Thermodynamic and environmental consideration of advanced gas turbine cycles with reheat and recuperator

The role of gas turbine power plants in electrical energy production has been considerably increased in the last two to three decades. Various methods have been proposed to improve the performance of gas turbine cycles. In this research, two methods, a reheat cycle (RC) and a cycle with a reheat and a recuperator (RHC), were investigated and compared with a simple cycle (SC). The main objective of this paper is to study the performance of an RC and RHC under actual conditions. In this regard, all processes are treated as actual, and in particular a relatively simple and reliable approach is used to predict the amount of cooling air. The results obtained on the basis of a model developed for this research show that reheating in the context of a realistic study may lead to an improvement both in efficiency and in specific net work using recuperator cause to decrease NOx emission.