Applied Energy xxx (2015) xxxxxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Application of optimal design methodologies in retrotting natural gas

combined cycle power plants with CO2 capture
Ming Pan a,, Farah Aziz b, Baohong Li c, Simon Perry b, Nan Zhang b, Igor Bulatov b, Robin Smith b
a

Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3RA, UK
Centre for Process Integration, School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
c
Department of Chemical Engineering, Dalian Nationalities University, Dalian 116600, China
b

h i g h l i g h t s
 A new approach is proposed for retrotting NGCC power plants with CO2 capture.
 HTI techniques are developed for improving heat recovery in NGCC power plants.
 EGR techniques are developed to increase the process overall energy efciency.
 The proposed methods are efcient for practical application.

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 17 December 2014
Received in revised form 5 February 2015
Accepted 8 March 2015
Available online xxxx
Keywords:
Natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power
plant
CO2 capture
Retrotting
Heat transfer intensication (HTI)
Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR)

a b s t r a c t
Around 21% of the worlds power production is based on natural gas. Energy production is considered to
be the signicant sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This has a signicant effect on the global
warming. Improving power plant efciency and adding a CO2 capture unit into power plants, have been
suggested to be a promising countermeasure against global warming. This paper presents a new insight
to the application of energy efcient technologies in retrotting natural gas combined cycle (NGCC)
power plants with CO2 capture. High delity models of a 420 MW NGCC power plant and a CO2 capture
plant with CO2 compression train have been built and integrated for 90% capture level. These models
have been then validated by comparisons with practical operating data and literature results. The novelty
of the paper is to propose optimal retrotting strategies to minimize the efciency penalty caused by
integrating carbon capture units into the power plant, including (1) implementing heat transfer intensication techniques to increase energy saving in the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) of the power
plant; (2) extracting suitable steam from the HRSG to supply the heat required by the capture process,
thus on external heat is purchased; (3) employing exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) to increase the overall
energy efciency of the integrated process, which can benet both power plant (e.g. increasing power
plant efciency) and capture process (e.g. reducing heat demands). Compared with the base case without
using any integrating and retrotting strategies, the optimal solution based on the proposed approaches
can provide sufcient heat to CO2 capture process, and keep the same power generation. The optimal
solution shows that, the ue gas ow-rate is reduced 33% in the inlet of CO2 capture process, heat
demand in CO2 capture decreases 4.3%, heat output from the power plant increases from 0 MW to
133 MW, and more than 22% of prot is obtained in the integrated system. This demonstrates the validity
and efciency of the proposed approaches in retrotting existing NGCC power plants with CO2 capture.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Population growth and technological development in the world,
has led to an energy demand that has been increased proportionally. The main sources to produce energy have been power
Corresponding author.

plants, which operate on different types of fuel. However, power

plants produce large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions such
as carbon dioxide (CO2), which has a signicant effect on the global
warming, raising the earths temperature. Reducing CO2 emission
in power plants has been widely investigated by using combined
cycle technologies to improve power plant efciency and employing carbon capture and storage (CCS) unit to mitigate CO2.

E-mail address: mp748@cam.ac.uk (M. Pan).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.03.035
0306-2619/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: Pan M et al. Application of optimal design methodologies in retrotting natural gas combined cycle power plants with
CO2 capture. Appl Energy (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.03.035

M. Pan et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2015) xxxxxx

Nomenclature

Indices
ex
Sets
EX
EXec&sh
EXev

BEBex
exchanger

set of all exchangers

set of all economisers and superheaters
set of all evaporators

Parameters
DTmin
minimum temperature difference approach (C)
EXAex
designed area of exchanger ex (m2)
0
CF ex
estimated ow rate of cold stream in an evaporator
(kg/s)
CFCPex
heat-ow capacities (the multiplication between heat
capacity and ow-rate) of cold stream in exchanger ex
(kW/K)
CTI0ex
initial inlet temperatures of cold streams in exchanger
ex (C)
CTO0ex
initial outlet temperatures of cold streams in exchanger
ex (C)
HFCPex heat-ow capacities (the multiplication between heat
capacity and ow-rate) of hot stream in exchanger ex
(kW/K)
HTI0ex
initial inlet temperatures of hot streams in exchanger ex
(C)
HTO0ex
initial outlet temperatures of hot streams in exchanger
ex (C)
LMTD0ex initial logarithmic mean temperature difference in
exchanger ex (C)
M
a sufcient large positive number
MAXEUex upper bound of heat transfer coefcient of intensied
exchanger ex (kW/m2 C)
MAXNUex upper bound of heat transfer coefcient of exchanger ex
without intensication (kW/m2 C)
MINEUex lower bound of heat transfer coefcient of intensied
exchanger ex (kW/m2 C)
MINNUex lower bound of heat transfer coefcient of exchanger ex
without intensication (kW/m2 C)
Variables continuous
AEBex
positive variable, energy balance differences between
hot stream and cold stream in exchanger ex (kW)

Natural gas power plants are typical electricity generation

processes that can be divided into two types: open cycle gas turbine (OCGT) and combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT). The OCGT is
also called Brayton cycle, consisting of a power generator unit coupled with a gas turbine through a shaft. It can be used to produce
power with 3542% efciency based on the lower heating value
(LHV). The second type of natural red gas turbine (CCGT) has
the same basic elements of the OCGT, but employs a heat recovery
steam generator (HRSG) to recover the heat from the exhaust gas
to produce extra power. Over the last few decades, CCGT become
popular compared with OCGT, because of the higher power production with higher plant efciency [1]. The HRSG is one of the
components that has signicant exegetic losses. Therefore,
optimization of the HRSG operating parameters (such as number
of pressure levels, and steam pressures, temperatures and
owrates) can increase the efciency of combined cycle plants.
Cihan et al. [2] used thermodynamic optimization to determine
the optimum values of the operating parameters to minimize
exergy losses in the HRSG they considered. Ameri et al. [3] utilized

CFex
CHIex
CHOex
CTIex
CTOex
DACTIex
DACTOex
DAHTIex
DAHTOex
DBCTIex
DBCTOex
DBHTIex
DBHTOex
EUex
HBAex
HBBex
HTIex
HTOex
NUex
Obj
Uex

Binary
ENex

positive variable, energy balance differences between

hot stream and cold stream in exchanger ex (kW)
ow rate of cold stream in an evaporator (kg/s)
enthalpy of inlet cold stream in an evaporator (kJ/kg)
enthalpy of outlet cold stream in an evaporator (kJ/kg)
inlet temperatures of cold streams in exchanger ex (C)
outlet temperatures of cold streams in exchanger ex (C)
positive variable, differences between initial and
updated temperatures for cold stream inlet (C)
positive variable, differences between initial and
updated temperatures for cold stream outlet (C)
positive variable, differences between initial and
updated temperatures for hot stream inlet (C)
positive variable, differences between initial and
updated temperatures for hot stream outlet (C)
positive variable, differences between initial and
updated temperatures for cold t stream inlet (C)
positive variable, differences between initial and
updated temperatures for cold stream outlet (C)
positive variable, differences between initial and
updated temperatures for hot stream inlet (C)
positive variable, differences between initial and
updated temperatures for hot stream outlet (C)
heat transfer coefcient of intensied exchanger
ex (kW/m2 C)
positive variable, heat transfer differences between
streams and exchanger in exchanger ex (kW)
positive variable, heat transfer differences between
streams and exchanger in exchanger ex (kW)
inlet temperatures of hot streams in exchanger ex (C)
outlet temperatures of hot streams in exchanger ex (C)
heat transfer coefcient of exchanger ex without intensication (kW/m2 C)
objective value
overall required heat transfer coefcient of exchanger ex
(kW/m2 C)

1 if tube inserts are implemented in exchanger ex;

otherwise, it is 0

exergy analysis for optimizing HRSG operating parameters to

improve the plant performance by reducing the exergy destruction
of the HRSG. Bassily [4] also found that increasing steam outlet
temperature, and reducing stack temperature and temperature difference of heat exchangers can mitigate the HRSG irreversibility.
Sanjay [5] dealt with thermodynamic analysis of CCGT with single
(B1P), dual (B2P), and triple pressure (B3P) bottoming cycle
conguration. They stated that the advantages of B3P included
the highest plant-efciency and plant-specic work, and the least
non-dimensionalized exergy destruction and process irreversibility
in the HRSG.
Compared with the technologies of improving energy efciency
in power plants, CO2 capture and storage (CCS) is the most efcient
methodology to reduce CO2 emissions directly. CCS can be applied
by different techniques to mitigate the CO2 from the power plants,
either by capturing the CO2 from the fuel before entering the combustion (called pre-combustion) or by capturing the CO2 from the
exhaust. The latter, depending on the oxidant that is used in the
combustion, can be divided into the Oxy fuel technique (using

Please cite this article in press as: Pan M et al. Application of optimal design methodologies in retrotting natural gas combined cycle power plants with
CO2 capture. Appl Energy (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.03.035

M. Pan et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2015) xxxxxx

the pure oxygen) and the post-combustion technique (using the

ambient air). Kunze and Spliethoff [6] applied three capture
approaches to an advanced IGCC plant, and evaluated future
IGCC concepts for their medium and long-term efciency potential,
where major issues regarding technical feasibility were described
and the emission reduction potential was determined. Goto et al.
[7] reviewed recent studies on the efciency penalty of coal-red
power plants with CCS, and used process simulation to estimate
the efciency penalty, which is the net decrease in the power efciency caused by the CO2 capture and compression process. Hu and
Yan [8] investigated the characteristics of ue gas recycle (FGR)
and various recycle options in the oxy-coal combustion system.
The ue gas cleaning units they considered included electrostatic
precipitators (ESP), ue gas desulfurization (FGD), selective catalytic reduction (SCR) deNOx and ue gas condensation (FGC).
Martelli et al. [9] focused on the design of the HRSG, and aimed
to dene the optimal steam cycle congurations for plant efciency and dual-fuel exibility. Hu et al. [10] evaluated the evaporative gas turbine (EvGT) cycle with two different CO2 capture
options (chemical absorption and oxyfuel combustion), and stated
that the EvGT with chemical absorption can perform better than
the EvGT with oxyfuel combustion when the size of power plant
is small. Huang et al. [11] used industrial test and techno-economic
analysis on a CO2 capture plant with an aqueous amine solution,
and found that the stripper and absorber are the main capital
investments in a CO2 capture plant.
Recently, post-combustion CO2 capture (PCC) using monoethanolamine (MEA) solvent has been suggested as the most promising
and mature technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from
power plants. Its implementation requires the least modications
to the power plant, and is therefore seen as the best option for retrot purposes [12]. Furthermore, the MEA solvent can be applied
for capturing low concentration gases (less than 10% of CO2), while
the CO2 concentration in the NGCC exhaust gas is usually around
34%, thus making the MEA solvent more appropriate for capturing
the low concentration of CO2 in NGCC [13]. However, due to the
disadvantage of a lower CO2 content in exhaust gas of NGCC power
plants, higher specic ue gas ow is needed, resulting in a more
expensive process in terms of higher reboiler and pump duties.
To overcome this disadvantage, exhaust gas recirculation (EGR)
has been proposed, which is mostly benecial to an integrated
NGCC power plant associated with a concomitant fall in exhaust
gas ow rate, an increase in exhaust gas CO2 concentration, and
reduced reboiler heating and solvent pumping requirements.
Joshagen et al. [14] looked into how the turbomachinery reacts
to EGR, and considered the potential of further improvements by
utilizing pressurized water rather than extraction steam as the
heat source for the CO2 stripper. Biliyok and Yeung [15] built and
validated the models for integrating a 440 MW NGCC power plant,
a CO2 capture plant and a CO2 compression train, and found that in
EGR scenario, higher exhaust gas CO2 concentration enhanced
mass transfer in the capture plant, which reduced its steam
requirement. Peeters et al. [16] predicted the potential performance of the PCC with CCGT, and considered the EGR as a signicant method to improve the net efciency and reduced the capital
cost. Bolland and Mathieu [17] showed that with 30% EGR, the net
efciency increased around 2 points due to the reboiler duty
reduction, which reduced the amount of steam that is extracted
from CCGT. Canepa et al. [18] revealed that the EGR could reduce
the efciency penalty without any major changing to the main
power plant.
Although integration principles are now well established, much
of the current literature on post-combustion capture system in gas
power plant still lacks a comprehensive assessment of their impact
on power generation. The novelty of this paper is to consider
detailed performances of HRSG with implementing heat transfer

intensication techniques, which will vary with the strategies of

EGR and how to extract steam from HRSG. The integration technologies are developed to reduce the efciency penalty caused by
integrating carbon capture units into the power plant. The rest of
the paper is structured as follows. A problem statement is introduced in Section 2, followed by the model developments and validations for NGCC power plants and post-combustion CO2
capture plants in Section 3. Section 4 presents retrotting strategies for the addressed integration problems, including heat transfer
intensication and steam extraction in HRSG, and EGR. Finally, the
comparisons of retrotted solutions and base case are carried
out to demonstrate the validity and efciency of the proposed
approaches.
2. Problem statement
To formally state the problem of interest, Fig. 1 presents an
illustration of using monoethanolamine (MEA) solvent to capture
CO2 from a NGCC power plant. Firstly, a NGCC power plant consists
of two cycles. The rst cycle, the Brayton cycle (gas turbine cycle),
represents the main component of NGCC and generates around
two thirds of gross power from the power plant. The second cycle,
the Rankine cycle (steam turbine cycle), utilises the steam to generate power. Between these two cycles, the HRSG including a set of
heat exchangers (such as economisers, evaporators and superheaters) is located to exploit the heat of exhaust gas from the rst
cycle to produce steam at different levels that can be used later to
generate power in the second cycle. A post-combustion CO2 capture (PCC) plant is connected in the end of the power plant, where
MEA is used to separate CO2 from the exhaust gas of power plant,
and then the separated CO2 is compressed and stored in a storage
site. The objective of this work is to determine optimal solutions
those can achieve 90% CO2 capture and minimize the efciency
penalty by integrating carbon capture units into the power plant
with improving heat recovery in HRSG and reducing heat demand
for CO2 capture.
3. Model development and validation
Two types of plant models are considered in this section. A
420 MW NGCC plant is modelled in GEs GateCycle software,
which can be used for quick assessments, detailed engineering,
design, retrotting, repowering and acceptance testing for combined cycle plants, and has been widely reported in recent research
[15]. For PCC plant, an equilibrium-stage model in Aspen Plus is
utilized with MEA solution as solvent.
3.1. NGCC power plant
The 420 MW CCGT NGCC plant addressed comprises of an
Alstom GT26B gas turbine, steam turbines and HRSG. In the modelling of the CCGT, there are two cycles: the gas turbine cycle and
steam turbine cycle. The gas turbine cycle consists of a compressor,
a combustion chamber, and an expansion turbine. The overall
description of the process starts with compressing the air from
ambient conditions (10.8 C and 1.013 bar) in the compressor to
increase its pressure to 30 bar. The natural gas (as fuel) is injected
into the combustion chamber and mixed with the compressed air
to be burnt at constant pressure, which produces hot gas about
1494 C of temperature and 30 bar of pressure. Then, this gas is
expanded to around 1 bar in the expansion turbine to generate
power. The exhaust gas from the expansion turbine is 645 C,
and goes through the HRSG. The HRSG recovers the heat from
the exhaust gas to generate steam with different pressure levels,
including high pressure (HP) steam, intermediate pressure (IP)

Please cite this article in press as: Pan M et al. Application of optimal design methodologies in retrotting natural gas combined cycle power plants with
CO2 capture. Appl Energy (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.03.035

M. Pan et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2015) xxxxxx

Steam turbine cycle

Gas turbine cycle

HP steam turbine

Natural gas

IP steam turbine

PCC with MEA

Condenser

LP steam turbine

Cooling
water

Combustor

Reboiler
steam

Water

..

Air

Compressor Gas turbine Super Evaporator

heater

MEA
Economiser

Cooler

Blower

CO2 capture Compressor CO2 storage

Fig. 1. An illustration of using monoethanolamine (MEA) solvent to capture CO2 from a NGCC power plant.

Power plant (part a)

HP turbine
Natural gas

Steam to LP
turbine

Steam from
GT cooling

HP drum

Water for GT
cooling

IP turbine
HP
superheater 2

Combustor

IP reheater 1

Air
Compressor

HP economiser
1

HP
superheater 3

HP
superheater 1

Gas to HP
economiser 2
HP
superheater 4

HP evaporator
Steam from IP
evaporator

IP reheater 2

Gas turbine

Water from HP
economiser 2

IP
superheater

Cold water after heating fuel gas

Power plant (part b)

LP condenser

Steam from
IP turbine

Water
makeup

Feedwater
heater
LP turbine

Water to HP
economiser 1 HP economiser
2

Water for heating gas

Gas from IP
superheater

HP pump

HP economiser
3
LP drum

IP drum
HP economiser
4

Steam to IP
superheater

LP&IP pump

LP evaporator

LP&IP economiser
IP evaporator

IP economiser

Fig. 2. Detailed owsheet of the NGCC power plant built in GateCycle.

steam and low pressure (LP) steam, which drive the HP turbine, IP
turbine and LP turbines. The outlet stream from the LP turbine goes
to a condenser, and the condensate is pumped back to the HRSG.
Fig. 2 presents the detailed owsheet of the NGCC power plant
built in GateCycle.
Table 1 shows the comparison of the simulation results and
practical operating results, where a high degree of accuracy can
be found, except for stack temperature (130 C vs.105 C) due to
no heat loss assumed in the simulation. Thus the developed model
of NGCC is validated and can be used for further NGCC retrotting
in this paper.
3.2. PCC plant
The modelling approach used for the PCC plant is the equilibrium-stage model. The property method used for modelling is
ENRTL-RK, which is suitable for electrolyte solutions and the
calculation of vapour, liquid and ionic species properties. This
PCC plant can be re-simulated based on the rate-base calculation

type (non-equilibrium model) to get further accuracy in results,

which could be a good estimation for the ions that are produced
during the chemical reaction rather, than the idealised calculations
in each equilibrium stage, as introduced in the previous work [19].
The main design parameters of the PCC plant include the number of stages in the absorber (20 stages) and desorber (16 stages),
the pressures in absorber (1.1 bar) and desorber (2 bar), the pressures drops in absorber (0.1 bar) and desorber (5 mbar), and the
reboiler type (assumed to be a partial reboiler). The process design
for the PCC plant in ASPEN PLUS is presented in Fig. 3, and can be
described as follows:
(1) The absorber is modelled using RadFrac rigorous model with
equilibrium type for the calculation. The exhaust gas (FLUE
GAS) exits the HRSG is cooled down to 48 C to avoid solvent
vaporisation in the absorber CO2 capture plant. The inlet
streams for absorber are the cooled ue gas (FLUE GAS)
and the 30 wt% lean MEA (LEAN OUT3). The mass ow rate
of MEA is adjusted until the CO2 capture rate reaches 90%

Please cite this article in press as: Pan M et al. Application of optimal design methodologies in retrotting natural gas combined cycle power plants with
CO2 capture. Appl Energy (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.03.035

M. Pan et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2015) xxxxxx

Table 1
Comparison of the simulation results (GateCycle) and practical operating data in the NGCC power plant.
Power plant data

Real plant

GateCycle model

Error

Gas turbine

Exhaust ow (kg/s)
Exhaust temperature (C)
Exhaust pressure (bar)

564.1
645
1.04

564.1
645
1.04

0
0
0

HP turbine

Inlet steam ow (kg/s)

Inlet steam temperature (C)
Inlet steam pressure(bar)
Outlet steam temperature (C)
Outlet steam pressure(bar)

80
547
110
345
27

80
547
110
345
27

0
0
0
0
0

IP turbine

Inlet steam ow (kg/s)

Inlet steam temperature (C)
Inlet steam pressure(bar)
Outlet steam temperature (C)
Outlet steam pressure(bar)

89.9
543
25
300
5

89.9
543
25
303
5

0
0
0
3
0

LP turbine

Inlet steam ow (kg/s)

Inlet steam temperature (C)
Inlet steam pressure(bar)
Outlet steam temperature (C)
Outlet steam pressure(bar)

99.8
286
4.2
25
0.03

99.8
286.1
4.2
24.1
0.03

0
0.1
0
0.9
0

105
420

130
420

25a
0

Stack temperature (C)

Plant power generation (MW)
a

Heat loss is neglected in HRSG for GateCycle simulation.

in the absorber. The clean gas (GAS) is vented to the atmosphere from the top of the scrubber, while the rich Amine
goes to the bottom of the absorber. The rich MEA (S-1) which
leaves the absorber is pumped and heated to 2.01 bar
(RICH1) and 107.2 C (RICH2), to be meet the specications
of the for the modelling of the desorber.
(2) The heated rich amine (RICH2) enters the desorber where
the captured CO2 in the rich MEA is removed and released
at the top of the column (CO2OUT). The desorber is also
modelled as a RadFrac column with the operating specications of the outlet mass owrate of lean MEA
(LEANOUT1) and the reboiler duty are adjusted to satisfy
the restriction of 90 % CO2 removed from the rich MEA
(RICH2). At the bottom of the desorber column, the extra
heat of lean MEA (LEANOUT1) is used to heat the rich MEA
(RICH1).
(3) The cooled lean MEA (LEANOUT2) from the desorber is
mixed with the water makeup (H2O-MKUP) and MEA
makeup (MEA) to reach the composition specications of
the absorber inlet (LEAN OUT3). This can remediate the
effects of MEA and water losses in the vapour streams
released from the absorber and desorber columns.

(4) Three compressors, two ash tanks, and four exchangers are
used to compress the CO2 out from the desorber from 2 bar
(CO2OUT) to 110 bar (CO2OUT11), which is then can be
stored or transferred.
A reported case of CO2 capture with MEA [20] is used and compared to validate the proposed PCC model, as presented in Table 2.
It is obvious that the results of the proposed model are close to the
reported data. From Table 2, it can be seen that CO2 is removed
from the rich MEA in the desorber column, and a signicant
amount of heat (139 MW) is required in the reboiler to separate
CO2 from the MEA solvent. Essentially, the reboiler duty is a sum
up of four types of energy, which are required to achieve four
things: (1) raising the rich solvent temperature up to the required
reboiler temperature (i.e. providing sensible heat), (2) evaporating
the water contained in solvent, since the vapour water can act as a
stripping agent to lift up the CO2 from the solvent, (3) providing
the desorption heat to reverse the chemical reactions of the MEA
solvent solution and CO2, which occurred in absorber column,
and (4) adding heat to liberate the CO2 particles that dissolved in
solvent solution. Taking steam from the NGCC power plant to supply reboiler heating will lead to a reduction in the plant efciency.

GAS
SCRUBBER

W-0

V203

CO2OUT4

WATERMKU

CLEANGAS

COMPRE-3

CO2OUT7

V-202

CO2OUT

W-1

COMPRE-2

V-203

H2O-MKUP
MEA

H-205
COMPRE-1

DESORBER

MIXER

H202

LEANOUT3

COND

LEANOUT4

ABSORBER

H-206

CO2OUT3
CO2OUT5
COND-2

CO2OUT6
COND-3

CO2OUT2

CO2OUT8
LEANOUT2

H-201

H-208

RICH2
CO2OUT11

FLUEGAS

P-201
S-1

RICH1

H-207
CO2OUT10
P-203

LEANOUT1

CO2OUT9

Fig. 3. Detailed owsheet of the PCC plant built in Aspen Plus.

Please cite this article in press as: Pan M et al. Application of optimal design methodologies in retrotting natural gas combined cycle power plants with
CO2 capture. Appl Energy (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.03.035

M. Pan et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2015) xxxxxx

Table 2
Aspen Plus simulation results of the reference model and the proposed PCC model.
PCC plant data

Reference
model [20]

The
proposed
model

CO2 removal ratio (%)

CO2 feed content (mol%)
CO2 captured (kg/s)
Lean solvent concentration (wt%)
Lean solvent ow rate (m3/s)
Solvent specic demand (m3/ton CO2)
CO2 rich loading (mol CO2/mol MEA)
CO2 lean loading (mol CO2/mol MEA)
Net cyclic loading (mol CO2/mol MEA)
Regeneration energy specic requirement
(GJ/ton CO2)
Regeneration energy requirement (MW)
Lean temperature in the reboiler (C)
Steam temperature at the reboiler entrance (C)
Steam pressure at the reboiler entrance (bar)

89
3.96
36.93
30.0
0.870
23.50
0.466
0.257
0.209
3.96

89
4.76
36.65
27.5
0.905
24.69
0.466
0.262
0.204
3.8

146
120
134
3.05

139
119
140
3.62

4. Optimal design methods for retrotting NGCC power plants

with PCC
The optimal design methods for retrotting NGCC power plants
with PCC developed in this paper include: implementing heat
transfer intensication in HRSG, extracting steam from HRSG to
CO2 capture reboiler and returning the resulting condensate to
HRSG, and employing EGR. The rst retrot strategy addresses
detailed exchanger performances to increase energy saving in
HRSG. The second strategy provides suitable heat to PCC and
reuses the hot condensate from PCC to HRSG. The third strategy
(EGR) reduces the mass owrate of power plant exhaust gas, and
as a result, the reboiler duty of PCC will be diminished. The aforementioned methods are introduced in details individually in this
section, and will be combined to achieve optimal solutions in case
studies.
4.1. Heat transfer intensication in HRSG
Heat transfer intensication is an efcient way of improving
energy saving in heat exchanger networks, as it can avoid physical
modication of exchanger itself and be installed within a normal
maintenance period when production losses can be kept in a minimum level and the relevant civil works can be also reduced [21]. A
new design methodology proposed in this paper aims to maximise
energy saving without topology modications in the HRSG. The
developed model of implementing heat transfer intensication in
HRSG is based on the work published by Pan et al. [22], and is
shown in details as follows:
First of all, a set of binary variables (EEXex) is used to determine
exchangers for intensication: EEXex = 1, if exchanger ex is intensied; otherwise, it is 0. The heat transfer coefcients of intensied
exchangers can be formulated as:

U ex P EU ex  M  1  EEX ex ;

8ex 2 EX

U ex 6 EU ex M  1  EEX ex ;

8ex 2 EX

U ex P NU ex  M  EEX ex ;

8ex 2 EX

U ex 6 NU ex M  EEX ex ;

8ex 2 EX

8ex 2 EX

8ex 2 EX

NU ex P MINNU ex ;

8ex 2 EX

NU ex 6 MAXNU ex ;

8ex 2 EX

where EX is the set of all exchangers, EUex is the heat transfer

coefcient of intensied exchanger ex, NUex is the heat transfer
coefcient of exchanger ex without intensication, MAXEUex and
MINEUex are the upper and lower bounds of EUex, MAXNUex and
MINNUex are the upper and lower bounds of NUex.
In Eqs. (1)(4), the sufciently large positive number (M) is used
to restrict that if exchanger ex is intensied (EEXex = 1), its heat
transfer coefcient (Uex) must be within the intensied range
(MINEUex  MAXEUex); while, if exchanger ex is not intensied
(EEXex = 0), its heat transfer coefcient cannot be larger than its
initial value.
Eq. (9) presents the initialized temperature driving force
(LMTD0 ex) in each heat exchanger, where HTI0 ex, HTO0 ex, CTI0 ex and
CTO0 ex are initial inlet and outlet temperatures of hot and cold
streams in exchanger ex.

Thereby, it is important to investigate strategies for reducing this

amount of heat.

EU ex P MINEU ex ;

EU ex 6 MAXEU ex ;

LMTD0ex

HTI0ex  CTO0ex  HTO0ex  CTI0ex

;
lnHTI0ex  CTO0ex =HTO0ex  CTI0ex 

8ex 2 EX

Heat transfer differences in exchangers are considered in Eqs.

(10), (11), where HFCPex and CFCPex are heat-ow capacities (the
multiplication between heat capacity and ow-rate) of hot stream
and cold stream in exchanger ex, and variables of heat transfer
differences (HBAex and HBBex) should be small and the objective
function will be formulated to minimize the sum of this infeasibility in energy balances

HBAex P HFCP ex  HTIex  HTOex  EXAex  U ex  LMTD0ex ; 8ex 2 EX

10
HBBex P EXAex  U ex  LMTD0ex  HFCP ex  HTIex  HTOex ; 8ex 2 EX
11
Eqs. (12)(15) show the differences of energy balances in exchangers, where AEBex and BEBex are positive and should be small,
EXec&sh is the set of all economisers and superheaters, EXev is the
set of all evaporators, CFex is ow rate of cold stream in an evaporator, and CHIex and CHOex are enthalpy of inlet and outlet cold
streams in an evaporator.

AEBex P HFCP ex  HTIex  HTOex  CFCPex  CTOex  CTIex ;

8ex 2 EX ec&sh

12

BEBex P CFCPex  CTOex  CTIex  HFCP ex  HTIex  HTOex ;

8ex 2 EX ec&sh

13

AEBex P HFCP ex  HTIex  HTOex  CF ex  CHOex  CHIex ;

8ex 2 EX ev

14

BEBex P CF ex  CHOex  CHIex  HFCP ex  HTIex  HTOex ;

8ex 2 EX ev

15

Eqs. (16) and (17) describe the minimum temperature approach

(DTmin) in each exchanger

HTIex P CTOex DT min ;

8ex 2 EX

16

HTOex P CTIex DT min ;

8ex 2 EX

17

In Eqs. (18)(25), variable differences are addressed, including

DAHTIex, DBHTIex, DAHTOex, DBHTOex, DACTIex, DBCTIex, DACTOex and
DBCTOex.

Please cite this article in press as: Pan M et al. Application of optimal design methodologies in retrotting natural gas combined cycle power plants with
CO2 capture. Appl Energy (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.03.035

M. Pan et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2015) xxxxxx

DAHTIex P HTIex  HTI0ex ;

8ex 2 EX

18

DBHTIex P HTI0ex  HTIex ;

8ex 2 EX

19

DAHTOex P HTOex  HTO0ex ;

8ex 2 EX

20

DBHTOex P HTO0ex  HTOex ;

8ex 2 EX

21

DACTIex P CTIex  CTI0ex ;

8ex 2 EX

22

DBCTIex P CTI0ex  CTIex ;

8ex 2 EX

23

DACTOex P CTOex  CTO0ex ;

8ex 2 EX

24

DBCTOex P CTO0ex  CTOex ;

8ex 2 EX

25

It is assumed that the pressures of the three steams (HP, IP and

LP) are xed during the retrot procedure, thus the objective of the
new model of retrotting HRSG is to nd an optimal solution under
the restrictions of the estimated steam ow rates (CFex regarding to
HP, IP and LP steams), where the summation of differences in
energy balances, heat transfers and variables is close to 0, as shown
in Eqs. (26), (27).

CF ex P CF 0ex ;
"
Obj

8ex 2 EX ev

26

DACTIex DBCTI ex DACTOex DBCTOex

ex2EX

"

#
HBAex HBBex

ex2EX

DAHTI ex DBHTI ex DAHTOex DBHTOex

ex2EX

#
AEBex BEBex

ex2EX

27
The optimization algorithm is mainly based on the work proposed by Pan et al. [22], where the proposed MILP model (from
Eqs. (1)(27)) is solved iteratively to nd the feasible solution for
the HRSG retrot under the specied steam ow rates.
4.2. Steam extraction and condensate recycling in HRSG
For process integration, the heat requirement of the PCC plant is
provided through steam extraction from the HRSG with subsequent heat exchange in the strippers reboiler. It can be found in
Table 2 that the temperature of lean MEA (LEANOUT1) from the
PCC reboiler is 119 C. Thus the temperature of the extracted steam
should be higher than the lean MEA temperature, and the LP steam
from the HRSG is selected for extraction as its temperature is closer
to the desired reboiler heating temperature. Moreover, the selection of the temperature level of the extracted LP steam is a
trade-off between additional power production and the extra capital cost for the additional reboiler area. Based on the quick estimation (130 C of LP steam with 14680 m2 of reboiler area, and 140 C
of LP steam with 7604 m2 of reboiler area) [23], it is preferred to
increase the temperature level of the saturate LP steam from
130 C to about 140 C, so the capital cost for the reboiler would

Water from HRSG

(60 oC, 3.62 bar)

Superheat LP steam
(274.3 oC, 4.2 bar)

not increase too much. Thus, the strategy of steam extraction proposed in this work, is to replace the old LP steam turbine with two
new LP steam turbine, where the superheat LP steam (274.3 C,
4.2 bar) expands to the superheat LP steam (258.3 C, 4.2 bar) after
the rst LP steam turbine, and splits into two parts. One part of this
superheat LP steam (258.3 C, 3.62 bar) is mixed with a water
stream from the HRSG (60 C, 3.62 bar) to obtain 140 C saturate
LP steam for heating reboiler in the PCC plant, while the remain
part goes through the second LP steam turbine to produce more
power, as described in Fig. 4.
After the PCC reboiler condensation, the condensate is returned
to the HRSG at a temperature of 140 C. This water can either be
mixed with the cold condensate after the LP steam condenser, or
it could be mixed in after an economizer at a corresponding temperature [23]. In the existing NGCC power plant, the outlet temperature of HP economiser 3 is 153 C, which is close to the
condensate temperature (140 C), as shown in Table 3. Thus mixing
the reboiler condensate after HP economiser 3 is the best choice,
and mixing the condensate after the LP steam condenser is not
recommended, because the feedwater temperature to the HRSG
will increase with the high temperature (140 C) of the condensate
reroute, which have a bad effect on the overall HRSG efciency.
4.3. Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR)
EGR is a method to increase the CO2 concentration in the ue
gas, which is used as an inlet to the PCC process. At the same time
EGR reduces the mass owrate of the PCC inlet stream, and as a
result the reboiler duty and the size of columns will be diminished.
It has been observed that EGR could reduce the efciency penalty
without any major changing to the main power plant [17]. In addition, EGR has an effect on the inlet volume ow of gas turbine,
since the CO2 has a higher molecular weight than oxygen and the
exhaust gas has a higher density than the air which affects the
compressor and the turbine [14]. The main idea of EGR basically,
is that a specic amount of the HRSG output ue gas is recirculated
to the NGCC inlet and mixed with the inlet fresh air to the compressor, as described in Fig. 5. The recirculated exhaust gas is
cooled down before it mixed with the air if its temperature is very
high, since the high inlet temperature might reduce in the compressor efciency.
In this paper, the EGR technique is applied to the NGCC plant
with different recirculation ratios, to reduce that amount of reboiler duty by increasing the CO2 concentration in the ue gas as well
as reducing the ow rate of the gas that is treated in the CO2 capture plant. Firstly, the impact of EGR on the NGCC plant is considered based on the GateCycle model. Essentially, the maximum
ratio of EGR is limited by the combustion chamber performance
in the gas turbine. This is because, increasing the EGR ratio leads
to the reduction of oxygen, and providing sufcient amount of oxygen is a necessary condition in the combustion process. Therefore,
it is essential to investigate the limitation of the recirculation ratio.
As stated by Li et al. [24] and Evulet et al. [25] that, the minimum
oxygen concentration needed to sustain the combustion process

LP steam (140 oC, 3.62 bar) for reboiler

LP steam (24 oC, 0.03 bar)
to condensation

Superheat LP steam
(258.3 oC, 3.62 bar)

LP steam turbine 1

LP steam turbine 2

Fig. 4. An illustration of extracting LP steam from the HRSG to the PCC reboiler.

Please cite this article in press as: Pan M et al. Application of optimal design methodologies in retrotting natural gas combined cycle power plants with
CO2 capture. Appl Energy (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.03.035

M. Pan et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2015) xxxxxx

Table 3
Exchanger details (economisers, evaporators and superheaters) in the HRSG of the three cases.
EXs

HTIex (C)

HTOex (C)

CTIex (C)

CTOex (C)

LMTDex (C)

Area (m2)

Designed

Required

Base case

HP economizer 1
HP economizer 2
HP economizer 3
HP economizer 4
HP evaporator
HP superheater 1
HP superheater 2
HP superheater 3
HP superheater 4
IP economizer
IP evaporator
IP reheater 1
IP reheater 2
IP superheater
LP evaporator
LP&IP economizer

368.2
328.1
230.3
157.2
501.0
614.6
602.8
560.8
540.2
236.1
265.0
645.0
590.7
332.0
206.5
173.5

332.0
265.0
206.5
130.6
368.2
602.8
590.7
540.2
501.0
230.3
236.1
614.6
560.8
328.1
173.5
157.2

262.8
153.0
109.6
61.2
321.5
508.3
470.0
403.0
321.4
166.0
228.1
440.3
341.5
228.1
145.4
60.4

317.0
262.8
153.0
109.6
321.7
547.0
508.3
470.0
403.0
230.5
229.1
543.0
440.3
317.0
145.4
166.0

281.8
272.6
507.8
231.9
144.5
349.5
588.2
422.5
805.6
31.8
30.7
427.4
733.0
67.6
24.9
45.3

40.8
72.4
14.4
34.7
297.4
11.4
6.9
16.2
16.1
55.8
292.2
24.1
13.7
17.9
404.2
109.5

2.20
2.20
2.20
2.20
2.20
2.20
2.20
2.20
2.20
2.20
2.20
2.20
2.20
2.20
2.20
2.20

2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00

22997.8
39466.5
14672.9
16113.6
85961.6
7939.1
8153.4
13647.7
25937.7
3550.9
17913.6
20578.6
20052.8
2417.4
20139.2
9919.4

Retrot case 1

HP economizer 1 (I)
HP economizer 2
HP economizer 3
HP economizer 4 (I)
HP evaporator
HP superheater 1
HP superheater 2
HP superheater 3
HP superheater 4
IP economizer (I)
IP evaporator
IP reheater 1
IP reheater 2
IP superheater (I)
LP evaporator
LP&IP economizer (I)

384.2
321.7
218.7
117.7
501.9
614.9
603.1
561.3
541.0
230.5
258.2
645.0
591.0
325.3
214.8
148.9

325.3
258.2
214.8
108.8
384.2
603.1
591.0
541.0
501.9
218.7
230.5
614.9
561.3
321.7
148.9
117.7

253.9
142.3
114.0
27.7
321.5
508.4
470.0
403.3
321.4
143.0
228.1
440.5
341.8
228.1
145.4
27.1

337.6
253.9
151.9
114.0
321.7
547.4
508.4
470.0
403.3
226.0
229.1
543.4
440.5
315.1
145.4
143.0

214.1
284.0
311.5
30.1
120.6
346.7
588.8
426.6
806.1
31.4
28.2
424.7
731.3
52.4
68.2
39.0

40.8
72.4
14.4
34.7
297.4
11.4
6.9
16.2
16.1
55.8
292.2
24.1
13.7
17.9
404.2
109.5

4.28
2.20
2.20
5.15
2.20
2.20
2.20
2.20
2.20
4.16
2.20
2.20
2.20
2.39
2.20
4.41

4.28
1.93
0.54
5.15
2.13
2.01
2.00
1.95
2.00
4.16
2.08
1.99
1.98
2.39
1.46
4.41

37404.8
39663.9
2405.2
5381.7
76317.6
7946.8
8141.1
13496.8
25894.4
7287.4
17111.5
20410.0
19864.0
2243.4
40187.3
18841.8

Retrot case 2

HP economizer 1 (I)
HP economizer 2
HP economizer 3
HP economizer 4 (I)
HP evaporator (I)
HP superheater 1
HP superheater 2
HP superheater 3
HP superheater 4
IP economizer (I)
IP evaporator
IP reheater 1
IP reheater 2
IP superheater (I)
LP evaporator
LP&IP economizer (I)

387.7
325.4
216.2
114.5
502.4
614.8
603.1
561.4
541.4
230.7
261.7
645.0
591.2
329.6
212.0
148.7

329.6
261.7
212.0
106.0
381.7
603.1
591.2
541.4
502.4
216.2
230.7
614.8
561.4
325.4
148.7
114.5

256.8
142.3
110.9
27.5
321.5
508.4
470.0
403.4
321.4
142.9
228.1
440.7
341.9
228.1
145.4
26.9

340.0
256.8
151.9
110.9
321.7
547.4
508.4
470.0
403.4
226.2
229.1
543.4
440.7
319.0
145.4
142.9

220.0
284.4
287.2
29.2
114.7
345.5
586.5
427.0
804.1
30.9
31.6
424.5
732.3
54.6
65.5
38.3

40.8
72.4
14.4
34.7
297.4
11.4
6.9
16.2
16.1
55.8
292.2
24.1
13.7
17.9
404.2
109.5

4.21
2.20
2.20
5.13
2.24
2.20
2.20
2.20
2.20
5.31
2.20
2.20
2.20
2.75
2.20
5.04

4.21
1.98
0.63
5.13
2.24
2.05
2.04
1.98
2.04
5.31
2.12
2.05
2.04
2.75
1.49
5.04

37804.2
40763.2
2600.2
5200.8
76317.6
8083.6
8252.4
13686.9
26356.2
9162.5
19602.0
20967.6
20439.0
2692.3
39428.6
21118.9

LP steam

U (kW/m2 C)

Duty (kW)

CO2 storage

Natural gas
Combustor
Cleaned exhaust
Air

HRSG

CO2 capture

Compressor Gas turbine

Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR)

Fig. 5. An illustration of Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR).

should not be lower than 16%vol. Consequently, in this study, the

ratio around 33% is the limit ratio of EGR in the NGCC plant, as
illustrated in Fig. 6.
It is noticed that, the feed composition of the PCC plant is changed when the ERG ratio is varied. To consider the optimal reboiler

operation, four scenarios under ERG ratios (10%, 20%, 30% and 40%)
with their relevant feed compositions are considered to re-simulate the PCC plant using the model proposed in Section 3.2. Fig. 7
presents the relationship between the simulated reboiler energy
consumption and EGR ratio. It can be observed that there is an

Please cite this article in press as: Pan M et al. Application of optimal design methodologies in retrotting natural gas combined cycle power plants with
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M. Pan et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2015) xxxxxx

obvious decrease of reboiler energy consumption between 0% to

33% of EGR ratio. Although, increasing the EGR ratio reduces the
reboiler duty, an EGR ratio higher than 33% could have a bad effect
on the combustion process in the gas turbine cycle due to decrease
the oxygen concentration in the ue gas as discussed previously.
Consequently, 33% of EGR ratio is selected as the optimal EGR strategy in this study.

5. Case studies

Fig. 6. The Oxygen mole composition (%) as a function to recirculation ratio

percentage.

Fig. 7. relationship between reboiler energy consumption and EGR ratio.

An industrial case of 420 MW CCGT NGCC plant presented in

Section 3.1 is used to demonstrate the validity and efciency of
the proposed approaches in retrotting existing NGCC power
plants with CO2 capture. The original ow sheet and data of the
existing NGCC power plant and PCC plant can be found in Figs. 2
and 3, and Tables 1 and 2. In addition, the cost of purchasing steam
for heating CO2 reboiler is 0.35 /ton, and the price of electricity is
0.075 /kW h. Three integration scenarios are addressed in the case
studies, including the base case without retrotting technology,
the retrotted case 1 with steam extraction, condensate recycling,
and heat transfer intensication in HRSG, and nally the retrotted
case 2 with EGR based on the solution of retrotted case 1. Table 3
presents the exchanger details (economisers, evaporators and
superheaters) in HRSG of the three cases. Furthermore, a detailed
comparison of the three cases regarding operating and economic
data is shown in Table 4. It is assumed that only the annual prot
of the integration process is considered, which is calculated as the
prot from annual power output minus the cost of purchasing hot
utility yearly. More economic aspects, such as, operating costs of
installing heat transfer intensication in exchangers, replacing LP
steam turbines and LP steam piping to CO2 capture, PCC installing
cost, payback period, and net prot, will be further considered for

Table 4
Comparisons of integrating NGCC power plant and PCC plant in the three cases.

NGCC power plant

PCC plant

Power prot (M/year)

Hot utility cost (M/year)
Total prot (M/year)

Plant data

Base case

Retrot case 1

Retrot case 2

Gas turbine cycle

Compressor inlet temperature (C)

Power for compressor (MW)
GT turbine inlet temperature (C)
Power for GT turbine (MW)
HP steam
Flowrate (kg/s)
Temperature (C)
Pressure (bar)
Power HP steam turbine (MW)
IP steam
Flowrate (kg/s)
Temperature (C)
Pressure (bar)
Power IP steam turbine (MW)
LP steam
Flowrate (kg/s)
Temperature (C)
Pressure (bar)
Flowrate extracted to CO2 capture (kg/s)
Temperature extracted to CO2 capture (C)
Pressure extracted to CO2 capture (bar)
Power LP steam turbine (MW)
Plant power generation (MW)
Stack temperature (C)

15
283.2
1494.5
569.6
80.0
547
110
29.6
89.9
543
25
43.7
99.8
286.1
4.2

60.3
420
130

15
283.2
1494.5
569.6
80.0
547
110
29.6
89.9
543
25
43.7
107.9
274.3
4.2
65.3
140
3.62
41.2
401
109

40
307.0
1511.5
609.0
80.8
547
110
29.9
91.6
543
25
44.5
110.0
275.4
4.2
62.5
140
3.62
44.8
421
106

Extracted gas owrate (kg/s)

CO2 concentration in extracted gas (%)
Power input (MW)
Heat required in reboiler (MW)
Flowrate of LP steam for reboiler heating (kg/s)
Temperature of LP steam for reboiler heating (C)
Pressure of LP steam for reboiler heating (bar)

564.1
7.4
20
139
65.3
140
3.62
225
40
185

564.1
7.4
20
139
65.3
140
3.62
214
0
214

377.9
10.9
19
133
62.5
140
3.62
226
0
226

Please cite this article in press as: Pan M et al. Application of optimal design methodologies in retrotting natural gas combined cycle power plants with
CO2 capture. Appl Energy (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.03.035

10

M. Pan et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2015) xxxxxx

ensuring the practicality of design obtained in NGCC power plant

retrotting study.
5.1. Base case: no retrot
Fig. 8 describes the conguration of integrating the NGCC power
plant (modelled in Section 3.1) with PCC plant (modelled in
Section 3.2) without the retrotting technology. As stated in
Table 2, the PCC plant requires 139 MW of hot utility for reboiler
heating which means around 65.3 kg/s of LP steam (140 C and
3.62 bar) must be purchased from the market. In addition,
20 MW of electricity power is consumed from the PCC plant dominated by CO2 compressor (60%) and ue gas blower (28%) [23].
Thus, the total prot of the base case is 185 M/year, as presented
in Table 4.
5.2. Retrot case 1: steam extraction, condensate recycling, and heat
transfer intensication in HRSG
In the retrot case 1, the retrot strategy introduced in
Section 4.2 is utilized for steam extraction and condensate recycling in the HRSG. As mentioned in Section 4.2, 65.3 kg/s of LP
steam (140 C and 3.62 bar) is produced after the rst LP steam
turbine, and is transferred to PCC reboiler. The reboiler condensate
(140 C) is later returned after HP economiser 3 in the HRSG, as
presented in Fig. 9. It is noted in Table 3 that, heat transfer intensication techniques are implemented to increases heat recovery
in the HRSG, where the intensied units include HP economizer
1, HP economizer 4, IP economizer, IP superheater, and LP&IP
economizer. Since heat transfer has been improved in the
enhanced units in the HRSG, more LP steam is produced
(107.9 kg/s vs. 99.8 kg/s), and the fuel gas temperature into the

PCC plant decreases from 130 C to 109 C consequently, as shown

in Table 4. In this retrot case, more heat from fuel gas is utilized to
produce LP steam, and the heat required by the PCC reboiler is supplied directly from the NGCC power plant. Thus, its total prot is
higher (15.7% of increase) than the base case.

5.3. Retrot case 2: steam extraction, condensate recycling, and heat

transfer intensication in HRSG with EGR
The optimal conguration of the retrot case 2 is shown in
Fig. 10. As discussed in Section 4.3, 33% of EGR ratio is the best
selection for the base case. So, 33% of fuel gas is recirculated to
the air compressor rst, leading 33% owrate reduction and 42%
CO2 concentration increase in the fuel gas, and thus less heat
(133 MW) and power (19 MW) are required in the PCC plant.
Since heat demand decreases in the PCC plant, more LP steam
can be used to produce power (44.8 MW) in the HRSG compared
with the retrot case 1 (41.2 MW). Most importantly, it also can
be found in Tables 3 and 4 that, one more unit (HP evaporator) is
required for heat transfer intensication in the HRSG compared
with the retrot case 1, which increases energy saving in the
HRSG and the fuel gas temperature into the PCC plant decreases
to 106 C. Thus, more power can be obtained from the steam turbine cycle due to more steam produced in the HRSG and less LP
steam required in the PCC plant.
Besides output power increase in the steam turbine cycle, the
gas turbine cycle also produces more power with the EGR.
Table 4 describes that, even the recirculated fuel gas increase the
inlet temperature (40 C vs. 15 C) of the compressor as it has
not been cooled down before mixed with the air, leading to higher
compressor duty (307 MW vs. 283.2 MW), the overall power output of the gas turbine cycle still increases because of more power

Power input:
20 MW

Hot utility input:

139 MW

Power output:
420 MW

Fig. 8. Base case: a NGCC plant with CO2 capture (no retrot).

Please cite this article in press as: Pan M et al. Application of optimal design methodologies in retrotting natural gas combined cycle power plants with
CO2 capture. Appl Energy (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.03.035

11

M. Pan et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2015) xxxxxx

LP steam (140 oC, 3.62 bar): 65.3 kg/s

Power input:
20 MW

Water
Condensate
(140 oC)

Power Output:
401 MW

Fig. 9. Retrot case 1: steam extraction, condensate recycling, and heat transfer intensication in HRSG.

LP steam (140 oC, 3.62 bar): 62.5 kg/s

Power input:
19 MW

Water
Condensate
(140 oC)

Power Output:
421 MW

EGR:
33%
Fig. 10. Retrot case 2: steam extraction, condensate recycling, and heat transfer intensication in HRSG with EGR.

Please cite this article in press as: Pan M et al. Application of optimal design methodologies in retrotting natural gas combined cycle power plants with
CO2 capture. Appl Energy (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.03.035

12

M. Pan et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2015) xxxxxx

produced by the GT turbine (609569.6 MW) associated with its

increased inlet temperature (1494.51511.5 C).
In this optimal retrot case, more power can be produced from
both the gas turbine cycle and steam turbine cycle, less LP steam is
transferred to the PCC plant, and its total prot is thus highest
(22.2% of increase) in the addressed cases.
6. Conclusion
A 420 MW NGCC power plant has been integrated with a PCC
plant for 90% CO2 capture level. The model of the NGCC power
plant is built in GEs GateCycle software, and validated with
practical operating data from an existing power plant. While the
model of the PPC plant with CO2 compression train is built in
Aspen Plus and validated with the reference data. Three optimal
strategies of retrotting the existing NGCC power plant with CO2
capture are proposed to minimize the efciency penalty caused
by integrating carbon capture units into the power plant.
Implementing heat transfer intensication in the HRSG requires
minimal modications to the power plant, and increases up to
7% heat recovery in the HRSG to produce more steam and power
in the steam turbine cycle. Extracting LP steam (140 C, 3.62 bar)
to the PCC reboiler can provide sufcient heat demanded by the
PCC plant, and reduces the reboiler area signicantly (48% reduction compared with the use of 130 C saturate steam). Reusing
the hot condensate (140 C hot water) from the PCC reboiler to
HRSG also increases the heat recovery in the steam turbine cycle.
The increased CO2 concentration and decreased ow rate of
exhaust gas due to EGR are shown to enhance CO2 mass transfer
in the PCC plant absorber, which leads to a reduction in steam
demands by the PCC plant regenerator from the NGCC plant.
Finally, the integration of the three optimal strategies is presented
to improve the overall prot of retrotting the NGCC plant with a
PCC plant by using the proposed approaches, which has the advantages over the existing methods since it can achieve increased retrot prot with high energy saving and less plant modication,
demonstrating the best economic trade-offs between power production and steam extraction in NGCC power plant retrotting
problems.
Acknowledgment
Financial support from ENERGY.2011.5.1-1 (282789 Design
Technologies for Multi-scale Innovation and Integration in
Post-Combustion CO2 Capture: From Molecules to Unit
Operations and Integrated Plants) are gratefully acknowledged.
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Please cite this article in press as: Pan M et al. Application of optimal design methodologies in retrotting natural gas combined cycle power plants with
CO2 capture. Appl Energy (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.03.035