively. Average and hourly performance during typical days have been conducted and presented. The plants without air inlet cooling system show higher carbon emissions (0.73 kg CO₂/kWh) compared to the plant integrated with conventional and solar-assisted absorption chillers (0.509 kg CO₂/kWh) and (0.508 kg CO₂/kWh), respectively. Also, integrating a conventional absorption chiller shows the lowest capital cost and levelized electricity cost (LEC).