Technological and economical analysis of water recovery in steam injected gas turbines

Steam injected gas turbines are an interesting technology for co-generation applications. In these gas turbines the heat of the exhaust gases is used to produce steam. This steam is injected in the combustion chamber, resulti ng in a high specific power and a high thermal efficiency. A major disadvan tage of steam injected gas turbines is the large water consumption. Placing a condenser in the cycle makes it possible to recover all the injected ste am. An analysis is made of different types of condensers. Condensers based on finned tubes and direct-contact-condensers are considered. The dimension s of the condensers are determined for existing steam injected gas turbines . Furthermore, the investment costs and the exploitation costs for each typ e are compared. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.