New insights into the potential of the gas microturbine in microgrids and industrial applications

Reducing carbon emissions and electricity costs in industry is a major challenge to ensure competitiveness and compliance with new climate policies. Photovoltaic power offers a promising solution but also brings considerable uncertainties and risks that may endanger the continuity and quality of supply. From an operational point of view, large-scale integration of solar power could result in unmet demand, electrical instabilities and equipment damage. The performance and lifetime of conventional fossil equipment are likely to be altered by repeated transient operations, making it necessary to adopt specific modeling tools. Control strategies and sizing methodologies must be adapted to account for the strong reliability constraint while dealing with significant production uncertainties. In addition, conventional mitigation technologies, such as storage and load flexibility, have limited potential in these applications and may result in high investments or penalties if they are not properly assessed. This study provides an overview of these challenges by providing a transversal analysis of the scientific literature from fossil engine thermodynamics to control system theory applied to industrial systems. The main characteristics of reliability-constrained microgrids are identified and a conceptual definition is proposed by analyzing state-of-the art studies of various industrial applications and taking oil-and gas microgrids as an enlightening example. Then follows a review of the challenges of accounting for dynamical behavior of fossil equipment, PV and storage systems, ending with the identification of several research gaps. Finally, applicable control strategies and sizing techniques are presented.

show abstract

“…To date, gas turbines have rarely been used for renewable microgrids despite their significant potential [108].…”

Section: Representation Of Dynamical Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

An overview of the challenges of solar power integration in isolated industrial microgrids with reliability constraints

Polleux

Guérassimoff

Marmorat

et al. 2022

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The exhaust gas generated from microturbines has temperatures of about 200–315°C, which carries useful energy for various heating processes in food manufacturing. Commonly, turbines have heat‐to‐power ratios of 0.5–2 with electrical efficiencies ranging from 5% to 40%, whereas microturbines have heat‐to‐power ratios of 0.4–0.7 with electrical efficiencies of around 22 to 28% and overall efficiencies of around 80% (Table 1) (Al Moussawi et al., 2017; Ismail et al., 2013; Konečná et al., 2020a). For example, currently available microturbines produce 10.9 MJ of heat per kWh (3.6 MJ) with an exhaust gas flow of 5.3 kg/s at 280°C for a turbine system with an electrical power of 800 kW run on natural gas (Capstone, 2021).…”

Section: Fuel Heating: Cogeneration and Boilersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fuel Heating: Cogeneration and Boilersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Microturbines have significant investment costs, which have been reported to be between 1175 and 2260€ per kW (1300–2500$), which is higher compared to steam turbines with investment costs of 181–904€ per kW (200–1000$) (Al Moussawi et al., 2017; Konečná et al., 2020a). It is expected that costs will drop over the next few years because of granted patents that will expire in the upcoming years and the economy of scale with more microturbines being produced (Konečná et al., 2020a). However, the annualized levelized cost calculations (which is the sum of the total costs including investment and operating costs over the lifetime divided by the sum of the produced energy during the lifetime on an annual basis) have been reported to fall between 53 and 81€ per MWh of electricity (59–89$) (Table 1), which is lower compared to fuel cells and diesel engines and is partly related to lower maintenance costs (Lazard, 2017; Parag & Ainspan, 2019).…”

Section: Fuel Heating: Cogeneration and Boilersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Microturbines can be implemented to provide heat at different stages in the milk powder production processes. Adapted from Konečná et al (2020b) with permission of Elsevier compared a microturbine-based installation with pressurized internal combustion engines in a frozen foods processing plant that produces different kinds of frozen vegetables (Catalano et al, 2020). They concluded that two combustion engines (rated at 500-850 kW) were more suited to fulfill the highly variable electrical and thermal needs of the plant also because longer payback periods were required and higher operating costs as well as a poorer use of the energy resources of the microturbine system consisting of six turbines with 200 kW and 1 turbine with 100 kW.…”

Section: F I G U R Ementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Technologies for sustainable heat generation in food processing

Großmann

Hinrichs

Weiß

2022

Comp Rev Food Sci Food Safe

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The utilization of heat is one of the foundations of modern food processing. At present, boilers that operate on fossil fuels are still dominating the generation of hot water, steam, and hot air in the food industry. In light of sustainability goals and carbon taxes as well as international efforts to reduce the dependence on natural gas, new technologies are needed to lower the greenhouse gas emissions related to thermal processing of foods. This review discusses important technologies that could serve as a replacement for conventional fossil fuel boilers in the future. These technologies are based on electricity, geothermal energy (direct/indirect use), and electricity to hydrogen conversion and include fuel cells, microturbines, engines, electrical boilers, heat pumps, radiation, and use of geothermal energy. The majority of these technologies are already available for implementation at larger scales and emissions are generally lower compared to burning fossil fuels. At present, major obstacles, such as low fossil fuel prices, still exist that prevent the widespread adoption of more sustainable heating technologies. However, the direct transformation of electrical energy and utilization of geothermal energy for heating purposes seem promising and should be more frequently installed in the future, whereas the use of H 2 obtained through electrolysis as a transportable source of energy may also serve as a source of thermal energy where it is useful to generate electricity and heat on the production site or where the availability of electricity is limited.

show abstract

Design of CCHP System with the Help of Combined Chiller System, Solar Energy, and Gas Microturbine

Safaei,

Keynia,

Haghdady

et al. 2023

The Urban Book Series

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This work was conducted to design a combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) system with photovoltaic energy which provides simultaneous generation of electricity, heat, and cold for a high-rise office building (23 floors) in the city of Mashhad in Iran. Our strategy was to supply load electric, thermal, and refrigeration with the help of solar energy. In addition, its superiority over other systems was evaluated. Analysis and study of solar radiation and the maximum level of solar panels use, according to the architectural plan, were carried out at the project site. The analysis of shadow points, the use of inverters and electrical detectors to increase the maximum solar power, and its cost-effectiveness were carefully studied via PVSOL software. Additionally, the amount of heat, cold, and electricity consumption was accurately calculated according to international standards and utilizing HAP software. The criteria for saving on the initial cost reduction, carbon dioxide emission reduction, operating cost reduction, payback period, revenue, and the minimum life expectancy of the equipment compared to those in other methods were also evaluated. The results obtained from the designed system of simultaneous generation of electricity, heat, and refrigeration, which combines gas microturbines as the primary stimulus, a combination of absorption and compression chiller to provide refrigeration load, a boiler for auxiliary heat load, and a thermal photovoltaic system to produce both electric and thermal loads, were finally revealed. This is believed to be a cost-effective strategy for high-rise residential or commercial buildings with a geographical location like that of Mashhad. Based on the electricity sales to the grid, with the rate of increase in inflation in electricity tariffs, this design in the Mashhad project was estimated to have an annual income of 166.676 thousand dollars. Moreover, the initial capital return period in this project was calculated to be 5.19 years.

show abstract

New insights into the potential of the gas microturbine in microgrids and industrial applications

Cited by 23 publications

References 146 publications

An overview of the challenges of solar power integration in isolated industrial microgrids with reliability constraints

An overview of the challenges of solar power integration in isolated industrial microgrids with reliability constraints

Technologies for sustainable heat generation in food processing

Design of CCHP System with the Help of Combined Chiller System, Solar Energy, and Gas Microturbine

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About