Author(s)

Muna Hamad Almansoori, Zin Eddine Dadach^*

Chemical & Petroleum Engineering Department, Abu Dhabi Men’s College, Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

In the first part of this investigation, a Natural Gas Combined Cycle (NGCC) producing 620 MW of electricity was simulated using the commercial software Aspen Hysys V9.0 and the Soave-Redlich-Kwong (SRK) equation of state. The aim of this second part is to use exergy-based analyses in order to calculate its exergy efficiency and evaluate its environmental impact under standard conditions. For the exergy efficiency, the performance index under investigation is the exergy destruction ratio (y_D). The results of the study show that the combustor is the main contributor to the total exergy destruction of the power plant (y_D = 24.35%) and has the lowest exergy efficiency of 75.65%. On the other hand, the Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) has the lowest contribution to the exergy destruction (y_D = 5.63%) of the power plant and the highest exergy efficiency of 94.37%. For the overall power plant, the exergy efficiency is equal to 53.28%. For the environmental impact of the power plant, the relative difference of exergy-related environmental impacts (r_b) is utilized as the performance index for each equipment of the plant and the environmental impact of a kWh of electricity (EIE) is used to represent the performance index of the overall power plant. In agreement with the exergy analysis, the results indicate that the combustor and the HRSG have respectively the highest (r_b = 32.19%) and the lowest (r_b = 5.96%) contribution to the environmental impact. The environmental impact of a kWh of electricity of the power plant is 34.26 mPts/kWh (exergy destruction only), and 34.42 mPts/kWh (both exergy destruction and exergy loss).

Exergy Analysis, NGCC Power Plant, Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) Method, Environmental Impact of Electricity

Almansoori, M. and Dadach, Z. (2018) Exergy Efficiency and Environmental Impact of Electricity of a 620 MW-Natural Gas Combined Cycle. Journal of Power and Energy Engineering, 6, 1-21. doi: 10.4236/jpee.2018.67001.