The Potential of Chemically Recuperated Power Cycles in Markets with High Shares of Variable Renewables

Carlos Arnaiz del Pozo (), Ángel Jiménez Álvaro (), Schalk Cloete and Jose Antonio García del Pozo Martín de Hijas
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Carlos Arnaiz del Pozo: Departamento de Ingeniería Energética, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Calle José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain
Ángel Jiménez Álvaro: Departamento de Ingeniería Energética, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Calle José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain
Schalk Cloete: Process Technology Department, SINTEF Industry, NO-7465 Trondheim, Norway
Jose Antonio García del Pozo Martín de Hijas: Departamento de Ingeniería Energética, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Calle José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 20, 1-22

Abstract: Rising shares of variable wind and solar generation in decarbonized electricity systems motivate the development of novel power cycles employing unconventional fuels. Innovative designs must be highly flexible and profitable at low capacity factors, requiring a simple process layout and low capital costs. Fuel supply infrastructure represents a significant additional capital cost, which is often ignored in economic assessments of gas-fired power plants. When these capital costs are included, liquid fuels such as NH 3 or MeOH gain relevance despite their high production costs because they are cheap to store and distribute. In addition, chemically recuperated power cycle designs upgrade these fuels with waste heat from the gas turbine exhaust, avoiding a capital-intensive bottoming cycle while achieving high thermal efficiencies. This work presents an exergoeconomic benchmarking of different large-scale power plants and their fuel supply infrastructure. The results show that chemically recuperated cycles using MeOH become competitive relative to natural-gas-fired combined cycles with fuel storage in salt caverns at capacity factors below 32% if seven-day storage is required and plants are located 500 km from the fuel source. NH 3 can compete with H 2 at a higher capacity factor of 47% because of the high cost of storing H 2 , while a CO 2 price of 140 EUR/ton is required for NH 3 to outperform MeOH as a fuel. In cases where salt cavern storage is unavailable, or the energy security of multi-week fuel storage is highly valued, liquid fuels present a clearly superior solution.

Keywords: energy vector; methanol; ammonia; techno-economic assessment; exergy; efficiency (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: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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