Thermodynamic and Economic Analysis of an Integrated Solar Combined Cycle System
Integrating solar thermal energy into the conventional Combined Cycle Power Plant (CCPP) has been proved to be an efficient way to use solar energy and improve the generation efficiency of CCPP. In this paper, the energy, exergy, and economic (3E) methods were applied to the models of the Integrated Solar Combined Cycle System (ISCCS). The performances of the proposed system were not only assessed by energy and exergy efficiency, as well as exergy destruction, but also through varied thermodynamic parameters such as DNI and Ta. Besides, to better understand the real potentials for improving the components, exergy destruction was split into endogenous/exogenous and avoidable/unavoidable parts. Results indicate that the combustion chamber of the gas turbine has the largest endogenous and unavoidable exergy destruction values of 202.23 MW and 197.63 MW, and the values of the parabolic trough solar collector are 51.77 MW and 50.01 MW. For the overall power plant, the exogenous and avoidable exergy destruction rates resulted in 17.61% and 17.78%, respectively. In addition, the proposed system can save a fuel cost of 1.86 $/MW·h per year accompanied by reducing CO2 emissions of about 88.40 kg/MW·h, further highlighting the great potential of ISCCS.
Thermodynamic Investigation of an Integrated Solar Combined Cycle with an ORC System
An integrated solar combined cycle (ISCC) with a low temperature waste heat recovery system is proposed in this paper. The combined system consists of a conventional natural gas combined cycle, organic Rankine cycle and solar fields. The performance of an organic Rankine cycle subsystem as well as the overall proposed ISCC system are analyzed using organic working fluids. Besides, parameters including the pump discharge pressure, exhaust gas temperature, thermal and exergy efficiencies, unit cost of exergy for product and annual CO2-savings were considered. Results indicate that Rc318 contributes the highest exhaust gas temperature of 71.2℃, while R113 showed the lowest exhaust gas temperature of 65.89 at 800 W/m2, in the proposed ISCC system. The overall plant thermal efficiency increases rapidly with solar radiation, while the exergy efficiency appears to have a downward trend. R227ea had both the largest thermal efficiency of 58.33% and exergy efficiency of 48.09% at 800W/m2. In addition, for the organic Rankine cycle, the exergy destructions of the evaporator, turbine and condenser decreased with increasing solar radiation. The evaporator contributed the largest exergy destruction followed by the turbine, condenser and pump. Besides, according to the economic analysis, R227ea had the lowest production cost of 19.3 $/GJ.
Thermodynamic analyses of solar thermal gasification of coal for hybrid solar-fossil power and fuel production
Thermodynamic analyses are performed for solar thermal steam and dry gasification of coal. The selected types of coal are anthracite, bituminous, lignite and peat. Two model conversion paths are considered for each combination of the gasifying agent and the coal type: production of the synthesis gas with its subsequent use in a combined cycle power plant to generate power, and production of the synthesis gas with its subsequent use to produce gasoline via the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis. Replacement of a coal-fired 35% efficient Rankine cycle power plant and a combustion-based integrated gasification combined cycle power plant by a solar-based integrated gasification combined cycle power plant leads to the reduction in specific carbon dioxide emissions by at least 47% and 27%, respectively. Replacement of a conventional gasoline production process via coal gasification and a subsequent Fischer–Tropsch synthesis with gasoline production via solar thermal coal gasification with a subsequent Fischer–Tropsch synthesis leads to the reduction in specific carbon dioxide emissions by at least 39%.