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Performance of a solar thermal power plant with direct air-cooled supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton cycle under off-design conditions

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  • Wang, Xurong
  • Li, Xiaoxiao
  • Li, Qibin
  • Liu, Lang
  • Liu, Chao

Abstract

The use of an efficient and compact supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) Brayton cycle in concentrated solar thermal power plants has the potential to reduce costs of electricity generation. Heat rejection in the hot-arid climate is of great concern to the power cycle, especially by natural draft dry cooling technologies. For this purpose, a comprehensive design and rating analyses of the sCO2-air cooling process was conducted based on short natural draft dry cooling towers. This approach is featured with the capture of non-linear characteristics in physical properties of CO2 and geometry of fin-tube air-cooled heat exchangers. It is found that the proposed methodology successfully predicted the experimentally observed outlet temperatures of an existing cooling tower. By utilizing off-design models of heat exchanger and turbomachinery, a direct air-cooled recompression sCO2 cycle was investigated for a parabolic trough solar plant with thermal energy storage (TES). The impacts of pressure ratio, recompression fraction, shaft speed and boundary conditions, i.e., ambient air temperature and solar intensity, were investigated on the power output and key parameters of the power plant under quasi steady state conditions. The results show that the recompression fraction significantly affects the pitch point in the recuperators, the optimum value of which decreases with an increase in compressor inlet pressure and in shaft speed. In addition, the direct air-cooled power system depends strongly on ambient environments, and is able to handle lower solar intensities without deterioration in electricity generation by the buffering of TES. The cooling tower approach decreases non-linearly as the ambient temperature increased, indicating that a fixed approach of typical 15 °C results in a conservative electricity production at hot climatic conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Xurong & Li, Xiaoxiao & Li, Qibin & Liu, Lang & Liu, Chao, 2020. "Performance of a solar thermal power plant with direct air-cooled supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton cycle under off-design conditions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:261:y:2020:i:c:s030626191932046x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.114359
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    4. Battisti, F.G. & de Araujo Passos, L.A. & da Silva, A.K., 2022. "Economic and environmental assessment of a CO2 solar-powered plant with packed-bed thermal energy storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    5. Yang, Jingze & Yu, Zitao & Yao, Hong, 2023. "Efficient turbomachinery layout design and performance comparison of supercritical CO2 cycles for high-temperature concentrated solar power plants under peak-shaving scenarios," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 285(C).
    6. Thanganadar, Dhinesh & Fornarelli, Francesco & Camporeale, Sergio & Asfand, Faisal & Patchigolla, Kumar, 2021. "Off-design and annual performance analysis of supercritical carbon dioxide cycle with thermal storage for CSP application," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(PA).
    7. Yang, Jingze & Yang, Zhen & Duan, Yuanyuan, 2022. "A review on integrated design and off-design operation of solar power tower system with S–CO2 Brayton cycle," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    8. Yang, Yueming & Wang, Xurong & Hooman, Kamel & Han, Kuihua & Xu, Jinliang & He, Suoying & Qi, Jianhui, 2023. "Effect of CO2-based binary mixtures on the performance of radial-inflow turbines for the supercritical CO2 cycles," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    9. Hu, Mingke & Zhao, Bin & Suhendri, & Ao, Xianze & Cao, Jingyu & Wang, Qiliang & Riffat, Saffa & Su, Yuehong & Pei, Gang, 2022. "Applications of radiative sky cooling in solar energy systems: Progress, challenges, and prospects," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
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    11. Ehsan, M. Monjurul & Guan, Zhiqiang & Gurgenci, Hal & Klimenko, Alexander, 2020. "Feasibility of dry cooling in supercritical CO2 power cycle in concentrated solar power application: Review and a case study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    12. Xu, Zhen & Liu, Xinxin & Xie, Yingchun, 2023. "Off-design performances of a dry-cooled supercritical recompression Brayton cycle using CO2–H2S as working fluid," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    13. Sleiti, Ahmad K. & Al-Ammari, Wahib A., 2021. "Off-design performance analysis of combined CSP power and direct oxy-combustion supercritical carbon dioxide cycles," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 14-29.
    14. Yu Qiu & Erqi E & Qing Li, 2023. "Triple-Objective Optimization of SCO 2 Brayton Cycles for Next-Generation Solar Power Tower," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-19, July.

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