Exergy analysis and optimization of a hydrogen production process by a solar-liquefied natural gas hybrid driven transcritical CO2 power cycle

A solar transcritical CO₂ power cycle for hydrogen production is studied in this paper. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is utilized to condense the CO₂. An exergy analysis of the whole process is performed to evaluate the effects of the key parameters, including the boiler inlet temperature, the turbine inlet temperature, the turbine inlet pressure and the condensation temperature, on the system power outputs and to guide the exergy efficiency improvement. In addition, parameter optimization is conducted via Particle Swarm Optimization to maximize the exergy efficiency of hydrogen production. The exergy analysis indicates that both the solar and LNG equally provide exergy to the CO₂ power system. The largest amount of exergy losses occurs in the solar collector and the condenser due to the great temperature differences during the heat transfer process. The exergy loss in condenser could be greatly reduced by increasing the LNG temperature at the inlet of the condenser. There exists an optimum turbine inlet pressure for achieving the maximum exergy efficiency. With the optimized turbine inlet pressure and other parameters, the system is able to provide 11.52 kW of cold exergy and 2.1 L/s of hydrogen. And the exergy efficiency of hydrogen production could reach 12.38%.     

Thermal‐economic analysis of a transcritical Rankine power cycle with reheat enhancement for a low‐grade heat source

A thermal‐economic analysis of a transcritical Rankine power cycle with reheat enhancement using a low‐grade industrial waste heat is presented. Under the identical operating conditions, the reheat cycle is compared to the non‐reheat baseline cycle with respect to the specific net power output, the thermal efficiency, the heat exchanger area, and the total capital costs of the systems. Detailed parametric effects are investigated in order to maximize the cycle performance and minimize the system unit cost per net work output. The main results show that the value of the optimum reheat pressure maximizing the specific net work output is approximately equal to the one that causes the same expansion ratio across each stage turbine. Relative performance improvement by reheat process over the baseline is augmented with an increase of the high pressure but a decrease of the turbine inlet temperature. Enhancement for the specific net work output is more significant than that for the thermal efficiency under each condition, because total heat input is increased in the reheat cycle for the reheat process. The economic analysis reveals that the respective optimal high pressures minimizing the unit heat exchanger area and system cost are much lower than that maximizing the energy performance. The comparative analysis identifies the range of operating conditions when the proposed reheat cycle is more cost effective than the baseline. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parametric analysis and optimization of a Kalina cycle driven by solar energy

A solar-driven Kalina cycle is examined to utilize solar energy effectively due to using ammonia–water's varied temperature vaporizing characteristic. In order to ensure a continuous and stable operation for the system, a thermal storage system is introduced to store the collected solar energy and provide stable power when solar radiation is insufficient. A mathematical model is developed to simulate the solar-driven Kalina cycle under steady-state conditions, and a modified system efficiency is defined to evaluate the system performance over a period of time. A parametric analysis is conducted to examine the effects of some key thermodynamic parameters on the system performance. The solar-driven Kalina cycle is also optimized with the modified system efficiency as an objective function by means of genetic algorithm under the given conditions. Results indicate that there exists an optimal turbine inlet pressure under given conditions to maximize the net power output and the modified system efficiency. The net power output and the modified system efficiency are less sensitive to a change in the turbine inlet temperature. An optimal basic solution ammonia fraction can be identified that yields maximum net power output and modified system efficiency. The optimized modified system efficiency is 8.54% under the given conditions.     

CO2与R41跨临界朗肯循环低温发电系统比较分析

本文以R41为工质的跨临界朗肯循环低温发电系统进行了热力性能分析,并与CO_2跨临界发电系统进行比较,结果表明:R41和CO_2系统均存在一个最优进口压力使得热效率在相同的膨胀机进口温度下达到最大值,且膨胀机进口温度越高,对应的最优压力也越大。同热效率一样,系统均存在一个最优进口压力使得净功在相同的膨胀机进口温度下达到最大值,且R41系统比CO_2系统所作的最大净功平均提高52.6%,最优进口压力平均降低41.6%,系统火用效率平均提高24.8%。     

Parametric study and optimization of a transcritical power cycle using a low temperature source

A parametric study and optimization is performed on a transcritical power cycle using six performance indicators: thermal efficiency, specific net output, exergetic efficiency, total UA and surface of the heat exchangers as well as the relative cost of the system. The independent parameters are the maximum temperature and pressure of the cycle as well as the net power output. Results show that it is impossible to simultaneously optimise all six performance indicators, i.e. that the values of the independent parameters are not the same for all the optimizations. The design value for these parameters is therefore a matter of choice, or compromise, among the combinations optimising the performance indicators. For a limited low temperature heat source the parametric studies reveal the existence of a maximum value for the net power output of the system and of another net power output minimising the cost per kW. A comparison of optimised results for three working fluids (CO₂, ethane, R125) shows that the better fluid depends on the optimised indicator and clearly indicates that a simple first law analysis is not sufficient for the selection of a working fluid. In summary, this paper demonstrates the need to achieve a multi-point optimization and comparison in order to study adequately a transcritical power system.     

Carbon Dioxide as Working Fluids in Transcritical Rankine Cycle for Diesel Engine Multiple Waste Heat Recovery in Comparison to Hydrocarbons

In consideration of the high-temperature characteristic of engine's waste heat and stricter environmental regulations, natural substance, including CO_2 and hydrocarbons, have been treated as promising working fluid for diesel engine waste heat recovery due to its environment friendly and excellent physical and chemical properties. This paper presented a comprehensive performance analysis on transcritical Rankine cycles for diesel engine multiple waste heat recovery using hydrocarbons and CO_2 as working fluid. The optimal turbine inlet pressures corresponding to maximum net power output, maximum exergy efficiency and minimum electricity production cost(EPC) were obtained. The effect of working fluid on these optimal pressures has been discussed. For fluids with low critical temperature, the optimal pressure corresponding to maximum net power output is lower than the one for maximum exergy efficiency, while the opposite results can be found for fluid with high critical temperature. Then, the effect of various working fluid properties in transcritical cycle performance is discussed. Comparison results show that CO_2 obtains only more power output than Ethane, Propane and Propene, but CO_2 is capable of absorbing more energy from engine coolant and regeneration heat with comparable total heat transfer areas and has an advantage in turbine size, particularly for hydrocarbons with high critical temperature.     

Parametric analysis and optimization for a combined power and refrigeration cycle

A combined power and refrigeration cycle is proposed, which combines the Rankine cycle and the absorption refrigeration cycle. This combined cycle uses a binary ammonia–water mixture as the working fluid and produces both power output and refrigeration output simultaneously with only one heat source. A parametric analysis is conducted to evaluate the effects of thermodynamic parameters on the performance of the combined cycle. It is shown that heat source temperature, environment temperature, refrigeration temperature, turbine inlet pressure, turbine inlet temperature, and basic solution ammonia concentration have significant effects on the net power output, refrigeration output and exergy efficiency of the combined cycle. A parameter optimization is achieved by means of genetic algorithm to reach the maximum exergy efficiency. The optimized exergy efficiency is 43.06% under the given condition.     

Parametric optimization design for supercritical CO2 power cycle using genetic algorithm and artificial neural network

Supercritical CO₂ power cycle shows a high potential to recover low-grade waste heat due to its better temperature glide matching between heat source and working fluid in the heat recovery vapor generator (HRVG). Parametric analysis and exergy analysis are conducted to examine the effects of thermodynamic parameters on the cycle performance and exergy destruction in each component. The thermodynamic parameters of the supercritical CO₂ power cycle is optimized with exergy efficiency as an objective function by means of genetic algorithm (GA) under the given waste heat condition. An artificial neural network (ANN) with the multi-layer feed-forward network type and back-propagation training is used to achieve parametric optimization design rapidly. It is shown that the key thermodynamic parameters, such as turbine inlet pressure, turbine inlet temperature and environment temperature have significant effects on the performance of the supercritical CO₂ power cycle and exergy destruction in each component. It is also shown that the optimum thermodynamic parameters of supercritical CO₂ power cycle can be predicted with good accuracy using artificial neural network under variable waste heat conditions.     

Study of solar energy powered transcritical cycle using supercritical carbon dioxide

In this paper, the performance of solar energy powered transcritical cycle using supercritical carbon dioxide for a combined electricity and heat generation, is studied experimentally. The experimental set‐up consists of evacuated solar collectors, pressure relief valve, heat exchangers and CO₂ feed pump. The pressure relief valve is used to simulate operation of a turbine and to complete the thermodynamic cycle. A complete effort was carried out to investigate the cycle performances not only in summer, but also in winter conditions. The results show that a reasonable thermodynamic efficiency can be obtained and COP for the overall outputs from the cycle is measured at 0.548 and 0.406, respectively, on a typical summer and winter day. The study shows the potential of the application of the solar energy powered cycle as a green power/heat generation system. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exergetic analysis of transcritical CO2 residential air-conditioning system based on experimental data

The experimental system for the transcritical CO₂ residential air-conditioning with an internal heat exchanger was built. The effects of working conditions on system performance were experimentally studied. Based on the experimental dada, the second law analysis on the transcritical CO₂ system was performed. The effects of working conditions on the total exergetic efficiency of the system were investigated. The results show that in the studied parameter ranges, the exergetic efficiency of the system increases with the increases of gas cooler side air inlet temperature, gas cooler side air inlet velocity and evaporating temperature. And it will decrease with the increases of evaporator side air inlet temperature and velocity. Then, a complete exergetic analysis was performed for the entire CO₂ transcritical cycle including compressor, gas cooler, expansion valve, evaporator and internal heat exchanger under different working conditions. The average exergy loss in gas cooler is the highest one under all working conditions which is about 30.7% of the total exergy loss in the system. The second is the average exergy loss in expansion valve which is about 24.9% of the total exergy loss, followed by the exergy losses in evaporator and compressor, which account for 21.9% and 19.5%, respectively. The exergy loss in internal heat exchanger is the lowest one which is only about 3.0%. So in the optimization design of the transcritical CO₂ residential air-conditioning system more attentions should be paid to the gas cooler and expansion valve.     

Thermal design and CFD analysis of the radial inflow turbine for a CO2-based mixture transcritical Rankine cycle

Transcritical carbon dioxide (CO₂) Rankine cycle has exhibited great potential in the field of low-temperature heat utilization. But its application is restricted by the condensing issue and the safety concern due to the relatively low critical temperature and high critical pressure of CO₂. Blending CO₂ with organic fluids for the transcritical Rankine cycle is regarded as an effective method to solve these problems. And the turbine performance has great influence on the performance of transcritical Rankine cycle. In this paper, the thermal design of the CO₂-based mixture turbine is firstly carried out based on the parametric optimization of the system. Then the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is performed to examine the turbine performance and validate the reliability of thermal design. Furthermore, the effects of blade tip clearance and nozzle-to-rotor clearance on the turbine performance are investigated. Results show that the turbine is well designed with an isentropic efficiency of 84.54%, and the CFD simulation results basically agree with the thermal design results. The influence of leakage flow on mainstream grows significantly as the blade tip clearance increases. When the blade tip clearance is 2 mm, the relative loss of power output could achieve as large as 7.81%. Larger nozzle-to-rotor clearance leads to more uniform distributions of Mach number and pressure, but the flow losses also increase. The effect of trailing edge disturbance on the flow field at the nozzle outlet is almost negligible if the nozzle-to-rotor clearance is 6 mm or more.     

How to select regenerative configurations of CO2 transcritical Rankine cycle based on the temperature matching analysis

CO₂ transcritical Rankine cycle is regarded as a potential technology for internal combustion engines waste heat recovery, and its regenerative configurations present great prospect to increase the power output capacity. This paper proposed different regenerator layout configurations based on the temperature matching analysis, including low temperature regenerative transcritical Rankine cycle (LR-TRC), high temperature regenerative transcritical Rankine cycle (HR-TRC), dual regenerative transcritical Rankine cycle (DR-TRC) and split dual regenerative transcritical Rankine cycle (SR-TRC). Afterward, the thermodynamics, electricity production cost (EPC) and miniaturization performance are implemented. The results show that regenerative configurations have an effect on improving net power output and SR-TRC obtained optimal value of net power output. For the perspective of economic performance, the greatest value is obtained for HR-TRC among four regenerative configurations. As for the miniaturization performance, the total heat transfer area increment of LR-TRC is the lowest. The comparative analysis results offer guidance for selecting optimal regenerative configurations.     

Thermodynamic analysis and optimization of a solar-driven regenerative organic Rankine cycle (ORC) based on flat-plate solar collectors

This paper presents a regenerative organic Rankine cycle (ORC) to utilize the solar energy over a low temperature range. Flat-plate solar collectors are used to collect the solar radiation for their low costs. A thermal storage system is employed to store the collected solar energy and provide continuous power output when solar radiation is insufficient. A daily average efficiency is defined to evaluate the system performance exactly instead of instantaneous efficiency. By establishing mathematical models to simulate the system under steady-state conditions, parametric analysis is conducted to examine the effects of some thermodynamic parameters on the system performance using different working fluids. The system is also optimized with the daily average efficiency as its objective function by means of genetic algorithm under the given conditions. The results indicate that under the actual constraints, increasing turbine inlet pressure and temperature or lowering the turbine back pressure could improve the system performance. The parametric optimization also implies that a higher turbine inlet temperature with saturated vapor state could obtain the better system performance. Compared with other working fluids, R245fa and R123 are the most suitable working fluids for the system due to their high system performance and low operation pressure.     

Parametric analysis for a new combined power and ejector–absorption refrigeration cycle

A new combined power and ejector–absorption refrigeration cycle is proposed, which combines the Rankine cycle and the ejector–absorption refrigeration cycle, and could produce both power output and refrigeration output simultaneously. This combined cycle, which originates from the cycle proposed by authors previously, introduces an ejector between the rectifier and the condenser, and provides a performance improvement without greatly increasing the complexity of the system. A parametric analysis is conducted to evaluate the effects of the key thermodynamic parameters on the cycle performance. It is shown that heat source temperature, condenser temperature, evaporator temperature, turbine inlet pressure, turbine inlet temperature, and basic solution ammonia concentration have significant effects on the net power output, refrigeration output and exergy efficiency of the combined cycle. It is evident that the ejector can improve the performance of the combined cycle proposed by authors previously.     

COOLCEP (cool clean efficient power): A novel CO2-capturing oxy-fuel power system with LNG (liquefied natural gas) coldness energy utilization

A novel liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueled power plant is proposed, which has virtually zero CO₂ and other emissions and a high efficiency. The plant operates as a subcritical CO₂ Rankine-like cycle. Beside the power generation, the system provides refrigeration in the CO₂ subcritical evaporation process, thus it is a cogeneration system with two valued products. By coupling with the LNG evaporation system as the cycle cold sink, the cycle condensation process can be achieved at a temperature much lower than ambient, and high-pressure liquid CO₂ can be withdrawn from the cycle without consuming additional power. Two system variants are analyzed and compared, COOLCEP-S and COOLCEP-C. In the COOLCEP-S cycle configuration, the working fluid in the main turbine expands only to the CO₂ condensation pressure; in the COOLCEP-C cycle configuration, the turbine working fluid expands to a much lower pressure (near-ambient) to produce more power. The effects of some key parameters, the turbine inlet temperature and the backpressure, on the systems' performance are investigated. It was found that at the turbine inlet temperature of 900 °C, the energy efficiency of the COOLCEP-S system reaches 59%, which is higher than the 52% of the COOLCEP-C one. The capital investment cost of the economically optimized plant is estimated to be about 750 EUR/kWe and the payback period is about 8–9 years including the construction period, and the cost of electricity is estimated to be 0.031–0.034 EUR/kWh.     

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.     

Preliminary investigation of a transcritical CO2 heat pump driven by a solar‐powered CO2 Rankine cycle

In this paper, a transcritical carbon dioxide heat pump system driven by solar‐owered CO₂ Rankine cycle is proposed for simultaneous heating and cooling applications. Based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics, a theoretical analysis on the performance characteristic is carried out for this solar‐powered heat pump cycle using CO₂ as working fluid. Further, the effects of the governing parameters on the performance such as coefficient of performance (COP) and the system exergy destruction rate are investigated numerically. With the simulation results, it is found that, the cooling COP for the transcritical CO₂ heat pump syatem is somewhat above 0.3 and the heating COP is above 0.9. It is also concluded that, the performance of the combined transcritical CO₂ heat pump system can be significantly improved based on the optimized governing parameters, such as solar radiation, solar collector efficient area, the heat transfer area and the inlet water temperature of heat exchange components, and the CO₂ flow rate of two sub‐cycles. Where, the cooling capacity, heating capacity, and exergy destruction rate are found to increase with solar radiation, but the COPs of combined system are decreased with it. Furthermore, in terms of improvement in COPs and reduction in system exergy destruction at the same time, it is more effective to employ a large heat transfer area of heat exchange components in the combined heat pump system. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simulation of the optimal heat rejection pressure for transcritical CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> expander cycle

In order to optimize and control transcritical CO₂ refrigeration cycle, a mathematical model was developed to simulate the system performance. The simulation results show that a maximum COP exists at the optimal heat rejection pressure not only for throttle valve cycle but also for expander cycle. Also, the optimal heat rejection pressures of the throttle valve cycle are greater than those of the expander cycle under the same condition. In order to further obtain correlation of the optimal heat rejection pressure for transcritical CO₂ expander cycle, it is necessary to analyze the impact degree of compressor efficiency, expander efficiency, gas cooler outlet temperature and evaporation temperature. Based on the simulation results, the values of the optimal heat rejection pressure for the expander cycle were regressed in terms of gas cooler outlet temperature and evaporation temperature at given compressor efficiency and expander efficiency. Finally, two types of polynomial correlations were obtained. One is cubic form, with an average deviation of less than 0.5% and the other is simplified form, with an average deviation of less than 1%. It is, therefore, convenient to use either correlation to simulate the performance of transcritical CO₂ expander cycle.     

Simulation of the optimal heat rejection pressure for transcritical CO2 expander cycle

In order to optimize and control transcritical CO₂ refrigeration cycle, a mathematical model was developed to simulate the system performance. The simulation results show that a maximum COP exists at the optimal heat rejection pressure not only for throttle valve cycle but also for expander cycle. Also, the optimal heat rejection pressures of the throttle valve cycle are greater than those of the expander cycle under the same condition. In order to further obtain correlation of the optimal heat rejection pressure for transcritical CO₂ expander cycle, it is necessary to analyze the impact degree of compressor efficiency, expander efficiency, gas cooler outlet temperature and evaporation temperature. Based on the simulation results, the values of the optimal heat rejection pressure for the expander cycle were regressed in terms of gas cooler outlet temperature and evaporation temperature at given compressor efficiency and expander efficiency. Finally, two types of polynomial correlations were obtained. One is cubic form, with an average deviation of less than 0.5% and the other is simplified form, with an average deviation of less than 1%. It is, therefore, convenient to use either correlation to simulate the performance of transcritical CO₂ expander cycle.     

Comparative analysis of natural and conventional working fluids for use in transcritical Rankine cycle using low‐temperature geothermal source

Theoretical analyses of natural and conventional working fluids‐based transcritical Rankine power cycles driven by low‐temperature geothermal sources have been carried out with the methodology of pinch point analysis using computer models. The regenerator has been introduced and analyzed with a modified methodology considering the considerable variation of specific heat with temperature near the critical state. The evaluations of transcritical Rankine cycles have been performed based on equal thermodynamic mean heat rejection temperature and optimized gas heater pressures at various geothermal source temperature levels ranging from 80 to 120°C. The performances of CO₂, a natural working fluid most commonly used in a transcritical power cycle, have been indicated as baselines. The results obtained show: optimum thermodynamic mean heat injection temperatures of transcritical Rankine cycles are distributed in the range of 60 to 70% of given geothermal source temperature level; optimum gas heater pressures of working fluids considered are lower than baselines; thermal efficiencies and expansion ratios (Exp_r) are higher than baselines while net power output, volume flow rate at turbine inlet (V₁) and heat transfer capacity curves are distributed at both sides of baselines. From thermodynamic and techno‐economic point of view, R125 presents the best performances. It shows 10% higher net power output, 3% lower V₁, 1.0 time higher Exp_r, and 22% reduction of total heat transfer areas compared with baselines given geothermal source temperature of 90°C. With the geothermal source temperature above 100°C, R32 and R143a also show better performances. R170 shows nearly the same performances with baselines except for the higher V₁ value. It also shows that better temperature gliding match between fluids in the gas heater can lead to more net power output. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.