Energy 31 (2006) 26522664

Performance improvement of a gas turbine cycle by using a

desiccant-based evaporative cooling system
Amir Abbas Zadpoor

, Ali Hamedani Golshan

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Narmak, Tehran 16844, Iran
Received 6 October 2005
Abstract
This paper focuses on power augmentation of a typical gas turbine cycle by using a desiccant-based evaporative cooling
system. This technique requires a desiccant-based dehumidifying process be used to direct the air through an evaporative
cooler, which could be either media-based or spray type. This could assist the evaporative cooling cycle to make necessary
adjustment for any possible installation defects in a hot and humid climate. We make a comparison between performance
improvement achieved by this technique and those of other evaporative cooling systems in different climatic conditions.
We will show that our proposed technique, at least for hot and humid climates, is more effective than other evaporative
cooling techniques.
r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Power augmentation; Gas turbine; Desiccant cooling; Evaporative cooling
1. Introduction
Several gas turbines are being widely used for power generation in several countries all over the world.
Obviously, many of these countries have a wide range of climatic conditions, which impact the performance of
gas turbines.
Problems rise when a gas turbine is used in a geographic location with hot summers. Hot inlet air results in a
gas turbines generating less power, during summer season, when the demand for electricity is possibly higher.
In such conditions, power augmentation techniques are highly desirable. Indeed, a little increment of thermal
efciency could result in a signicant amount of fuel being saved and a higher level of power being generated.
The simplest remedy to this problem is to reduce the temperature of the inlet air. Several different inlet cooling
methods are currently employed in various systems.
As Boyce [1] discusses, power augmentation methods, which could be applied to existing gas turbines, can
be divided into two main categories. The rst category includes inlet air cooling techniques and the second
involves techniques based on the injection of compressed air, steam, or water. Since our objective, in this
paper, is to study inlet air cooling techniques, we will only review techniques employed in the rst category.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
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0360-5442/$ - see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.energy.2005.11.004

Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 21 88848414; fax: +98 21 88826064.

E-mail address: azadpour@bme.aut.ac.ir (A.A. Zadpoor).
1.1. Evaporative cooling methods
Evaporative methods are among the most widely used power augmentation techniques. This is primarily
because the machinery is cheaper, and the installation and operating costs are also lower. These methods and
related technical issues have been subject of several studies [210]. Evaporative coolers are divided into two
main subcategories: the rst subcategory includes media-based methods in which the inlet air passes through a
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Nomenclature
Z
Thermal
thermal efciency of the gas turbine cycle (%)
m
f
1
; m
f
2
fuel ow of the rst and the second combustor (kg/s)
m
a
air mass ow rate (kg/s)
W
Turb:I
; W
Turb:II
produced work of the rst and the second turbine (W)
Z
Turb:I
; Z
Turb:II
efciency of the rst and the second turbine (%)
W
Comp:I
; W
Comp:II
consumed work of the rst and the second compressor (W)
Z
Comp:I
; Z
Comp:II
efciency of the rst and the second compressor (%)
Q
1
, Q
2
input heat of the rst and the second combustor (W)
Z
Cmbst:I
; Z
Cmbst:II
efciency of the rst and the second combustor (%)
W
net
net produced work of the gas turbine cycle (W)
Q
in
sum of inputted heat (W)
LHV
I
low heat value of the rst combustors fuel (kJ/kg)
LHV
II
low heat value of the second combustors fuel (kJ/kg)
C
p
isobaric specic heat of humid air (kJ/kg K)
T absolute temperature (K)
Z
i
indirect evaporative cooling effectiveness (%)
Z
d
direct evaporative cooling effectiveness (%)
T
db;i
dry bulb temperature of evaporative coolers inlet air (K)
T
wb;i
wet bulb temperature of evaporative coolers inlet air (K)
T
db;o
dry bulb temperature of evaporative coolers outlet air (K)
T
wb;o
wet bulb temperature of evaporative coolers outlet air (K)
h
i
enthalpy of evaporative coolers entering air (kJ/kg)
h
o
enthalpy of evaporative coolers exiting air (kJ/kg)
w
i
humidity ratio of evaporative coolers entering air (kg/kg)
w
o
humidity ratio of evaporative coolers exiting air (kg/kg)
T
c
combustion temperature (K)
P combustion pressure (atm)
w humidity ratio (kg/kg)
C
air
isobaric specic heat of dry air (kJ/kg K)
C
vapor
isobaric specic heat of water vapor (kJ/kg K)
T
i
absolute temperature of stage ith of the cycle (see Fig. 1) (K)
P
i
pressure of stage ith of the cycle (see Fig. 1) (Pa)
n
1
ratio of pressure of the rst turbines inlet to the ambient pressure
n
2
ratio of pressure of the rst turbines inlet to the second turbines inlet pressure
Z
Regenerator
regenerators effectiveness (%)
Z
Intercooler
intercoolers effectiveness (%)
k ratio of specic heats
h enthalpy (kJ/kg)
T
w
absolute temperature of the intercoolers water (K)
T
Cmbst:I
outlet temperature of the rst combustor (K)
T
Cmbst:II
outlet temperature of the second combustor (K)
A.A. Zadpoor, A.H. Golshan / Energy 31 (2006) 26522664 2653
wet media causing the water to evaporate. The evaporating water needs to absorb its evaporation enthalpy,
and the absorbed enthalpy decreases the dry bulb temperature of the air. The humidity ratio is increased while
the enthalpy remains constant. Fogging is another evaporative cooling method in which demineralized water
is converted to the fog by means of high pressure nozzles. This fog cools the air down in a manner similar to
the previous method. Evaporative cooling techniques are most effective in hot and dry climates but not so
effective in humid climates.
This paper suggests that a desiccant-based dehumidifying system can be used for absorption of air humidity
before the air is passed to the evaporative cooler. Absorption of water by desiccant causes the dry bulb
temperature of the air to increase. Then, the air is cooled by using an evaporation-based system. Addition of
the desiccant-based system improves capabilities of the evaporative cooler making it suitable even for hot and
humid climates. Desiccant cooling systems are currently used in air-conditioning systems [1115] and are
proven to be effective and practical. Commercialized versions of desiccant cooling systems are currently mass-
produced and studies are being conducted to development of more effective systems.
1.2. Refrigerated inlet cooling systems
Refrigerated inlet air cooling systems are more effective than evaporative cooling systems; because air dry
bulb temperature is lower in these systems. However, the price of the machinery, and the installation, and
operating costs are much higher. Two main subcategories of refrigerated cooling systems are mechanical
refrigeration and absorption cooling. In mechanical refrigeration, a centrifugal, screw, or reciprocating
compressor is utilized for compression of refrigerant vapor. These systems have extremely high power
consumption and so many auxiliary equipments such as heat exchangers, pumps, compressors, and expansion
valves are also needed. Chlorouorocarbon refrigerants are normally used in these systems. These systems
cause certain environmental problems too. In addition to environmental issues, high power consumption, high
capital and maintenance cost, and poor part load performance are other deciencies of mechanical
refrigeration systems. For a literature review of mechanical refrigeration systems see [16].
Absorption chillers use the heat provided by gas, steam, or gas turbines exhaust for cooling the water which
acts as refrigerant. Lithium bromide is used as absorber in these systems. Part load performance of these
systems, in comparison with mechanical refrigeration systems, is fairly good. Some researchers have recently
conducted studies dealing with the absorption cooling systems [17,18].
Depending on the specics of the project, a combination of evaporative and refrigerating cooling systems
might be the best choice. Possibility of such combination should be studied prior to selection of any particular
type of inlet cooling system.
1.3. Thermal energy storage systems
In these systems, extra power of off-peak hours is used for generating ice pieces to be used in peak hours.
The inlet air is channeled through a path where it comes into contact with these ice pieces. This causes the inlet
air to cool down. There are some problems associated with these systems, one of which is the need for
auxiliary ice generating equipment and large insulated spaces for stocking of the ice.
There are other procedures for cooling off the inlet air which can be found in the literature on this topic
[1921].
This paper studies power augmentation of a gas turbine by using a desiccant-based evaporative cooling
(DBEC) system. A code was developed for thermodynamic simulation of a typical gas turbine cycle. The code
was used for the computation of indicators of thermodynamic performance of the gas turbine cycle and its
NO
x
emissions. The addition of a DBEC system was also suggested. This system consisted of three stages.
These stages were a desiccant wheel accompanied by one direct evaporative cooler (DEC) and one indirect
evaporative cooler (IEC). A comparison was made between the performances of the gas turbine when no inlet
cooling technique was applied and when different versions of evaporative cooler were employed. Different
climatic conditions, each represented by a single town, were considered and the effect of the inlet cooling
techniques on performance improvement of the gas turbine cycle was simulated. It was shown that the DBEC
system can improve performance of the gas turbine especially in hot and humid climates.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
A.A. Zadpoor, A.H. Golshan / Energy 31 (2006) 26522664 2654
2. Gas turbine model
A typical gas turbine was used for evaluation of several inlet cooling techniques. Fig. 1 depicts a schematic
of the gas turbine model. Two compressors, two turbines, one regenerator, one compressor intercooler, and
two combustors are included in this model. Our assumption was that the traveling air can be approximated by
ideal gas relations. Using relations of classical thermodynamic, we could calculate the governing equations of
the cycle. There are some design variables by which the cycle can be solved. A code was developed for
simulation of the gas turbine cycle. Numerical integration techniques, approximate experimental correlations,
iterative computations, and classic thermodynamic relations were all used to simulate this typical gas turbine
(see Appendix A for thermodynamic relations used in the code). In addition to design parameters, one should
introduce the inlet air conditions. This gas turbine thermal performance simulation program (GTTPSP) will
compute temperatures, pressures, gross generated power, compressor work, net work, cycles thermal
efciency, and intermediate values of state variables. This program along with some other codes was used to
study the effect of different inlet air conditions on thermal performance of the gas turbine cycle. The other
codes produced conditions of the inlet air for GTTPSP.
An empirical correlation was used to estimate NO
x
emission of the gas turbine. Several other correlations
are available for predicting other pollutants such as CO, UHC, and smoke but they tend to be less reliable;
therefore, they were not used. According to Lewis [22], NO
x
emission of gas turbine could be predicted by
following relation:
NO
x
3:32 10
6
e
0:008T
c

P
p
ppmv: (1)
This empirical equation was used in the aforementioned code for prediction of the gas turbines NO
x
emission in terms of g/kWh. Conversion form unit ppmv to unit grams per kilogram of fuel (EI), which should
be used in computation of the NO
x
emission in terms of g/kWh, cannot be undertaken unless the equivalence
ratio is known; however, as a rough guide, 1 EI is equivalent to around 12 ppmv [23]. This equivalence ratio
was used for conversion from ppmv to EI.
As previously stated, performance of the gas turbine is dependent on thermodynamics properties of the inlet
air. It was assumed that specic heat of the traveling air is a function of the specic heat of the dry air, the
specic heat of the water vapor, and the humidity ratio. This function could be stated as follows:
C
p
C
air
wC
vapor
. (2)
In order to have a qualitative understanding of the gas turbines performance, the code was used for
producing two graphs in which performance indicators of the gas turbine were plotted vs. the inlet air
properties. Fig. 2 depicts these indicators vs. the inlet air temperature. In computing values of this gure, the
inlet air was assumed to be dry, i.e. w 0, and other parameters were xed as per ISO. Fig. 3 is to depict how
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Intercooler
Comp. I
Comp. II Turb. I Turb. II
Cmbst. I Cmbst. II
Regenerator
9
1
2
3
4
5
6 7
1
8
Fig. 1. Schematic representation of the typical gas turbine cycle.
A.A. Zadpoor, A.H. Golshan / Energy 31 (2006) 26522664 2655
the gas turbines performance indicators change as a result of variations in the inlet air humidity. Other
thermodynamics parameters of inlet air were as per ISO. All values were normalized with respect to ISO
conditions in both of Figs. 2 and 3. It could be seen in Fig. 2 that all performance indicators of the gas
turbine cycle were worse for higher values of the inlet air temperature. Specically, output power and
thermal efciency were decreased and specic NO
x
emission was increased by increasing the temperature of
the inlet air.
In Fig. 3, it could be seen that mass of the ow-through air decreased as the humidity ratio increased;
however, the output power increased. Thermal efciency increased and specic NO
x
emission decreased by
increasing the humidity ratio. However, the rates of the change of these two indicators were smaller than the
rate of the change in output power.
It was concluded that dry bulb temperature and humidity ratio have different effects on the thermal
performance of the gas turbine cycle. This fact is more important when dealing with desiccant cooling systems.
Simulations had to be carried out to see which effect is predominant when a desiccant cooling system is being
used for cooling of the inlet air. These simulations were carried out and are discussed in following sections.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
0.85
0.9
0.95
1
1.05
Inlet Air Temperature, C
Output Power
Thermal Efficiency
NOx Emission
Air Mass
Fig. 2. Gas turbine cycle dependency on inlet air temperaturedry air.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
x10
-3

0.75
0.8
0.85
0.9
0.95
1
1.05
1.1
Humidity Ratio, kg/kg
Output Power
Thermal Efficiency
NOx Emission
Air Mass
Fig. 3. Gas turbine cycle dependency on humidity of the inlet air.
A.A. Zadpoor, A.H. Golshan / Energy 31 (2006) 26522664 2656
3. Desiccant cooling system
Materials that absorb and hold water vapor are called desiccant materials. Commercial desiccants absorb
and release large amounts of water vapor depending on moisture available in their environment. The process
of absorbing moisture in the desiccant material is classied as either absorption or adsorption depending on
whether the material goes through a chemical or a physical change. Absorbing materials require strictly
careful precautions during storage and operation especially in warm and humid environments and are not
commercially used. Desiccant wheels are normally made of adsorptive materials such as silica gel, activated
alumina, lithium chloride, lithium bromide, etc. A structure, in which the substance is deposited, supports
adsorptive material and a honeycomb-like pattern is formed.
A desiccant cooling system is a system utilizing a desiccant wheel to remove humidity from the ambient air.
The resulted dry air is hot due to the latent heat of dehumidication and must be brought back to a lower dry
bulb temperature by allowing the excess heat to escape. This is done, in our study, by using an IEC. Then, the
air can be cooled by a DEC in which air becomes re-humidied by spraying water.
To ensure the continuous operation of the plant, it is necessary to regenerate the desiccant material.
Regeneration of the desiccant is by heating in an unsaturated air stream. After drying, it should be cooled so
that it will be able to adsorb the moisture again. The regeneration of the air, in our system, is performed by
using the exhaust air of the gas turbine. In combined cycle systems, steam can be utilized for regeneration
purpose. Furthermore, because of the fact that inlet cooling systems are used only in summers, it is also
possible to use solar assisted desiccant cooling systems in which regeneration is by means of solar energy [24].
As previously mentioned, a rotary desiccant wheel partitioned into two sections is employed in the solid
desiccant systems. Normally, the processed air sheds off its moisture to the desiccant through one of these
sections. Hot air is passed through the other section to regenerate the desiccant and to maintain the plants
operation. The processed air is then cooled by using DES and/or IEC. Desiccant wheels are commercially
available from several manufactures all over the world and are currently used in commercial systems already
shipping and running here and there. For underlying theories of adsorption see [2528]. In most systems, a
wheel that contains a desiccant turns slowly to pick up humidity from inlet air and discharge it to the outdoors
through the regeneration air, which warms the desiccant up and removes its moisture. Conditions of the air
exiting the desiccant wheel can be determined by solving the governing equations or by use of the performance
curves supplied by wheels manufactures. Novelaire Technologies [29] desiccant wheel simulation software was
used in our study for determining the conditions of the wheels exiting air.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
D
e
s
i
c
c
a
n
t

W
h
e
e
l
I
n
d
i
r
e
c
t

E
v
a
p
o
r
a
t
i
v
e

C
o
o
l
i
n
g
D
i
r
e
c
t

E
v
a
p
o
r
a
t
i
v
e

C
o
o
l
i
n
g
Water from and to Cooling
Tower
Outdoor Air
Regeneration Air
Gas Turbine Inlet
Fig. 4. Schematics of the desiccant-based evaporative cooling system. This system was consisted of indirect evaporative, direct
evaporative, and desiccant wheel stages. Functionality of desiccant wheel is maintained by using the regeneration air.
A.A. Zadpoor, A.H. Golshan / Energy 31 (2006) 26522664 2657
Fig. 4 gives a schematic of DBEC system proposed and studied in this paper. Two path lines are depicted in
this gure. While solid lines demonstrate paths of the air, dashed lines are for water paths. Desiccant wheel
rotates by a low rotational speed. Entering air is rst passed through the wheel. Consequently, its dry bulb
temperature increases to a signicantly higher value while its humidity diminishes drastically. The air is, then,
passed through a cooling coil. Circulating water of this cooling coil comes from cooling tower and runs back
to it. The dry bulb temperature of the cooling towers exiting water is close to wet bulb temperature of the
installation site. IEC performs a sensible cooling on the traveling air, and conditions of the air after passing
through it could be computed as follows:
T
db;o
T
db;i
Z
i
T
db;i
T
wb;i
,
w
o
w
i
. 3
After indirect cooling, dry bulb temperature of the air is decreased but its humidity does not change.
The third stage is the DEC in which water is sprayed into the traveling air. Spraying of water causes dry
bulb temperature of the air to decrease. The humidity ratio, however, increases. DEC is completely similar to
adiabatic saturation process and preserves the wet bulb and the enthalpy of the processing air. But, the dry
bulb temperature of the air is reduced because sensible enthalpy is replaced by latent enthalpy. Thus,
conditions of air after passing through DEC process could be computed as follows:
T
db;o
T
db;i
Z
d
T
db;i
T
wb;i
,
T
wb;o
T
wb;i
,
h
o
h
i
. 4
In this paper, the effectiveness of the IEC was assumed 70% while the effectiveness of the DEC was
assumed 90%.
The air is, then, directed to the gas turbine inlet. In order to maintain functionality of the desiccant wheel,
some amount of the regeneration air should be passed through upper half of the desiccant wheel. The
regeneration air must be hot. Exhausting air of the gas turbine can be used for heating of the regeneration air.
4. Simulation results
Simulations were carried out for three different geographic locations of Iran: Siri, a hot and humid island;
Chabahar, a hot and moderately humid town; and Qom, a hot and dry town. Table 1 gives climatic conditions
of these locations. Four different cases were studied for each location: simple gas turbine cycle (default), DEC
applied gas turbine, indirect and direct evaporative cooling (IDEC) applied gas turbine, and DBEC applied
gas turbine. Table 2 summarizes design variables of the gas turbine cycle for which simulations were carried
out. Table 3 summarizes specications of desiccant wheel used for simulation of the desiccant-based system.
Conditions of the inlet air for all cases were entered to GTTPSP and results of simulation were presented in
Tables 46. Table 4 summarizes simulation results for Qom. Tables 5 and 6 do the same for Chabahr and Siri.
These tables give thermal conditions of simulated gas turbine cycle as well as predicted NO
x
emission. Three
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Table 1
Climatic conditions of geographic locations
ISO standard Qom Chabahar Siri
Dry bulb (1C) 15 42.2 40 37.22
Wet bulb (1C) 10.8 22.7 32.2 32.22
Altitude (m) 0 918 6.1 17.06
Relative humidity (%) 60 19.70 58.41 70.86
Humidity ratio (kg/kg) 0.00637 0.01145 0.02777 0.02908
Dew point (1C) 7.27 14.24 30.32 31.07
Specic volume (m
3
/kg) 0.82 1.02 0.93 0.92
Enthalpy (kJ/kg) 31.11 71.71 111.46 111.91
A.A. Zadpoor, A.H. Golshan / Energy 31 (2006) 26522664 2658
rst rows of each table specify conditions of the inlet air and, thus, demonstrate how effective each cooling
technique was for that location. Table 6 gives performance indicators of the gas turbine cycle for ISO
conditions. These results were used for comparison purposes.
One could see that the gas turbine cycles performance was improved for all the inlet air cooling techniques.
However, magnitude of the improvement was not the same. It depends not only on the cooling technique but
also on climatic conditions of the installation site. Several conclusions were made from simulation results of
Tables 46. First, regardless of the evaporative cooling technique being used, the performance improvement
was better for dry climate. Second, it became clear that the smaller the site altitude, the greater the produced
work. It conrms what we mentioned previously, namely that smaller altitude means greater ambient pressure
and greater ambient pressure results in the greater air density. Since produced work of the gas turbine is
dependent on mass ow rate of the air, increment of inlet mass ow rate causes the produced work to be
improved.
Tables 46 showed that the net produced work is increased by using DEC. It improves by employing IDEC.
The results are even better for desiccant-based inlet air cooling. By application of inlet cooling techniques,
NO
x
emission was also improved. Thermal efciency behaved like output power except from IDEC to DBEC
for Qom. For power, simulation results showed that desiccant-based cooling is better than other cooling
techniques. But, it does not necessarily hold true for emissions. For example, NO
x
emission for IDEC is in
some cases better than desiccant-based cooling technique (see Table 4 and 5).
One can see that in Qom, a dry location, addition of a desiccant wheel to the IDEC improves the
performance slightly. Besides, we observed that thermal efciency decreases. But, Table 5 shows a larger
improvement of the produced power from IDEC to DBEC. Thermal efciency and specic NO
x
emission were
also improved. These simulations show that desiccant-based cooling has a little advantage over IDEC for dry
climates. Thus, it is not feasible to use desiccant wheel for such climates. Instead, the desiccant wheel has an
improving effect on the gas turbine cycle in humid climates. Therefore, it can be feasible to implement such a
system in the inlet of the gas turbines installed in humid climates.
In hot and dry climate, i.e. Qom, it was seen that the produced work of the gas turbine cycle was increased
by 8.45% for DEC, by 10.54% for DEC and IEC and by 10.57% for DBEC. Drop in dry bulb temperature
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Table 2
Gas turbine cycle design data
Inlet air volume (m
3
/s) 10 Intercoolers effectiveness (%) 70
LHV (kJ/kg) 43,000 First compressors efciency (%) 85
Ratio of pressure of the high-pressure turbine to
ambient pressure
20 Second compressors efciency (%) 85
Ratio of pressure of the high-pressure turbine to the
low-pressure turbine
2 First turbines efciency (%) 83
First combustors outlet temperature (1C) 1600 Second turbines efciency (%) 83
Second combustors outlet temperature (1C) 1500 First combustors efciency (%) 87
Temperature of the intercooling uid (1C) 22 Second combustors efciency (%) 87
Regenerators effectiveness (%) 95
Table 3
Desiccant wheel design data
Desiccant media Wound silica gel Hub diameter (m) 0.254
Regeneration/process air volume ratio 0.333 Cassette height (m) 3.3528
Wheel diameter (m) 3.0505 Cassette width (m) 3.3528
Wheel depth (m) 0.20 Cassette depth (m) 0.45212
Regeneration portion (%) 25 Heater outlet temperature (1C) 100
Wheel speed (rph) 24 Process side face velocity (m/s) 1.823
Regeneration side face velocity (m/s) 1.823 Air ow (m
3
/s) 10
A.A. Zadpoor, A.H. Golshan / Energy 31 (2006) 26522664 2659
was 17.55 1C for DEC technique. This is in agreement with Alhazmy and Najjars [16] ndings. In hot and
moderately humid conditions, i.e. Chabahar, output power was increased by 3.30% for DEC, by 3.86% for
DEC and IEC, and by 3.95% for DBEC. In hot humid climate, i.e. Siri, it was seen that output power was
increased by 2.1% and dry bulb temperature of inlet air was dropped by 4.5 1C for DEC. These results, too,
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Table 4
Qom conditions gas turbine cycle performance
Default standard DEC IDEC Desiccant
Dry bulb (1C) 42.2 24.65 19.91 20.05
Wet bulb (1C) 22.7 22.70 18.95 18.66
Altitude (m) 918 918 918 918
Relative humidity (%) 19.70 85.29 91.81 88.27
Humidity ratio (kg/kg) 0.01145 0.01876 0.01504 0.01453
Dew point (1C) 14.24 21.96 18.45 18.04
Specic volume (m
3
/kg) 1.02 0.97 0.95 0.94
Specic NO
x
(g/kWh) 0.8221 0.8063 0.8025 0.8032
Thermal efciency (%) 65.8879 67.1730 67.4933 67.4812
Air mass ow rate (kg/s) 9.8390 10.3000 10.5277 10.5443
Net produced work (W) 8.6751e6 9.4087e6 9.5896e6 9.5927e+006
Power output improvement (%) NA 8.45 10.54 10.57
Table 5
Chabahar conditions gas turbine cycle performance
Default standard DEC IDEC Desiccant
Dry bulb (1C) 40 32.98 31.48 31.13
Wet bulb (1C) 32.2 32.2 31.14 30.17
Altitude (m) 6.1 6.1 6.1 6.1
Relative humidity (%) 58.41 94.1 97.61 93.28
Humidity ratio (kg/kg) 0.02777 0.03083 0.02912 0.02709
Dew point (1C) 30.32 32.09 31.11 29.95
Specic volume (m
3
/kg) 0.93 0.91 0.90 0.89
Specic NO
x
(g/kWh) 0.8655 0.8588 0.8575 0.8576
Thermal efciency (%) 66.1216 66.6348 66.7337 66.7495
Air mass ow rate (kg/s) 10.7825 10.9781 11.0611 11.1149
Net produced work (W) 9.8709e6 1.0197e7 1.0252e7 1.0261e7
Power output improvement (%) NA 3.30 3.86 3.95
Table 6
Siri conditions gas turbine cycle performance
Default standard DEC IDEC Desiccant
Dry bulb (1C) 37.22 32.72 31.76 31.30
Wet bulb (1C) 32.22 32.22 31.55 30.41
Altitude (m) 17.06 17.06 17.06 17.06
Relative humidity (%) 70.86 96.58 98.48 93.77
Humidity ratio (kg/kg) 0.02908 0.03104 0.02993 0.02755
Dew point (1C) 31.07 32.18 31.56 30.21
Specic volume (m
3
/kg) 0.92 0.91 0.91 0.90
Specic NO
x
(g/kWh) 0.8625 0.8582 0.8574 0.8571
Thermal efciency (%) 66.3255 66.6542 66.7174 66.7395
Air mass ow rate (kg/s) 10.8482 10.9747 11.0280 11.0856
Net produced work (W) 9.9895e6 1.0199e7 1.0235e7 1.0242e7
Power output improvement (%) NA 2.1 2.45 2.52
A.A. Zadpoor, A.H. Golshan / Energy 31 (2006) 26522664 2660
agree with Alhazmy and Najjars [16] ndings in which a 1.95% improvement in output power and 3.95 1C
drop in dry bulb temperature is reported for DEC applied in hot and humid climate. Improvement of the
output power was 2.45% for IDEC. Application of the DBEC increased the output power by 2.52%. For dry
climates, there was only a little difference between simulation results of IDEC and those of the desiccant-based
cooling system. Furthermore, thermal efciency of the gas turbine was decreased slightly from 67.4933% to
67.4812% by application of DBEC. In humid climates, instead, desiccant cooling showed a larger
improvement in the output power comparing with the two other techniques. Thermal efciency of the gas
turbine was increased from 66.7337% to 66.7495% for hot and moderately humid climate and from 66.7174%
to 66.7395% for hot and humid climate.
Pressure drop due to existence of the desiccant wheel in process and the regeneration paths was computed
between 154 and 214 Pa. Simulations showed that there existed only a little dependency on parameters of the
desiccant wheel. Although conditions of the exiting air for different wheels with different design parameters
were different, after indirect and direct cooling, the condition indicators became very close. Thus, design
parameters of desiccant wheel did not have a signicant affect on the performance of the DBEC system.
Several design parameters were examined in this dependency analysis including regeneration portion, heater
outlet temperature, entering air conditions, etc. The same adsorptive material was used in all simulations of
the parameter dependency analysis.
Energy consumed in desiccant-based evaporative cooler is comparable with other evaporative coolers and
remains signicantly below what is consumed in refrigeration systems such as vapor compression and
absorption chiller systems. However, initial investment is much higher comparing with other evaporative
cooling systems but comparable with initial payload of refrigeration systems. Maintenance problems are less
for desiccant-based systems as they normally have fewer moving parts. Comparing two last columns of Table
4 with Table 7, we may conclude that thermal efciency of the inlet air cooling applied gas turbine in Qom is
completely close to ISO conditions. This conrms the fact that evaporative cooling systems work much better
in dry climates. However, it should be noted that utilization of evaporation-based cooling techniques is
difcult by the fact that in some dry climates it is difcult to nd enough water resources for operation of
cooling apparatus.
5. Conclusions
Application of DBEC systems for the inlet air cooling of gas turbines was studied in this paper.
A simulation code was developed and used for simulation of different evaporation-based inlet air cooling
techniques including DEC, IDEC, and DBEC. Improvement of performance of the gas turbine cycle for each
of these methods was studied for different climatic conditions.
In some cases of study, we observed that improvement of output power caused by desiccant-based cooling
technique was better than other techniques. It should be noted that in comparison with IDEC (see Tables 5
and 6), additional performance improvement caused by desiccant-based cooling technique is limited. From
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Table 7
ISO conditions gas turbine cycle performance
Default standard
Dry bulb (1C) 15
Wet bulb (1C) 10.8
Altitude (m) 0
Relative humidity (%) 60
Humidity ratio (kg/kg) 0.00637
Dew point (1C) 7.27
Specic volume (m
3
/kg) 0.82
Specic NO
x
(g/kWh) 0.8445
Thermal efciency (%) 67.8050
Air mass ow rate (kg/s) 12.1316
Net produced work (W) 1.0902e7
A.A. Zadpoor, A.H. Golshan / Energy 31 (2006) 26522664 2661
economy viewpoint, initial payload of desiccant-based cooling systems is much higher comparing with other
evaporative cooling systems. So, it seems that advantage of the desiccant-based cooling technique over IDEC
is not obvious. Accurate feasibility studies are required for individual projects to determine that if it is feasible
to introduce such a system or not. Specic NO
x
emission was decreased by application of the inlet air
cooling techniques. It was concluded that implementation of the desiccant-based cooling system can be
feasible only in humid climates. Simulation results showed that performance of the desiccant-based cooling
system slightly depends on design parameters of the desiccant wheel provided that the same adsorptive
material is being used.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their professional review and helpful comments.
Furthermore, we wish to express our gratitude and sincere thanks to Dr. S.M. Soleiman-Panah for his
proofreading.
Appendix A
This appendix is devoted to mathematical basis and thermodynamics relations used in the code
GTTPSP. Parameters of the cycle are dened in the nomenclature section of the paper. Index s is appeared as
a part of subscripts of some parameters. This index stands for isentropic value of those parameters. Real
thermodynamic processes deviate from isentropic value and this deviation is accounted for by utilization of
efciency.
1. Calculation of the turbines produced work
W
Turb:I
Z
Turb:I
m
a
m
f
1
hT
6
hT
7
,
W
Turb:II
Z
Turb:II
m
a
m
f
1
m
f
2
hT
8
hT
9
.
2. Calculation of compressors consumed work
W
CompI

1
Z
Comp:I
m
a
hT
2
hT
1
,
W
CompII

1
Z
Comp:II
m
a
hT
4
hT
3
.
3. Calculation of the cycles net produced work
W
net
W
Turb:I
W
Turb:II
W
Comp:I
W
Comp:II
.
In order to estimate real produced work of the gas turbine power plant, losses caused by mechanical and
electrical apparatuses as well as losses caused by other sources of power loss should be subtracted from
this value.
4. Calculation of thermal energy consumed in the combustors
Q
1
m
f
1
LHV
I
,
Q
2
m
f
2
LHV
II
,
Q
in
Q
1
Q
2
.
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A.A. Zadpoor, A.H. Golshan / Energy 31 (2006) 26522664 2662
5. Calculation of thermal properties of the traveling air when it is passed through the combustors
m
f
1
LHV
I
Z
Cmbst:I
m
a
m
f
1

Z
T
6
T
5
C
p
dT,
m
f
2
LHV
II
Z
Cmbst:II
m
a
m
f
1
m
f
2

Z
T
8
T
7
C
p
dT.
6. Calculation of thermal efciency of the cycle
Z
Thermal

W
net
Q
in
.
7. Pressures and temperatures of different stages of the cycle (numbers of the stages are shown in Fig. 1)
P
2

P
1
P
4
p
; P
2
P
3
; P
6
n
1
P
1
; P
6
P
5
P
4
; P
6
=P
8
n
2
,
P
9
P
1
,
T
2s
T
1
P
2
P
1

k1=k
; T
2
T
1

T
2s
T
1
Z
Comp:I
,
T
3
Z
Intercooler
T
w
T
2
T
2
,
T
4s
T
3
P
4
P
3

k1=k
; T
4
T
3

T
4s
T
3
Z
Comp:II
,
T
5
Z
Regenerator
T
9
T
4
T
4
,
T
6
T
Cmbst:I
; T
7s
T
6
=
P
6
P
7

k1=k
; T
7
T
6
Z
Turb:I
T
6
T
7s
,
T
8
T
Cmbst:II
,
T
9s
T
8
=
P
8
P
9

k1=k
; T
9
T
8
Z
Turb:II
T
8
T
9s
.
8. Ambient pressure of the cycles site, which is also pressure of the rst stage of the cycle, was calculated by
relations given in the ASHRAE handbook [30]. Density of inlet air was computed by using relations given
in the ASHRAE handbook for specic volume of humid air [30].
9. Specic heat of dry air and water vapor were calculated by using relations given in Ref. [31].
10. An iterative procedure was used for determination of temperature of the traveling air after it is passed
through the regenerator.
11. Enthalpy of the air was calculated by numerically integrating the specic heat of the humid air, i.e.
hT
2
hT
1

R
T
2
T
1
C
p
T dT.
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