Evap cooling and wet compression

boost steam injected Fr6B output

By Robert Farmer
Combination of inlet cooling and wet compression improves
the plants hot day performance with a 15 percent boost in
power output and nearly a 2% lower heat rate.

Last year, Cardinal Cogeneration contracted with Caldwell Energy to design

and install low pressure-drop air filtration, inlet fog cooling, and wet compression technology (compressor intercooling) on a Frame 6B gas turbine in
cogeneration service.
The modification was carried out on an
early model Frame 6B gas turbine, ISO
rated at 37 MW base load output,
equipped with dry low NOx combustors and steam injection for power augmentation.
Caldwell completed its retrofit of the
inlet treatment systems in March 2002.
Early this year, company engineers
revisited the installation to evaluate
performance after more than 1100
hours of wet compression and 1300
hours of fogging operation.
Average performance improvement,
with fogging and wet compression,
compared to a site rating of 35.2 MW
without inlet treatment:
Wet compression. Inlet overspray for
compressor intercooling, at I percent
ratio of water to air flow, boosts output
by around 3.5 MW to 38.7 MW.
Inlet fogging. Combination of inlet
fogging for evaporative cooling, and
wet compression, boosts output by
around 5.2 MW to 40.4 MW.

Heat rate. Inlet cooling and wet compression reduce plant heat rate by
about 250 Btu/kWh for close to 2 percent improvement in efficiency.
Caldwell says that the gas turbine inlet
modification and equipment installation was completed onside during a
one-week scheduled outage of the
Cardinal plant.
Basically involved removing the existing inertial separators in the air filtration system and replacing them with
new pleated inlet air filter elements.
In addition, the site crew removed the
existing media-based evaporative cooling system and replaced it with a water
fogging system.
The air inlet modification reduced inlet
pressure losses by over two inches
water, say project engineers, for a
slight gain in plant output and efficiency.
In carrying out the modification, evaporative cooling fog nozzles are
installed in the inlet filter house, downstream of the inlet filters and upstream
of the inlet silencer.
Water is introduced to the inlet air
stream in the form of finely atomized
water droplets through arrays of pressure atomizing nozzles.
Because the existing silencing panels

were fabricated from galvanized steel,

the leading edges were covered with
stainless steel.
This was done to protect them from
contact with demineralized water,
which would corrode them and result
in rust or zinc being carried downstream into the compressor.
Downstream of the silencing panels the
inlet duct takes a ninety-degree turn
downward to the compressor inlet. Just
downstream of this elbow a wet compression array of spray nozzles was
installed.
These are specifically designed for the
high velocity airflow rate (about 300
Ib/sec air mass flow) and proximity to
the compressor inlet.
Likewise, the inlet duct surfaces downstream of the nozzles were lined with
stainless steel to prevent any adverse
affects of the demineralized water contacting the existing galvanized, perforated plate in the compressor manifold.
Site inspection
Caldwell engineers were able to
inspect the system in detail during a
planned maintenance shutdown in
March 2003.
(Critics of wet compression often point
to the possibility of corrosion in the

date that the technology is applicable

for commercial operation without any
adverse effects on durability or service
life.
Validation in Mexico
Similar validation tests have been completed on several other Caldwell systems installed on different gas turbine
engine models in the U.S.,
Switzerland, and Mexico, with similar
good results, claims Kraft.
Project engineers recently completed
validation testing on the first installation of its wet compression technology
for an Alstom GT24 gas turbine powering a Union Fenosa combined cycle
plant in Hermosillo, Mexico.
Fuerza y Energia de Hermosillo, plant
owner operator established by Union
Fenosa of Spain, has been running the
combined cycle since startup in mid2001.
Alstom supplied a KA24-1 combined
cycle unit, built around a GT24 gas turbine firing natural gas fuel, a steam turbine, and an unfired dualpressure heat
recovery steam generator.

Hermosillo plant. Alstom KA24 combined cycle plant in Mexico has an ISO net plant
output rating of 260,800 kW and 6129 stUlkwh heat rate (65.7% efficiency) on natural
gas fuel. Union Fenosas Fuerza y Energia, which has been running the GT24 gas turbine
powered plant since startup in Manch 2002, reports about a 6% boost in output when
operating with wet compression.

inlet equipment if systems and materials are specified incorrectly.)

blade could be seen, but this was minor

and is to be expected.

They conducted a thorough bore scope

inspection of the compressor and visually inspected combustion system components, inlet duct, silencing panels,
and the supplied equipment.

The silencing section of the inlet did

not appear to have been affected by the
water fogging system, they report, nor
were there any new signs of corrosion
or panel deterioration.

Gas turbine borescoping inspection

results showed that the compressor and
combustion system were in good condition, without any evidence of damage or wear.

Upon completion of visual and instrumented tests, the fogging and wet compression system operation was
resumed and the gas turbine returned to
commercial service with full augmentation capabilities.

Visual observations of the inlet guide

vanes on the compressor did not reveal
any signs of wear. Some erosion of the
leading edge of the row I compressor

According to John Kraft, Caldwell

Energys president, the inspection fully
confirmed design expectations to vali-

Alstom also supplied the power plant

control systems, balance of plant
equipment, and plant engineering,
installation and commissioning services.
Comision Federal de Electricidad,
Mexico City is taking all the plant
power output under long-term purchase agreements with Fuerza y
Energia.
Caldwell Energy supplied a 1.2% wet
compression system and an inlet fogging evaporative cooling system to
retrofit the GT24 at the plant.
They have accumulated over 3,500
hours of operation since startup in
March 2002, the company reports, and
during that time there have been no
detrimental affects on the gas turbine.
At base load output, without evaporative cooling or wet compression, the
plant is site rated at 241.1 MW combined cycle output.
Operating with wet compression adds

about 13.3 MW for nearly a 6 percent

boost in combined cycle output to
254.4 MW.
Adding evaporative cooling to the wet
compression adds close to 22 MW for
about a 9 percent boost in output to 263
MW.
Fogging the inlet
During the early days of inlet cooling,
traditional evaporative methods of
cooling the inlet air involved using
water circulated over a wetted media.
The wetted media process, however,
causes pressure drop losses in the inlet
with associated performance penalties
for the gas turbine.(Reportedly, these
systems can also require a significant
amount of annual maintenance due to
the need to replace the media.)
With fogging systems, precisely regulated amounts of micron-sized water
droplets injected into the inlet air for
cooling allow more power to be generated.
Fog systems can effectively cool the
compressor inlet air down to the saturation temperature of the ambient air
without creating a power limiting pressure drop.
On a 90F day, with 20% relative
humidity, evaporating water into the
gas turbine air stream can reduce inlet
air temperature to 63F.
For the majority of gas turbine types,
this means about a 9% increase in
power output, claims Caldwell.
Works in humid climates
The companys PowerFog systems
cool atmospheric air from the dry bulb
temperature all the way down to near
wet bulb temperature.
The drier the air, the more cooling can
be achieved. Conversely, the more
humid the atmosphere, the less the performance can be improved.
According to Caldwell engineers,You
might think that these systems would
not be effective in humid climates, but
this is not true. While the dry bulb temperature increases during the heat of

Wet compression pump skid. Caldwell Energy retrofitted the Hermosillo plant with
inlet fog evaporative cooling and wet compression to enhance hot day performance.
Combination has increased plants site rated output to around 263 MW from 241 MW.

the day, the wet bulb temperature stays

relatively constant.

for a fogging system is less than one

year on most applications.

This means that the greatest amount

of cooling is achieved at the time when
you need it most, during the hottest
part of the day.

Installation takes only a few days and

sometimes can be done while the turbine is on-line, but is generally in
stalled during a planned outage.

For example, they point out, at a 95F

(35C) ambient temperature and 50%
relative humidity, a typical gas turbine
will show about a 6% increase a in
power with fogging.

Wet compression

But in a dry hot climate, at 100F

(38C) ambient temperature and 20%
relative humidity conditions, you can
see better than a 15% increase in output.
PowerFog has custom engineered control system logic to match each specific engine and site, with multiple nozzle
arrays designed to optimize performance.
Water pressure can vary, typically
between 1,000 and 3,500 pounds per
square inch depending on the required
droplet size.
Caldwell says a typical simple payback

Dow Chemical of Midland, Michigan

owns patents on the methods and apparatus for the proper application of wet
compression technology.
It developed, tested and has successfully applied this technology to several of
its own gas turbines. Caldwell is a
licensee of this technology, as is
Siemens Westinghouse Power a
Corporation,
Operationally, wet compression (also
called overspray, super saturation, high
fogging) pumps more water into the
inlet than needed for evaporative cooling.
Carryover into the compressor creates
a compressor intercooling effect,
which can increase gas turbine power

output by up to 25 percent.
Wet compression technology not only
increases the power output but also
reduces the gas turbine heat rate by up
to 2 percent, depending on gas turbine
engine model.
The intercooling effect of wet compression works to optimize the working fluid of the compressor to increase
its efficiencyand that is primarily
where the heat rate improvement
comes in.
Also, increasing the overall turbine
mass flow increases power output and
allows constant firing temperature control systems to fire more fuel to
improve performance.
Wet compression is an impressive
power augmentation technology that is
applicable on more advanced gas turbine designs as well as old machines.
Cardinal Cogen plant. Frame 6B installation in California with wet compression
added to evaporative inlet cooling is showing increase to over 40 MW output from dry
rating of 37 MW. Photo shows the stage valve assembly for the wet compression portion
of the system.

However, warn Caldwell engineers, it

is important that each machine (being
unique) be thoroughly evaluated in
order to safely optimize the performance.
Simplified pinless nozzle
Typical fogging nozzles incorporate
impaction-pin technology in their
design that creates the fog out of very
high-pressure water droplets as they
impact a pin attached to the nozzle.
Pinned nozzles are said to very sensitive to misalignment. Caldwell points
out that if pins are not aligned properly
or otherwise damaged, their fogging
capabilities can be significantly
reduced.
The company has developed a pinless
nozzle for inlet fogging applications
which, it says, has proved itself inoperational service to significantly outperform traditional pinned nozzles.

Nozzle rack assembly. Water injection nozzle installation for the 251-MW Hermosillo
combined cycle plant. Inlet fogging for evap cooling adds about 9 MW to net plant output and wet compression another 13 MW.

These new pinless nozzles can be custom tailored for replacement of pinned
nozzles in all fogging systems currently being used in the industry.
They are also adaptable for use in wet
compression systems. ~