Keeping it Cool

This article provides details of various aspects of air cooling technologies that can give gas turbines a boost. Air inlet cooling raises gas turbine efficiency, which is proportional to the mass flow of air fed into the turbine. The higher the mass flow, the greater the amount of electricity produced from the gas burned. Researchers at Mee Industries conduct laser scattering studies of their company’s fogging nozzles to determine if the nozzles project properly sized droplets for cooling. The goal for turbine air cooling systems is to reduce the temperature of inlet air from the dry bulb temperature, the ambient temperature, to the wet bulb temperature. The Turbidek evaporative cooling system designed by Munters Corp. of Fort Myers, Florida, is often retrofit to turbines, typically installed in front of pre-filters that remove particulates from inlet air. Turbine Air Systems designs standard chillers to improve the performance of the General Electric LM6000 and F-class gas turbines during the hottest weather.