Exergy analysis of a 420 MW combined cycle power plant

Combined cycle power plants (CCPPs) have an important role in power generation. The objective of this paper is to evaluate irreversibility of each part of Neka CCPP using the exergy analysis. The results show that the combustion chamber, gas turbine, duct burner and heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) are the main sources of irreversibility representing more than 83% of the overall exergy losses. The results show that the greatest exergy loss in the gas turbine occurs in the combustion chamber due to its high irreversibility. As the second major exergy loss is in HRSG, the optimization of HRSG has an important role in reducing the exergy loss of total combined cycle. In this case, LP‐SH has the worst heat transfer process. The first law efficiency and the exergy efficiency of CCPP are calculated. Thermal and exergy efficiencies of Neka CCPP are 47 and 45.5% without duct burner, respectively. The results show that if the duct burner is added to HRSG, these efficiencies are reduced to 46 and 44%. Nevertheless, the results show that the CCPP output power increases by 7.38% when the duct burner is used. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A performance analysis of integrated solid oxide fuel cell and heat recovery steam generator for IGFC system

Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is a promising technology for electricity generation. Sulfur-free syngas from a gas-cleaning unit serves as fuel for SOFC in integrated gasification fuel cell (IGFC) power plants. It converts the chemical energy of fuel gas directly into electric energy, thus high efficiencies can be achieved. The outputs from SOFC can be utilized by heat recovery steam generator (HRSG), which drives the steam turbine for electricity production. The SOFC stack model was developed using the process flow sheet simulator Aspen Plus, which is of the equilibrium type. Various ranges of syngas properties gathered from different literature were used for the simulation. The results indicate a trade-off efficiency and power with respect to a variety of SOFC inputs. The HRSG located after SOFC was included in the current simulation study with various operating parameters. This paper describes IGFC power plants, particularly the optimization of HRSG to improve the efficiency of the heat recovery from the SOFC exhaust gas and to maximize the power production in the steam cycle in the IGFC system. HRSG output from different pressure levels varies depending on the SOFC output. The steam turbine efficiency was calculated for measuring the total power plant output. The aim of this paper is to provide a simulation model for the optimal selection of the operative parameters of HRSG and SOFC for the IGFC system by comparing it with other models. The simulation model should be flexible enough for use in future development and capable of predicting system performance under various operating conditions.     

A performance analysis of integrated solid oxide fuel cell and heat recovery steam generator for IGFC system

Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is a promising technology for electricity generation. Sulfur-free syngas from a gas-cleaning unit serves as fuel for SOFC in integrated gasification fuel cell (IGFC) power plants. It converts the chemical energy of fuel gas directly into electric energy, thus high efficiencies can be achieved. The outputs from SOFC can be utilized by heat recovery steam generator (HRSG), which drives the steam turbine for electricity production. The SOFC stack model was developed using the process flow sheet simulator Aspen Plus, which is of the equilibrium type. Various ranges of syngas properties gathered from different literature were used for the simulation. The results indicate a trade-off efficiency and power with respect to a variety of SOFC inputs. The HRSG located after SOFC was included in the current simulation study with various operating parameters. This paper describes IGFC power plants, particularly the optimization of HRSG to improve the efficiency of the heat recovery from the SOFC exhaust gas and to maximize the power production in the steam cycle in the IGFC system. HRSG output from different pressure levels varies depending on the SOFC output. The steam turbine efficiency was calculated for measuring the total power plant output. The aim of this paper is to provide a simulation model for the optimal selection of the operative parameters of HRSG and SOFC for the IGFC system by comparing it with other models. The simulation model should be flexible enough for use in future development and capable of predicting system performance under various operating conditions.     

Energy and exergy analysis of internal reforming solid oxide fuel cell–gas turbine hybrid system

The aim of this work is to analyze methane-fed internal reforming solid oxide fuel cell–gas turbine (IRSOFC—GT) power generation system based on the first and second law of thermodynamics. Exergy analysis is used to indicate the thermodynamic losses in each unit and to assess the work potentials of the streams of matter and of heat interactions. The system consists of a prereformer, a SOFC stack, a combustor, a turbine, a fuel compressor and air compressor, recuperators and a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG). A parametric study is also performed to evaluate the effect of various parameters such as fuel flow rate, air flow rate, temperature and pressure on system performance.     

Energy,exergy and thermoeconomic analysis of a combined cooling,heating and power (CCHP) system with gas turbine prime mover

In this paper energy, exergy and thermoeconomic analysis of a combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP) system has been performed. Applying the first and second laws of thermodynamics and economic analysis, simultaneously, has made a powerful tool for the analysis of energy systems such as CCHP systems. The system integrates air compressor, combustion chamber, gas turbine, dual pressure heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) and absorption chiller to produce cooling, heating and power. In fact, the first and second laws of thermodynamics are combined with thermoeconomic approaches. Next, computational analysis is performed to investigate the effects of below items on the fuel consumption, values of cooling, heating and net power output, the first and second laws efficiencies, exergy destruction in each of the components and total cost of the system. These items include the following: air compressor pressure ratio, turbine inlet temperature, pinch temperatures in dual pressure HRSG, pressure of steam that enters the generator of absorption chiller and process steam pressure. Decision makers may find the methodology explained in this paper very useful for comparison and selection of CCHP systems. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Thermodynamic analysis of a tri-generation system based on micro-gas turbine with a steam ejector refrigeration system

In the present work, performance of new configuration of Micro-gas turbine cogeneration and tri-generation systems, with a steam ejector refrigeration system and Heat recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) are studied. A micro-gas turbine cycle produces 200 KW power and exhaust gases of this micro-gas turbine are recovered in an HRSG. The main part of saturated steam in HRSG is used through a steam ejector refrigeration system to produce cooling in summer. In winter, this part of saturated steam is used to produce heating. In the first part of this paper, performance evaluation of this system with respect to Energy Utilization Factor (EUF), Fuel Energy Saving Ratio (FESR), thermal efficiency, pinch point temperature difference, net power to evaporator cooling load and power to heat ratio is carried out. It has been shown that by using the present cogeneration system, one can save fuel consumption from about 23% in summer up to 33% in winter in comparison with separate generation of heating, cooling and electricity.     

Comparative performance analysis of cogeneration gas turbine cycle for different blade cooling means

The paper compares the thermodynamic performance of MS9001 gas turbine based cogeneration cycle having a two-pressure heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) for different blade cooling means. The HRSG has a steam drum generating steam to meet coolant requirement, and a second steam drum generates steam for process heating. Gas turbine stage cooling uses open loop cooling or closed loop cooling schemes. Internal convection cooling, film cooling and transpiration cooling techniques employing steam or air as coolants are considered for the performance evaluation of the cycle. Cogeneration cycle performance is evaluated using coolant flow requirements, plant specific work, fuel utilisation efficiency, power-to-heat-ratio, which are function of compressor pressure ratio and turbine inlet temperature, and process steam drum pressure. The maximum and minimum values of power-to-heat ratio are found with steam internal convection cooling and air internal convection cooling respectively whereas maximum and minimum values of fuel utilisation efficiency are found with steam internal convection cooling and closed loop steam cooling. The analysis is useful for power plant designers to select the optimum compressor pressure ratio, turbine inlet temperature, fuel utilisation efficiency, power-to-heat ratio, and appropriate cooling means for a specified value of plant specific work and process heating requirement.     

Study of a deaerator location in triple-pressure reheat combined power cycle

Deaerator is an essential open feed water heater in the steam bottoming cycle to improve the efficiency and also to remove the dissolved gasses from the feed water. Heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) plays a key role on the performance of the combined cycle (CC). In this work, attention has been focused to improve the performance of a triple pressure (TP) CC with a deaerator location. In this work, two options for deaerator location, one at condenser (deaerator–condenser) and the other in between low pressure (LP) and intermediate pressure (IP) heaters have been studied to increase the heat recovery from the gas turbine exhaust. The compressor pressure ratio is not fixed initially and evaluated from HRSG inlet condition. The LP and IP in HRSG have been evaluated from the local flue gas temperature to get the minimum possible temperature difference in the heaters. The results show that the deaerator placed in between the LP and IP heaters, gives high efficiency compared to a deaerator–condenser arrangement. The optimum conditions for the HRSG, deaerator and steam reheater are evaluated through the thermodynamic study. The results are validated by comparing with the published results.     

Thermodynamic analysis of an LNG fuelled combined cycle power plant with waste heat recovery and utilization system

This paper has proposed an improved liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuelled combined cycle power plant with a waste heat recovery and utilization system. The proposed combined cycle, which provides power outputs and thermal energy, consists of the gas/steam combined cycle, the subsystem utilizing the latent heat of spent steam from the steam turbine to vaporize LNG, the subsystem that recovers both the sensible heat and the latent heat of water vapour in the exhaust gas from the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) by installing a condensing heat exchanger, and the HRSG waste heat utilization subsystem. The conventional combined cycle and the proposed combined cycle are modelled, considering mass, energy and exergy balances for every component and both energy and exergy analyses are conducted. Parametric analyses are performed for the proposed combined cycle to evaluate the effects of several factors, such as the gas turbine inlet temperature (TIT), the condenser pressure, the pinch point temperature difference of the condensing heat exchanger and the fuel gas heating temperature on the performance of the proposed combined cycle through simulation calculations. The results show that the net electrical efficiency and the exergy efficiency of the proposed combined cycle can be increased by 1.6 and 2.84% than those of the conventional combined cycle, respectively. The heat recovery per kg of flue gas is equal to 86.27 kJ s^?1. One MW of electric power for operating sea water pumps can be saved. The net electrical efficiency and the heat recovery ratio increase as the condenser pressure decreases. The higher heat recovery from the HRSG exit flue gas is achieved at higher gas TIT and at lower pinch point temperature of the condensing heat exchanger. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Second law analysis of a waste heat recovery based power generation system

In the present paper the performance of a waste heat recovery power generation system based on second law analysis is investigated for various operating conditions. The temperature profiles across the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG), network output, second law efficiency and entropy generation number are simulated for various operating conditions. The variation in specific heat with exhaust gas composition and temperature are accounted in the analysis and results. The effect of pinch point on the performance of HRSG and on entropy generation rate and second law efficiency are also investigated. The second law efficiency of the HRSG and power generation system decreases with increasing pinch point. The first and second law efficiency of the power generation system varies with exhaust gas composition and with oxygen content in the gas. Approximating the exhaust gas as air, and the air standard analysis leads to either underestimation or overestimation of power plant performance on both first law and second law point of view. Actual gas composition and specific heat should be used to accurately predict the second law performance. The present results contribute further information on the role of gas composition, specific heat and pinch point influence on the performance of a waste heat recovery based power generation system based on first and second law of thermodynamics.     

Exergy analysis of a cogeneration plant using coal gasification and solid oxide fuel cell

This paper presents exergy analysis of a conceptualized combined cogeneration plant that employs pressurized oxygen blown coal gasifier and high‐temperature, high‐pressure solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) in the topping cycle and a bottoming steam cogeneration cycle. Useful heat is supplied by the pass‐out steam from the steam turbine and also by the steam raised separately in an evaporator placed in the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG). Exergy analysis shows that major part of plant exergy destruction takes place in gasifier and SOFC while considerable losses are also attributed to gas cooler, combustion chamber and HRSG. Exergy losses are found to decrease with increasing pressure ratio across the gas turbine for all of these components except the gas cooler. The fuel cell operating temperature influences the performance of the equipment placed downstream of SOFC. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

小型燃气轮机热电联供系统性能计算和分析

基于热力学第一、第二定律和化学燃烧理想配比,提出小型燃气轮机热电联供系统性能参数的计算和分析方法,围绕装置循环效率、燃料利用效率和第二定律效率,对压气机压比、透平进口温度、工艺物流压力和窄点温差等重要参数对性能的影响等方面进行计算分析。用200kW燃气轮机系统进行案例分析,提出了小型CHP系统合理设计的实用可行方法和参考数据。     

Optimal thermodynamic and economic volume of a heat recovery steam generator by constructal design

The ratios of gas flow to steam flow are huge in heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs) compared to other steam generators. So the volume which is occupied by components of the HRSG such as economizer, evaporator and superheater is important factor when the HRSG is applied in structures including buildings and ships. The optimum volume of a HRSG is deduced through optimization of entropy generation and cost evaluation. By increasing volume, second law of thermodynamics is improved, but this improvement may not be economical. In this work, the best dimensions and arrangements of flows in HRSG are obtained by constructal design and the optimization method is algorithm genetic. In this case, super heater temperature, pinch point, water/steam flow rate and gas pressure drop are derived from configuration which designed by constructal theory for HRSG. The effects of gas flow rate and inlet gas temperature are examined on the values of optimum volume.     

The effect of elevated inlet air temperature and relative humidity on cogeneration system

The effect of elevated inlet air temperature and relative humidity on a gas turbine (GT) cogeneration system performance was investigated. The analysis was carried out on a GT of a capacity 171 MW at ISO condition, which is integrated with a dual pressure heat recovery steam generator (HRSG), the cogeneration system had been tested under Kuwait summer climate conditions. A computational model was developed and solved using engineering equation solver professional package to investigate the performance of a dual pressure GT‐HRSG system. The suggested HRSG is capable of producing high‐pressure superheated steam at 150 bar and 510°C to operate a power generation steam turbine cycle, and a medium pressure saturated steam at 15 bar to run a thermal vapor compression (TVC) desalination system. In this research, the influence of elevated inlet air temperature and relative humidity on the energy assessment of the suggested cogeneration system was thoroughly investigated. Results indicated that operating GT under elevated values of inlet air temperatures is characterized by low values of net power and thermal efficiency. At elevated inlet air temperatures, increasing relative humidity has a small positive impact on GT cycle net power and thermal efficiency. Integrating the GT with HRSG to generate steam for power generation and process heat tends to increase energy utilization factor of the system at elevated inlet air temperatures. Increasing inlet air temperature plays a negative impact on power to heat ratio (PHR), while relative humidity has no effect on PHR. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exergy-energy analysis of full repowering of a steam power plant

A 320 MW old steam power plant has been chosen for repowering in this paper. Considering the technical conditions and working life of the power plant, the full repowering method has been selected from different repowering methods. The power plant repowering has been analyzed for three different feed water flow rates: a flow rate equal to the flow rate at the condenser exit in the original plant when it works at nominal load, a flow rate at maximum load, and a flow rate when all the extractions are blocked. For each flow rates, two types of gas turbines have been examined: V94.2 and V94.3A. The effect of a duct burner has then been investigated in each of the above six cases. Steam is produced by a double-pressure heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) with reheat which obtains its required heat from the exhaust gases coming from the gas turbines. The results obtained from modeling and analyzing the energy-exergy of the original steam power plant and the repowered power plant indicate that the maximum efficiency of the repowered power plant is 52.04%. This maximum efficiency occurs when utilizing two V94.3A gas turbines without duct burner in the steam flow rate of the nominal load.     

Thermoeconomic modeling and parametric study of hybrid SOFC–gas turbine–steam turbine power plants ranging from 1.5 to 10 MWe

Detailed thermodynamic, kinetic, geometric, and cost models are developed, implemented, and validated for the synthesis/design and operational analysis of hybrid SOFC–gas turbine–steam turbine systems ranging in size from 1.5 to 10 MWe. The fuel cell model used in this research work is based on a tubular Siemens-Westinghouse-type SOFC, which is integrated with a gas turbine and a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) integrated in turn with a steam turbine cycle. The current work considers the possible benefits of using the exhaust gases in a HRSG in order to produce steam which drives a steam turbine for additional power output. Four different steam turbine cycles are considered in this research work: a single-pressure, a dual-pressure, a triple pressure, and a triple pressure with reheat. The models have been developed to function both at design (full load) and off-design (partial load) conditions. In addition, different solid oxide fuel cell sizes are examined to assure a proper selection of SOFC size based on efficiency or cost. The thermoeconomic analysis includes cost functions developed specifically for the different system and component sizes (capacities) analyzed. A parametric study is used to determine the most viable system/component syntheses/designs based on maximizing total system efficiency or minimizing total system life cycle cost.     

Development and performance analysis of a new solar tower and high temperature steam electrolyzer hybrid integrated plant

In this article, an extensive thermodynamic performance assessment for the useful products from the solar tower and high-temperature steam electrolyzer assisted multigeneration system is performed, and also its sustainability index is also investigated. The system under study is considered for multi-purposes such as power, heating, cooling, drying productions, and also hydrogen generation and liquefaction. In this combined plant occurs of seven sub-systems; the solar tower, gas turbine cycle, high temperature steam electrolyzer, dryer process, heat pump, and absorption cooling system with single effect. In addition, the energy and exergy performance, irreversibility and sustainability index of multigeneration system are examined according to several factors, such as environment temperature, gas turbine input pressure, solar radiation and pinch point temperature of HRSG. Results of thermodynamic and sustainability assessments show that the total energetic and exergetic efficiency of suggested paper are calculated as 60.14%, 58.37%, respectively. The solar tower sub-system has the highest irreversibility with 18775 kW among the multigeneration system constituents. Solar radiation and pinch point temperature of HRSG are the most critical determinants affecting the system energetic and exergetic performances, and also hydrogen production rate. In addition, it has been concluded that, the sustainability index of multigeneration suggested study has changed between 2.2 and 3.05.     

Gas turbine steam injection and combined power cycles using fog inlet cooling and biomass fuel: A thermodynamic assessment

The results of energy and exergy analyses of two biomass integrated steam injection cycles and combined power cycles are reported. Fog cooling, steam injection and adding steam turbine cycles to gas turbine cycles can enhance the performance of power generation systems. Even with its lower heat value, biomass can be substituted for fossil fuels. The performances of the cycles are assessed under the same conditions. The assessments show that the combined cycle has a higher efficiency at lower values of compressor pressure ratio but the steam injection plant is advantageous at higher pressure ratio values. The steam injection plant has a higher net power under the same conditions, while the exergy loss rate is higher for the combined cycle at all pressure ratios. But the exergy destruction rate is higher for the steam injection cycle at lower compressor pressure ratios, and for the combined cycle at higher pressure ratios.     

Analysis of a repowering proposal to the power generation system of a steel mill plant through the exergetic cost method

The rational use of energy became a priority for all industries in Brazil after the energetic rationing in 2001. The aim of this work is to assess a proposal of a power generation system for Companhia Siderúrgica Tubarão, a steel mill plant. The current system is based on a regenerative Rankine cycle using two gases from steel production—blast furnace gas (BFG) and coke oven gas (COG)—to generate electric power and occasionally steam for the process. The proposed system is a combined cycle comprising two gas turbines, two heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs), and a steam turbine. The fuel for the gas turbines is BFG, and the supplementary firing of HRSG uses COG. The proposed HRSGs work at three pressure levels. The system was assessed by means of two thermoeconomic methodologies, Theory of Exergetic Cost and Thermoeconomic Functional Analysis; exergetic and monetary costs of power production were calculated and compared to the respective values of the current system.     

Comparative exergoeconomic analyses of the integration of biomass gasification and a gas turbine power plant with and without fogging inlet cooling

Inlet cooling is effective for mitigating the decrease in gas turbine performance during hot and humid summer periods when electrical power demands peak, and steam injection, using steam raised from the turbine exhaust gases in a heat recovery steam generator, is an effective technique for utilizing the hot turbine exhaust gases. Biomass gasification can be integrated with a gas turbine cycle to provide efficient, clean power generation. In the present paper, a gas turbine cycle with fog cooling and steam injection, and integrated with biomass gasification, is proposed and analyzed with energy, exergy and exergoeconomic analyses. The thermodynamic analyses show that increasing the compressor pressure ratio and the gas turbine inlet temperature raises the energy and exergy efficiencies. On the component level, the gas turbine is determined to have the highest exergy efficiency and the combustor the lowest. The exergoeconomic analysis reveals that the proposed cycle has a lower total unit product cost than a similar plant fired by natural gas. However, the relative cost difference and exergoeconomic factor is higher for the proposed cycle than the natural gas fired plant, indicating that the proposed cycle is more costly for producing electricity despite its lower product cost and environmental impact.