skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Estimation of benefits from demonstrating advanced wet/dry cooling technology: a framework and partial analysis

Abstract

An analysis was performed to estimate reductions in future electric power generation costs expected to occur through a proposed 6- to 10-MWe demonstration of an ammonia (NH/sub 3/) cooling concept. Theoretical and empirical research on technological substitution and diffusion were reviewed in developing the analytical framework and computer model used in this analysis. Stochastic learning and market penetration functions were used to derive benefit distributions for two primary scenarios. The distributions provide not only single best estimates of the benefits, but measures of the uncertainty surrounding the estimates as well. The benefits were estimated by subtracting the net present value of expected future cooling costs if no demonstration were to take place from the net present value of expected future cooling costs if the demonstration did take place. If the public demonstration does not occur, two scenarios were hypothesized: ammonia cooling will never be commercialized; and ammonia cooling will be commercialized at a later date than if the demonstration had occurred. The analysis suggests that the benefits from a public investment in demonstration would probably exceed the estimated $10 million project cost.

Authors:
;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Battelle Pacific Northwest Labs., Richland, Wash. (USA)
OSTI Identifier:
7089086
Report Number(s):
BNWL-2182
DOE Contract Number:
EY-76-C-06-1830
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS; COOLING SYSTEMS; COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS; MATHEMATICAL MODELS; THERMAL POWER PLANTS; AMMONIA; COOLING TOWERS; COST; ECONOMICS; FEASIBILITY STUDIES; HEAT EXCHANGERS; MARKET; POWER GENERATION; HYDRIDES; HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS; NITROGEN COMPOUNDS; NITROGEN HYDRIDES; POWER PLANTS; 200101* - Fossil-Fueled Power Plants- Cooling & Heat Transfer Equipment & Systems

Citation Formats

Currie, J.W., and Foley, T.J.. Estimation of benefits from demonstrating advanced wet/dry cooling technology: a framework and partial analysis. United States: N. p., 1977. Web. doi:10.2172/7089086.
Currie, J.W., & Foley, T.J.. Estimation of benefits from demonstrating advanced wet/dry cooling technology: a framework and partial analysis. United States. doi:10.2172/7089086.
Currie, J.W., and Foley, T.J.. Thu . "Estimation of benefits from demonstrating advanced wet/dry cooling technology: a framework and partial analysis". United States. doi:10.2172/7089086. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/7089086.
@article{osti_7089086,
title = {Estimation of benefits from demonstrating advanced wet/dry cooling technology: a framework and partial analysis},
author = {Currie, J.W. and Foley, T.J.},
abstractNote = {An analysis was performed to estimate reductions in future electric power generation costs expected to occur through a proposed 6- to 10-MWe demonstration of an ammonia (NH/sub 3/) cooling concept. Theoretical and empirical research on technological substitution and diffusion were reviewed in developing the analytical framework and computer model used in this analysis. Stochastic learning and market penetration functions were used to derive benefit distributions for two primary scenarios. The distributions provide not only single best estimates of the benefits, but measures of the uncertainty surrounding the estimates as well. The benefits were estimated by subtracting the net present value of expected future cooling costs if no demonstration were to take place from the net present value of expected future cooling costs if the demonstration did take place. If the public demonstration does not occur, two scenarios were hypothesized: ammonia cooling will never be commercialized; and ammonia cooling will be commercialized at a later date than if the demonstration had occurred. The analysis suggests that the benefits from a public investment in demonstration would probably exceed the estimated $10 million project cost.},
doi = {10.2172/7089086},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1977},
month = {Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1977}
}

Technical Report:

Save / Share:
  • Optimized ammonia heat rejection system designs were carried out for three water allocations equivalent to 9, 20, and 31% of that of a 100% wet-cooled plant. The Holt/Procon design of a 50-MWe binary geothermal plant for the Heber site was used as a design basis. The optimization process took into account the penalties for replacement power, gas turbine capital, and lost capacity due to increased heat rejection temperature, as well as added base plant capacity and fuel to provide fan and pump power to the heat rejection system. Descriptions of the three plant designs are presented. For comparison, a wetmore » tower loop was costed out for a 100% wet-cooled plant using the parameters of the Holt/Procon design. Wet/dry cooling was found to increase the cost of electricity by 28% above that of a 100% wet-cooled plant for all three of the water allocations studied (9, 20, and 31%). The application selected for a preconceptual evaluation of the BCT (binary cooling tower) system was the use of agricultural waste water from the New River, located in California's Imperial Valley, to cool a 50-MWe binary geothermal plant. Technical and cost evaluations at the preconceptual level indicated that performance estimates provided by Tower Systems Incorporated (TSI) were reasonable and that TSI's tower cost, although 2 to 19% lower than PNL estimates, was also reasonable. Electrical cost comparisonswere made among the BCT system, a conventional 100% wet system, and a 9% wet/dry ammonia system, all using agricultural waste water with solar pond disposal. The BCT system cost the least, yielding a cost of electricity only 13% above that of a conventional wet system using high quality water and 14% less than either the conventional 100% wet or the 9% wet/dry ammonia system.« less
  • Control Room modernization is an important part of life extension for the existing light water reactor fleet. None of the 99 currently operating commercial nuclear power plants in the U.S. has completed a full-scale control room modernization to date. A full-scale modernization might, for example, entail replacement of all analog panels with digital workstations. Such modernizations have been undertaken successfully in upgrades in Europe and Asia, but the U.S. has yet to undertake a control room upgrade of this magnitude. Instead, nuclear power plant main control rooms for the existing commercial reactor fleet remain significantly analog, with only limited digitalmore » modernizations. Previous research under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program has helped establish a systematic process for control room upgrades that support the transition to a hybrid control. While the guidance developed to date helps streamline the process of modernization and reduce costs and uncertainty associated with introducing digital control technologies into an existing control room, these upgrades do not achieve the full potential of newer technologies that might otherwise enhance plant and operator performance. The aim of the control room benefits research presented here is to identify previously overlooked benefits of modernization, identify candidate technologies that may facilitate such benefits, and demonstrate these technologies through human factors research. This report serves as an outline for planned research on the benefits of greater modernization in the main control rooms of nuclear power plants.« less
  • Results reported show that the multi-port integral fin tube is clearly superior in capital and operating costs when compared to single port integral fin tubes or commercially available fin tubes in dry cooling applications. Comparative capital and operating costs are given for multi-port integral fin tubes vs. several commercially available round fin tubes for a range of tube diameters. Also illustrated is a unique type of cooling coil geometry that may provide additional cost savings with the use of the multi-port tube. Such a geometry is currently employed with this type of multi-port tubing, on a smaller size scale, inmore » a number of automotive airconditioning condensers.« less
  • An EPRI-funded, experimental evaluation of two types of advanced, air-cooled ammonia condensers for a phase-change dry/wet cooling system for electric power plants is described. Condensers of similar design, but much bigger, are being tested in a 15 MWe demonstration plant at the Pacific Gas and Electric Kern Power Station in Bakersfield, California. These condensers, featuring different air-side augmentation, were tested in Union Carbide's ammonia phase-change pilot plant (0.3 MWe). The first unit consisted of the Curtiss-Wright integral shaved-fin extruded aluminum tubing designed for dry operation. Heat transfer and air-side pressure loss characteristics were measured under varying air face velocities (600more » to 1000 FPM) and initial temperature differences, ITD (20 to 60/sup 0/F). Overall heat transfer coefficients (based on air-side surface), U, ranged between 7.0 to 8.6 Btu/hr ft/sup 2/ F. The second configuration constituted the Hoterv aluminum plate-fin/tube assembly of which two different sizes (5 ft/sup 2/ and 58 ft/sup 2/ frontal area) were performance tested; in both dry and wet modes at 200 to 800 FPM air face velocities, ITD's of 10 to 60/sup 0/F and at water deluge rates up to 3.0 gpm/ft. of core width. In the dry mode, U's ranged from 7.0 to 12.0 Btu/hr ft/sup 2/ F. Increasing water deluge greatly enhanced the heat rejection capacity over dry operation - as high as 4 times, depending on operating conditions. This deluge augmentation was greater for lower air relative humidities and lower ITD's. A brief description of the recently completed ammonia phase-change dry/wet-dry cooling demonstration plant at the Kern Power Station concludes this document.« less
  • A large-scale test of dry/wet cooling using the ammonia phase-charge system, designated the Advanced Concepts Test, is being constructed at Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Kern Station at Bakersfield. The test facility described in this document will be capable of condensing 60,000 lbs/h of steam from a small house turbine and will use only 25% of the water normally required to reject this heat load in evaporative cooling towers. Two different modes of combining dry and evaporative cooling are being tested. One uses deluge cooling in which water is allowed to flow over the heat exchanger on hot days. Themore » other uses a separate evaporative condenser in parallel to the dry heat exchanger. The design of the cooling system and major components is described and the technology developed to support the design is summarized. The facility is scheduled for completion April 1981. An extensive period of operational acceptance tests will follow. Research testing is anticipated to begin about the middle of 1981.« less