INDITEP: The first pre-commercial DSG solar power plant

This paper presents the conceptual design of the first solar power plant using Direct Steam Generation (DSG) in a parabolic-trough solar field. Experience and know-how in the DSG process acquired during the DISS project were applied in designing the solar field of this plant. The 5-MWe plant is composed of a DSG parabolic-trough solar field connected to a superheated steam Rankine power cycle. The solar field produces 410 °C/70-bar superheated steam. Detail engineering of this plant is currently underway within the framework of the INDITEP project, which is promoted by a German-Spanish consortium with the financial support of the European Commission (Contract No. ENK5-CT-2001-00540). The main design objective is to assure high operational flexibility and reliability. This is the reason why a robust superheated steam turbine has been selected, though the efficiency of its power block is modest.     

Steam temperature stability in a direct steam generation solar power plant

Direct steam generation (DSG) is one alternative to the current oil-based parabolic trough solar thermal power plants. Within the German research project ITES, the dynamic behavior of a DSG collector field and the interactions with the conventional power block are assessed in detail. A transient solar field model developed by DLR is used to simulate the steam temperature behavior. Artificial irradiance disturbances as well as real irradiance data are used as input to the system. The resulting main steam temperature gradients are then analyzed by Siemens considering the standards for steam turbines.This paper presents the transient simulation results of the steam temperature as well as the corresponding results of the steam turbine analysis. It is found that the occurring temperature gradients are challenging for a safe turbine operation, if a conservative control system is used. Therefore, the use of an additional thermal inertia to stabilize the steam temperature is suggested. Its impact is also analyzed and discussed in this paper.     

Recent Developments in Integrated Solar Combined Cycle Power Plants

Global concern for depleting fossil fuel reserves have been compelling for evolving power generation options using renewable energy sources. The solar energy happens to be a potential source for running the power plants among renewable energy sources. Integrated Solar Combined Cycle(ISCC) power plants have gained popularity among the thermal power plants. Traditional ISCC power plants use Direct Steam Generation(DSG) approach. However, with the DSG method, the ISCC plant’s overall thermal efficiency does not increase significantly due to variations in the availability of solar energy. Thermal Energy Storage(TES) systems when integrated into the solar cycle can address such issues related to energy efficiency, process flexibility, reducing intermittency during non-solar hours. This review work focuses and discusses the developments in various components of the ISCC system including its major cycles and related parameters. The main focus is on CSP technologies, Heat Transfer Fluid(HTF), and Phase Change Material(PCM) used for thermal energy storage. Further, study includes heat enhancement methods with HTF and latent heat storage system. This study will be beneficial to the power plant professionals intending to modify the solar-based Combined Cycle Power Plant(CCPP) and to retrofit the existing Natural Gas Combined Cycle(NGCC) plant with the advanced solar cycle.     

Saturated steam process with direct steam generating parabolic troughs

The direct steam generation (DSG) in parabolic trough collectors is an attractive option regarding the economic improvement of parabolic trough technology for solar thermal electricity generation in the multi Megawatt range. The European DISS project has proven the feasibility of the direct steam generation under real solar conditions in more than 4000 operation hours. Within the European R&D project INDITEP the detailed engineering for a pre-commercial DSG solar thermal power plant with an electrical power of 5 MW is being performed. This small capacity was chosen to minimise the risk for potential investors.In regards to DSG solar thermal power plants, only steam cycles using superheated steam have been investigated so far. The paper will investigate the advantages, disadvantages, and design considerations of a steam cycle operated with saturated steam for the first time. For near term applications, saturated steam operated DSG plants might be an interesting alternative for power generation in the small capacity range due to some specific advantages:

• Simple set up of the collector field.

• Proven safe collector field operation.

• Higher thermal efficiency in the collector field.

Performance of a direct steam generation solar thermal power plant for electricity production as a function of the solar multiple

This paper describes the influence of the solar multiple on the annual performance of parabolic trough solar thermal power plants with direct steam generation (DSG). The reference system selected is a 50 MW_e DSG power plant, with thermal storage and auxiliary natural gas-fired boiler. It is considered that both systems are necessary for an optimum coupling to the electricity grid. Although thermal storage is an opening issue for DSG technology, it gives an additional degree of freedom for plant performance optimization. Fossil hybridization is also a key element if a reliable electricity production must be guaranteed for a defined time span. Once the yearly parameters of the solar power plant are calculated, the economic analysis is performed, assessing the effect of the solar multiple in the levelized cost of electricity, as well as in the annual natural gas consumption.     

Technical and economic assessment of the integrated solar combined cycle power plants in Iran

Thermal efficiency, capacity factor, environmental considerations, investment, fuel and O&M² costs are the main parameters for technical and economic assessment of solar power plants. This analysis has shown that the Integrated Solar Combined Cycle System with 67 MW e solar field (ISCCS-67) is the most suitable plan for the first solar power plant in Iran. The Levelized Energy Costs (LEC) of combined cycle and ISCCS-67 power plants would be equal if 49 million $ of ISCCS-67 capital cost supplied by the international environmental organizations such as Global Environmental Facilities (GEF) and World Bank. This study shows that an ISCCS-67 saves 59 million $ in fuel consumption and reduces about 2.4 million ton in CO₂ emission during 30 years operating period. Increasing of steam turbine capacity by 50%, and 4% improvement in overall efficiency are other advantages of ISCCS-67 power plant. The LEC of ISCCS-67 is 10 and 33% lower than the combined cycle and gas turbine, respectively, at the same capacity factor with consideration of environmental costs.     

Conceptual design and techno-economic assessment of integrated solar combined cycle system with DSG technology

Direct steam generation (DSG) in parabolic trough collectors causes an increase to competitiveness of solar thermal power plants (STPP) by substitution of oil with direct steam generation that results in lower investment and operating costs. In this study the integrated solar combined cycle system with DSG technology is introduced and techno-economic assessment of this plant is reported compared with two conventional cases. Three considered cases are: an integrated solar combined cycle system with DSG technology (ISCCS-DSG), a solar electric generating system (SEGS), and an integrated solar combined cycle system with HTF (heat transfer fluid) technology (ISCCS-HTF).This study shows that levelized energy cost (LEC) for the ISCCS-DSG is lower than the two other cases due to reducing O&M costs and also due to increasing the heat to electricity net efficiency of the power plant. Among the three STPPs, SEGS has the lowest CO₂ emissions, but it will operate during daytime only.     

Comparative system analysis of direct steam generation and synthetic oil parabolic trough power plants with integrated thermal storage

Parabolic trough power plants are currently the most commercially applied systems for CSP power generation. To improve their cost-effectiveness, one focus of industry and research is the development of processes with other heat transfer fluids than the currently used synthetic oil. One option is the utilization of water/steam in the solar field, the so-called direct steam generation (DSG).Several previous studies promoted the economic potential of DSG technology (Eck et al., 2008b, Price et al., 2002, Zarza, 2002). Analyses’ results showed that live steam parameters of up to 500 °C and 120 bars are most promising and could lead to a reduction of the levelized electricity cost (LEC) of about 11% (Feldhoff et al., 2010). However, all of these studies only considered plants without thermal energy storage (TES).Therefore, a system analysis including integrated TES was performed by Flagsol GmbH and DLR together with Solar Millennium AG, Schott CSP GmbH and Senior Berghöfer GmbH, all Germany. Two types of plants are analyzed and compared in detail: a power plant with synthetic oil and a DSG power plant. The design of the synthetic oil plant is very similar to the Spanish Andasol plants (Solar Millennium, 2009) and includes a molten salt two-tank storage system. The DSG plant has main steam parameters of 500 °C and 112 bars and uses phase change material (PCM) for the latent and molten salt for the sensible part of the TES system. To enable comparability, both plants share the same gross electric turbine capacity of 100 MWel, the same TES capacity of 9 h of full load equivalent and the same solar multiple of the collector field of about two.This paper describes and compares both plants’ design, performance and investment. Based on these results, the LEC are calculated and the DSG plant’s potential is evaluated. One key finding is that with currently proposed DSG storage costs, the LEC of a DSG plant could be higher than those of a synthetic oil plant. When considering a plant without TES on the other hand, the DSG system could reduce the LEC. This underlines the large influence of TES and the still needed effort in the development of a commercial storage system for DSG.     

Assessment of different configurations for combined parabolic-trough (PT) solar power and desalination plants in arid regions

The combination of desalination technology into concentrating solar power (CSP) plants needs to be considered for the planned installation of CSP plants in arid regions. There are interesting synergies between the two technologies, like the possibility of substituting the condenser of the power cycle for a thermal desalination unit. This paper presents a thermodynamic evaluation of different configurations for coupling parabolic-trough (PT) solar power plants and desalination facilities in a dry location representing the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The integration of a low-temperature multi-effect distillation (LT-MED) plant fed by the steam at the outlet of the turbine replacing the condenser of the power cycle has been simulated and compared with the combination of CSP with a reverse osmosis (RO) plant. Furthermore, an additional novel concept of concentrating solar power and desalination (CSP+D) has been evaluated: a LT-MED powered by the steam obtained from a thermal vapour compressor (TVC) using the exhaust steam of the CSP plant as entrained vapour and steam extracted from the turbine as the motive vapour of the ejector. This new concept (LT-MED-TVC) has been analyzed and compared with the others, evaluating its optimization for the integration into a CSP plant by considering different extractions of the turbine.     

Exergy analysis and investigation for various feed water heaters of direct steam generation solar–thermal power plant

The energy and exergy analysis has been carried out for the different components of a proposed conceptual direct steam generation (DSG) solar–thermal power plant (STPP). It has been found that the maximum energy loss is in the condenser followed by solar collector field. The maximum exergy loss is in the solar collector field while in other plant components it is small. The possibilities to further improve the plant efficiency are identified and exploited. For minimum exergy loss in receiver the inlet temperature of water to the receiver, which is governed by the number of feed water heaters (FWHs), bleed pressure and mass fraction of bleed steam, must be optimum. The only one FWH has been proposed in conceptual DSG STPP. In order to evaluate the optimum bleed pressure and mass fraction of bleed steam to maximize the STPP efficiency, the investigations are carried out for various bleed pressure and mass fractions of bleed steam of proposed conceptual DSG STPP having one FWH. The investigations for bleed pressure and mass fraction of bleed steam are also carried out by incorporating two and three FWHs. It has been found that there will be significant improvement in efficiency by using three FWHs and further gain in efficiency is possible by making provision for more FWHs.     

Control scheme for direct steam generation in parabolic troughs under recirculation operation mode

Electricity production using solar thermal energy is one of the main research areas at present in the field of renewable energies, these systems being characterised by the need of reliable control systems aimed at maintaining desired operating conditions in the face of changes in solar radiation, which is the main source of energy. A new prototype of solar system with parabolic trough collectors was implemented at the Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA, South-East Spain) to investigate the direct steam generation process under real solar conditions in the parabolic solar collector field of a thermal power plant prototype. This paper presents details and some results of the application of a control scheme designed and tested for the recirculation operation mode, for which the main objective is to obtain steam at constant temperature and pressure at the outlet of the solar field, so that changes produced in the inlet water conditions and/or solar radiation will only affect the amount of steam produced by the solar field. The steam quality and consequently the nominal efficiency of the plant are thus maintained.     

Unified model of solar thermal electric generation systems

In this paper a unified model of a solar electric generation system (SEGS) is developed using a thermo-hydrodynamic model of a trough collector combined with a model of a traditional steam power-house. The model evaluates thermal properties, steam flow rate and pressure drop in a direct steam generation (DSG) or an oil based collector field. The SEGS’s performance in different collector field power-house arrangements is evaluated. Long term performance is implemented by integrating the unified model in TRNSYS using hourly radiation data from the currently operating SEGS site in California. The performance of SEGS under Jordanian radiation conditions is studied by evaluating the yearly delivered energy from a collector field at different sites.     

Analysis of an innovative direct steam generation‐based parabolic trough collector plant hybridized with a biomass boiler

Direct steam generation (DSG) is the process by which steam is directly produced in parabolic trough fields and supplied to a power block. This process simplifies parabolic trough plants and improves cost effectiveness by increasing the permissible temperature of the working fluid. Similar to all solar‐based technologies, thermal energy storage is needed to overcome the intermittent nature of solar. In the present work, an innovative DSG‐based parabolic trough collector (PTC) plant hybridized with a biomass boiler is proposed and analyzed in detail. Two additional configurations comprising indirect steam generation PTC plants were also analyzed to compare their energy and exergy performance. To consider a wide range of operation, the share of biomass input to the hybridized system is varied. Energy and exergy analyses of DSG are conducted and compared with an existing indirect steam generation PTC power plants such as Andasol. The analyses are conducted on a 50 MW regenerative reheat Rankine cycle. The results obtained indicate that the proposed DSG‐based PTC plant is able to increase the overall system efficiency by 3% in comparison with indirect steam generation when linked to a biomass boiler that supplies 50% of the energy.     

整体煤气化联合循环(IGCC)汽轮机的特点

研究了IGCC汽轮机的热力循环特性、热力参数、结构的特点及其滑压运行方式和相应技术     

Control concepts for direct steam generation in parabolic troughs

A new prototype parabolic-trough collector system was erected at the Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA) (1996–1998) to investigate direct steam generation (DSG) in a solar thermal power plant under real solar conditions. The system has been under evaluation for efficiency, cost, control and other parameters since 1999. The main objective of the control system is to obtain steam at constant temperature and pressure at the solar field outlet, so that changes in inlet water conditions and/or in solar radiation affect the amount of steam, but not its quality or the nominal plant efficiency. This paper presents control schemes designed and tested for two operating modes, “Recirculation”, for which a proportional-integral-derivative (PI/PID) control functions scheme has been implemented, and “Once-through”, requiring more complex control strategies, for which the scheme is based on proportional-integral (PI), feedforward and cascade control. Experimental results of both operation modes are discussed.     

100 MW级蒸汽轮机系统稳态变工况运行特性

  目的  为有效提高循环效率,整体煤气化联合循环（Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle, IGCC）发电系统因其自身所具备的热效率高、污染小、运行灵活等优势得到广泛关注。余热锅炉与蒸汽轮机共同构成了联合循环系统的底循环。  方法  文章主要采用能量平衡和热力学计算公式,运用MATLAB进行建模运算,研究了蒸汽流量、给水温度、过热蒸汽温度和再热蒸汽温度的变化对蒸汽轮机的输出功率、热效率和蒸汽总吸热负荷的影响,同时在稳态运行的条件下,对底循环的工作原理和传质传热流程进行分析。  结果  结果表明:增加高压蒸汽流量,减小低压蒸汽流量,可以在具有较高热效率前提下,使蒸汽轮机输出更高的功率。在优化运行参数下,吸热负荷比参考工况减小了45.7 kW,热效率由23.82%增至26.92%。  结论  高压过热蒸汽和再热蒸汽的温度升高,蒸汽轮机系统热效率越高,但吸热负荷和输出功率变化幅度很小,可适当提高高压过热蒸汽和再热蒸汽的温度,有利于提高蒸汽轮机的热效率。而给水温度升高时,输出功率不随给水温度发生变化,而蒸汽吸热负荷会随着给水温度的升高而降低。给水温度越高,蒸汽所需热负荷就越小,有利于减少热能的输入而提高蒸汽轮机的热效率。     

Performance evaluation of solar chimney power plants in Iran

The solar chimney power plant is a simple solar thermal power plant that is capable of converting solar energy into thermal energy in the solar collector. In the second stage, the generated thermal energy is converted into kinetic energy in the chimney and ultimately into electric energy using a combination of a wind turbine and a generator. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of solar chimney power plants in some parts of Iran theoretically and to estimate the quantity of the produced electric energy. A mathematical model based on the energy balance was developed to estimate the power output of solar chimneys as well as to examine the effect of various ambient conditions and structural dimensions on the power generation. The solar chimney power plant with 350 m chimney height and 1000 m collector diameter is capable of producing monthly average 1-2 MW electric power over a year.     

Thermo-economic analysis of solar thermal power cycles assisted MED-VC (multi effect distillation-vapor compression) desalination processes

Solar power assisted different techniques of MED-VC (multi effect distillation-vapor compression) processes is thermo-economically analyzed and evaluated. In this work, two techniques of solar power cycles are considered to power on MED-PF-TVC, MVC (multi effect distillation thermal and mechanical vapor compressions). In the first technique, the developed solar thermal power is directly transmitted from the solar collector field via boiler heat exchanger unit toward the steam ejector of the MED-PF-TVC process. In the second technique, the electrical power generated from the SORC (Solar Organic Rankine Cycle) is used to power on the vapor compressor of the MED-PF-MVC process. The comparison is implemented according to the operation of PTC (parabolic trough collector) with Toluene organic oil and Water working fluids (2nd technique). Therminol-VP1 HTO (Heat Transfer Oil) is considered across the solar field and water is considered for boiler heat exchanger (1st technique). A case study is performed according to 4545 m³/day of distillate product. As a result, reducing the value of compression ratio with increasing the evaporator’s numbers would reduce the specific power consumption, solar field area, and thermo-economic costs. Also it is clear that the operation of steam ejector would increase the gain ratio instead of increasing the evaporator’s numbers.     

有机朗肯循环回收直接空冷机组排气余热系统的热力性能研究

空冷机组汽机排汽热损失巨大,而有机朗肯循环是利用中低温热源的重要技术之一。提出采用有机朗肯循环回收空冷机组汽轮机排汽余热的技术方案,建立空冷机组和有机朗肯循环的物理模型,编制有机朗肯循环回收空冷机组汽轮机排汽余热技术的模拟程序,并将模拟计算结果与厂家提供的某型号有机朗肯循环机组的性能数据进行对比。以内蒙古锡林郭勒盟某典型600 MW机组为对象,探究汽机乏汽温度、环境温度、ORC机组过热度等关键参数变化对系统热力性能的影响规律。结果表明,ORC机组净出功和ORC机组热效率随着汽机乏汽温度的升高而增大,而随着环境温度和ORC机组过热度的增大而减小。     

Solar chimney power plants for high latitudes

A solar chimney system for power production at high latitudes has been designed and its performance has been evaluated. A mathematical model and a code on MATLAB platform have been developed based on monthly average meteorological data and thermodynamic cycle. The thermal performance of a 5 MW nominal power production plant at three locations in Canada, namely Ottawa, Winnipeg and Edmonton, is studied. The sloped collector field is built at suitable mountain hills, which also functions as a chimney. Then a short vertical chimney is added to install the vertical axis air turbine. The results showed that solar chimney power plants at high latitudes may have satisfactory thermal performance and produce as much as 85% of the same plants in southern locations with horizontal collector field. The overall thermal performance of these plants is a little less than 0.5%.