Comparative cost study of four wet/dry cooling concepts that use ammonia as the intermediate heat exchange fluid
The projected costs of five alternative wet/dry power plant heat rejection concepts were studied under conditions imposed by hypothetical use in association with the San Juan Unit 3 plant, a fossil-fuel 550-MWe facility currently under construction near the ''Four Corners'' area of New Mexico. Four of the cooling systems use ammonia as a heat transfer medium between the steam condenser and the heat rejection tower, while the fifth uses the condenser cooling water for heat transport. The four alternative concepts were: the HOTERV plate fin with deluge augmented cooling (vertical round towers); the HOTERV plate fin with deluge augmented cooling (horizontal configuration); the separate channel augmented tower (SCAT); a Curtiss-Wright extruded tube with integral fins, augmented with water flowing internally through separate channels, and the augmenting ammonia condenser (AAC); Curtiss-Wright tube augmented with a separate water-cooled condenser close-coupled to a conventional wet tower. The state-of-the-art method was the integrated wet/dry tower currently being constructed at the San Juan Unit 3 station. The comparable capital cost of each of the five concepts was calculated. Fuel savings resulting from using each of the advanced concepts vis-a-vis the reference integrated wet-dry cooling towers, expressed in barrels of oil per year, were calculated. The study indicates that the ammonia system with either the deluge scheme for wet/dry cooling, using the HOTERV plate fin heat exchange, or the Curtiss-Wright chipped-fin surface, (using either the SCAT arrangement or the separate water-cooled ammonia condenser for augmentation) are potentially more cost-effective than the state-of-the-art system for use in a power plant heat rejection system. This has been shown specifically only under conditions imposed by the site at the San Juan plant.
- Research Organization:
- Battelle Pacific Northwest Labs., Richland, WA (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- EY-76-C-06-1830
- OSTI ID:
- 6518772
- Report Number(s):
- PNL-2661
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Portions of document are illegible
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
COOLING SYSTEMS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COST
FOSSIL-FUEL POWER PLANTS
AMMONIA
CAPITAL
COOLING TOWERS
HEAT EXCHANGERS
INVESTMENT
NEW MEXICO
WATER
HYDRIDES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NITROGEN HYDRIDES
NORTH AMERICA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POWER PLANTS
SOUTHWEST REGION
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
USA
200101* - Fossil-Fueled Power Plants- Cooling & Heat Transfer Equipment & Systems