Design Study of a Humidification Tower for the Advanced Humid Air Turbine System

The advanced humid air turbine (AHAT) system, which can be equipped with a heavy-duty, single-shaft gas turbine, aims at high efficiency equal to that of the HAT system. Instead of an intercooler, a WAC (water atomization cooling) system is used to reduce compressor work. The characteristics of a humidification tower (a saturator), which is used as a humidifier for the AHAT system, were studied. The required packing height and the exit water temperature from the humidification tower were analyzed for five virtual gas turbine systems with different capacities (1, 3.2, 10, 32, and $100MW$⁠) and pressure ratios (⁠$π=8$⁠, 12, 16, 20, and 24). Thermal efficiency of the system was compared with that of a simple cycle and a recuperative cycle with and without the WAC system. When the packing height of the humidification tower was changed, the required size varied for the three heat exchangers around the humidification tower (a recuperator, an economizer, and an air cooler). The packing height with which the sum total of the size of the packing and these heat exchangers became a minimum was $1m$ for the lowest pressure ratio case, and $6m$ for the highest pressure ratio case.