Optimal synthesis and design of solar-aided conventional thermal power plants with/without thermal storage

Semester Project: Fran Jaksic

Assistant: Ligang Wang, Sophia Wallerand 

Concentrated solar thermal has been considered as the most significant means of utilizing solar energy. Different types of concentration technology can achieve various grades of heat covering a wide range of temperature levels. For example, by parobolic trough, the concentrated heat can reach as high as 420 C, while via solar dish and tower, the temperature can be even over 700 C. There have been many means of utilizing solar thermal energy, e.g., hydrothermal gasification and solar thermal power generation. It is also highlighted that there has been a trend to utilize solar thermal by integrating solar thermal to conventional thermal power generation technology, particularly pulversized coal-fired power plant and gas-turbine combined cycle. However, the integration of solar thermal into conventional steam cycle has not been investigated in a systematic way, thus the optimal design of such hybrid systems has not been achieved. Therefore, following our last semester project, namely, superstructure-based synthesis of steam turbine network, this semester project addresses the optimal integration of solar thermal energy into steam cycle with/without thermal energy storage.

Objective

 Investigate multi-period, multi-objective optimal integration of various solar-thermal technologies into pulverized coal-fired power plant (PCPP) and gas turbine combined cycle (GTCC) with/without thermal storage technologies.

Task

  • Superstructure-based synthesis and optimal design of steam turbine network and heat exchanger network for the two types of thermal power plants, OSMOSE/MOO (or DAKOTA)
  • Surrogate model for the thermodynamic performance of the solar-thermal islands
  1. Modeling of time-dependent performance of solar thermal islands (parobolic trough and solar tower), Ebsilon/gPROMS
  2. Linear surrogate model development, DAKOTA
  • Surrogate model for the thermodynamic performance of thermal storage technologies
  1. Modeling of the charge-discharge cycle of different thermal storage technolgies, Ebsilon/gPROMS
  2. Linear surrogate model development, DAKOTA
  • Superstructure-based synthesis and optimal design of the hybrid power plants with/without thermal storage
  1. Steam turbine and heat exchanger network
  2. Periodic charge-discharge performance of storage, OSMOSE/DAKOTA (or MOO)
  • Optimal sizing and operation of the hybrid power plants