Thermoeconomic impact on combined cycle performance of advanced blade cooling systems

In this work the thermoeconomic features of two different combined cycles using air “open loop” and steam “closed loop” cooled gas turbines are presented and compared in depth. In order to properly estimate both thermodynamic and thermoeconomic performance of the different combined cycles an analytical model of the blade cooling system has been developed in details and outlined in the paper. Internal Thermoeconomic functional analysis is not performed here, as only economic results are shown and discussed. The blade cooling detailed model, originally developed by TPG researchers, has been integrated into the web based modular code WTEMP, already validated for GT based cycles, developed in the last ten years by TPG. It is shown that the closed loop blade cooling configuration has the greatest potential in terms of thermodynamic efficiency and economic competitivity in the mid-term.