🏭GAS TURBINE POWER PLANT 🏭

🏭GAS TURBINE POWER PLANT🏭

✏️The generating station in which the gas turbine is used as a prime mover in order to convert the mechanical energy into electrical energy is known as a gas turbine power plant.  In a gas turbine power plant air is used as a working fluid.  The gas turbine power plant consists of many components such as filter compressor combustion chamber gas turbine alternator and the motor.  Firstly the air from the atmosphere is fed into the filter in order to general remove the dust particles and then it is fed into the compressor.  The air is generally comprised in the compressor and then it is fed into the combustion chamber.  The combustion chamber consists of two valves, one valve where the fuel is fed (fuel inlet) and the other valve, where the compressed air from the compressor is fed into the combustion chamber.  The gas turbines can make use of variety of fuels like solid, liquid and gas but most likely the natural gas is used as fuel because it has 80 percentage of the Methane and small amount of some other gases and is widely used in the gas power plants.  Once the fuel is fed into the combustion chamber where heat is added to the air and thus raising the temperature of the air.  Here there are two ways of adding the Heat and they are first one used by means of burning the fuel and the second method used by means of using the air heater in order to heat the air.  In the gas turbine power plant we can also observe that there is a coupling made in between the compressor and gas turbine.  Is not compulsory to place that compressor, gas turbine, alternator and motor all in the similar shaft, based on a requirement we can make use of them in our own way.

✏️Next, the high temperature high pressure air from the combustion chamber is fed into the gas turbine and in the gas turbine, the compressed air expands and this expanded air hits the blades of the turbine which rotates and produces mechanical energy which helps to rotate the alternator or generator and hence the mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy.  After the expanded air hits the blade of the turbine, the air is generally released into the atmosphere by means of using the duct.There are generally two types of gas turbine power plants, they are:

1️⃣Open cycle gas turbine power plant 

2️⃣Closed cycle gas turbine power plant 

✏️Here, another reason why the compressor, gas turbine and alternators are mounted on the same shaft because of that the part of the mechanical power of the turbine can be utilised for the operation of the compressor.  We are not going to make use of the gas turbine power plant like hydroelectric power plant, steam power plant or thermal power plant but it can be used as a stand back/back-up power plant for the hydroelectric power station, nuclear power station as a starting point for driving auxiliaries in power plant equipment etc.

📝Site selection for gas portable power plant:

1. Distance from the load centre
the plant should always be located near the load centre in order to reduce the transmission cost and as well as to reduce the losses.

2. Availability of land
the land that we are planning to construct the gas turbine power plant should be available in cheap cost or price, so that the capital loss can be reduced.

3. Availability of fuel
the fuel which is used in the gas turbine power plant that is the natural gas should be available at a reasonable rate or at less cost.

4. Availability of transportation facilities
While buying the land we need to make sure that there is any kind of transportation facility like Wagon/train route, road transport, water transport, air route etc., so that it will be helpful for us to transport the material.

5. distance from the populated area
the land where we have selected to establish the gas turbine power plant should be constructed away from the populated area because the operation of the gas turbine power plant will be very much noisy so that it can affect the people living near the plant may get disturbed.

6. Type of land
we have to select a land such that it has high bearing capacity/stability, so that it can handle all the equipment’s without any trouble because a lot of vibrations will be transmitted to the foundation from the compressor and turbines.

📝Advantages and disadvantages of gas turbine power plants:

✏️ADVANTAGES:

👉It is simple in construction when compared to that of the steam power plant since no boilers or any other equipment’s are used.

👉Gas turbine power plants are also smaller in size when compared to other power plants.

👉The initial and operational cost are low, when compared to other for plants like steam power plant, hydro power plant etc.

👉Gas turbine power plants require very much less amount of water, since no condenser is used in gas turbine power plant.

👉Maintenance cost is less.

👉Gas turbine power plants can be started quickly.

👉Less losses occur in the gas turbine power plants that is because in the steam turbine power plant we make use of the boiler which will be in continuous operation even when the steam turbine is running no load.

✏️DISADVANTAGES:

👉Initially, we will face a small problem in starting the gas turbine power plant it is because before starting the turbine the compressor is to be operated and in order to turn on the compressor we require some external power source but however, once the operation of the gas turbine power plant starts then we do not require any external power source.

👉The output of the gas turbine power plant is very low, since the greater power developed by the turbine is used in driving the compressor.

👉The overall efficiency of the gas turbine power plant is very low that is approximately about 20 % that is because the expanded air after hitting the turbine is generally allowed to be left into the atmosphere and is not reused again.

👉Here, in the gas turbine power plant the combustion chamber will have a temperature of about 3000 degree Fahrenheit, so that results in the reduction in the life of the combustion chamber.       

         

✏️In the gas turbine power plant we can also make use of the liquids like kerosene, gas oil or Diesel oil but the cost will be more and we can also make use of the coal but we not use a coal because the coal handling and ash handling methods needs to be followed, as coal handling and ash handling methods are very much difficult and also efficiency will be very much low.

✏️Nowadays, natural gas is used for combustion in gas turbine and it is transported by a pipe network in many parts of the country, since the natural gas does not eliminate the smoke or it does not pollute the environment and the main reason for making use of natural gas is because it is eco-friendly/it does not harm the environment.


✏️In the near future, we may also make use of the hydrogen gas and Biogas as fuel for the gas turbine power plants and several methods may also be introduced in order to increase the efficiency of the gas turbine power plants.  Nowadays there is also some methods which is used to improve the thermal efficiency of a gas turbine power plant that is by making use of a regenerator.

📝APPLICATIONS OF GAS TURBINE POWER PLANT :

👉It can be used as a peak load plants that is because they can be started quickly and loaded easily.

👉Base load plants: in most of the cases the gas turbine power plants are not used as a base load plant because the operational cost of the gas turbine power plant is very much high but if the natural gas is abundantly available at some side it may be economical to make use as the base load plants

👉Auxiliary power plant: for thermal stations or steam power plant or the coal power plant we can make use of the gas turbine power plant of size about 25 megawatt or 30 megawatt so that for the starting of the auxiliary equipment of the power plant.  Since the gas turbine power plant is very small we can place that either inside the building or we can make a separate site for placing the gas turbine power plant, outside the building.