The Application of an Expansion Turbine in the Production of Expanded Aggregates

The research into the expansion of Cypris clay from the overburden rocks of the Družba brown coal open-pit mine in North Bohemia has proven that targeted expansion enables good use of the thermal energy of hot aggregates, which has not yet been fully exploited. The integration of an electricity production expansion turbine into the production line and the use of residual gas heat in the turbine cycle can reduce production costs. The article assesses two possible solutions for the integration of the expansion turbine into the technological line, namely with an open and closed working cycle using various gaseous media. In both cases, the proportion of the energy usable for electricity generation in the expansion turbine cycle has been calculated along with the possible fuel savings in the rotary kiln by using combustion air preheated to a high temperature by the residual heat of the gas from the turbine gas cycle.

ASU Simulation in Separating Air Components by Refrigeration Distillation (Oxygen and Nitrogen) Using ASPEN HYSYS (Case Study: SIAD Company)

Currently, air separation units (ASUs) have become very important in various industries, particularly oil and petrochemical industries which provide feed and utility services (oxygen, nitrogen, etc.). In this study, a new industrial ASU was evaluated by collecting operational and process information needed by the simulator by means of HYSYS software (ASPEN-ONE). The results obtained from this simulator were analyzed by ASU data and its error rate was calculated. In this research, the simulation of ASU performance was done in the presence of an expansion turbine in order to provide pressure inside the air distillation tower. Likewise, the cooling capacity of the cooling compartment and the data were analysed. The results indicated that expansion turbine is costly effective. Notably, it not only reduces the energy needed to compress air and supply power of the equipment, but also provides more cooling power and reduces air temperature. Moreover, turbines also increase the concentration of lighter gas products, namely nitrogen.

Effects of Blade Fillet Structures on Flow Field and Surface Heat Transfer in a Large Meridional Expansion Turbine

This paper is a continuation of the previous work, aiming to explore the influence of fillet configurations on flow and heat transfer in a large meridional expansion turbine. The endwall of large meridional expansion turbine stator has a large expansion angle, which leads to early separation of the endwall boundary layer, resulting in excessive aerodynamic loss and local thermal load. In order to improve the flow state and reduce the local high thermal load, five typical fillet distribution rules are designed. The three-dimensional Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solver for viscous turbulent flows was used to investigate the different fillet configurations of the second stage stator blades of a 1.5-stage turbine, and which fillet distribution is suitable for large meridional expansion turbines. The influence of fillet structures on the vortex system and loss characteristics was analyzed, and its impact on wall thermal load was studied in detail. The fillet structure mainly affects the formation of horseshoe vortexes at the leading edge of the blade so as to reduce the loss caused by horseshoe vortexes and passage vortexes. The fillet structure suitable for the large meridional expansion turbine was obtained through the research. Reasonable fillet structure distribution can not only improve the flow state but also reduce the high thermal load on the wall surface of the meridional expansion turbine. It has a positive engineering guiding value.

Effect of Tip Clearance on Flow Field and Heat Transfer Characteristics in a Large Meridional Expansion Turbine

The large meridional expansion turbine stator leads to complex secondary flows and heat transfer characteristics in the blade endwall region, while the upstream tip clearance leakage flow of the rotor makes it more complex in flow and heat transfer. The influence of the upstream rotor tip clearance on the large meridian expansion stator is worth studying. The flow and heat transfer characteristics of the downstream large meridional expansion turbine stator were studied by comparing the tip leakage flow of 1.5-stage shrouded and unshrouded turbines using a three-dimensional Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solver for viscous turbulent flows. Validation studies were performed to investigate the aerodynamics and heat transfer prediction ability of the shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model. The influence of different tip clearances of the rotor including unshrouded blade heights of 0%, 1% and 5% and a 1% shrouded blade height were investigated through numerical simulation. The results showed that the upper passage vortex separation was more serious and the separation, and attachment point of horseshoe vortex in the pressure side were significantly more advanced than that of non-expansion turbines. The tip leakage vortex obviously increased the negative incidence angle at the downstream inlet. Furthermore, the strength of the high heat transfer zone on the suction surface of the downstream stator was significantly increased, while that of the shrouded rotor decreased.

Optimal Design of a Two-Stage Membrane System for Hydrogen Separation in Refining Processes

This paper fits into the process system engineering field by addressing the optimization of a two-stage membrane system for H2 separation in refinery processes. To this end, a nonlinear mathematical programming (NLP) model is developed to simultaneously optimize the size of each membrane stage (membrane area, heat transfer area, and installed power for compressors and vacuum pumps) and operating conditions (flow rates, pressures, temperatures, and compositions) to achieve desired target levels of H2 product purity and H2 recovery at a minimum total annual cost. Optimal configuration and process design are obtained from a model which embeds different operating modes and process configurations. For instance, the following candidate ways to create the driving force across the membrane are embedded: (a) compression of both feed and/or permeate streams, or (b) vacuum application in permeate streams, or (c) a combination of (a) and (b). In addition, the potential selection of an expansion turbine to recover energy from the retentate stream (energy recovery system) is also embedded. For a H2 product purity of 0.90 and H2 recovery of 90%, a minimum total annual cost of 1.764 M$·year−1 was obtained for treating 100 kmol·h−1 with 0.18, 0.16, 0.62, and 0.04 mole fraction of H2, CO, N2, CO2, respectively. The optimal solution selected a combination of compression and vacuum to create the driving force and removed the expansion turbine. Afterwards, this optimal solution was compared in terms of costs, process-unit sizes, and operating conditions to the following two sub-optimal solutions: (i) no vacuum in permeate stream is applied, and (ii) the expansion turbine is included into the process. The comparison showed that the latter (ii) has the highest total annual cost (TAC) value, which is around 7% higher than the former (i) and 24% higher than the found optimal solution. Finally, a sensitivity analysis to investigate the influence of the desired H2 product purity and H2 recovery is presented. Opposite cost-based trade-offs between total membrane area and total electric power were observed with the variations of these two model parameters. This paper contributes a valuable decision-support tool in the process system engineering field for designing, simulating, and optimizing membrane-based systems for H2 separation in a particular industrial case; and the presented optimization results provide useful guidelines to assist in selecting the optimal configuration and operating mode.

Operating Range for a Combined, Building-Scale Liquid Air Energy Storage and Expansion System: Energy and Exergy Analysis

This paper presents the results of an ideal theoretical energy and exergy analysis for a combined, building scale Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) and expansion turbine system. This work identifies the upper bounds of energy and exergy efficiency for the combined LAES-expansion system which has not been investigated. The system uses the simple Linde-Hampson and pre-cooled Linde-Hampson cycles for the liquefaction subsystem and direct expansion method, with and without heating above ambient temperature, for the energy production subsystem. In addition, the paper highlights the effectiveness of precooling air for liquefaction and heating air beyond ambient temperature for energy production. Finally, analysis of the system components is presented with an aim toward identifying components that have the greatest impact on energy and exergy efficiencies in an ideal environment. This work highlights the engineering trade-space and serves as a prescription for determining the merit or measures of effectiveness for an engineered LAES system in terms of energy and exergy. The analytical approach presented in this paper may be applied to other LAES configurations in order to identify optimal operating points in terms of energy and exergy efficiencies.

Numerical Investigation on a High Endwall Angle Turbine With Swept-Curved Vanes

In a high endwall angle turbine, large meridional expansion can cause the strong secondary flow at the endwall, which results in a larger endwall flow loss than the small meridional expansion turbine. The endwall heat transfer is strongly affected by secondary flow effect. In order to optimize the endwall flow to reduce the flow loss and optimize the distribution of heat load, the swept-curved method was used in this study. The swept-curved method was investigated on a transonic second stator (S2) with large meridional expansion in a Low-Pressure (LP) Turbine. Validation studies were performed to investigate the aerodynamic and the heat transfer prediction ability of shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model. The influence of different shapes of the stacking line, including forward-swept, backward-swept, positive-curved and negative-curved, were investigated through numerical simulation. The parameterized control of swept-curved height and angle were adopted to optimize the performance of the aerodynamic and heat transfer. 3D flow field calculation captured the relatively accurate flow structures in the parts of endwall and near endwall. Heat transfer behaviors were explored by means of isothermal wall temperature and Nusselt number (Nu) distribution. The results show that the maximal heat transfer coefficient at the leading edge, for the formation of horseshoe vortexes that cause the high velocity towards the endwall. The swept vane can improve the static pressure and heat load distribution at the endwall region, which decreases the area-averaged shroud heat flux by 2.6 percent and the loss coefficient 1.3 percent.

Supercritical CO2 Power Cycle for Small Modular Reactor

Most Gen IV reactors have high operating temperature to increase power plant efficiency as well as for hydrogen production. The widely used steam Rankine cycle is not suitable for Gen IV Reactors because of low turbine inlet temperature or high turbine inlet temperature (649 °C) with extreme high pressure (34 MPa) by using ultra-supercritical (USC) steam cycle. Supercritical CO2 recompressing cycle can achieve a competitively high thermal efficiency with turbine inlet temperature at 500–600 °C and turbine inlet pressure at 20 MPa. However, this operating pressure is still too high to limit its application in power cycle of nuclear power plant. A combined recompressing cycle and dual expansion turbine technology is employed to reduce the operating pressure for nuclear power plant and increase thermal efficiency. Besides, sensitive analysis is performed for three kinds of S-CO2 power cycle. The results show that the combined recompressing cycle and dual expansion turbine technology is effective and suitable for Gen IV reactors with relatively lower reactor operating pressure (10–15MPa) and high thermal efficiency.