Simple
Cycle Power Plants
www.SimpleCyclePowerPlants.com
TM
We
provide turnkey Simple
Cycle and Combined Cycle Power Plant
EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) services
We
provide "turnkey" cogeneration, simple cycle and combined cycle
power plant development services. We provide Demand Side Management
design and project development solutions that may provide a return on
investment in less than 12 months. We also offer energy-saving
technologies that may include; Absorption
Chillers, Adsorption Chillers, Automated
Demand Response, Cogeneration, Demand
Response Programs, Demand Side
Management, Energy Master Planning,
Engine Driven Chillers, Trigeneration
and Energy Conservation Measures.
Unlike most companies, we are equipment supplier/vendor neutral. This means we
help our clients select the best equipment for their specific application.
This approach provides our customers with superior performance, decreased
operating expenses and increased return on investment.
Our
company provides turn-key project solutions that include all or part of the
following:
-
Engineering
and Economic Feasibility Studies
-
Project
Design, Engineering & Permitting
-
Project
Construction
-
Project
Funding & Financing Options
-
Project
Ownership/Long-term Lease - with no capital requirements - .
-
Project
Commissioning
-
Operations
& Maintenance
For
more information: call us at: 832-758-0027
Are
you selling your Simple Cycle Power Plant?
List it with the Simple Cycle Power
Plant Leader
and at the industry's "official" website:
www.SimpleCyclePowerPlants.com
For
New & Used Simple Cycle Power Plant sales/listings
call 832-758-0027
Simple Cycle Power Plants (Open Cycle)
The modern power gas turbine is a high-technology package that is
comprised of a compressor, combustor, power turbine, and generator, as
shown in the figure "Simple-Cycle Gas Turbine".

In a gas turbine, large volumes of air are compressed to high
pressure in a multistage compressor for distribution to one or more
combustion gases from the combustion chambers power an axial turbine
that drives the compressor and the generator before exhausting to
atmosphere. In this way, the combustion gases in a gas turbine power the
turbine directly, rather than requiring heat transfer to a water/steam
cycle to power a steam turbine, as in the steam plant. The latest gas
turbine designs use turbine inlet temperatures of 1,500C (2,730F) and
compression ratios as high as 30:1 (for aeroderivatives) giving thermal
efficiencies of 35 percent or more for a simple-cycle gas turbine.
Combined Cycle Power Plants
The combined-cycle unit combines the Rankine (steam turbine) and
Brayton (gas turbine) thermodynamic cycles by using heat recovery
boilers to capture the energy in the gas turbine exhaust gases for steam
production to supply a steam turbine as shown in the figure "Combined-Cycle
Cogeneration Unit". Process steam can be also provided for
industrial purposes.

Fossil fuel-fired (central) power plants
use either steam or combustion turbines to provide the mechanical power
to electrical generators. Pressurized high temperature steam or gas
expands through various stages of a turbine, transferring energy to the
rotating turbine blades. The turbine is mechanically coupled to a
generator, which produces electricity.
Steam
Turbine Power Plants:
Steam turbine power plants operate on a Rankine cycle. The steam is
created by a boiler, where pure water passes through a series of tubes
to capture heat from the firebox and then boils under high pressure to
become superheated steam. The heat in the firebox is normally provided
by burning fossil fuel (e.g. coal, fuel oil or natural gas). However,
the heat can also be provided by biomass, solar energy or nuclear fuel.
The superheated steam leaving the boiler then enters the steam
turbine throttle, where it powers the turbine and connected generator to
make electricity. After the
steam expands through the turbine, it exits the back end of the turbine,
where it is cooled and condensed back to water in the surface condenser.
This condensate is then returned to the boiler through
high-pressure feedpumps for reuse. Heat from the condensing steam
is normally rejected from the condenser to a body of water, such as a
river or cooling tower.
Steam turbine plants generally have a history of achieving up to 95%
availability and can operate for more than a year between shutdowns for
maintenance and inspections. Their unplanned or forced outage rates are
typically less than 2% or less than one week per year.
Modern large steam turbine plants (over
500 MW) have efficiencies approaching 40-45%.
These plants have installed
costs between $800 and$2000/kW, depending on environmental permitting
requirements.

Combustion
(Gas) Turbines:
Combustion turbine plants operate on the Brayton cycle.
They use a compressor to compress the inlet air upstream of a
combustion chamber. Then the fuel is introduced and ignited to produce a
high temperature, high-pressure gas that enters and expands through the
turbine section. The
turbine section powers both the generator and compressor. Combustion
turbines are also able to burn a wide range of liquid and gaseous fuels
from crude oil to natural gas.
The combustion turbine’s energy conversion typically ranges between
25% to 35% efficiency as a simple cycle.
The simple cycle efficiency can be increased by installing a
recuperator or waste heat boiler onto the turbine’s exhaust.
A recuperator captures waste heat in the turbine exhaust stream
to preheat the compressor discharge air before it enters the combustion
chamber. A waste heat
boiler generates steam by capturing heat form the turbine exhaust.
These boilers are known as heat recovery steam generators (HRSG).
They can provide steam for heating or industrial processes, which is
called cogeneration. High-pressure
steam from these boilers can also generate power with steam turbines,
which is called a combined cycle (steam and combustion turbine
operation). Recuperators
and HRSGs can increase the combustion turbine’s overall energy cycle
efficiency up to 80%.
Combustion (natural gas) turbine
development increased in the 1930’s as a means of jet aircraft
propulsion. In the early 1980’s, the efficiency and reliability of gas
turbines had progressed sufficiently to be widely adopted for stationary
power applications. Gas turbines range in size from 30 kW
(micro-turbines) to 250 MW (industrial frames).
Industrial gas turbines have efficiencies approaching 40% and 60%
for simple and combined cycles respectively.
The gas turbine share of the world power
generation market has climbed from 20 % to 40 % of capacity additions
over the past 20 years with this technology seeing increased use for
base load power generation. Much of this growth can be accredited to
large (>500 MW) combined cycle power plants that exhibit low capital
cost (less than $550/kW) and high thermal efficiency.
The capital cost of a gas turbine power
plant can vary between $35000-$950/kW with the lower end applying to
large industrial frame turbines in combined cycle configurations.
Availability of natural gas-fired plants can exceed 95%.
In Canada, there are 28 natural gas-fired combined cycle and
cogeneration plants with an average efficiency of 48 %. The average
power output for each plant was 236 MW with an installed cost of around
$ 500/kW.
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