IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v10y2017i11p1812-d118233.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Performance Analysis of an Updraft Tower System for Dry Cooling in Large-Scale Power Plants

Author

Listed:
  • Haotian Liu

    (Ray W. Herrick Laboratories, School of Mechanical Engineering , Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA)

  • Justin Weibel

    (Ray W. Herrick Laboratories, School of Mechanical Engineering , Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA)

  • Eckhard Groll

    (Ray W. Herrick Laboratories, School of Mechanical Engineering , Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA)

Abstract

An updraft tower cooling system is assessed for elimination of water use associated with power plant heat rejection. Heat rejected from the power plant condenser is used to warm the air at the base of an updraft tower; buoyancy-driven air flows through a recuperative turbine inside the tower. The secondary loop, which couples the power plant condenser to a heat exchanger at the tower base, can be configured either as a constant-pressure pump cycle or a vapor compression cycle. The novel use of a compressor can elevate the air temperature in the tower base to increases the turbine power recovery and decrease the power plant condensing temperature. The system feasibility is evaluated by comparing the net power needed to operate the system versus alternative dry cooling schemes. A thermodynamic model coupling all system components is developed for parametric studies and system performance evaluation. The model predicts that constant-pressure pump cycle consumes less power than using a compressor; the extra compression power required for temperature lift is much larger than the gain in turbine power output. The updraft tower system with a pumped secondary loop can allow dry cooling with less power plant efficiency penalty compared to air-cooled condensers.

Suggested Citation

  • Haotian Liu & Justin Weibel & Eckhard Groll, 2017. "Performance Analysis of an Updraft Tower System for Dry Cooling in Large-Scale Power Plants," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-23, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:10:y:2017:i:11:p:1812-:d:118233
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/11/1812/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/11/1812/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zhou, Xinping & Yang, Jiakuan & Xiao, Bo & Hou, Guoxiang, 2007. "Simulation of a pilot solar chimney thermal power generating equipment," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1637-1644.
    2. Nizetic, S. & Klarin, B., 2010. "A simplified analytical approach for evaluation of the optimal ratio of pressure drop across the turbine in solar chimney power plants," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 587-591, February.
    3. Demirbas, M. Fatih, 2011. "Biofuels from algae for sustainable development," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(10), pages 3473-3480.
    4. Leffler, Robert A. & Bradshaw, Craig R. & Groll, Eckhard A. & Garimella, Suresh V., 2012. "Alternative heat rejection methods for power plants," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 17-25.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Eduardo de la Rocha Camba & Fontina Petrakopoulou, 2020. "Earth-Cooling Air Tunnels for Thermal Power Plants: Initial Design by CFD Modelling," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-19, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leffler, Robert A. & Bradshaw, Craig R. & Groll, Eckhard A. & Garimella, Suresh V., 2012. "Alternative heat rejection methods for power plants," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 17-25.
    2. Zhou, Xinping & Wang, Fang & Ochieng, Reccab M., 2010. "A review of solar chimney power technology," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(8), pages 2315-2338, October.
    3. Giostri, A. & Binotti, M. & Macchi, E., 2016. "Microalgae cofiring in coal power plants: Innovative system layout and energy analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 449-464.
    4. Kasaeian, A.B. & Molana, Sh. & Rahmani, K. & Wen, D., 2017. "A review on solar chimney systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 954-987.
    5. Maia, C.B. & Castro Silva, J.O. & Cabezas-Gómez, L. & Hanriot, S.M. & Ferreira, A.G., 2013. "Energy and exergy analysis of the airflow inside a solar chimney," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 350-361.
    6. Ghalamchi, Mehran & Kasaeian, Alibakhsh & Ghalamchi, Mehrdad, 2015. "Experimental study of geometrical and climate effects on the performance of a small solar chimney," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 425-431.
    7. Filimonau, Viachaslau & Högström, Michaela, 2017. "The attitudes of UK tourists to the use of biofuels in civil aviation: An exploratory study," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 84-94.
    8. Ribeiro, Lauro André & Silva, Patrícia Pereira da, 2013. "Surveying techno-economic indicators of microalgae biofuel technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 89-96.
    9. Bilgili, Faik & Koçak, Emrah & Bulut, Ümit & Kuşkaya, Sevda, 2017. "Can biomass energy be an efficient policy tool for sustainable development?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 830-845.
    10. Pooja Kandimalla & Priyanka Vatte & Chandra Sekhar Rao Bandaru, 2021. "Phycoremediation of automobile exhaust gases using green microalgae," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 6301-6322, April.
    11. Setareh, Milad, 2021. "Comprehensive mathematical study on solar chimney powerplant," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 470-485.
    12. Thomassen, Gwenny & Van Dael, Miet & Lemmens, Bert & Van Passel, Steven, 2017. "A review of the sustainability of algal-based biorefineries: Towards an integrated assessment framework," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 68(P2), pages 876-887.
    13. Mehrpooya, Mehdi & Shahsavan, Mohsen & Sharifzadeh, Mohammad Mehdi Moftakhari, 2016. "Modeling, energy and exergy analysis of solar chimney power plant-Tehran climate data case study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(P1), pages 257-273.
    14. Gholamalizadeh, E. & Mansouri, S.H., 2013. "A comprehensive approach to design and improve a solar chimney power plant: A special case – Kerman project," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 975-982.
    15. Blanco-Marigorta, A.M. & Suárez-Medina, J. & Vera-Castellano, A., 2013. "Exergetic analysis of a biodiesel production process from Jatropha curcas," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 218-225.
    16. Rabehi, Rayan & Chaker, Abla & Ming, Tingzhen & Gong, Tingrui, 2018. "Numerical simulation of solar chimney power plant adopting the fan model," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 1093-1101.
    17. Watanabe, Hideo & Li, Dalin & Nakagawa, Yoshinao & Tomishige, Keiichi & Kaya, Kunimitsu & Watanabe, Makoto M., 2014. "Characterization of oil-extracted residue biomass of Botryococcus braunii as a biofuel feedstock and its pyrolytic behavior," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 475-484.
    18. Ming, Tingzhen & Wu, Yongjia & de_Richter, Renaud K. & Liu, Wei & Sherif, S.A., 2017. "Solar updraft power plant system: A brief review and a case study on a new system with radial partition walls in its collector," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 472-487.
    19. Dasgupta, Chitralekha Nag & Suseela, M.R. & Mandotra, S.K. & Kumar, Pankaj & Pandey, Manish K. & Toppo, Kiran & Lone, J.A., 2015. "Dual uses of microalgal biomass: An integrative approach for biohydrogen and biodiesel production," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 202-208.
    20. Ali, Mehmood & Watson, Ian A., 2015. "Microwave treatment of wet algal paste for enhanced solvent extraction of lipids for biodiesel production," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 470-477.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:10:y:2017:i:11:p:1812-:d:118233. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.