An Improved Flexible Solar Thermal Energy Integration Process for Enhancing the Coal-Based Energy Efficiency and NO x Removal Effectiveness in Coal-Fired Power Plants under Different Load Conditions

Yu Han, Cheng Xu, Gang Xu, Yuwen Zhang and Yongping Yang
Additional contact information
Yu Han: Beijing Key Laboratory of Emission Surveillance and Control for Thermal Power Generation, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Cheng Xu: Beijing Key Laboratory of Emission Surveillance and Control for Thermal Power Generation, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Gang Xu: Beijing Key Laboratory of Emission Surveillance and Control for Thermal Power Generation, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Yuwen Zhang: Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
Yongping Yang: Beijing Key Laboratory of Emission Surveillance and Control for Thermal Power Generation, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 10, 1-18

Abstract: An improved flexible solar-aided power generation system (SAPG) for enhancing both selective catalytic reduction (SCR) de-NO x efficiency and coal-based energy efficiency of coal-fired power plants is proposed. In the proposed concept, the solar energy injection point is changed for different power plant loads, bringing about different benefits for coal-fired power generation. For partial/low load, solar energy is beneficially used to increase the flue gas temperature to guarantee the SCR de-NO x effectiveness as well as increase the boiler energy input by reheating the combustion air. For high power load, solar energy is used for saving steam bleeds from turbines by heating the feed water. A case study for a typical 1000 MW coal-fired power plant using the proposed concept has been performed and the results showed that, the SCR de-NO x efficiency of proposed SAPG could increase by 3.1% and 7.9% under medium load and low load conditions, respectively, as compared with the reference plant. The standard coal consumption rate of the proposed SAPG could decrease by 2.68 g/kWh, 4.05 g/kWh and 6.31 g/kWh for high, medium and low loads, respectively, with 0.040 USD/kWh of solar generated electricity cost. The proposed concept opens up a novel solar energy integration pattern in coal-fired power plants to improve the pollutant removal effectiveness and decrease the coal consumption of the power plant.

Keywords: solar aided power generation; selective catalytic reduction (SCR) de-NO x; coal consumption; solar generated electricity cost; various loads (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/10/1485/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/10/1485/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:10:y:2017:i:10:p:1485-:d:113178

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().