ANALYSIS OF COMBINED CYCLE POWER PLANTS BASE ON PINCH-EXERGY AND THERMOECONOMIC ANALYSIS

Pinch, exergy and exergy economic analysis is applied to improvement of process system. In this paper, exergetic ,thermoeconomic and combined pinch and exergy analyses were performed for a 162-MW NEKA combined cycle power plant. The simulation of this plant is performed in GT PRO simulator. Mass and energy conservation laws were applied to each component of the system. An Excel Add-in called GT PRO Link has been developed to calculate the exergy of each stream from a GT PRO simulation. Exergetic cost for each component and for the whole system was carefully considered. The exergoeconomic model, which represented the productive structure of the system considered, was used to visualize the cost formation process and the productive interaction between components. The exergy costs of each stream are determined. Furthermore, combined pinch and exergy representation is applied to analysis of power plant to suggest scenario for reduction of energy consumption. The MATLAB code is provide to draw energy level curves that link to GT PRO and Excel environments.