Method and apparatus for cooling the inlet air of gas turbine and internal combustion engine prime movers

An apparatus for optimizing the energy power output and performance of combustion prime movers having air inlets taking in inlet air at the minimum acceptable inlet air temperature to prevent damage to the prime mover and its auxiliary components for admixing with fuel for combustion, and associated with a prime mover load application, comprising:

• a. a staged refrigerant cooling system including a first compressor and at least one successive compressor operably associated with a first cooling coil and at least one successive cooling coil mounted within and associated with the air inlet of the prime mover to sequentially cool the inlet air in multiple stages in accordance with a sectionalized, divided, psychrometric turbine inlet air cooling path enthalpy curve showing the average ambient air temperature prime mover performance and the optimum air inlet temperature for maximum prime mover performance by sequentially circulating within the coils cooled refrigerant to absorb heat from the inlet air in stages and deliver the absorbed heat to a heat sink to increase the cycle efficiency of the refrigeration system by using cooled condensate to subcool the liquid refrigerant before expansion;
• b. power means to drive the prime mover and multi-stage refrigerant cooling system compressor components,
• c. transfer and cascading means associated with the cooling system to transport cooled primary or secondary refrigerant from a first cooling stage of the refrigerant cooling system as a precooling heat transfer coolant to exchange against succeeding stages of direct or indirect refrigerant in successive subsequent cooling stages of the refrigerant cooling system to successively cool the inlet air to the optimum prime mover performance inlet air temperature,
• d. a computer processor with a data base of current operating costs associated with fuel consumption, maintenance, and other related operating costs of the prime mover, and current revenues from energy generation by the prime mover load application, which generates the optimal net revenue performance curve for the prime mover and prime mover load application, and
• f. power controls to adjust the power means to drive the prime mover and staged refrigerant cooling system compressor components in accordance with the optimal net revenue performance curve.