Abstract
The increase in the utilization of gas turbine for power generation, the rise in the cost of fuel, and increasing attention towards reduction of the environmental impacts of generation plants have led to increase use of advanced cycles such as combined cycles. In addition to efficient production of electricity, combined cycles are designed to help facilities with productive use waste heat, which is the product of electricity generation. One of the challenges of the power generating systems in tropical countries is the reduction in the generation efficiency due to fluctuating atmospheric temperature, which could be as high as 45℃ in warmth seasons. One of the solutions to this is cooling down of the inlet air. Hence, in the present study, the techno-economic performance of a combined cycle power plant (CCPP) with and without an absorption chiller has been investigated. IPSEpro software a commercial modelling tool for economic and thermodynamic calculations was used to build the mode. The study focused on the improvements that could be achieved in the CCPP by cooling the inlet air with waste-heat driven absorption chiller. This was evaluated in context of the environmental conditions in Libya. The CCPP model was validated against vendor data, while the absorption chiller was validated against manufacturer’s data. Thereafter, the thermo-economic analysis of the system was conducted using energy, exergy, payback period, average rate of return, and probability index. The results showed that good improvement on the energy, exergy and economic performance of the system can be achieved using absorption chiller.