Operation Flexibility and Efficiency Enhancement for a Personal 7kW Gas Turbine System

In the present paper a steady state analysis of an externally fired gas turbine cycle for decentralized combined heat and power generation is shown. For the basic cycle design the part load performance, the influence of turbine inlet temperature and the fuel flexibility is investigated. It is demonstrated that the gas turbine is perfectly suitable for the use of alternative fuels such as wood gas, sewage gas or fermentation gas. In addition to the basic design the efficiency enhancement potential of an internally fired gas turbine based on the same turbo machinery is investigated. It is shown that electrical efficiency might be increased by up to 12 percentage points by implementation of a pressurized combustion chamber. In the second part of the paper different SOFC/GT hybrid cycle arrangements are analyzed. The studies include both atmospheric and pressurized cycle arrangements, the latter for internally and externally fired gas turbine. For the presented studies a validated steady state in-house simulation tool is used.