A technical and financial analysis of two recuperated, reciprocating engine driven power plants. Part 1: Thermodynamic analysis

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• 作者：Pedro Jose Orbaiz ; ^{pjorbaiz@unimelb.edu.au" class="auth_mail} ; Michael J. Brear ^{mjbrear@unimelb.edu.au" class="auth_mail}
• 关键词：Engine ; Hybrid ; Chemical recuperation ; Natural gas ; Biomass ; Concentrated solar thermal
• 刊名：Energy Conversion and Management
• 出版年：April, 2014
• 年：2014
• 卷：80
• 期：Complete
• 页码：598-608
• 全文大小：2703 K

文摘

This paper is the first of a two part study that analyses the technical and financial performance of particular, recuperated engine systems. This first paper presents a thermodynamic study of two systems. The first system involves the chemical recuperation of a reciprocating, spark ignited, internal combustion engine using only the waste heat of the engine to power a steam-methane reformer. The performance of this system is evaluated for different coolant loads and steam-methane ratios. The second system is a so-called 鈥檋ybrid鈥?in which not only the waste heat of the engine is used, but also a secondary heat source - the combustion of biomass. The effects of the reformer鈥檚 temperature and the steam-methane ratio on the system performance are analysed.

These analyses show that the potential efficiency improvement obtained when using only the engine waste heat to power the recuperation is marginal. However, results for the hybrid show that although the overall efficiency of the plant, defined in terms of the energy from both the methane and biomass, is similar to that of the conventional, methane fuelled engine, the efficiency of the conversion of the biomass fuel energy to work output appears to be higher than for other biomass fuelled technologies currently in use. Further, in the ideal limit of a fully renewable biomass fuel, the burning of biomass does not contribute to the net emissions, and the emission reduction for this second plant can be considerable. Indeed, its implementation on larger internal combustion engine power plants, which have efficiencies of around 45-50%, could result in emissions that are as much as 10-20% lower than typical natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power stations. This appears to be a significant result, since NGCCs are commonly considered to have the lowest emissions of all forms of fossil fuelled, power generation currently in use.