Investigation of a Set of Novel Heat Exchanger Configurations of a Heat Recovery Steam Generator to Improve the Energy Efficiency of Combined Cycle Power Plant

In this study, various configurations design of a Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) are examined to enhance energy efficiency of a Combined Cycle Power Plant (CCPP). A novel approach is used to investigate ten applicable configurations of a dual pressure Heat Recovery Steam Generator HRSG thoroughly to explore the best practice models from the energy-conserving considerations. Further, a fuel consumption assessment has been conducted to identify the best performance of the cycle and investigate the minimum pollutants released of each Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) configuration. The results have revealed that four scenarios among ten, have expressed a considerably better performance regarding; fuel consumption, steam production, energy efficiency, and finally yet importantly environmental considerations. Further, it has been found that in comparison to the conventional configuration, not only the selected scenarios have proved almost four times improvement in the low-pressure steam generation, but also 30% fuel consumption saving in supplementary firing has been achieved which has both economic and environmental benefits. Moreover the carbon dioxide saving potential for the best scenario is 51.37 kgCO2 MWh-1 consequently the environmental benefit of it is calculated about 133,418 $ MWh-1.