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Abstract

An intercooled gas turbine driven powerplant employing a high pressure two-pass heat exchanger down stream of the final stage of compression is disclosed herein. The flow of hot, highly compressed air is cooled in the first pass of the high pressure heat exchanger by a counter current in-tube flow of either water alone, or preferably, of a cold methane/water mixture. The flow of air, thus cooled, is then available, in the second pass of the high pressure heat exchanger, to accept exhaust heat or the low grade heat, usually rejected, that is found in the heated fluid from the intercooler. The cool air is thus preheated, by the return to the cycle of exhaust heat, intercooler heat, and/or low grade heat from the operation of ancillary equipment prior to its entry into the combustor. Additionally, if a methane/water two phase feed is used to cool the first stage of the heat exchanger, the superheated mixture of steam and methane produced by the heat exchanger provides the ingredients to produce a low NO.sub.x fuel for the gas turbine combustor. Thus the first pass of the high pressure heat exchanger cools the high pressure discharge air flow and simultaneously generates the low NO.sub.x fuel gas (or if water alone is used, a quantity of steam for use in any industrial process). The second pass of the high pressure heat exchanger reheats the air flow with the exhaust heat or intercooler heat and simultaneously cools the water (or other heat transfer fluid) and returns that cold fluid to the intercooler or exhaust heat exchanger.

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First Claim