An estimation of the performance limits and improvement of dry cooling on trough solar thermal plants

Deng, Huifang; Boehm, Robert F.

doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2010.05.027

Cited by 25 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Cold side temperature should be kept as low as possible, which is limited in practice by the ambient temperature the plant operates in as well as the heat transfer to the ambient environment. 298,299 The Carnot efficiency represents the maximum performance limit, and cannot be achieved by real heat engines. A lower efficiency, called the Chambadal-Novikov efficiency, can be derived for a heat engine with irreversible heat transfer processes operating at maximum power output.…”

Section: Heat Engine Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Concentrating Solar Power

et al. 2015

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Concentrating solar power (CSP) is a reliable and wellknown form of solar power. Nine solar trough plants producing more than 400 megawatts (MW) of electricity have been operating reliably in the California Mojave Desert since the 1980s. With a renewed sense of urgency to commercialize renewable energy sources, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is ramping up its CSP research, development, and deployment efforts. These efforts, which are leveraging both industry partners and the national laboratories, are directed toward the development of parabolic trough, dish/engine, and power tower CSP systems.

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Section: Heat Engine Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Concentrating Solar Power

et al. 2015

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“…The typically arid climates in the likely locations for renewable thermal power plants such as Concentrating Solar Thermal (CST) provide the motivation for dry cooling technology optimized for renewable power generation [1][2][3][4]. Due to their low maintenance cost and simple structures, natural draft dry cooling towers (NDDCT) offer a feasible and cost effective option for such applications [5][6][7][8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurements of crosswind influence on a natural draft dry cooling tower for a solar thermal power plant

Gurgenci

Guan

et al. 2017

Applied Energy

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A 20 m experimental cooling tower was tested in different crosswind conditions. • Air temperature distributions and heat exchanger performances are presented.• The mechanism of the crosswind effect on small cooling tower is discussed.• Crosswind effect on a small CST power plant is evaluated. A B S T R A C TCrosswind is a significant concern for natural draft dry cooling towers. The concern is more serious for shorter towers. Therefore, the crosswind influence is a significant threat to the use of natural draft dry cooling towers in concentrating solar thermal power plants, which are generally built at sizes smaller than conventional fossil-fired plants and employ relatively shorter towers. While some numerical studies and small lab-scale test reports exist, very few full scale experimental studies have been reported for conventional cooling towers and none for relatively short cooling towers suitable for renewable thermal power plants. To address this gap, a 20-m tall fully instrumented natural draft dry cooling tower was built by the University of Queensland. The tower was designed to serve a future 1-MWe concentrating solar thermal plant on the same site. Its performance was tested under different ambient temperatures and crosswind speeds. The detailed experimental data of the crosswind condition, air temperature distribution inside and outside of the cooling tower and the cooling performance are presented. The experimental data demonstrate the substantial yet complex impact of the crosswind on cooling tower performance. Significant non-uniformities in air and hot water temperature distributions and strong air vortices inside the tower were observed in high crosswind speeds. Unlike tall cooling towers used in large conventional plants, the cooling tower performance does not monotonously decrease with the increase of the crosswind speed. In fact, after the tower performance drops to its lowest level at a wind speed around 5 m/s, the trend is reversed and further increases in the crosswind speed help the tower performance. Analysis shows that this reversal occurs because the tower heat transfer mechanism changes. As crosswind rises above the critical speed, the airflow inside the cooling tower becomes increasingly controlled by the crosswind instead of the natural draft.

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“…This is a problem where fresh water resources are scarce and expensive. Due to the increased interest in renewable thermal power generation such as the geothermal and solar thermal power plants, where the prospective locations usually lack water, dry cooling technology has received extra attention in recent years [12,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of the crosswind effect on the natural draft cooling towers

Gurgenci

Guan

et al. 2019

Applied Thermal Engineering

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Crosswind is a significant concern for the design and operation of a natural draft cooling tower. The negative effects of crosswind on the thermal performance of natural draft cooling towers have been shown in many cases, for a variety of tower types. This paper presents a comprehensive review to synthesize the current research status in this field. At first, three common cooling tower research methods used to quantify the crosswind effect: full-scale/field measurements, lab-scale tests and CFD modelling, are reviewed and discussed. Then, based on the existing literature, the crosswind effect and its working mechanism on different types of natural draft cooling towers are summarized and discussed. Finally, the most current findings and solutions to address the crosswind issue are reported. The main advantages and disadvantages of each solution are presented and discussed. The information collected in this review paper could be a useful guidance for the design and optimization of natural draft cooling tower.

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An estimation of the performance limits and improvement of dry cooling on trough solar thermal plants

Cited by 25 publications

References 3 publications

Concentrating Solar Power

Concentrating Solar Power

Measurements of crosswind influence on a natural draft dry cooling tower for a solar thermal power plant

A review of the crosswind effect on the natural draft cooling towers

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