Comparision of dry and wet cooling: An applied research on a solar thermal power plant

Download
2013-6
Timur, Eray
The present study evaluates the use of air cooled heat exchangers for an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) as part of a solar thermal power system that can produce 10-30 kWe. Overall thermal efficiency of the system under investigation relies heavily on (i) available solar thermal energy, (ii) performance of the cooling system, and (iii) power consumption due to pumps and fans within the system. For locations with good solar potential but limited water resources, it is crucial to evaluate wet cooling towers to avoid or reduce water consumption. Performance of dry cooling alternatives is limited by the dry bulb temperature rather than the wet bulb temperature, requiring more fan power to achieve the same cooling capacity. In this study, assessment of wet and dry cooling units is performed by integrating them into a small scale power plant model that uses environmental conditions (i.e. solar irradiation, ambient dry and wet bulb temperatures) as the inputs. Critical parameters include net produced power and operational costs for both wet and dry cooling units through a representative year using conditions at northern Cyprus. It is found that dry cooling unit is capable of saving water about 17 ton/MWh while it produces 6% less per annum compared to the wet cooling alternative for the representative annual weather data. Overall, dry cooling is shown to be a good solution for low altitude-humid regions, where thermal performance appears to be comparable to wet cooling while significant savings in water consumption is achieved.

Suggestions

Integrating National Research Agendas on Solar Heat for Industrial Processes (INSHIP)
Baker, Derek Keıth(2020-12-31)
Despite process heat is recognized as the application with highest potential among solar heating and cooling applications, Solar Heat for Industrial Processes (SHIP) still presents a modest share of about 0.3% of total installed solar thermal capacity. As of today’s technology development stage – economic competitiveness restricted to low temperature applications; technology implementation requiring interference with existing heat production systems, heat distribution networks or even heat consuming process...
Passive Cooling Assembly for Flat Panel Displays with Integrated High Power Components
Tarı, İlker (2009-08-01)
Passive cooling of flat panel display designs with integrated high power components is investigated with the help of recently available semi-emprical and CFD based heat transfer correlations. A heat-spreader-heat-sink assembly is proposed for effective external natural convection cooling of the display panel. A flat vertical surface and plate finned heat sinks with various fin heights are considered as heat sinks in the assembly. Heat dissipation limits for both types of heat sinks are determined for variou...
A system level modeling and performance evaluation of concentrated solar power plant
Hasany, Syed Zaid; Uzgören, Eray; Sustainable Environment and Energy Systems (2013-12)
This thesis presents a system level study for a solar thermal power plant comprising of parabolic trough collectors (PTC), an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) and a wet cooling tower. A transient numerical model is developed for the PTC accounting the thermal losses and coping up with the intermittent and inherent variable solar input. The transient PTC model is validated with the experimental and numerical results and extended to the double pass counter flow PTC configuration. It is found that there is no signi...
Quasi-dynamic model for an organic Rankine cycle
Bamgbopa, Musbaudeen O.; Uzgoren, Eray (Elsevier BV, 2013-08-01)
When considering solar based thermal energy input to an organic Rankine cycle (ORC), intermittent nature of the heat input does not only adversely affect the power output but also it may prevent ORC to operate under steady state conditions. In order to identify reliability and efficiency of such systems, this paper presents a simplified transient modeling approach for an ORC operating under variable heat input. The approach considers that response of the system to heat input variations is mainly dictated by...
Investigation of various options for numerical modeling of fluidized bedsI for a solar thermal application
Bilyaz, Serhat; Tarı, İlker (null; 2015-05-29)
Circulating fluidized bed solid particle absorption solar thermal energy system is a promising approach to solar thermal with thermal energy storage. For accurately modeling such systems, the fluidized bed numerical model should be correctly representing the behavior of the actual bed. There are several suggested partial semi-empirical models in the literature considering distinct phenomena related to fluidization and void fraction distribution in a fluidized be...
Citation Formats
E. Timur, “Comparision of dry and wet cooling: An applied research on a solar thermal power plant,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2013.