A Comparative Study of Performance of Al-Khairat Gas Turbine Power Plant for Different Types of Fuel

Abstract

In this work, the effect of various types of fuels on the performance and efficiency of Al-Khairat gas turbine power plant in Kerbala City, Iraq has been investigated. The plant contains 10 General Electric Frame 9E gas turbine units, each of around 125 MW. Three fuels were used in this study; crude oil, natural gas, and biomass gasification producer (synthesis) gas. Currently, liquid crude oil is used as fuel for this plant. For comparison purposes, this power plant was simulated utilizing Aspen-Hysys software. Hysys simulation modelled in accordance with experimental power plant conditions and data was applied and showed high validity. Due to this validity, the plant's efficiency and performance were calculated. Similarly, plant efficiency and performance for the other two fuels were also calculated. Furthermore, many important parameters that affect plant efficiency and performance for these three fuels (ambient temperature, pressure ratio, CO2 emission gases, heat rate and fuel consumption) were also investigated. Compared to the other two fuels, results show that the use of natural gas is the optimal choice for the plant, due to its increase of station efficiency and productivity, by approximately 3.12% and 10% respectively. At the same time, it reduced fuel consumption by 6% and produced less emission greenhouse gas.