Adapting the micro-gas turbine operation to variable thermal and electrical requirements

This paper examines the possibilities for a micro-gas turbine operation under a wide range of thermal and mechanical load requirements. The authors focus the attention on a partially recuperated thermal cycle based on a by-pass option towards the heat recovery boiler in order to adapt the gas turbine operation to increasing needs of thermal output. In addition, a variable speed operation is considered as a more reliable method for decreasing the mechanical output without producing an excess in efficiency decay. The actual possibilities of the above-named regulation tools are examined by an integrated procedure which involves, besides an accurate thermodynamic preliminary analysis, the component matching study and the CID based simulation of the combustion chamber.