Parametric analysis and optimization of a solar assisted gas turbine

Highlights: • A solar assisted gas turbine system with PTC is investigated and optimized. • The solar field pressure losses are taken into account in the system performance. • A multi-objective optimization is used in order to determine the optimum solar field. • 1050 collector modules lead to 14.81 MW_el production with 0.3389 kg/s fuel consumption. • Finally, 64% fuel savings are achieved with a penalty of 2.8% in the power output. - Abstract: The objective of this study is to analyze and optimize a solar assisted gas turbine system. Parabolic trough collectors are used in order to supply a part of the demanded heat input, reducing the natural gas consumption and leading to an environmental friendly system. Emphasis is given in the pressure losses in the collector field loop which reduce the pressure level in the turbine inlet, leading to lower electricity production. In the first part of this study, the gas turbine and the collector field are investigated separately and in the second part, the solar assisted gas turbine is investigated parametrically and it is optimized. In the optimization part, a multi-objective optimization is performed by setting as goals the minimization of the collector area, of the fuel consumption and of the inversed electricity production. The final results proved that 1050 collector modules lead to 0.3389 kg/s natural gas consumption and to electricity production equal to 14.81 MW_el. This optimum solution leads to 64% fuel savings with a 2.8% penalty on the produced electricity. The system is analyzed in steady state conditions with the Engineering Equator Solver (EES).