As the second study in a sequence of studies conducted on the optimization of combined cycle plants [Ref. 1], this paper presents the effects of fuel gas heating on plant performance and plant economics for various 1×1×1 configurations. First, the theoretical background is presented to explain the effects of fuel gas heating on combustion turbine efficiency and on the overall efficiency of the combined cycle plant. Then, *CycleDeck-Performance Estimator™ and *GateCycle™ computer codes were used to investigate the impact of fuel gas heating on various 1×1×1 configurations. The configurations studied here are: 1) GE CC107FA with three pressure/reheat HRSG and General Electric PG7241(FA) gas turbine (Fig. 1), 2) GE CC106FA with three pressure/reheat HRSG and General Electric PG6101(FA) gas turbine and, 3) GE CC 107EA with three pressure/non-reheat HRSG with General Electric PG7121(EA) gas turbine. In all calculations, natural gas with high methane percentage is used as a typical fuel gas. Hot water from the outlet of IP economizer is used to heat the fuel gas from its supply temperature of 80 °F (27 °C). Heating the fuel gas to target temperatures of 150 °F, 200 °F, 250° F, 300 °F, 350 °F, 375 °F, 400 °F and 425 °F ( 66, 93, 121, 149, 177, 191, 204 and 218 °C), the combustion turbine power output, the combustion turbine heat rate and the plant power output and the corresponding heat rate are determined for each target fuel temperature. For each configuration, the heat transfer surface required to heat the fuel gas to the given target temperatures are also determined and budgetary price quotes are obtained for the fuel gas heaters. As expected, as the fuel temperature is increased, the overall efficiency (therefore the heat rate) improved, however at the expense of some small power output loss. Factoring in the fuel cost savings, the opportunity cost of the power lost, the cost of the various size performance heaters and the incremental auxiliary power consumption (if any), a cost-benefit analysis is carried out and the economically optimum fuel temperature and the corresponding performance heater size are determined for each 1×1×1 configuration.

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