Combustion Development of a Physics Based Low-Order Dynamic Model in IDAES for Performance Environment of a Coal Power Plant
The steam power plants of the future will be required to be capable of flexible operations to meet the needs of the grid; use innovative and cutting-edge components that improve efficiency and reduce emissions; provide resilient power to Americans; are small compared to today’s conventional utility-scale coal; and will transform how coal and natural gas technologies are designed and manufactured. Indeed, this was a key component of the DoE’s “Coal FIRST” (Flexible, Innovative, Resilient, Small, Transformative) initiative and continues to be an important factor in the development of natural gas combined-cycle plants to provide secure, stable, and reliable power. In particular, with the larger penetration of renewables into the power generation mix, it is expected that steam power plant s will cycle more frequently and ramp up much faster. Such frequent and fast ramping process increases stresses in various components, leading to lower life for components. In addition, frequent operation at off -load conditions reduce overall plant efficiency. Two key components that are expected to be adversely affected by the transient, cycling operation of the plants are the low pressure turbine (LPT) and the air-cool ed condenser (ACC). The last few stages of LPT ma y potentially be susceptible to multi-phase effects from water droplet condensation if there is sub-cooling i n the steam. Droplet and wet-steam formation is a concern since in addition to performance loss they ca n also cause erosion of the turbine blades and reduce operational life-time. In addition, plant efficiency ca n be further impacted when the heat rejection occurs through an ACC, especially in a region where there can be large variation in ambient temperature affecting the condenser performance. Underperformance of the ACC and inability to reject the requisite heat can have a significant impact on the overall efficiency and power output of the cycle, and component life. To facilitate system level transient performance and optimization studies, in a framework such as IDAES, dynamic models for the LPT and the ACC under relevant conditions would need to be developed. The focus of the program is on developing the models for the t wo components: (1) two-phase flow interaction with LPT blades and its effect on LPT performance, and 2) Impact of ambient temperature on performance of ACC. Both models will be ultimately be developed for transient or dynamic conditions caused by changes in external parameters. The LPT nucleation and drop let growth dynamic model will be developed from high fidelity simulations with CRAFT Tech’s CRUNCH C FD® tool that has been extensively validated for nucleation and droplet condensation at high, near critical conditions. The model for the ACC was developed from thermal solvers at UCF (Univ. of Central Florida) and that has been tested extensively to verify accurate prediction of key physical phenomena in this regime. The models were implemented in the IDAES (Institute for the Design of Advanced Energy Systems) open source platform. IDAES is a multi-scale modeling and optimization framework that integrates process systems engineering and computational tools. This framework is designed to facilitate the development of advanced fossil energy systems through modular model structure, and support for steady-state performance and dynamic processes. IDAES models are based on Pyomo – a Python-based algebraic modeling language. The use of a high-level programming language, like Python, and an open-source development environment allows for easy integration with models based on higher-fidelity simulation tools, such as C RUNCH CFD® tool. Thus, the integrated model for air-cooled, coal-fired power plant in IDAES can be us ed in the future to perform transient system studies in order to maximize component life and optimize efficiency.
- Research Organization:
- Combustion Research and Flow Technology, Inc.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE); USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0020909
- OSTI ID:
- 1828875
- Type / Phase:
- STTR (Phase I)
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-CRAFT-0020909
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Multiobjective Dynamic Optimization for Optimal Load-Following of Natural Gas Combined Cycle Power Plants under Stress Constraints
Enhancement of Optical Efficiency of CSP Mirrors for Reducing O&M Cost via Near-Continuous Operation of Self-Cleaning Electrodynamic Screens (EDS). Final Report