Turbine Cooling is one of ARANER’s main areas of expertise, with ARANER having implemented projects throughout the world and particularly the Middle East, for big names like Saudi Aramco. Manuel Guerrero has been a Turbine Inlet Air Cooling (TIAC) Specialist with ARANER since 2014. To discover more about Manuel’s background and experience in TIAC, as well as his insights into the Turbine Inlet Air Cooling industry and technologies, read the interview below.
Tell us about your studies and area of expertise
For 5 years, I studied a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. After finishing this degree and doing 3 years as a Research Engineer in Refrigeration processes, I finally entered ARANER in 2014. Since then, I have been studying and proposing different solutions for Gas Turbine Inlet Air Cooling plants. I am extremely proud to be the TIAC specialist at such an innovative company as is ARANER, where I find interesting challenges every day.
Could you give an overview of Turbine Cooling technology?
Figure 1: Industrial gas turbine
TIAC technology maximizes the power output and energy efficiency of both new and existing gas turbine power plants for combined-cycle, simple-cycle and cogeneration. TIAC is especially effective in warm areas, since both the power output and efficiency of the gas turbine decreases when the temperature increases, which usually coincides also with the periods of higher demand. In order to overcome this power drop, the TIAC system cools down the intake air of the gas turbine. Hence the name Turbine Inlet Air Cooling. This video offers a pretty great demonstration! As for the industry state, nowadays we must look at two aspects:
- The power generation industry is largely still based on natural gas
- The continued global rise in the demand for power has many power producers looking for ways to maximize capacity and increase the efficiency of their gas turbines.
Turbine Inlet Air Cooling is already playing a big role in these aspects, and will only continue to become more popular in the future. In the ever-changing power generation market, we will see new advanced refrigeration technologies applied to the Turbine Inlet Air Cooling Industry, based on efficient, energy-saving and sustainable solutions.
Why is TIAC the best solution?
Compared to the installation of a new gas turbine for capacity increase, TIAC is a cost-effective option and thus an increasingly attractive solution to power producers and others depending on gas turbines. Turbine Inlet Air Cooling offers many different benefits, especially in hotter climates, such as a power output increase about 10% to 30% and a heat rate improvement up to 5%. This improvement is related to another benefit that I am very proud of, that TIAC is a recognized green technology with carbon credits. But there is more: TIAC is a well proven technology, with lower price per generated MW and faster delivery, compared to a new gas turbine installation. Besides that, we can use the same Turbine Cooling system to refrigerate the GT auxiliaries such as generator & transformer when necessary. I’ll give you a few more benefits to conclude: The flexibility of TIAC avoids the gas turbine output fluctuation produced by ambient conditions. And lastly, we can design Turbine Inlet Air Cooling systems with ZERO water consumption for power plants with restrictions. As you can see there are many different reasons that makes Turbine Inlet Air Cooling the BEST choice in the market.
Tell us about ARANER's experience in Turbine Inlet Air Cooling projects
Figure 2: A Turbine Inlet Air Cooling installation by ARANER
I myself have been working on TIAC projects for more than 5 years now, from the design to the commissioning of the plants. As for ARANER, the company has a wide experience in implementing state-of-the-art cooling technologies on different TIAC projects. After decades of work, ARANER has successfully cooled more than 100 gas turbines in the Middle East alone, thanks to our tailor-made Turbine Inlet Air Cooling (TIAC) plants and in some cases, their combination with other innovative solutions such as Thermal Energy Storage (get in contact with my colleague Katlyn Avery for better insight into this technology). In my experience, ARANER is the top choice for any Turbine Inlet Air Cooling project for 3 reasons:
- ARANER’s goal is to create value for all the stakeholders in the project, by meeting the needs of our customers, employees and the communities where we work. ARANER has already helped companies and public utilities worldwide to reduce energy costs, optimize energy performance and reach their goals in terms of efficiency.
- ARANER is an engineering group with more than 25 years of experience in developing innovative solutions in the fields of Refrigeration, Cooling and Heating. Our tailor-made technologies always go one step forward the market in terms of efficiency, reliability and cost effectiveness.
- The company has a wide range of capabilities: design, engineering, manufacturing & procurement of equipment and construction management that allow us to take full responsibility of the overall project.
Conclusion
The entire ARANER team is made up with dedicated, passionate, and experienced engineers and experts like Manuel. When you work with ARANER, you will find a world-class team that are delighted to answer every question and find the best solution for your plant or project. To get in contact with Manuel, send him an email. To learn more about ARANER’s other refrigeration, heating and cooling solutions, we have dedicated experts for each technology. Meet the rest of our team!
Manuel Guerrero TIAC Specialist at ARANER m.guerrero@araner.com
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