Performance analysis of a syngas-fed gas turbine considering the operating limitations of its components

As the need for clean coal technology grows, research and development efforts for integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plants have increased worldwide. An IGCC plant couples a gas turbine with a gasification block. Various technical issues exist in designing the entire system. Among these issues, the matching between the gas turbine and the air separation unit is especially important. In particular, the operating condition of a gas turbine in an IGCC plant may be very different from that of its original design. In this study, we analyzed the impact of the use of syngas on operating conditions of the gas turbine in an IGCC plant. We evaluated the performance of a gas turbine under operating limitations in terms of compressor surge and turbine metal temperature. Although a lower degree of integration may theoretically allow higher gas turbine power output and efficiency, it causes a reduction in compressor surge margin and overheating of the turbine metal. The turbine overheating problem may be solved using several methods, such as a reduction in the firing temperature or an increase in the turbine cooling air. The latter yields a much smaller performance penalty. To achieve an acceptable margin for the compressor surge, either further reduction in the firing temperature or further increase in the coolant is required. Ventilation of some of the nitrogen generated by the air separation unit, i.e., a reduction of the nitrogen supply to the combustor, is another option. Coolant modulation yields the lowest performance penalty. Reduction of the nitrogen supply provides much greater system power output than control of the firing temperature. For nitrogen flow and firing temperature controls, there are optimal levels of integration degrees in terms of net system power output and efficiency.