Exergetic analysis and economic evaluation of central tower receiver solar thermal power plant

This paper presents a general thermodynamic model for hybrid Brayton central tower thermosolar plants. These plants have been proved to be technically feasible but R+D efforts need to be done in order to improve its commercial interest. From the thermodynamic viewpoint it is necessary to increase its performance to get larger power production with reduced fuel consumption, and so reduced emissions. We develop a model for multi-step compression and expansion stages with that aim. The model is flexible and allows to simulate recuperative or non-recuperative plants, with an arbitrary number of stages and working with different subcritical fluids. The results for multi-step configurations are compared with those obtained for a plant with one turbine and one compressor. Different working fluids are analyzed, including air, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and helium. Several plant layouts and the corresponding optimal pressure ratios are analyzed. It is concluded that configurations with two-stages compression with intercooling combined with one or two expansion stages can significantly improve overall plant efficiency and lower fuel consumption. Power block efficiencies can reach 0.50 and overall plant efficiency can attain values about 0.40 working with air or CO 2. For instance, comparing with a single stage plant running with air, a plant with subcritical CO 2 , two compression stages with intercooling and single step expansion can reach an overall efficiency about 19% larger and a fuel conversion rate around 23% larger. For such configuration, the specific fuel consumption is predicted to be about 108 kg/(MW h) at design point conditions.

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“…Also there are heat transfer losses in the receiver due to convection, conduction and radiation. Heat losses can be expressed as [33,34]:…”

Section: Solar Subsystem Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roads to improve the performance of hybrid thermosolar gas turbine power plants: Working fluids and multi-stage configurations

Sánchez

Miguel-Barbero

Merchán

et al. 2018

Energy Conversion and Management

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“…It was found that the overall exergy and energy efficiencies of the plant can be increased to some extent by integrating advanced power cycles including supercritical Rankine cycles and reheat Rankine cycles. In a study by Reddy et al [48], evaluation of a solar tower power plant was performed using exergy analysis. The solar tower was integrated with a Rankine cycles for their study.…”

Section: Recent Advances In Renewable Energy Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Brayton Cycles Driven by Solar Thermal Power Tower System

Atif

Al‐Sulaiman

2015

AMR

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This chapter starts with a background about concentrating solar power systems and thermal energy storage systems and then a detailed literature review about concentrated solar power systems and supercritical Brayton carbon dioxide cycles. Next, a mathematical model was developed and presented which generates and optimizes a heliostat field effectively. This model was developed to demonstrate the optimization of a heliostat field using differential evolution, which is an evolutionary algorithm. The current model illustrates how to employ the developed model and its advantages. The optimization process calculates the optical performance parameters at every step of the optimization considering all the heliostats; thus yields accurate results as discussed in this chapter. On the other hand, complete mathematical model of supercritical CO2Brayton cycles when integrated with solar thermal power tower system was presented and discussed.

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“…Due to the exclusive conceptual characteristics of the exergy analysis, such methodology has been largely applied to analyze and optimize several energy systems such as thermoelectrical plants [7], vapor compression refrigeration systems [23], distillation columns [30], multicrystalline solar photovoltaic systems [18], supercritical thermoelectric coal plants assisted by solar concentrator [23], active solar distillation systems integrated with solar ponds [22], cogeneration with LNG [11] and desalination plants [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exergy efficiency of thermochemical syngas-to-ethanol production plants

Silva

Miranda

2021

SN Appl. Sci.

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This work presents exergy analyses applied in four different conceptual second-generation ethanol production processes through a thermochemical route using catalysts based on Molybdenum (P-1), Copper (P-2), and Rhodium (P-3 and P-4), aiming to assess their exergetic efficiencies. The results show that the conceptual processes have satisfactory exergy efficiencies in both cases, when compared among themselves and when compared with other processes reported in literature. The processes’ efficiency for P-1, P-2, P-3 and P-4 were, respectively, 52.4%, 41.4%, 43.7% and 48.9%. The reactors were the sections in which exergy destruction was more significant, due to the exothermic reactions and mixing points (where streams with different temperatures were mixed). Such results show the potential of thermochemical ethanol production, besides opening the possibilities of process improvement. Graphic abstract

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Exergetic analysis and economic evaluation of central tower receiver solar thermal power plant

Cited by 16 publications

References 19 publications

Roads to improve the performance of hybrid thermosolar gas turbine power plants: Working fluids and multi-stage configurations

Roads to improve the performance of hybrid thermosolar gas turbine power plants: Working fluids and multi-stage configurations

Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Brayton Cycles Driven by Solar Thermal Power Tower System

Exergy efficiency of thermochemical syngas-to-ethanol production plants

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