Thermodynamic Analysis of Supplementary-Fired Gas Turbine Cycles

摘要

This paper presents an analysis of the possibilities for improving the efficiency of an indirectly biomass-fired gas turbine (IBFGT) by supplementary direct gas-firing. The supplementary firing may be based on natural gas, biogas, or pyrolysis gas. {The interest in this cycle arise from a recent demonstration of a two-stage gasification process through construction of several plants.} A preliminary analysis of the ideal recuperated Brayton cycle shows that for this cycle any supplementary firing will have a marginal efficiency of unity per extra unit of fuel. The same result is obtained for the indirectly fired gas turbine (IFGT) and for the supplementary-fired IFGT. Both results show that the combination of external firing and internal firing have the potential of reducing or solving some problems with the use of biomass both in the recuperated and the indirectly fired gas turbine: The former requires a clean, expensive fuel. The latter is limited in efficiency due to limitations in material temperature of the heat exchanger. Thus, in the case of an IBFGT, it would be very appropriate to use a cheap biomass or waste fuel for low temperature combustion and external firing and use natural gas at a high marginal efficiency for high temperature heating. However, it is shown that this is not the case for a simple IBFGT supplementary fired with natural gas. Instead, other process changes may be considered in order to obtain a high marginal efficiency on natural gas. Two possibilities are analysed: Integration between an IFGT and pyrolysis of the biofuel which will result in a highly efficient utilization of the biomass, and integration between external biomass firing, internal biomass firing and internal natural gas firing. The marginal efficiency of the natural gas is in this case found to be independent of temperature ratio and lower than for the recuperated gas turbine.