EXERGY ANALYSIS OF COMBINED CYCLE POWER PLANT

Abstract

The performance of Thermal power plant is evaluated by the exergetic performance criteria, which is basically based on the second law of thermodynamics including thermal Efficiency. The real useful energy loss cannot be determined by the first law of thermodynamic, because it does not differentiate between the quality and quantity of energy. In this analysis major losses occurs in combustor and exergy destruction is also shown in various parts of the power plant. There are two important criteria in the exergy analysis: Exergetic efficiency and exergy destruction. An important application of exergetic efficiency is the assessment of thermodynamic performance of component or system relative to the performance of a similar one. The results show that the greatest exergy loss in the gas turbine occurs in the combustion chamber due to its high irreversibility. As the second major exergy loss is in HRSG, the optimization of HRSG has an important role in reducing the exergy loss of total combined cycle. The results show that the combustion chamber, gas turbine and heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) are the main sources of irreversibility. The results show that the greatest exergy loss in the gas turbine occurs in the combustion chamber due to its high irreversibility. The exergy losses in different vital components of power plants have been observed and a relative possible improvement in the components has been observed. The improvement in these components provides a wide space of improvement for researchers and academicians in the power plant.