Energy System Analysis
Cogeneration System Analysis
This project was for my university course of Energy Systems, and represents a good example of the complex energy systems that were analysed over the years at the university. In general, we studied several power plant configurations and power production functioning.
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The project dealt with a cogeneration system for a sugar industry commissioned in August 1999, which can be seen in the first image. The system consists of a boiler used to generate 80 ton/hr of steam at 68atm and 485°C, and a Steam Turbine Generator set with a capacity of 22 MW. The steam turbine has two extraction lines, one at 9atm and the other at 3atm, to cover the requirements of the productive process, besides the current of 3atm is extracted steam for the operation of the deaerator of the plant.
The project consisted in the simulation of the system using the software Cyclepad, making the necessary assumptions for the simulation. In the second image you can see how the system was modeled, taking into consideration that it is not possible to model a turbine with multiple outputs, and that the production processes were considered as a heat extraction from the turbine output lines.
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As part of any energy analysis, it is necessary to determine the efficiency of the equipment as well as the Heat Rate and Heat to Power Ratio. The efficiencies determined were 73% for the boiler, 78% for the turbine, 63% for the generator and 21% for the cogeneration system. The Heat Rate was 5381.2BTU.KW/hr and the Heat to Power Ratio was 3.1
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Additionally, the influence of boiler pressure increase was evaluated in all previously mentioned values. Both the efficiency of the boiler, the turbine and the generator decrease immediately. In contrast, the power of the turbine is kept constant until the pressure of 70atm, when it begins to decrease. As expected, the Heat Rate increases, while the Heat to Power Ratio decreases.