Exergoeconomic analysis for the design improvement of supercritical CO2 cycle in concentrated solar plant

In this work, an exergoeconomic analysis is applied to the power cycle of a concentrated solar plant for its design improvement. A supercritical CO2 cycle connected with the exothermic reactor of a thermochemical storage unit is considered. The analysis is conducted with the goal of highlighting the advantages of exergoeconomic analysis while suggesting changes to both the design parameters and the system configuration. Starting from the plant configuration which guarantees the maximum efficiency, the exergoeconomic analysis is iteratively applied with the goal of reducing the unit cost of electricity. The analysis is conducted in a way that cost functions of the components can be substituted with the cost analysis of specific designs. This is a big advantage of this procedure, which is suitable for applications in which economic analysis requires a detailed knowledge of the system characteristics. The procedure is then validated comparing the results with those obtained through mathematical optimization

Optimal design and operation of a biogas fuelled MCFC (molten carbonate fuel cells) system integrated with an anaerobic digester

In this paper, a biogas fuelled hybrid system, obtained by integrating a molten carbonate fuel cell with a micro-turbine is considered. The size of the plant is selected on the basis of the maximum biogas production registered by monitoring the annual operation of an anaerobic digestion plant. The system produces electricity and supplies heat to the digester. Heat is necessary to keep correct operating temperature of the bacteria. A model of the system components is built and the plant optimization is performed. Design parameters are the fuel cell temperature, pressure ratio, inlet turbine temperature, reforming temperature, recirculation percentage, size of the two subsystems. Two competing objective functions are considered: the energy efficiency and the unit cost of electricity. The Pareto front shows that efficiencies close to 50% are obtained, with unit costs comparable with market prices of electricity. The off-design conditions caused by variations in biogas production and thermal request of the digester are also considered. Experimental data from the digester are used to investigate these variations. The optimal operation is selected depending on the daily heat request and biogas production. Possible economic and energy benefits that can be achieved by adding natural gas are also investigated

Integration of ThermoChemical Energy Storage in Concentrated Solar Power. Part 2: comprehensive optimization of supercritical CO2 power block

Abstract Among the various options of Thermo-Chemical Energy Storage, Calcium-Looping represents a promising alternative for Concentrated Solar Power plants, thanks to high operating temperatures, high energy density and absence of thermal losses. Finding the most suitable power cycle for this system is a task that has still to be solved and is not trivial because it consists in a complex process synthesis problem. From a preliminary analysis (Part 1), supercritical CO2 cycles results to be the most promising option. In the present work, the integration of this power block (pilot plant size, 2 MWe) is deeply investigated through a comprehensive analysis. Numerous thermal cycle layouts are considered and two options for the power block thermal feeding are assumed. The HEATSEP methodology (comprising genetic algorithm, pinch analysis and bisection) is adopted to optimize both components operating conditions and heat transfer processes in the discharging phase. The plant section devoted to the charging process is optimized and dimensioned taking into account the transient operation. Thanks to the complex problem structure developed, the algorithm is free to find the most suitable configuration between a huge set of feasible combinations. Both energy and economic optimizations are performed for the complete plant and, being in contrast between them, a multi-objective optimization is executed. The independent variables influence on the resulting configuration is assessed and intermediate layouts obtained from the Pareto curve are commented. Carbonator inlet temperature of reactants are observed to increase with plant efficiency. The maximum efficiency (21%) is obtained with the most complex power block (recompression, intercooling and reheating) exchanging heat directly on the carbonator wall. Less performing discharging processes are cheaper but determine higher costs of charging sections; the resulting effect is positive and the integration of simpler power blocks results economically convenient. A power cycle with single intercooling and thermal feeding performed on the carbonator outflows is the result of economic optimization (efficiency equal to 16.3%). The algorithm gives precedence to power block thermal feeding and then to reactants preheating. Novel plant layouts are designed for these configurations and data useful for further investigations are provided in the last part of this work

Including thermal network operation in the optimization of a Multi Energy System

The combined production of different energy vectors with Multi Energy Systems is a very attractive opportunity to increase the generation efficiency, compensate the oscillations of renewable sources, and improve the flexi-bility in power generation. Optimizing their operation is a complex task, since the problem can easily reach high dimensions, representing a challenge for commercial solvers. The inclusion in the optimization of a thermal network whose simulation is based on temperatures and flowrates allows to significantly improve the applica-bility of the obtained results. In addition, the effect of the operating temperatures on the performances of thermal components should be included as well. With these purposes, the present study proposes a strategy for the operation optimization of a MES and its internal thermal network. The model relies on a decomposition approach, where the original problem is divided in two subproblems. In the first one, the MES operating costs are minimized without considering the effects of the thermal network, while in the second one, the thermal network operation is optimized in order to find the operating conditions that are more favourable to the ones found for the MES. These subproblems are iteratively solved until the process converges to a stable solution. Some efforts are taken to keep the mathematical formulation as simple as possible (the MES is a Mixed Integer Linear Pro-gramming, while the heating network is a Quadratically Constrained Programming). The developed model al-lows to find near-optimal solutions which satisfy the numerous physical and technical constraints addressed. The results provide an optimized schedule for the thermal storage in terms of mass flowrates and temperature. One of the strengths of the model is the relatively low computational time required to reach the convergence and, despite not being the global optimum, the high quality of the solution obtained

Optimal Installation of Heat Pumps in Large District Heating Networks

Power-to-heat technology represents a promising solution for the decarbonization of the energy sector. The installation of large-scale heat pumps within district heating systems is widely recognized to be a cost-effective and competitive way to provide flexibility to the electric system, enhancing the use of intermittent renewable energy sources. The goal of this paper is to show how the economic and environmental benefits provided by the installation of a large-scale heat pump in existing district heating systems vary according to the installation location in different scenarios. To do that, an integrated methodology is developed. This includes a physical model of the thermo-fluid dynamic of the district heating network and a detailed modeling of the heat pump. To compare the different positions and also the different operating conditions, an approach based on exergy analysis is adopted. Moreover, a specific control strategy of the mass-flow rate is analyzed to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The application to a real large-scale district heating network shows that reductions in CO2 emissions of almost 4% can be obtained by installing a single heat pump of about 4 MWe (over a total thermal load of about 305 MWt), while this positive effect can be reduced by up to 63% if placing the heat pump at non-optimal locations

Integration of ThermoChemical Energy Storage in Concentrated Solar Power. Part 1: energy and economic analysis/optimization

Coupling of Concentrated Solar Power and Thermo-Chemical Energy Storage is a very interesting option because of the high efficiencies attainable with a renewable source and the large variation of solar radiation. Thermo-Chemical Energy Storage based on Calcium-Looping represents a promising opportunity thanks to high operating temperature, high energy density, null thermal losses and cheap calcium oxide precursor exploitable. The large variety of suitable power blocks and the importance of their integration in the discharging process makes it necessary to perform a coherent analysis of the selected alternatives, in order to compare them and establish the most convenient integration. Many aspects must be taken into account, such as system efficiency, investment costs and layout complexity. The purposes of the present work are: the development of a methodology to simulate the entire plant operations; the synthesis of heat recovery systems for both the charging and discharging processes; the execution of an economic analysis and the development of economic optimizations for the design/dimensioning of solar side and calciner side. Between the options investigated, power blocks based on supercritical CO2 are the most convenient both in terms of global efficiency (higher than 19%) and capital investment, keeping this advantage also for higher plant sizes. The methodology here developed and the results obtained are useful information for a deeper analysis of the most promising integration alternative, which is performed in the second part of this study

Optimal operation of district heating networks through demand response

In this paper, an optimization method aiming at minimizing the thermal peaks in district heating networks is proposed. The method relies on a thermo-fluid dynamic model of both the supply and return networks and permits to analyze the opportunities for thermal peak shaving through “virtual storage”. The latter is obtained through variation of the thermal request profiles of the users. The presence of a peak in the morning is due to the shut-down or attenuation of the heating systems during the night, which lead to a dramatical increase of the thermal request early in the morning. The peak compromises a full exploitation of cogeneration and renewable plants that are able to cover just a portion of the maximum load. Consequently, boilers have to be used, leading the system to a performance reduction and to an increase of primary energy consumption. Moreover, the peak makes the possibility of network extension quite difficult, because of the limitation on mass flow rates in the pipes. For this reason, a model is developed to make the thermal profile as flat as possible. The model is applied to a portion of the Turin district heating network, which is the largest network in Italy. Results show that reductions between 20% and 42% are possible, depending on the maximum changes in the possible schedules

Optimal Configuration of Power-to-Cool Technology in District Cooling Systems

In a multienergy framework, power-to-heat technology is becoming increasingly attractive. This interest is mainly due to the possibility of exploiting excesses and unbalances of electricity, which are becoming more and more common with the increasing capacity of the renewable sources. An interesting option consists in using heat pumps to convert excess of electricity produced by photovoltaic systems (especially in the midday hours) into cold to be provided to district heating and district cooling networks. This article aims to propose a methodology to select the best heat pump location in district cooling system. The analysis is performed with the aim of minimizing the cost of network construction and pumping. The procedure includes the best heat pump location and the design of the pipeline. Results show that distributed heat pumps allow one reducing both the costs and the average pipeline diameters by about 50% with respect to concentrated production. Furthermore, the optimal location of distributed heat pumps allows reducing costs of about 7% with respect to a uniformly distributed production