Thermodynamic Assessment of Carbon Capture Integration in Reheat Gas Turbine Combined Cycles Using Transcritical CO₂ and Ammonia–Water Mixtures

At present, enhancing the first- and second-law efficiencies of power generation cycles is no longer the sole objective of engineers. Increasing attention is now being paid to reducing carbon emissions in the environment and minimizing the time required to recover the costs of the power plant, in addition to improving work output and first- and second-law efficiencies. The present analytical study compares the power generation cycle with and without a carbon capture unit. The combined cycle selected is the reheat gas turbine cycle using an ammonia–water mixture and transcritical carbon dioxide as working fluids in the bottoming cycle. The comparison of both the configurations depicts that at a cycle pressure ratio of 40, an ambient temperature of 303 K, and a turbine inlet temperature of 1600 K, the configuration incorporating the maximum number of ammonia–water turbines in the bottoming cycle yields the highest work output, amounting to 952.3 kJ/kg. The payback period is found to be the longest—approximately 8 years and 4 months for the configuration utilizing transcritical carbon dioxide as the working fluid. The integration of a carbon capture unit results in a reduction in carbon emissions ranging from a minimum of 15% to a maximum of 22.81%. However, a higher operating separation temperature for ammonia and water is observed to degrade the thermodynamic performance across all configurations analyzed.