Open Journal of Energy Efficiency, 2018, 7, 33-52
http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojee
ISSN Online: 2169-2645
ISSN Print: 2169-2637
DOI: 10.4236/ojee.2018.72003 May 17, 2018 33 Open Journal of Energy Efficiency
Process Simulation of a 620 Mw-Natural Gas
Combined Cycle Power Plant with Optimum
Flue Gas Recirculation
Ahmed Badr Al Hashmi, Abdel Aziz Abdulla Mohamed, Zin Eddine Dadach
*
Chemical & Petroleum Engineering Department, Abu Dhabi Men’s College, Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Abstract
The main objective of this investigation is to obtain an optimum value for the
flue gas recirculation ratio in a 620 MW-Natural Gas Combined Cycle
(NGCC) power plant with a 100% excess air in order to have a composition of
the exhaust gas suitable for an effective absorption by amine solutions. To
reach this goal, the recirculated flue gas is added to the secondary air (dilution
air) used for cooling the turbine. The originality of this work is that the opti-
mum value of a Flue Gas Recirculation (FGR) ratio of 0.42 is obtained from
the change of the slope related to the effects of flue gas recirculation ratio on
the molar percentage of oxygen in the exhaust gas. Compared to the NGCC
power plant without flue gas recirculation, the molar percentage of carbon
dioxide in the flue gas increases from 5% to 9.2% and the molar percentage of
oxygen decreases from 10.9% to 3.5%. Since energy efficiency is the key para-
meter of energy conversion systems, the impact of the flue gas recirculation
on the different energy inputs and outputs and the overall efficiency of the
power plant are also investigated. It is found the positive effects of the flue gas
recirculation on the electricity produced by the steam turbine generator (STG)
are more important than its cooling effects on the power output of the com-
bustion turbine generator (CTG). The flue gas recirculation has no effects on
the water pump of the steam cycle and the increase of energy consumed by
the compressor of flue gas is compensated by the decrease of energy con-
sumed by the compressor of fresh air. Based on the Low heating value (LHV)
of the natural gas, the flue gas recirculation increases the overall efficiency of
the power plant by 1.1% from 57.5% from to 58.2%.
Keywords
Natural Gas Combined Cycle (NGCC), Flue Gas Recirculation, Absorption by
Amine, CCS
How to cite this paper: Al Hashmi, A.B.,
Mohamed, A.A.A. and Dadach, Z.E. (2018)
Process Simulation of a 620 Mw-Natural
Gas Combined Cycle Power Plant with
Optimum Flue Gas Recirculation. Open
Journal of Energy Efficiency, 7, 33-52.
https://doi.org/10.4236/ojee.2018.72003
Received: March 17, 2018*
Accepted: May 14, 2018
Published: May 17, 2018
Copyright © 2018 by authors and
Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution International
License (CC BY 4.0).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Open Access