Design methodology of heat recovery steam

generator in electric utility for waste heat

recovery
..............................................................................................................................................................
1,2* 1,3 1,2
Awais Ahmed , Khaled Khodary Esmaeil , Mohammad A. Irfan
and Fahad A. Al-Mufadi1
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Qassim University, PO Box 6677, Al Qassim,
KSA; 2Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Engineering and
Technology, Peshawar 25120, Pakistan; 3Mechanical Power Engineering Department,

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Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Gharbiya Governorate, 31511, Egypt
.............................................................................................................................................
Abstract
Heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs) are important components for industrial waste heat recovery,
and any changes in their design directly affect the performance of the steam cycle, and thus the perform-
ance of the combined cycle power plant. The present research is focused on the design of a HRSG,
including a dual-pressure steam generator cycle that is intended for use in a typical gas turbine unit hav-
ing a power output of 60 MW. The results show that the maximum heat transfer occurs in the evapor-
ator section for high-pressure levels, and in the economizer section for low-pressure levels. The optimum
design pressure for the high-pressure level of the steam generator was found to be 100 bar, while that for
the low-pressure level was found to be 10 bar. An exergy analysis was performed for the different pro-
cesses and components of the steam cycle, including the HRSG. Calculations show that the overall exergy
loss is about 35%, out of which 16% is lost in flue gasses and 10% is lost in heat exchanger, and the
remainder was converted into 35 MW of useful work.

Keywords: combined cycle power plant; HRSG design; waste heat recovery; exergy
*Corresponding author:
[email protected] Received 9 July 2018; revised 4 August 2018; editorial decision 9 August 2018; accepted 11 August 2018
................................................................................................................................................................................

1 INTRODUCTION electricity and/or heat production. Industrial heat waste is fre-

quently discarded by burning without energy recovery, because
1.1 Importance of waste heat energy recovery for this type of waste is quite complex due to
In many countries, a large portion of the total energy demand the presence of several pollutants in the generated flue gas.
is consumed in industrial processes. For example, studies esti- Even in such cases, energy recovery can be beneficial as it
mated that about 20–50% of the industrial energy consumption reduces the operating costs and lowers the consumption of
is discharged as heat. Waste heat recovery methods have shown external energy [4] and consequently should be applied when-
a great development; however, there is still a big potential in ever possible.
their improvement [1]. Typically, there is greater potential to At present, waste thermal treatments are attractive options
reuse high-temperature waste heat, where high is defined as due to the possibility of recovering a significant amount of
>400°C, medium as 100–400°C and low as <100°C [2]. energy as a result of recent technological developments [4].
Combustion or burning processes are the most widespread Pavlas [5] states that the thermal treatment of waste with
thermal treatments applied to different types of waste, including energy recovery is a desirable source of renewable energy, and
municipal solid waste, solid refuse fuels, industrial waste (IW) waste that can be used as a fuel is no longer classified as a prob-
and industrial hazardous waste [3]. The burning of waste is lem. Recovering energy from waste heat primarily contributes
generally associated with energy recovery in the form of to energy savings in conventional utility systems [6].

International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies 2018, 13, 369–379

© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial
re-use, please contact [email protected]
doi:10.1093/ijlct/cty045 Advance Access Publication 12 September 2018 369
A. Ahmed et al.

Natural fossil fuels account for 67% of global electricity gen- Many researchers focused on improving the performance of
eration. The major sources of energy and the percent share of combined cycle power plants by properly designing the HRSG.
total US electricity generation in 2015 were as follows: coal P. K. Nag designed a HRSG for saturated steam for a combined
(33%), natural gas (33%), and nuclear (20%) [7]. These energy gas and steam power cycle with minimum irreversibility [16]
sources typically use boilers and/or steam turbine systems to and concluded that the entropy is reduced when the HRSG is
generate steam for electricity generation. Most, but not all, of operated at full load. Franco studied the thermodynamic ana-
the heating systems in energy generation are used to service lysis to design the operating parameters for different configura-
boilers that produce hot water or steam. All major industrial tions of HRSG systems to minimize the exergy losses
energy users consume a large portion of their fossil fuel in considering only the irreversibility due to the difference in tem-
steam production: food processing (57%), chemicals (42%), perature between the cold and hot fluids [17]. The HRSG forms
pulp and paper (81%), petroleum refining (23%) and primary a major part of the steam system. In the combined cycle mode,
metals (10%) [8]. the efficiency of the combined gas turbine-plus-HRSG system
Waste heat recovery systems produce power by consuming can reach 55–60% (lower heating value basis) with modern

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the heat energy lost to the surroundings from thermal pro- advanced machines, while in cogeneration mode, the system
cesses, with no additional fuel input. For marine vessels, about efficiency can be as high as 75–85%.
50% of the total fuel energy supplied to the diesel power plants Recent trends in HRSG design include multiple-pressure
is lost to the surroundings [9]. Researchers investigated several units for maximum energy recovery, the use of high-
different waste heat recovery systems to better understand the temperature superheaters or reheaters in combined cycle plants
potential recovery efficiencies and their suitability to marine and auxiliary firing for efficient steam generation.
applications and concluded that the suitability of the waste heat The first step in designing a HRSG is to calculate the steam
recovery system changes depending on the temperature range generation ability, and gas and steam temperature profiles. The
of interest. flow rate and exit steam temperatures can be assumed based on
the specifications for a conventional fired steam generator. The
choice of these two factors then affects the sizes of the super-
1.2 Design of waste HRSG heater, evaporator and economizer. Based on the sizes of eva-
With population growth and rapid increases in industrial uses, porators that can be economically constructed and transported,
the demand for electrical energy is increasing significantly in the pinch and approach points for unfired HRSGs are usually in
both developed and developing countries. Thus, reducing the the range of 10–15°C. In the case where specifically less steam is
costs of electricity and lowering pollutant emissions became the desired, such as in a multiple-pressure HRSG generation system
prime motivation for researchers and engineers to look for where there is more low-pressure steam then high-pressure
other more efficient and environmentally friendly technologies steam, a larger pinch and approach may be used [18].
for power generation [9–11] . Among these technologies are
waste heat recovery power plants consisting of a gas cycle,
Brayton cycle and steam cycle, or Rankine cycle system linked 1.3 Exergy
by a HRSG. In these systems, the exhaust heat from the flue Exergy follows from the Second Law of Thermodynamics and
gases of the gas turbine is recovered in a HRSG to produce is a property that enables us to define the maximum useful
steam at a suitable pressure and temperature. Then, a steam work of a given amount of energy at a specified state. Exergy
turbine is used to produce electricity. investigations of energy use were first introduced in the USA
HRSGs are classified into single-, dual- and triple-pressure [19] and are now widely used in the design, simulation and per-
types, depending on the number of drums in the boiler. Dual- formance evaluation of thermal and thermochemical systems.
pressure HRSGs are widely used, as they offer higher efficien- From these analyses, it is known that the heat exchanger and
cies than single-pressure systems and a lower investment cost combustor are the main parts contributing to the loss of energy,
than triple-pressure HRSGs [12] and [13]. and the exergy efficiency is lower than the energy efficiency.
The thermal efficiency and power generation capacity of Exergy is always evaluated with respect to a reference environ-
combined cycle power plants are dependent on the design of ment, which is in a stable state, acts as an infinite system, and
the HRSG. Thus, the HRSG must be carefully designed to take is a sink for heat and materials. In this approach, the tempera-
full advantage of the heat exchanged and to improve the overall ture To and pressure P remains constant, as recommended by
performance of the plant [14]. [20]. In the present study, T0 = 25°C and P0 = 100 kPa [21].
Table 1 shows the temperature ranges and characteristics for
IW heat sources [15].
The key challenge in designing a HRSG is to ensure the 2 FUNDAMENTALS OF DUAL-PRESSURE
maximum utilization of the gas turbine exhaust heat (heat from HRSG
the exhaust gases) in the heat recovery system to generate steam
with the minimum heat exchange area to make the cycle more Heat transfer is dependent on the mass flow of hot gases, mass
efficient and economical. flow of water or steam, temperature difference and surface area.

370 International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies 2018, 13, 369–379

 Design methodology of heat recovery steam generator in electric utility for waste heat recovery

Table 1. Temperature range and characteristics of IW heat. finned tubes are used in the HRSG. Annular fins are used to
Waste heat source Temperature range °C Cleanliness
increase the heat transfer on the gas side. The most important
parameters of HRSGs are the pinch point and approach point,
Furnace or heating system exhaust gases 316–1100 Varies which contribute to the effectiveness of the heat exchange. The
Gas (combustion) turbine exhaust gases 480–600 Clean pinch point is the difference between the gas temperature leav-
Jacket cooling water 90–100 Clean
Exhaust gases (for gas fuels) 480–600 Mostly clean
ing the evaporator section and the temperature of the fluid
Hot surfaces 65–316 Clean entering the evaporator section. The approach point is the dif-
Compressor after or inter cooler water 38–82 Clean ference between the saturation and inlet temperatures of the
Hot products 100–1370 Mostly clean fluid in the evaporator.
The selection of these two factors also affects the sizes of the
superheater, evaporator and economizer. The pinch and
A single-pressure HRSG can recover heat up to a specific level. approach points for unfired HRSGs are usually in the range of
If more heat is to be recovered, then the area of the heat 10–15°C. If less steam is desired, then a larger pinch and

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exchanger increases, which soon becomes economically unfeas- approach may be used to simplify the heat transfer requirement
ible. For this reason, designers often use dual-pressure HRSG in the heat exchanger by allowing a smaller surface area.
systems to recover more heat and to reduce the stack tempera- The behavior of a HRSG depends on the inlet and exit gas
ture. In dual-pressure HRSG systems, two stages of pressure are temperatures; thus, an arbitrary assumption regarding the exit
used, where one is high and the other is relatively low. The flow gas temperature leads to a temperature cross situation. The
rates of both stages may be different, depending on the right way to evaluate the design temperature profile is to
requirements. assume pinch and approach points and perform the calcula-
A dual-pressure HRSG is a series of heat exchangers tions. Variables that directly affect the steam generation and
arranged to maximize the amount of heat recovered and con- steam and gas temperature profiles are the approach and pinch
sists of three heat exchangers, namely, the economizer, evapor- points, as shown in Figure 2.
ator and superheater, for both the high- and low-pressure
levels. In the present research, three economizers were used for
the high-pressure cycle, in such a way that reduces the size 3 DESIGN APPROACH
required, because by splitting the economizers and exposing
them to the higher temperature of the exhaust gases results in 3.1 Flow diagram
smaller area for economizer. The arrangement of high- and For design purposes, it is necessary to determine the magnitude
low-pressure heat exchangers are such that the heat transferred (energy flow) and temperatures of the streams. The most reli-
to all sections is properly distributed to extract the maximum able way to quantify the flows is through heat and mass bal-
amount of heat from the flue gases. An economizer is used to ances. In simple cases, suitable heat and mass balances can be
heat the water close to the saturation temperature, evaporators determined by hand calculation. In more complex cases,
are used to produce saturated steam, and superheaters are used spreadsheet balances or specialist flow sheet simulation software
to produce superheated steam. The heat exchangers are in the may be the best way forward. Different calculation platforms
form of bundles of tubes placed in staggered arrangement to have advantages and disadvantages, depending on the context.
increase the heat transfer coefficient. The flow of the working Figure 3 represents the logical flow process used in the pre-
fluid (water or steam) in the pipes is horizontal and the flow of sent design of the HRSG. In the figure, the flow is expanded
exhaust gasses is vertical, which means each heat exchanger in into several steps. The first few steps are the decision-making
the HRSG can be considered to be a cross flow heat exchanger steps for the HRSG. Decisions are taken regarding which meth-
as shown in Figure 1. The fluid in the evaporator undergoes od should be used under which condition, i.e. the selection of
forced circulation by pump for both pressure levels. Steam working fluid (water or Organic fluid), selection of design pres-
drums are used in HRSG to separate the water and steam from sure, selection of single- or dual-pressure cycle. The single-
the evaporator. The arrangement of the evaporator is such that pressure cycle recovers less heat as a result the exit temperature
the wet steam collects in the steam drum by the natural law of remains high, while in dual-pressure the heat recovered is more
mass transfer. thus resulting in lower exit temperature. The next steps contain
Figure 1 shows a schematic view of a gas turbine power the design processes, i.e. the design of heat exchanger (econo-
plant with a typical dual-pressure HRSG and steam turbine sys- mizer, evaporator and superheater), design of fins and design
tem. Both open and closed feed water heat is used to preheat for preheating of the working fluid. The last step is the per-
the water before it enters the heat exchanger. In the turbine formance calculation of the cycle.
after expansion, some bleeding is performed, which is used to
heat the water in the open feed water heater.
The exhaust gases of the gas turbine have a low heat transfer 3.2 Assumptions
coefficient as compared to the heat transfer coefficients of the The main assumptions used to develop the mathematical model
working fluid in the evaporator and economizer; therefore, are as follows:

International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies 2018, 13, 369–379 371

A. Ahmed et al.

Stack Open Feed

Low Water Heater
Pressure Close Feed
Cycle Water Heater

High Pump
Flue Gases Pressure
Pump
Cycle

Condenser

Pump

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Turbine

Figure 1. Schematic of the waste heat recovery cycle.

Tg -------- Flue Gas Line • The input flue gas condition flow rate and temperature are
Tg2 _____ Water/Steam Line fixed.
• Pinch and approach point have to be assumed.
Temperature (°C)

Tg3
Ts1
Pinch point = Tg3 –TS
Ts
Tg4 3.3 Mathematical modeling
Approach point = Ts–Tws When the actual processes can be represented by mathematical
models, then the system can be simulated. The HRSG model
Tw2
depends on the mass flow rates, fluid dynamics, heat transfer
and energy balance.
The following mathematical model was derived based on the
Tw1
assumptions above, and the main geometric variables are illu-
Super heater Evaporator Economizer
strated in Figure 4.
Figure 2. Approach and pinch points.

3.4 Temperature profile

• Both the water and exhaust gas sides of the system are The first design step in the design process is to determine the
assumed to be in steady state. temperature profile. The temperatures of the working fluid and
• The HRSG is unfired. exhaust gases at the inlet and outlet for each section can be cal-
• There is no heat loss from the heat exchangers. culated using the energy balance. The calculation should be
• To avoid the dew point, the stack temperature is assumed to done by using a suitable pinch point. Figure 2 shows the tem-
be more than 100°C [22]. perature distribution of heat exchanger.
• The exhaust flue gases are forced to circulate by means of The equation used to develop the temperature profile is the
fans. heat balance equation
• The tubes are in a staggered arrangement with fins.
• The mass flow rate of the working fluid in the economizer,
Total Heat Exchange = QCold = QHot = ml (hl,o − hl,in)
evaporator and superheater is assumed to be equal in each (1)
pressure level. = m g (h g,in − h g,out)

372 International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies 2018, 13, 369–379

 Design methodology of heat recovery steam generator in electric utility for waste heat recovery

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Figure 3. Logical flow diagram for the waste HRSG design.

3.5 Calculating the overall heat transfer Fin Height

coefficients
The design method in this study leverages the heat transfer Inner Pipe
Outer Pipe Diameter
diameter
coefficients to obtain the heat transfer area for each heat
exchanger in the high- and low-pressure regions of the HRSG.
The overall heat transfer coefficient U based on the total heat
exchange area can be calculated as follows:
Fin Distance
Overall heat transfer coffecient
1 1 ln (D / D ) 1 Figure 4. Geometry of the pipe.
= UA = h A + 2π0kL i + h A . (2)
i i 0 0

In practice, the heat exchanger tubes are made of high-

conduction material with a small thickness. Therefore, it is rea- cross-sectional area, the flow intensity can be calculated using
sonable to assume that ln (D0/Di)/2πkL ≅ 0 the Reynolds number:
The overall heat transfer equation then becomes:
4m c
ReD = . (4)
1 πD i μ
U= 1 1
. (3)
hi
+ h0 The present calculation shows that the Reynold number is
always >3000, which means that the flow is turbulent. Thus,
To calculate the inner heat transfer coefficient for steady- the Nusselt number (Nu) for turbulent flow in a smooth circu-
state incompressible flows inside a tube with uniform lar tube can be obtained from the Dittus–Boelter Equation [23].

International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies 2018, 13, 369–379 373

A. Ahmed et al.

For heating, n = 0.4, and for cooling, n = 0.3. 3.6 Area calculation
The number of transfer units (NTU) method is used to calcu-
4
late the rate of heat transfer in heat exchangers, especially coun-
NuD = 0.023ReD5 Pr n . (5)
tercurrent exchangers, when there is insufficient information to
calculate the log-mean temperature difference (LMTD). Based
The internal convection heat transfer coefficient can be cal-
on the overall heat transfer coefficient U, the area for each sec-
culated as:
tion of the HRSG, i.e. the superheaters, evaporators and econo-
mizers, can be calculated using the following relationships.
k
h i = NuD . (6)
Di UA
NTU = . (11)
C min
To determine the convection coefficient over the bank of
tubes for flue gases: As annular finned tubes are used for heat transfer, the outer
radius of the fin can be calculated by using the following equation.

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λVρ
ReD = . (7) A = N (πD (L − nt) + nπ(r o2 − r 2in) . (12)
μ

The following is a correlation [24] for flow past a single cir-

cular cylinder: Figure 5 represents the arrangement of tubes in 3.7 Feed water heater
staggered tube arrangement. A feed water heater is used to preheat the water for steam gener-
This correlation is valid for 10 < Reλ < 107 and 0.6 < Pr < ation. There are two types of feed water heaters: open feed water
1000: heaters and closed feed water heaters. In an open feed water
heater, the hot working fluid is directly mixed with the cold fluid
0.037Re0.8 Pr before being transferred to the next step, but it is a key that both
Nu 0 = (8) fluids are at the same pressure. In a closed feed water heater, a
1 + 2.443Re−0.1 (Pr 2/3 − 1)
heat exchanger is used to transfer the heat from the hot to the
Next, the convection coefficient for the flue gases flowing cold fluid.
outside the bank tubes is calculated. The mathematical analysis of a feed water heater is based on
the following energy balance:
k Q c = Q h = m c (h in − h out) = mh (h in − h out) . (13)
h o = NuD . (9)
λ

A temperature correction factor is also calculated [25]:

3.8 Power generated by steam turbine
⎛μ ⎞0.4 For a multistage steam turbine, the power generated is
ho = hi ⎜ b ⎟ (10)
⎝ μw ⎠ k l
Power = ∑ ṁ s,p (hi,p − ho,p) − ∑ ṁ b,q (hi,q − ho,q) (14)
In this section, the heat transfer coefficients have been calcu- p=1 q=1

lated and the overall heat transfer coefficient is known. where p is the number of stages of turbine and q is the number
of bleeding from turbine, ms is the mass flow of the steam gen-
erated and mb is the mass flow rate if there is bleeding from the
turbine.

3.9 Pump work and pressure losses in pipe

The pressure drop can be calculated from the Moody (Darcy)
friction factor for internal flows, i.e. flow through pipe.

f = (0.79lnRe − 1.64)−2 . (15)

LρV 2
ΔP = f . (16)
2D
Equation (17) describes the high-pressure pump feeding the
Figure 5. Staggered tube arrangement. water, including the pressure losses:

374 International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies 2018, 13, 369–379

 Design methodology of heat recovery steam generator in electric utility for waste heat recovery

mΔP In the system, the working fluid water is circulated by the

Wp = . (17) pump, enters the evaporator as compressed liquid at 105 bar
ρ
and leaves as saturated vapor at the evaporator pressure. The
dead-state condition is 1 bar of pressure at a temperature of
40°C.
3.10 Overall plant efficiency Working fluid leaves the turbine as superheated vapor at a
The efficiency of a power plant is defined as the percentage of the condenser pressure of 0.15 bar and leaves the condenser as a
total energy content of the fuel that is converted into electricity. In saturated liquid. The mass and energy balances can be written
a HRSG, the amount of electricity increases with the same amount as:
of fuel by generating electricity from steam, which increases in plant
efficiency. The efficiency of the plant can be calculated with the fol- ∑ min = ∑ mout , (20)
lowing equation:
Work Done W
Q+W= ∑ mout hout − ∑ minhin, (21)

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η= = (18)
Fuel Input Q E = m [(u − u o) + po (v − vo) − To (s − so)] , (22)

Analysis of the steam turbine inlet:

3.11 Effectiveness of heat exchanger Q = m (h in − h out) , (23)
Effectiveness is dimensionless quantity between 0 and 1. It is
the ratio of actual heat transfer rate for a heat exchanger to the Tc
maximum possible heat transfer rate. η=1− , (24)
Th
q Ch (Thi − Tho)
ε= = (19) WE
qmax Cmin (Thi − Tci ) η= , (25)
Q

WE = η × Q. (26)

4 CASE STUDY Figure 7 shows the exergy distribution of each component of

the cycle. The maximum available exergy from the flue gases is
The design of the HRSG depends on the thermodynamic para- divided into two parts. One part is utilized in the heat exchan-
meters of the exhaust gases from the gas turbine in simple cycle ger while the other is lost. The heat exchanger passes the exergy
mode, such as the temperature, pressure and mass flow rate of to the turbine, which converts it into useful work heating the
gases. In this section, the above design method is applied to a steam in the open feed water heater. The outlet of the turbine is
case study based on the real data from a local electrical utility gas collected in the condenser, which first closes the feed water
turbine power plant. The basic parameters are listed in Table 2. heater to gain exergy and then opens the feed water heater.
By using the above data from an electric utility company a Finally, the fluid is pumped to the desired design pressure by
dual-pressure HRSG has been designed. Figure 6 shows the adding exergy externally from pumps. Then, the fluid again cir-
temperature profile for the steam and exhaust gases cycle, by culates through the heat exchanger and the cycle continues.
having a pinch point of 10°C. Figure 8 represents the exergy losses in the HRSG as a per-
centage of the exergy input. The exergy input is the exergy
5 EXERGY ANALYSIS available from the flue gases. A large amount of exergy loss take
place in the flue gases. The second largest exergy loss is in the
This section describes the method used to estimate the energy heat exchanger due to the evaporator where the phase change
and exergy used, and the energy and exergy efficiencies for the happens.
heat exchanger and other items.
Table 2. Technical data and operational parameters of the gas turbine
at 29°C. 6 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Known parameters Base load Units Figure 9 shows the effect of design pressure vs. that of the heat
Nominal output at generator 60 MW exchanger (WHRSG) for a constant area. The x-axis shows pos-
Nominal efficiency of gas turbine 33 % sible design pressures from 50 to 100 bar. It can be seen that an
Exhaust gas flow 288 kg/s increase in the design pressure leads to a decrease in the effect-
Exhaust gas temperature 540 °C
iveness of the heat exchanger because more heat is required to
Fuel consumption 4.33 kg/s
raise the steam to the same temperature. Thus, for the same

International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies 2018, 13, 369–379 375

A. Ahmed et al.

600
SH HP EV HP EOC 1 HP SH LP ECO2 HP EV LP ECO3 HP ECO LP
550 544
SH: Super heater
500 500 EV : Evaporator
480 ECO: Economizer
450 HP: High Pressure

Temperature (°C)
400

350 352
320
311 306
300 300
311
265
250 250
250
199 190

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200 181
170
158
150 170
158 158 150 150
158
100
Heat Exchangers

Figure 6. Temperature profile for dual-pressure.

Flue gases 61,667.4 kW

Utilized for heat exchanger Losses

52,828 kW 8,839.4 kW

Actual recovered by heat Losses

exchanger 46,415.7 kW 6,412.3 kW

Inlet to turbine To open FWH

44,144.6 kW 2,271.1 kW

Work output from Closed FWH To condenser Losses

turbine 35,462 kW 4,866 kW 2,767.9 kW 1,048.7 kW

Pump 3: 300 .55 kW Pump 1: 14 kW Outlet Flow Cooling losses

Pump 4: 4.85 kW Pump 2: 1 kW 2,436.4 kW 331.5 kW

Net work output

35141.6 kW
Open FWH
6,280.6 kW

Figure 7. Exergy distribution of the HRSG.

376 International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies 2018, 13, 369–379

 Design methodology of heat recovery steam generator in electric utility for waste heat recovery

Turbine
EXERGY LOSS 7%

Condensor
1%

Heat Exchanger
10%

Work Done Flue Gases

66% 16%

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Figure 8. Percentage of exergy losses in each component.

210 between the working fluid and flue gas, which causes the stack
pre heating 350
exit temperature to increase.
200 pre heating 400
Figure 11 shows the effect of the overall plant efficiency and
pre heating 423 pinch point temperature for single-pressure and multipressure
Exit Temperature (K)

190
HRSGs. The x-axis shows the possible variation of pinch points
180
from 20°C to 40°C. The overall plant efficiency decreases with
170 increasing evaporator pinch point temperature difference. For
single pressure, this decrement is ~0.64%. For a double-
160 pressure HRSG, it is ~0.25%. This is because increasing the
150
pinch point causes the steam production to decrease, which
leads to a decrease in the overall plant efficiency. In the current
140 analysis, the overall plant efficiency increased up to 52.4%.
50 60 70 80 90 100 110
Design Pressure (bar)
Figure 12 shows the total heat transfer in the HRSG and the
temperature of the flue gas. By increasing the input flue gas
Figure 9. Effect of the design pressure on the effectiveness of the HX. temperature, the heat exchange increases because, at higher
temperatures, the enthalpy of the flue gas increases, which
causes more heat transfer to take place.
Figure 13 shows the heat transfer rate in each heat exchan-
area, the heat exchanger is less effective, which means that it
ger. In the figure below, it is clear that the maximum heat
cannot recover the required heat. Preheating is also a factor in
transfer occurs in the evaporator for both pressure cycles due to
the effectiveness. If the preheating is increased, then the effect-
higher latent heat of vaporization of water.
iveness also increases because the inlet and outlet temperature
difference is smaller.
Figure 10 shows the effect of the design pressure on the stack 7 CONCLUSION
temperature of the heat exchanger (WHRSG) when the mass
flow rate and area of the heat exchanger is kept constant. The This paper presents a complete design methodology for a waste
x-axis shows the possible design pressure variation from 60 to HRSG. A typical case study for an Electric Utility Plant is also
100 bar. It can be seen that an increase in the design pressure presented. By using a HRSG for recovering the waste heat from
leads to an increase in the stack temperature because the heat the exhaust of a 60-MW gas turbine, an additional power of
transferred from the flue gases decreases, which causes less heat 35.14 MW can be generated, thus increasing the overall plant
transfer between the fluids and an increase in the stack tem- efficiency from 33% to 52%. The heat transfer coefficients of
perature. The preheating also has an impact on the stack exit gas are weak; therefore, the designed HRSG has a large area to
temperature because, at a constant mass flow rate of working produce steam at high pressure and temperature. Multiple-
fluid and a constant area, the heat transfer becomes less pressure steam generation should be considered to optimize

International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies 2018, 13, 369–379 377

A. Ahmed et al.

0.86

0.84 Pre Heating

300K
0.82
Pre Heating
Effectiveness

0.8 350K

0.78 Pre Heating

400K
0.76
Pre Heating
0.74
423K
0.72

0.7
40 60 80 100
Pressure (bar)

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Figure 10. Effect of the design pressure on the stack temperature. Figure 13. Heat transfer rate in each heat exchanger for both pressure levels.

53.5
affects more than only the efficiency of the overall plant; it also
ensures small variation at pinch points. The variation is about
53 1% for a pinch point range of 20–40°C. Pinch and approach
Overall Plant Efficieny (%)

52.5
points should be selected according to the need of the steam
generated.
52 Single Pressure
Exergy is an effective method that uses the conservation of
51.5 Dual Pressure mass and conservation of energy principles together with the
second law of thermodynamics to design and analyze energy
51 systems. The overall exergy loss is about 35%, out of which 16%
50.5
is lost in flue gasses and 10% is lost in heat exchanger. This is
due to the phase change in the evaporator section and isen-
50 tropic efficiency of turbine.
15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Pinch Point Temperature (°C)

Figure 11. Effect of the overall plant efficiency and pinch point. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge Qassim University and
SABIC, represented by the Deanship of Scientific Research, on
Total Heat Exchanged in the HRSG (KW)

300000
the material support for this research under grant number 2857
250000 during the academic year 1435 AH. 2014 AD.
200000
NOMENCLATURE
150000

100000
Q heat rate (kW)
h enthalpy (kJ/kg)
50000 m mass flow rate (kg/s)
U overall heat transfer coefficient (kW/m2K)
0
490 500 520 540 560 A area (m2)
Exhaust Temperature (°C) D diameter (m)
k thermal conductivity of pipe (W/mK)
Figure 12. Effect of the input flue gas temperature on the total heat
NuD Nusselt number
exchanged in the HRSG.
Pr Prandtl number
μ dynamic viscosity (N.s/m2)
ρ density (kg/m3)
energy recovery, particularly if high-pressure steam is gener- V velocity (m/s)
ated. It is more efficient to use a dual-pressure cycle instead of λ parametric length of tube (m)
a single-pressure cycle. The difference in overall plant efficiency SQ transverse tube spacing (m)
between single- and dual-pressure at a constant pinch point, i.e. SL longitudinal tube spacing (m)
20°C, was found to be 1.5%. A dual-pressure steam generator r radius (m)

378 International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies 2018, 13, 369–379

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