A Preliminary Exergy Analysis of the EU DEMO Fusion Reactor

Purpose of the present study is the exergy analysis of EU DEMO pulsed fusion power plant considering the Primary Heat Transfer Systems, the Intermediate Heat Transfer System (IHTS) including the Energy Storage System (ESS) as a first option to ensure the continuity of electric power released to the grid. A second option here considered is a methane fired auxiliary boiler replacing the ESS. The Power Conversion System (PCS) performance is evaluated as well in the overall balance. The performance analysis is based on the exergy method to specifically assess the amount of exergy destruction determined by irreversible phenomena along the whole cyclic process. The pulse and dwell phases of the reactor operation are evaluated considering the state of the art of the ESS adopting molten salts alternate heating and storage in a hot tank followed by a cooling and recovery of molten salt in a cold tank to ensure the continuity of power release to the electrical grid. The second option of the plant configuration is evaluated on the basis of an auxiliary boiler replacing the ESS with a 10% of the power produced by the reactor during both pulse and dwell modes

Effects of Dynamic Shading on Thermal Exergy and Exergy Efficiency of a Photovoltaic Array

In this study, the effects of dynamic shading caused by an incorrectly positioned transformer building in a Photovoltaic array were investigated regarding the exergy efficiency and thermal exergy for a year. Experimental and theoretical results show that the thermal exergy is affected by the surface temperature of solar panels depending on their shading ratio. In addition, as the shading ratio increases, the electrical exergy and power conversion efficiency decrease. It is also seen that the thermal exergy and exergy efficiency of the PV power system is negatively affected by the increasing solar cell temperature. The average shading ratio of 3.11% during a year causes an increase of about 23.32% of the thermal exergy, and loss in power conversion efficiency of about 4.88% and loss in exergy efficiency of about 13.72% over a year. Overall, it can be concluded that the long-term shading will significantly adversely affect the PV array performance in terms of electrical exergy and thermal exergy

Thermoeconomic approach for the analysis of control system of energy plants

In this paper a thermoeconomic approach is applied to the dynamic model of a Power System in order to investigate the effects of the control system on the primary energy consumption and on the economic costs of the product. To achieve this objective, various control strategies are compared when variations of the operation condition, due to some internal or external causes, are produced. These variations cause the intervention of the control system, which rearranges the operating condition in order to have the controlled quantities within acceptable ranges. Generally the plant efficiency changes, depending on the selected strategy. A microturbine is considered as the case study. The analysis here proposed allows one to quantify the effect of the control on the performance variation of the components. The approach associates an exergetic cost and a thermoeconomic cost to the control system operation, which expresses the additional resource (primary energy and economic resources) consumptions that may be associated to the control. The impact on the initial and final steady states as well as the transient evolution are considered. This can be usefully applied to improve energy system operation acting on the control system, both in the off-design steady states and transient operations. In the particular application considered in this paper, reductions of about 8% in fuel consumption and 5% in the total costs are achieved. Concerning transient operation, it is shown that the control system can produce large variation in the operation cost

Thermoeconomics as a tool for the design and analysis of energy savings initiatives in buildings connected to district heating networks

District Heating (DH) is a rational way to supply heat to buildings in urban areas. This is expected to play an important role in future energy scenarios, mainly because of the possibility to recover waste heat and to integrate renewable energy sources. Even if DH is a well known technology, there are open problems to face. Some of these problems are related to tendencies to reduce design temperatures, the improvement of control strategies, connection of new users to existing networks, implementation of energy savings initiatives and the access of multiple heat producers to the same network. This paper aims to show that exergy is an appropriate quantity for the analysis of DH systems and thermoeconomics can be profitably used to improve their design and operation. Three possible applications of thermoeconomic theories are presented: variation of supply temperature along the heating season, opportunities to connect new users, effects of energy savings initiatives in buildings connected with the network

Exergy analysis of a solar photovoltaic module

PV energy is the direct conversion of solar radiation into electricity. In this paper, an analysis of the influence of parameters such as global irradiance or temperature in the performance of a PV installation has been carried out. A PV module was installed in a building at the University of Málaga, and these parameters were experimentally determined for different days and different conditions of irradiance and temperature. Moreover, IV curves were obtained under these conditions to know the open-circuit voltage and the short-circuit current of the module. With this information, and using the first law of thermodynamics, an energy analysis was performed to determine the energy efficiency of the installation. Similarly, using the second law of thermodynamics, an exergy analysis is used to obtain the exergy efficiency. The results show that the energy efficiency varies between 10% and 12% and the exergy efficiency between 14% and 17%. It was concluded that the exergy analysis is more suitable for studying the performance, and that only electric exergy must be considered as useful exergy. This exergy efficiency can be improved if heat is removed from the PV module surface, and an optimal temperature is reached.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

General methodology for exergy balance in ProSimPlus® process simulator

This paper presents a general methodology for exergy balance in chemical and thermal processes integrated in ProSimPlus® as a well-adopted process simulator for energy efficiency analysis. In this work, as well as using the general expressions for heat and work streams, all of exergy balance is presented within only one software in order to fully automate exergy analysis. In addition, after exergy balance, the essential elements such as source of irreversibility for exergy analysis are presented to help the user for modifications on either process or utility system. The applicability of the proposed methodology in ProSimPlus® is shown through a simple scheme of Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) recovery process and its steam utility system. The methodology does not only provide the user with necessary exergetic criteria to pinpoint the source of exergy losses, it also helps the user to find the way to reduce the exergy losses. These features of the proposed exergy calculator make it preferable for its implementation in ProSimPlus® to define the most realistic and profitable retrofit projects on the existing chemical and thermal plants

waste heat integration in smart thermal networks a dynamic thermoeconomic approach

Abstract The transformation of large district heating networks (DHN) towards smart thermal networks is one way of contributing to a decarbonized integrated energy system. DHN might operate as a backbone receiving a variety of different energy vectors. As a smart thermal network, a DHN is therefore able to solve both spatial- and temporal mismatch of energy demand-supply, while its operation is mostly governed by fluctuating or batch-like supply of thermal exergy. Thermoeconomics is used to provide information upon third-party excess, exergetic destruction and the feasibility of waste-heat integration but currently mainly focuses on system evaluation. In this work, thermoeconomics is used to extend the information on operational level, focusing on the dynamic behavior of exergy flows in systems with various producers and consumers. The aim is to evaluate the individual contributions of energy service by the substations (the consumers on component level) to the thermoeconomic cost generation in the system. This is done through applying the principles of exergy costing to network nodes of a graph-based network model. Furthermore, product and fuel flows, which are intrinsic part of the theory of exergy cost, are defined on control volume level and on component level. A matrix formulation of the approach is developed which can be directly applied to graph-based models using the incidence matrix for topology representation. The thermoeconomic model is applied to a case study of a real existing DHN in current operation. The effect of waste-heat integration of a typical batch-like waste heat profile at 80 °C shows that the exergetic costs are dependent on the position of the network and can be quantified in economic terms, which provides important information for decentralized integration, third-party access and dynamic pricing

Thermoeconomic cost assessment in future district heating networks

This paper aims at showing the capabilities of thermoeconomic analysis for solving cost assessments in district heating systems both at user and producer sides. In the near future it is expected that multiple producers are allowed to supply heat to the same district heating network, similarly to what happens in the case of the electric grid. Not only the amount of heat they may produce should be properly accounted, but also its quality, and also the pumping power that is requested to supply a unity of thermal energy to the endusers. Moreover, buildings equipped with low temperature heating system allow better use of the thermal energy vector, thus allowing larger efficiency of thermal plants. In the present work, the use of thermoeconomics for the analysis of these aspects is proposed. The approach allows one performing cost assessment in district heating, taking into account the effects of investment and operating costs and thermodynamic irreversibilities in the cost formation of heat from its production in the plants to its use in the buildings. Simple examples are analyzed in order to provide a quantitative evaluation of the various cost terms, depending on the operating conditions, topology and characteristics of the users/producers

Exergy Flows Inside Expansion and Compression Devices Operating below and across Ambient Temperature

The various definitions of the coefficient of exergy efficiency (CEE), which have been proposed in the past for the thermodynamic evaluation of compression and expansion devices, operating below and across ambient temperature as well as under vacuum conditions, are examined. The shortcomings of those coefficients are illustrated. An expression for the CEE based on the concept of transiting exergy is presented. This concept permits the quantitative and non-ambiguous definition of two thermodynamic metrics: exergy produced and exergy consumed. The development of these CEEs in the cases of an expansion valve, a cryo-expander, a vortex tube, an adiabatic compressor and a monophasic ejector operating below or across ambient temperature is presented. Computation methods for the transiting exergy are outlined. The analysis based on the above metrics, combined with the traditional analysis of exergy losses, allows pinpointing the most important factors affecting the thermodynamic performance of sub-ambient compression and expansion