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Solar Energy 132 (2016) 279293
www.elsevier.com/locate/solener
Abstract
A hybrid energy system comprising a parabolic dish solar energy concentrator (Solar Dish) and a micro gas turbine is investigated in
the study. A thermodynamic model of the system is presented, able to simulate both on-design and o-design performance of the system
and accounting for the main technical aspects of the concentrator, receiver and gas turbine engine. Then, simulations are performed for
various system sizes and operating strategies, with and without supplementary ring and for a reference location (Seville, Spain), yielding
solar-to-electric power conversion eciencies between 16.78% and 18.35% (rated conditions), depending on size. Annual performances
result in a capacity factor of about 29% (2540 full operating hours) in solar only operation and annual average eciency at 95% of the
nominal value.
The main results indicate that moderate supplementary ring is interesting for it increases the average eciency of the system and the
annual yield, whilst still keeping the carbon footprint within reasonable values. Nevertheless, as heavy fossil fuel ring is adopted, the
system becomes less competitive against conventional, standard distributed generation power systems either for natural gas or diesel fuel.
Whilst these trends were somehow to be expected, the interest of this paper is to provide the reader with a fundamental analysis from
which a technical and economic analysis can be performed, aimed at identifying the most leveraged solar share (i.e., fuel utilisation).
2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: CSP technology; Solar dish; Micro gas turbine; Dish-mGT integration
1. Introduction
Solar power generators are basically divided in two categories depending on whether or not the production of
electricity relies on a power cycle (such as Stirling, Rankine
or Brayton cycles): photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated
solar power (CSP/STE) systems. Amongst the latter, mul Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 954 486 488.
tiple solutions can be implemented to collect and concentrate solar energy. In increasing concentrating capacity,
the following are mature technologies for this purpose:
linear collectors employing parabolic trough or Fresnel
technologies, heliostats for large central receiver systems
and parabolic (dish) collectors (Pavlovic et al., 2012). These
technologies can also be combined with other energy
sources like non-solar renewable energies and/or fossil fuel
systems, yielding the so-called hybrid systems which enable
the simultaneous exploitation of green resources in conventional high performing energy systems such as gas
280
Nomenclature
a
m_
gis
c
j
lf
/
q
r
s
H
e
.
nrcp
A
Cf
F CO2
F fuel
Ib
k cv
Q
qin
absorptivity
mass ow rate
isentropic eciency
ratio of specic heats
pressure drop coecient
weight carbon content of fuel
non-dimensional parameter of mass ow rate,
shaft speed and pressure ratio in turbomachinery
density
StefanBoltzman constant
transmissivity
angle between receiver surface and horizon
emissivity
reectivity
recuperator eectiveness
area
capacity factor
specic carbon dioxide emissions
fuel share
heat ux on surface
convective heat transfer coecient
heat power
specic radiative energy input
Qw
rc
re
T amb
CapEx
CSP
DNI
E
h
LHV
LMTD
mGT
N
O&M
OpEx
P
p
rcv
s
STE
T
UA
W
incident power
compressor pressure ratio
expander pressure ratio
ambient temperature
Capital Expenditures
concentrated solar power
direct normal irradiance
annual energy
enthalpy
low heating value
logarithmic mean temperature dierence
micro gas turbine
shaft speed
operation and maintenance
operational expenditures
power
pressure
receiver
entropy
solar thermal electricity
temperature
global heat transfer coecient
specic work
281
system that ensures as high a collection eciency as possible along the day.
Receiver. The concentrated solar energy from the concentrator impinges on the receiver wherein the temperature of a heat transfer uid is raised. A volumetric air
receiver concept like those implemented successfully in
the DIAPR, REFOS and SOLGATE projects is consid vila Marn, 2011).
ered for the dish-mGT application (A
Micro gas turbine. Small recuperated gas turbine
(Aichmayer et al., 2013) comprising one compressor
and one expander, a recuperator, a high speed alternator
and, potentially, an auxiliary combustor. In comparison
with Stirling engines, the mGT system provides potentially lower investment costs, higher availability and
lower O&M costs (Soares, 2007; Al-Attab and Zainal,
berg et al., 2004). In addition, it is possible to
2015; O
enable CHP capabilities by merely installing additional
equipment downstream of the turbine exhaust. The
alternator and power electronics are accounted for in
this subsystem.
It is interesting to note that micro gas turbines operate
at a temperature lower than 1000 C unless ceramic materials are used in the expander wheel given the limitations
in terms of materials and blade cooling capabilities
(Soares, 2007). Nevertheless, even if this is an apparent
shortcoming, it turns to be a positive feature in the context
of CSP applications wherein receiver temperatures are usually limited to less than 1000 C; above this temperature,
receiver eciency drops rapidly due to radiative losses
and osets any potential eciency rise of the power block
(Ho and Iverson, 2014).
Based on this observation, the utilisation of supplementary ring is not justied in terms of achieving higher turbine inlet temperatures for enhanced eciency but rather
for extended operation of the unit (low frequency oscillations of solar heat input) and to compensate for a lower
282
Compressor/expander.
rc;d p2 =p1 ; re;d p4 =p5
T 2;is =T 1 rc;d
cc 1=cc
; T 4 =T 5;is re;d
2
ce 1=ce
nrcp h3 h2 =h5 h2
p3 p2 jrcp;23 ; p6 p5 jrcp;56
T 5 T 3 T 6 T 2
lnT 5 T 3 T 6 T 2
9
10
11
12
283
hm h3 U g T g T 3 =G
13
Qg;o I b Arcv
14
15
p4 jrcv p3
16
17
18
19
P exp m_ 4 h4 h5
20
P com m_ 1 h2 h1
21
22
23
284
2.5. Concentrator
The concentrator collects solar energy and concentrates
it onto the aperture plane of the receiver (the glass window
in this case). Its design must be approached jointly with the
receiver inasmuch as their respective eciencies show
opposing trends with respect to the aperture area of the latter (Arcv ). In eect, increasing the receiver area brings about
a higher collector eciency (lower spillage of solar energy)
but, at the same time, reduces receiver eciency (larger
heat losses). Concentrator eciency (gcon ) is dened as:
gcon Qg;o =DNI Acon
24
where Acon is the aperture area of the collector (cross sectional area of the aperture plane). A detailed description
of the geometrical properties and geometrical errors for
paraboloids can be found in Stine and Harrigan (1985).
Paraboloids are three dimensional concentrators that
can ideally concentrate solar energy on a single point called
the focus (as opposed to linear collectors like parabolic
troughs which concentrate solar energy on a line). This is
not true though for real paraboloids which are aected
by certain irregularities in the reection process after which
solar energy is not concentrated on a point but on a surface
(spot). The main deviations from the ideal performance
are: (i) geometrical imperfections in the shape of the paraboloid which is closer to a spherical shape; (ii) lack of specularity and reectivity of the reecting surface, which
means that a fraction of the solar energy collected is
absorbed rather than reected and for that fraction that
is reected, it is so in a diused and not specular mode;
(iii) the so called sun shape error that brings about a lack
of parallelism of the sun rays; (iv) tracking errors (the axis
of the collector is not perfectly aligned with the sun).
The algorithm provided by Stine and Harrigan (1985)
takes into account the specications of the system (mainly
heat input and design DNI) and the geometrical properties
and optical errors of the paraboloid and yields the energy
collected onto a surface on its focus point. The algorithm
has been modied to consider the conditions of the receiver
(Qg;o ; Arcv ; grcv ) to determine the peak collection eciency
(gcol ) and the associated Acon ; Arcv . Collection eciency is
the product of concentrator eciency and receiver
eciency:
gcol gcon grcv
25
26
28
29
The expander model is somewhat simpler and it considers two dierent operating regimes:
Unchoked operation. Stodolas equation is used as presented in (Stodola, 1927).
Choked operation. Constant corrected mass ow rate is
assumed regardless of shaft speed, based on the assumption that choking takes place in the stator vanes
(Kaikko, 1998).
From a numerical standpoint, it is assumed that the
expander is designed to operate at the critical mass ow
rate (i.e. mass ow rate corresponding to the transition
from unchoked to choked operation). This translates into
the following set of equations describing the performance
of the expander:
/m_ cor
8 r
2
<
r
re;on
1 e;off
1re;on
:
1
if /re < 1
285
30
if /re > 1
34
35
Note that pressure and relative humidity also play a role though this is
not quoted here for the relative variations of these two parameters
negligible when compared to ambient temperature.
286
Table 1
Parasitic losses for dierent system outputs.
System
]1
]2
]3
]4
Output [kWe]
Losses [We]
7
50
15
100
23
150
30
200
obtained from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Solar prospector, 2015). The task of setting the
design DNI is not easy though and a pre-analysis is typically required. To assist on this matter, Fig. 6 shows the
duration curve for Seville. Based on this information,
Mancini et al. (2003) suggest that the dierence between
design and peak DNI should be not larger than 1015%
for a dish-Stirling. In fact, many system optimised for
Seville operate at a nominal DNI of 800 W/m2
(Reinalter et al., 2003). Owing to the easier implementation of peaking capacity (overload), a more conservative
design DNI of 780 W/m2 is selected.
Micro gas turbine. The expected thermal eciency of a
mGT in the output range considered is between 23%
and 26%. This is in line with the values reported by Capstone, for instance 25% for the C30 model (30 kWe) running on liquid fuel whilst the version for natural gas is
claimed to achieve 26% (Various, 2006).
Compressor and expander. The rated isentropic eciencies of compressor and expander are reported in
Table 2, showing sensitivity to the size of the system.
Additionally, a peak turbine inlet temperature of
900 C is considered on the assumption that exotic
materials are not used (Aichmayer et al., 2013;
Wright et al., 2005).
Recuperator. Rated eectiveness and pressure drop
are set to 85% and 2% (on each side) and for the maximum operator temperature a value of 780 C is taken
from (Aichmayer et al., 2013; McDonald, 2003).
For all these cases, either in solar-only or hybrid operation, it is assumed that the system is able to run in overload
conditions yielding 110% the rated output (if this is possible at all for the given ambient temperature). This is
achieved by spinning faster and operating at higher pressure ratio and mass ow rate, thus ensuring that the rated
turbine inlet temperature (and hence receiver temperature)
is not exceeded.
Fig. 6. DNI duration curve for the reference location (Seville).
Table 2
Isentropic eciencies of compressor and expander.
System
]1
]2
]3
]4
Output [kWe]
gis;c
gis;e
7
0.76
0.74
15
0.76
0.75
23
0.76
0.76
30
0.77
0.76
Also, as far as heat transfer is concerned, the component is designed for similar convective heat transfer
coecient on both sides, which is here considered
10 W/m2K based on usual industrial practice for a
standard gasgas heat exchanger (Traverso and
Massardo, 2005). This yields a global heat transfer
coecient U rcp of 5 W/m2.
Mechanical considerations. The compressor/expander coupling is assumed able to spin at up to
115% the rated speed in a hot day, even if this can
be occasionally increased to 125% the nominal value
if necessary. This latter value cannot be exceeded
though if the mechanical integrity of the engine is
to be ensured. Regardless of the rotating speed,
mechanical eciency is set to 96%.
System optimisation. The variable used to optimise
the system is pressure ratio, whose value is selected
to achieve highest eciency for the ambient conditions of the location (25 C and 1 atm for Seville).
vila Marn, 2011), the
Solar receiver. According to (A
aforecited turbine inlet temperature (900 C) is well
within the capabilities of state-of-the-art solar receivers
(950 C), thus compatibility is ensured. Other relevant
input data for this component are listed below:
Elevation angle for design conditions Hdes is 60 as
this is the position where most of the electricity is produced. Pressure drops and k cv;i;d are set to 2% and
150 W/m2 as well (Aichmayer et al., 2013).
Materials set temperature constraints on the receiver
design and operation. Hence, for the window, various
temperature limits are reported in literature. For
instance, Roger claims that the limit for uncoated
glass is 850 C (Roger et al., 2009) and, according
vila Marn (2011), metallic based absorber can
to A
withstand air temperatures up to 1000 C whereas siliconised silicon carbide (SiSiC) ceramic absorbers
and silicon carbide (SiC) absorbers can reach temperatures of 1200 C and 1500 C respectively. Based on
this, a safe value of 800 C for continuous operation
is chosen here.
The optical properties of the receiver materials are
considered variable with temperature and radiation
wavelength. Values are taken from (Roger et al.,
2009) where wavelength weighted values are reported
for the optical properties of a 5-mm thick fused silica
glass at dierent temperatures, Table 3. Also, the
Table 3
Optical properties of receiver materials (Roger et al., 2009).
a
s
.
Solar visible
Thermal (1373 K)
infrared
Thermal (600 K)
thermal
0.01
0.851
0.136
0.326
0.549
0.125
0.8
287
288
Enet
Esolar Efuel
36
Esolar Acon
8760
X
289
37
DNIt
t0
Efuel
8760
1 X
Q t
gcc t0 fuel
38
Enet
8760 P nom
39
F CO2
Efuel
Efuel Esolar gcon
Efuel
Efuel Acon gcon
P8760
t0
DNIt
44 m_ f
12 lf Enet
40
41
Table 4
Design specications for the reference location (25 C).
System
2
DNI [W/m ]
Pressure ratio []
P net [kWe]
Qin [kWt]
m_ d [g/s]
govr [%]
gsyst [%]
gmGT [%]
grcv [%]
gcon [%]
Drcv [cm]
Dcon [cm]
Acon [m2]
Arcv [m2]
]1
]2
]3
]4
780
3.84
30.28
119.25
337.9
18.35
20.20
25.40
79.51
90.83
38.79
16.42
211.8
396.8
780
3.75
23.55
95.25
276.2
17.84
19.63
24.73
79.37
90.87
34.80
14.70
169.4
320.1
780
3.70
14.80
61.60
180.8
17.31
19.04
24.03
79.26
90.92
28.10
11.81
109.6
209.8
780
3.65
6.90
29.61
88.1
16.78
18.47
23.32
79.23
90.86
19.41
8.20
52.80
102.2
290
cp T amb c1=c
rc
1
gc
42
Table 5
Annual performance in solar only mode.
System
]1
]2
]3
]4
Enet [MWh]
C f [%]
govr [%]
77.33
29.16
17.47
59.99
29.05
16.93
37.66
29.05
16.44
17.56
29.05
15.92
Table 6
Annual performance in hybrid mode. Strategy 1.
System
]1
]2
]3
]4
Enet [MWh]
C f [%]
govr;S1 [%]
Efuel [MWh]
F fuel [%]
mCH4 [kg]
mDiesel [kg]
F CO2 ;CH4 [g/kWh]
F CO2 ;Diesel [g/kWh]
115.4
43.50
19.04
163.40
28.90
11,765
13,553
280.4
323.1
90.52
43.87
18.68
130.63
28.88
9,405
10,835
285.7
329.2
56.52
43.59
18.03
84.48
28.86
6,083
7,007
295.9
341.0
26.30
43.50
17.43
40.60
28.83
2,923
3,368
305.6
352.1
Table 7
Annual performance in hybrid mode. Strategy 2.
System
]1
]2
]3
]4
Enet [MWh]
C f [%]
govr;S2 [%]
Efuel [MWh]
F fuel [%]
mCH4 [kg]
mDiesel [kg]
F CO2 ;CH4 [g/kWh]
F CO2 ;Diesel [g/kWh]
87.37
32.94
18.08
41.44
9.34
2,983
3,437
93.72
107.97
68.45
33.17
17.65
33.93
9.54
2,443
2,814
98.14
113.06
42.91
33.09
17.09
22.07
9.58
1,589
1,831
101.84
117.33
20.00
33.07
16.54
10.62
9.57
764
880.8
105.11
121.09
Table 8
Annual performance in hybrid mode. Strategy 3.
System
]1
]2
]3
]4
Enet [MWh]
C f [%]
govr;S3 [%]
Efuel [MWh]
F fuel [%]
mCH4 [kg]
mDiesel [kg]
F CO2 ;CH4 [g/kWh]
F CO2 ;Diesel [g/kWh]
166.2
62.68
20.70
365.55
47.62
26,320
30,321
429.30
494.57
130.18
63.09
20.27
292.32
47.61
21,047
24,246
438.28
504.92
81.41
62.79
19.60
189.07
47.59
13,613
15,682
453.26
522.17
37.94
62.74
18.98
90.87
47.55
6,542
7,538
467.54
538.63
291
292
293
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