Experimental investigation of pressurized packing saturator for humid air turbine cycle

Humid air turbine (HAT) cycle is an advanced power generation system, and its efficiency and output power are improved by humidifying the compressed air. This humidification process is completed in the saturator. Therefore, the humidifying performance of saturator has great influence on the performance of HAT cycle. In this work, a new type packing saturator was designed and a series of experiments were carried out to study its humidifying performance. In order to improve the uniformity of the saturator inlet, a twin-tangential annular flow gas distributor was designed. Then it was authorized by China invention patents (ZL201010200778.9). Now, the mal-distribution factor of inlet air is mainly between 0.15 and 0.35 in all experimental conditions. Some key parameters of air and water at the inlet and outlet of saturator were measured at different experimental conditions. These results show the outlet humid air temperature is an important parameter for determining the humidifying amount of the saturator. The humidifying performance of the saturator is mainly affected by the inlet water temperature and the liquid/gas (L/G) ratio. At the same operating pressure, the humidity ratio of outlet humid air increases with inlet water temperature and L/G ratio. At higher inlet water temperature, the L/G ratio has a greater effect on the humidity ratio of outlet humid air. The outlet water temperature is mainly affected by the inlet gas temperature. With the increasing of inlet air temperature, the outlet water temperature increases, and it is close to the wet-bulb temperature of inlet air.