Abstract
This thesis presents a detailed study of the energy and exergy analysis of a Combined Cycle Power Plant (CCPP). The combined cycle power plants undertaken for this study is Neka Power plant in Iran with the capacity of 420 MW and Huntington Beach Power Plant in Southern California with the capacity of 939 MW. The data for these power plants were collected from Ganjehkaviri (2014) and California Energy Commission. For better understanding of the operational behavior of combined cycle power plants, the previous research works were reviewed. For this work, the mass, energy, and exergy balance equations, energy efficiency, and exergy efficiency of all equipment of the cycle have been utilized. A basic analytical model was constructed for the combined gas cycle (Brayton cycle) and steam cycle (Rankine cycle) to interpret plant’s potential. The models were developed in Engineering Equation Solver (EES). The results were then interpreted accordingly. The plants’ modeling results revealed that the combustion chamber has the maximum share of exergy destruction while gas turbine causes maximum work being generated. The quantitative results exhibited 420 MW of total net power output, 40.29% energy and 36.5% exergy efficiency for the Neka plant. For the Huntington Beach Power Plant, the energy and exergy efficiencies 60.53% and 26.09%, respectively. Huntington Beach Power Plant energy analysis was compared, and the error was less than 2%.