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Model GT PRO -Gas Turbine Combined Cycle & Cogeneration Plant Creation
GT PRO® automates the process of creating a combined cycle or gas turbine cogeneration plant design, guiding the user to rapidly and easily attain an optimal configuration and technical parameters. The user inputs design criteria, starting with the big picture and progressing in a logical sequence into greater details. Built-in expert logic automatically selects appropriate options and inputs for the various details, based on the user’s high level selections. The program designs the new plant, computes its performance, its detailed heat and mass balance, and creates its major equipment physical sizes and design details. When combined with the optional PEACE module, it also creates the plant’s preliminary engineering details, estimates its cost, and finds its cash flow and economic pro-forma.
The scope, flexibility, and level of detail in GT PRO has been continuously growing since it was first released in 1988; and the 2018 version has over 4,000 user-adjustable inputs. What makes it so easy to use is that most inputs are automatically created by intelligent design procedures within the program, while granting the user the flexibility to make any changes or adjustments. As a result, it typically requires only a few minutes to create a new plant design. This allows the user to create and compare many plant options, and variations within each, to find the most suitable design, both technically and economically.
Any model created by PDE can be imported into GT PRO for further refinement and analysis.
Any GT PRO model can be progressed into GT MASTER for detailed off-design analysis or annual operating cycle economics. It can also be read into THERMOFLEX for modelling unique details or special situations, such as integration with a concentrated solar thermal power plant.
GT PRO models can be operated from MS Excel via Thermoflow’s E-LINK add-in, which allows GT PRO to receive inputs from, and return outputs to Excel.
Many specialized features have been built into GT PRO over the years. These include, amongst others, all major types of gasifiers that have been proposed for IGCC; CO2 capture processes, both pre- and post-combustion; and the main types of desalination systems, MSF, MED, and RO. The automated top-down design logic of GT PRO extends into these specialized features, creating their internal details based on the user’s high level selections of configuration and parameters. These specialized features are seamlessly integrated with the power island design logic, not simply added as appendages, so they exert the appropriate influence on how the power island is configured and designed to match them. This produces a properly integrated system based on the user’s selections and inputs for both the power island and the specialized features.
Examples of applications that have been built into GT PRO over the years include ability to analyze economics and optimize plant design based on annual cycle, instead of a design-point snapshot, allowing consideration of seasonal variations and fuel consumption during start-ups and shut-downs. They also include ability to design a plant in which additional equipment is installed, such as inlet air chillers or duct burners, but not active at the design point heat balance; as well as a Multi-Point Design facility to produce a final GT MASTER model taking into account multiple GT PRO cases representing the plant’s expected operating envelope.