Designing a Bubbling Fluidized Bed (BFB) boiler for research purposes

This project is part of the efforts made by Savonia University of Applied Sciences to plan the future EU-funded combustion research laboratory that will be located on Varkaus Campus (Finland). The main objective of the present thesis was to carry out an optimal design, in technical, environmental and economical terms, of a small-sized bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) boiler, which will be used mainly for research purposes. This design takes as a reference a former BFB boiler that was located at Lappeenranta University of Technology. The efforts have been focused mainly on adapting this reference design to be used for research activities and bringing construction and operating costs down. All the drawings and virtual three-dimensional models of the components have been executed using SolidWords, a computer-aided design program. The result of the design process is an efficient and environmentally friendly boiler that is going to enable numerous testing services and lines of research

Annual Report 2021 of the Institute for Thermal Energy Technology and Safety

The annual report of the Institute for Thermal Energy Technology and Safety of KIT summarizes its research activities in 2021 and provides some highlights of each working group of the institute. Among them are thermal-hydraulic analyses for fusion reactors, accident analyses for light water reactors, innovative nuclear concepts, and research on innovative energy technologies like liquid metal technologies for energy conversion, hydrogen technologies and geothermal power plants. Moreover, the institute has been engaged in education and training in energy technologies, illustrated by e.g. training in nuclear engineering by the Framatome Professional School

Carbon Catcher Design Report

Overview. The design of the overall Carbon Catcher project can be separated into four distinct systems, each of which is assigned a specialized committee. The committee names and responsibilities are listed below: Air Mover The overall goal for the Air Mover committee is the design of the turbine assembly. As the overall goal of the project is to collect and separate carbon dioxide from the air, one of the most important parts is to actually get the air to pass through the carbon-catching membrane. Passive air would not give a significant enough yield rate to make the carbon dioxide collection rate impactful, thus air must be sucked through a vacuum/turbine. Membrane The goal of Membrain is to create a membrane that can filter out CO2 through various methods. These methods are limited, due to there being such variety, to certain techniques and membrane material types that have been decided, prior, by the committee. Most membranes will be geared towards utilizing temperature and pressure along with gaseous speed and flow rate. In addition, examining certain treatments, such as regeneration of material, and replacements will be looked into as well, to see how it fares in sustainability. Carbon Storer The Carbon Storer committee will design a store and transport system for fluid CO2 after it is extracted from the atmosphere. Primary considerations include geological solutions, cost-effective materials, and analysis methods to improve overall capacity and efficiency. Additionally, the committee will select an environmentally and economically sustainable method of recycling the captured CO2. PyControl The PyControl committee will design a series of sensors and actuators, which will primarily support the sequestration and pipeline systems present in the Carbon Storer Committee and direct air capture system in Air Mover. The design can be broken into four control layers: Input/Output, Field Controllers, Data, and Supervisory. Goal The overarching goal of Carbon Catcher is to design a cost-effective, scalable atmospheric carbon dioxide removal system that is capable of being deployed in a variety of urban environments and may fit a variety of different customer requirements or requests

Machine learning solutions for maintenance of power plants

The primary goal of this work is to present analysis of current market for predictive maintenance software solutions applicable to a generic coal/gas-fired thermal power plant, as well as to present a brief discussion on the related developments of the near future. This type of solutions is in essence an advanced condition monitoring technique, that is used to continuously monitor entire plants and detect sensor reading deviations via correlative calculations. This approach allows for malfunction forecasting well in advance to a malfunction itself and any possible unforeseen consequences. Predictive maintenance software solutions employ primitive artificial intelligence in the form of machine learning (ML) algorithms to provide early detection of signal deviation. Before analyzing existing ML based solutions, structure and theory behind the processes of coal/gas driven power plants is going to be discussed to emphasize the necessity of predictive maintenance for optimal and reliable operation. Subjects to be discussed are: basic theory (thermodynamics and electrodynamics), primary machinery types, automation systems and data transmission, typical faults and condition monitoring techniques that are also often used in tandem with ML. Additionally, the basic theory on the main machine learning techniques related to malfunction prediction is going to be briefly presented

An Intelligent Monitoring Interface for a Coal-Fired Power Plant Boiler Trips

A power plant monitoring system embedded with artificial intelligence can enhance its effectiveness by reducing the time spent in trip analysis and follow up procedures. Experimental results showed that Multilayered perceptron neural network trained with Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithm achieved the least mean squared error of 0.0223 with the misclassification rate of 7.435% for the 10 simulated trip prediction. The proposed method can identify abnormality of operational parameters at the confident level of ±6.3%

Design and Analysis of Geothermal Wellbore Energy Conversion System Working on Zero Mass Withdrawal Principle

This project is sponsored by the Department of Energy of the United States and dedicated to development of electricity production from the low-enthalpy geothermal reservoirs. The prime interest are reservoirs that are characterized by low temperature of heat source located in deep saline aquifers with high permeable rock. Usually energy production from these resources are not economical by using a conventional binary power plant approach. The presented PhD work is a study of a new system that utilizes a single-well technology and working on supercritical power cycle (PC). The wellbore energy conversion system is operating with Zero Mass Withdrawal (ZMW) principle, which implies no geo-fluid pumping to the surface facility. This study introduces analyses of three main subsystems of the power unit. The heat extraction subsystem (HES) is located at the reservoir depth. The power generation subsystem (PGS) is represented by power cycle, and the heat rejection subsystem (HRS) contains an air driven condenser as the only part located on the surface. Several working fluids were examined. Based on the thermodynamic study the best working fluid choice is carbon dioxide. The project includes a simplified mathematical model derived from energy balance equations for each subsystem. Dimensionless analysis is performed in order to connect subsystems of different scales and show energy flow from the reservoir to the surface environment. The reservoir prototype is a hot saline aquifer located in Vermilion Parish, LA. The numerical model illustrates application of the ZMW method to the energy production from this reservoir. The maximum net power production is constrained by the power spent on a brine pump, which is a function of frictional losses in the downhole heat exchanger (DHE). The numerical investigation defines the optimal operating brine flow regime for the maximum net power production. One of the qualitative parameters of this design scheme is a thermal breakthrough time of injected cooled brine flowing toward the production side. This parameter is derived using potential flow theory application for several cases of flowing reservoirs, and various brine flow rates. The project contains an economic analysis based on determination of Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE). The results are in a good agreement with references and show competitive results for low-enthalpy reservoir exploration in terms of electric power production

The manufacturing value chain of power generation equipment: A case study

On the basis of literature study and data collection, this thesis analyzes the value chain in Chinese power industry, power generation equipment industry, and steam turbine manufacturing industry systematically, in combination with Chinese power generation equipment industry background. It obtains a conclusion that the manufacturing takes the core status in the whole value chain. Around the manufacturing value chain, this thesis analyzes the key links and the key components of manufacturing value chain by case study of Dongfang Turbine Co., Ltd. It also makes a concrete description of manufacturing value chain’s management and upgrading in the aspects of technology innovation, manufacturing technology layout optimization, production and quality management, and the management of value network.Com base na revisão de literatura e na recolha e tratamento de dados, esta tese analisa a cadeia de valor na indústria energética Chinesa no que respeita à produção de equipamento para a geração de energia e turbinas a vapor. A tese conclui que a produção assume um lugar central em toda a cadeia de valor. Tendo como pano de fundo a cadeia de valor da produção esta tese analisa as principais ligações e as principais componentes da produção da empresa Dongfang Turbine. Ltd. A tese descreve também a gestão da cadeia de valor da produção, dando especial ênfase à inovação tecnológica, à optimização do layout, à gestão da qualidade e à gestão do valor produzido em rede

Thermodynamic behaviour of supercritical water as working fluid in advanced coal-fired power plants: simulation and design study

The UK is facing an energy crisis due to the closure of old nuclear power plants which will not be replaced until Generation III nuclear reactors are built. Coal is a realistic option to fill the gap, although there is a need to use cleaner and efficient technologies as a means to comply with global environmental regulations. Supercritical coal-fired power is a viable clean coal technology; however the UK National Grid Code is built around conventional power plants, and thus compliance is uncertain. Modelling the thermal behaviour of the supercritical boiler water cycle using computational fluid dynamics is a practical method to approach compliance. The CFD models developed with the software Comsol Multiphysics were validated and verified using experimental and numerical data, respectively. Subsequently, a test-element representing one pipe from the water wall was scaled-down to match computational requirements, and tested at two different thermal boundary conditions. A strong, forcedconvective flow was revealed, with buoyancy effects at the inlet and a considerable influence of thermal acceleration. The sharp changes of the thermo-physical properties were the most influential hydrothermal factor. Heat transfer coefficient peaked near the pipe inlet, and the outlet section showed mild hydro-thermal performance, impaired by the acceleration effects

Nuclear Power

At the onset of the 21st century, we are searching for reliable and sustainable energy sources that have a potential to support growing economies developing at accelerated growth rates, technology advances improving quality of life and becoming available to larger and larger populations. The quest for robust sustainable energy supplies meeting the above constraints leads us to the nuclear power technology. Today's nuclear reactors are safe and highly efficient energy systems that offer electricity and a multitude of co-generation energy products ranging from potable water to heat for industrial applications. Catastrophic earthquake and tsunami events in Japan resulted in the nuclear accident that forced us to rethink our approach to nuclear safety, requirements and facilitated growing interests in designs, which can withstand natural disasters and avoid catastrophic consequences. This book is one in a series of books on nuclear power published by InTech. It consists of ten chapters on system simulations and operational aspects. Our book does not aim at a complete coverage or a broad range. Instead, the included chapters shine light at existing challenges, solutions and approaches. Authors hope to share ideas and findings so that new ideas and directions can potentially be developed focusing on operational characteristics of nuclear power plants. The consistent thread throughout all chapters is the "system-thinking" approach synthesizing provided information and ideas. The book targets everyone with interests in system simulations and nuclear power operational aspects as its potential readership groups - students, researchers and practitioners