scholarly journals On the Optimal Allocation of the Heat Exchangers of Irreversible Power Cycles

Author(s):  
G. Aragon-Gonzalez ◽  
A. Leon-Galicia ◽  
J. R.
Author(s):  
Ravin G. Naik ◽  
Chirayu M. Shah ◽  
Arvind S. Mohite

To produce the power with higher overall efficiency and reasonable cost is ultimate aim for the power industries in the power deficient scenario. Though combined cycle power plant is most efficient way to produce the power in today’s world, rapidly increasing fuel prices motivates to define a strategy for cost-effective optimization of this system. The heat recovery steam generator is one of the equipment which is custom made for combined cycle power plant. So, here the particular interest is to optimize the combined power cycle performance through optimum design of heat recovery steam generator. The case of combined cycle power plant re-powered from the existing Rankine cycle based power plant is considered to be simulated and optimized. Various possible configuration and arrangements for heat recovery steam generator has been examined to produce the steam for steam turbine. Arrangement of heat exchangers of heat recovery steam generator is optimized for bottoming cycle’s power through what-if analysis. Steady state model has been developed using heat and mass balance equations for various subsystems to simulate the performance of combined power cycles. To evaluate the performance of combined power cycles and its subsystems in the view of second law of thermodynamics, exergy analysis has been performed and exergetic efficiency has been determined. Exergy concepts provide the deep insight into the losses through subsystems and actual performance. If the sole objective of optimization of heat recovery steam generator is to increase the exergetic efficiency or minimizing the exergy losses then it leads to the very high cost of power which is not acceptable. The exergo-economic analysis has been carried to find the cost flow from each subsystem involved to the combined power cycles. Thus the second law of thermodynamics combined with economics represents a very powerful tool for the systematic study and optimization of combined power cycles. Optimization studies have been carried out to evaluate the values of decision parameters of heat recovery steam generator for optimum exergetic efficiency and product cost. Genetic algorithm has been utilized for multi-objective optimization of this complex and nonlinear system. Pareto fronts generated by this study represent the set of best solutions and thus providing a support to the decision-making.


Author(s):  
Merrill A. Wilson ◽  
Michele Bullough ◽  
Kriston Brooks ◽  
Kurt Recknagle

Efficiency and emissions of advanced gas turbine power cycles can be improved by incorporating high-temperature ceramic heat exchangers. In cooperation with the DOE, a highly effective microchannel ceramic recuperator for a microturbine is under development. In this recuperator, the use of microchannel architecture will improve heat transfer and provide a more uniform temperature distribution. This will result in overall higher productivity per unit volume compared to conventional hardware. The use of ceramic for the recuperator will allow higher temperature operation than available in conventional microturbines. Based on a model for a typical microturbine, these changes may improve the overall system efficiency from about 27% to over 40%.


Author(s):  
Marco Torresi ◽  
Alessandro Saponaro ◽  
Sergio Mario Camporeale ◽  
Bernardo Fortunato

The prediction of the performance of HRSG (Heat Recovery Steam Generator) by means of CFD codes is of great interest, since HRSGs are crucial elements in gas turbine combined cycle power plants, and in CHP (combined heat and power) cycles. The determination of the thermo-fluid dynamic pattern in HRSGs is fundamental in order to improve the energy usage and limit the ineffectiveness due to non-homogeneous flow patterns. In order to reduce the complexity of the simulation of the fluid flow within the HRSG, it is useful modeling heat exchangers as porous media zones with properties estimated using pressure drop correlations for tube banks. Usually, air-side thermo-fluid dynamic characteristics of finned tube heat exchangers are determined from experimental data. The aim of this work is to develop a new procedure, capable to define the main porous-medium non-dimensional parameters (e.g., viscous and inertial loss coefficients; porosity; volumetric heat generation rate; etc...) starting from data obtained by means of accurate three-dimensional simulations of the flow through tube banks. Both finned and bare tube banks will be considered and results presented. The analysis is based on a commercial CFD code, Fluent v.6.2.16. In order to validate the proposed procedure, the simulation of an entire fired HRSG of the horizontal type developed by Ansaldo Caldaie for the ERG plant at Priolo (Italy) has been performed and results have been compared with their data.


Author(s):  
Stefano Campanari ◽  
Matteo Gazzani

Driven by the search for the highest theoretical efficiency, several studies have investigated in the last years the adoption of fuel cells in the field of power production from natural gas with CO2 capture. Most of the proposed power cycles rely on high temperature fuel cells, namely Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) and Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells (MCFC), based on the concept of hybrid fuel cell plus gas turbine cycles. Accordingly, high temperature fuel cells are integrated with a simple or modified Brayton cycle. As far as SOFC are concerned, two main plant solutions can be identified depending on the integration with the natural gas reforming/shift section: (i) systems where natural gas is — partially or totally — internally reformed in the fuel cell and (ii) systems where natural gas is reformed before the fuel cell and the cell is fed with a high hydrogen syngas. In both cases, CO2 can be separated downstream the fuel cell via a range of available technologies, e.g. chemical or physical separation processes, oxy-combustion and cryogenic methods. Following a literature review on very promising plant configurations, this work investigates the advantages and limits of adopting an external natural gas conversion section with respect to the plant efficiency. As a reference plant we considered a power cycle proposed by Adams and Barton [8], whose performance is the highest found in literature for SOFC-based power cycles, with 82% LHV electrical efficiency. It is based on a pre-reforming concept where fuel is reformed ahead the SOFC which thus works with a high hydrogen content fuel. This plant was firstly reproduced considering all the ideal assumptions proposed by the original authors. As second step, the simulations were focused on revising the power cycle, implementing a complete set of assumptions about component losses and more conservative operating conditions about fuel cell voltage, heat exchangers minimum temperature differences, maximum steam temperature, turbomachinery efficiency, component pressure losses and other adjustments. Considering the consequent modifications with respect to the original layout, the net electric efficiency changes to around 66% LHV with nearly complete (95%+) CO2 capture, a still remarkable but less attractive value, while requiring a very complex and demanding heat exchangers network. Detailed results are presented in terms of energy and material balances of the proposed cycles. All the simulations have been carried out with the proprietary code GS, developed by the GECOS group at Politecnico di Milano.


2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merrill A. Wilson ◽  
Steven M. Quist

Efficiency and emissions of advanced gas turbine power cycles can be improved by incorporating high-temperature ceramic heat exchangers (see Figure 1). In cooperation with the DOE, preliminary development and testing of SiC based structures has been completed. This program has focused on four initial areas: thermo-mechanical degradation as a function of the chemical operating environments, design of a layered microchannel heat exchanger, thermo-mechanical testing and analysis of these structures, and fabrication development through rapid prototyping techniques.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document