scholarly journals Evaluation of Property Methods for Modeling Direct-Supercritical CO2 Power Cycles

Author(s):  
Charles W. White ◽  
Nathan T. Weiland

Direct supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) power cycles are an efficient and potentially cost-effective method of capturing CO2 from fossil-fueled power plants. These cycles combust natural gas or syngas with oxygen in a high pressure (200–300 bar), heavily diluted sCO2 environment. The cycle thermal efficiency is significantly impacted by the proximity of the operating conditions to the CO2 critical point (31 °C, 73.7 bar) as well as to the level of working fluid dilution by minor components, thus it is crucial to correctly model the appropriate thermophysical properties of these sCO2 mixtures. These properties are also important for determining how water is removed from the cycle and for accurate modeling of the heat exchange within the recuperator. This paper presents a quantitative evaluation of ten different property methods that can be used for modeling direct sCO2 cycles in Aspen Plus®. Reference fluid thermodynamic and transport properties (REFPROP) is used as the de facto standard for analyzing high-purity indirect sCO2 systems, however, the addition of impurities due to the open nature of the direct sCO2 cycle introduces uncertainty to the REFPROP predictions as well as species that REFPROP cannot model. Consequently, a series of comparative analyses were performed to identify the best physical property method for use in Aspen Plus® for direct-fired sCO2 cycles. These property methods are assessed against several mixture property measurements and offer a relative comparison to the accuracy obtained with REFPROP. The Lee–Kessler–Plocker equation of state (EOS) is recommended if REFPROP cannot be used.

Author(s):  
Charles W. White ◽  
Nathan T. Weiland

Direct supercritical CO2 (sCO2) power cycles have received considerable attention in recent years as an efficient and potentially cost-effective method of capturing CO2 from fossil-fueled power plants. These cycles combust natural gas or syngas with oxygen in a high pressure (200–300 bar), heavily-diluted sCO2 environment, such that the fluid entering the turbine is 90–95% CO2, with the balance composed primarily of H2O, CO, O2, N2 and Ar. After recuperation of the turbine exhaust thermal energy, water is condensed from the cycle, and the remainder is recompressed for either return to the combustor or for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) or storage. The compression power requirements vary significantly, depending on the proximity of the operating conditions to the CO2 critical point (31 °C, 73.7 bar), as well as to the level of working fluid dilution by minor components. As this has a large impact on cycle and plant thermal efficiency, it is crucial to correctly capture the appropriate thermo-physical properties of these sCO2 mixtures when carrying out performance simulations of direct sCO2 power plants. These properties are also important to determining how water is removed from the cycle, and for accurate modeling of the heat exchange within the recuperator. This paper presents a quantitative evaluation of ten different property methods that can be used for modeling direct sCO2 cycles in Aspen Plus®. REFPROP is used as the de facto standard for analyzing indirect sCO2 systems, where the closed nature of the cycle leads to a high purity CO2 working fluid. The addition of impurities due to the open nature of the direct-sCO2 cycle, however, introduces uncertainty to the REFPROP predictions. There is a limited set of mixtures available for which REFPROP can be reliably used and there are a number of species present in a coal-fired direct-fired sCO2 cycle that REFPROP cannot accommodate. Even with a relatively simplified system in which the trace components are eliminated, simulations made using REFPROP require computation times that often preclude its use in parametric studies of these cycles. Consequently, a series of comparative analyses were performed to identify the best physical property method for use in Aspen Plus® for direct-fired sCO2 cycles. These property methods are assessed against several mixture property measurements, and offer a relative comparison to the accuracy obtained with REFPROP. This study also underscores the necessity of accurate property modeling, where cycle performance predictions are shown to vary significantly with the selection of the physical property method.


Author(s):  
Francesco Crespi ◽  
David Sánchez ◽  
Tomás Sánchez ◽  
Gonzalo S. Martínez

Previous work by the authors has shown that broader analyses than those typically found in literature (in terms of operating pressures allowed) can yield interesting conclusions with respect to the best candidate cycles for certain applications. This has been tested for the thermodynamic performance (first and second laws) but it can also be applied from an economic standpoint. This second approach is introduced in this work where typical operating conditions for concentrated solar power (CSP) applications (current and future generations of solar tower plants) are considered (750 °C and 30 MPa). For these, the techno-economic performance of each cycle is assessed in order to identify the most cost-effective layout when it comes to the overnight capital cost (OCC). This analysis accounts for the different contributions to the total cost of the plant, including all the major equipment that is usually found in a CSP power plant such as the solar field and thermal energy storage (TES) system. The work is, thus, aimed at providing guidelines to professionals in the area of basic engineering and prefeasibility study of CSP plants who find themselves in the process of selecting a particular power cycle for a new project (set of specifications and boundary conditions).


The choice of cost-effective method of anticorrosive protection of steel structures is an urgent and time consuming task, considering the significant number of protection ways, differing from each other in the complex of technological, physical, chemical and economic characteristics. To reduce the complexity of solving this problem, the author proposes a computational tool that can be considered as a subsystem of computer-aided design and used at the stage of variant and detailed design of steel structures. As a criterion of the effectiveness of the anti-corrosion protection method, the cost of the protective coating during the service life is accepted. The analysis of existing methods of steel protection against corrosion is performed, the possibility of their use for the protection of the most common steel structures is established, as well as the estimated period of effective operation of the coating. The developed computational tool makes it possible to choose the best method of protection of steel structures against corrosion, taking into account the operating conditions of the protected structure and the possibility of using a protective coating.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Valencia-Ortega ◽  
Sergio Levario-Medina ◽  
Marco Antonio Barranco-Jiménez

Abstract The proposal of models that account for the irreversibilities within the core engine has been the topic of interest to quantify the useful energy available during its conversion. In this work, we analyze the energetic optimization and stability (local and global) of three power plants, nuclear, combined-cycle, and simple-cycle ones, by means of the Curzon–Ahlborn heat engine model which considers a linear heat transfer law. The internal irreversibilities of the working fluid measured through the r-parameter are associated with the so-called “uncompensated Clausius heat.” In addition, the generalization of the ecological function is used to find operating conditions in three different zones, which allows to carry out a numerical analysis focused on the stability of power plants in each operation zone. We noted that not all power plants reveal stability in all the operation zones when irreversibilities are considered through the r-parameter on real-world power plants. However, an improved stability is shown in the zone limited by the maximum power output and maximum efficiency regimes.


Author(s):  
Igor L. Pioro

Supercritical Fluids (SCFs) have unique thermophyscial properties and heat-transfer characteristics, which make them very attractive for use in power industry. In this chapter, specifics of thermophysical properties and heat transfer of SCFs such as water, carbon dioxide, and helium are considered and discussed. Also, particularities of heat transfer at Supercritical Pressures (SCPs) are presented, and the most accurate heat-transfer correlations are listed. Supercritical Water (SCW) is widely used as the working fluid in the SCP Rankine “steam”-turbine cycle in fossil-fuel thermal power plants. This increase in thermal efficiency is possible by application of high-temperature reactors and power cycles. Currently, six concepts of Generation-IV reactors are being developed, with coolant outlet temperatures of 500°C~1000°C. SCFs will be used as coolants (helium in GFRs and VHTRs, and SCW in SCWRs) and/or working fluids in power cycles (helium, mixture of nitrogen (80%) and helium (20%), nitrogen and carbon dioxide in Brayton gas-turbine cycles, and SCW/“steam” in Rankine cycle).


Author(s):  
Brian Janke ◽  
Thomas Kuehn

Thermodynamic analysis has been conducted for geothermal power cycles using a portion of deep ground sequestered CO2 as the working fluid. This allows energy production from much shallower depths and in geologic areas with much lower temperature gradients than those of current geothermal systems. Two different system designs were analyzed for power production with varying reservoir parameters, including reservoir depth, temperature, and CO2 mass flow rate. The first design is a direct single-loop system with the CO2 run directly through the turbine. This system was found to provide higher system efficiency and power production, however design complications such as the need for high pressure turbines, two-phase flow through the turbine and the potential for water-CO2 brine mixtures, could require the use of numerous custom components, driving up the cost. The second design is a binary system using CO2 as the heat transfer fluid to supply thermal energy to an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC). While this system was found to have slightly less power production and efficiency than the direct system, it significantly reduces the impact of design complications associated with the direct system. This in turn reduces the necessity for certain custom components, thereby reducing system cost. While performance of these two systems is largely dependent on location and operating conditions, the binary system is likely applicable to a larger number of sites and will be more cost effective when used in combination with current off-the-shelf ORC power plants.


Author(s):  
Darryn Fleming ◽  
Alan Kruizenga ◽  
James Pasch ◽  
Tom Conboy ◽  
Matt Carlson

Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (S-CO2) is emerging as a potential working fluid in power-production Brayton cycles. As a result, concerns have been raised regarding fluid purity within the power cycle loops. Additionally, investigations into the longevity of the S-CO2 power cycle materials are being conducted to quantify the advantages of using S-CO2 versus other fluids, since S-CO2 promises substantially higher efficiencies. One potential issue with S-CO2 systems is intergranular corrosion [1]. At this time, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) is establishing a materials baseline through the analysis of 1) “as received” stainless steel piping, and 2) piping exposed to S-CO2 under typical operating conditions with SNL’s Brayton systems. Results from ongoing investigations are presented. A second issue that SNL has discovered involves substantial erosion in the turbine blade and inlet nozzle. It is believed that this is caused by small particulates that originate from different materials around the loop that are entrained by the S-CO2 to the nozzle, where they impact the inlet nozzle vanes, causing erosion. We believe that, in some way, this is linked to the purity of the S-CO2, the corrosion contaminants, and the metal particulates that are present in the loop and its components.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (Suppl. 4) ◽  
pp. 1333-1344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Majdak ◽  
Slawomir Gradziel

The article presents the method of determining the temperature distribution in waterwall tubes of the combustion chamber. To simulate the operating conditions of waterwall tubes have been selected the model with distributed parameters, which is based on the solution of equations of the energy, mass and momentum conservation laws. The purpose of the calculations is determining the enthalpy, mass-flow and pressure of the working fluid flowing inside the tubes. The balance equations have been transformed into a form in which spatial derivatives are on the left, and the right side contains time derivatives. Then the time derivatives were replaced with backward difference quotients, and the obtained system of differential equations was solved by the Runge-Kutta method. The analysis takes into account the variability of fluid parameters depending on the mass-flow at the inlet of the tube and heat flux on the surface of the tube. The analysis of fluid parameters was carried out based on operating parameters occurring in one of the Polish supercritical power plants. Then it was compared with characteristics for systems operating at increased or reduced thermal flux on the walls of the furnace or systems operating at increased or reduced mass-flow of the working fluid at the inlet to the waterwall tube.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 1452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Collings ◽  
Mckeown ◽  
Wang ◽  
Yu

While large-scale ORC power plants are a relatively mature technology, their application to small-scale power plants (i.e., below 10 kW) still encounters some technical challenges. Positive displacement expanders are mostly used for such small-scale applications. However, their built-in expansion ratios are often smaller than the expansion ratio required for the maximum utilisation of heat sources, leading to under expansion and consequently higher enthalpy at the outlet of the expander, and ultimately resulting in a lower thermal efficiency. In order to overcome this issue, one possible solution is to introduce an internal heat exchanger (i.e., the so-called regenerator) to recover the enthalpy exiting the expander and use it to pre-heat the liquid working fluid before it enters the evaporator. In this paper, a small-scale experimental rig (with 1-kW rated power) was designed and built that is capable of switching between regenerative and non-regenerative modes, using R245fa as the working fluid. It has been tested under various operating conditions, and the results reveal that the regenerative heat exchanger can recover a considerable amount of heat when under expansion occurs, increasing the cycle efficiency.


Author(s):  
Igor Pioro ◽  
Mohammed Mahdi ◽  
Roman Popov

SuperCritical Fluids (SCFs) have unique thermophyscial properties and heat-transfer characteristics, which make them very attractive for use in power industry. In this chapter, specifics of thermophysical properties and heat transfer of SCFs such as water, carbon dioxide and helium are considered and discussed. Also, particularities of heat transfer at SuperCritical Pressures (SCPs) are presented, and the most accurate heat-transfer correlations are listed. SuperCritical Water (SCW) is widely used as the working fluid in the SCP Rankine “steam”-turbine cycle in fossil-fuel thermal power plants. This increase in thermal efficiency is possible by application of high-temperature reactors and power cycles. Currently, six concepts of Generation-IV reactors are being developed, with coolant outlet temperatures of 500°C~1000°C. SCFs will be used as coolants (helium in GFRs and VHTRs; and SCW in SCWRs) and/or working fluids in power cycles (helium; mixture of nitrogen (80%) and helium [20%]; nitrogen, and carbon dioxide in Brayton gas-turbine cycles; and SCW “steam” in Rankine cycle).


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