Energy 195 (2020) 116965

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

The energy-saving mechanism of coal-fired power plant with SeCO2

cycle compared to steam-Rankine cycle
Zhewen Chen a, b, Yanjuan Wang a, b, *, Xiaosong Zhang c, Jinliang Xu a, b
a
The Beijing Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow and Heat Transfer, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, 102206, China
b
Key Laboratory of Power Station Energy Transfer Conversion and System, North China Electric Power University, Ministry of Education, China
c
Hainan University, Hainan, 570228, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: SeCO2 (Supercritical-CO2) coal-fired power plant is a promising technology for efficient and clean uti-
Received 6 August 2019 lization of coal for power generation. The comparative study between the SeCO2 coal-fired power plant
Received in revised form and the power plant with steam Rankine cycle from aspects of energy and exergy balances is conducted.
9 January 2020
The conversion and transfer of the energy and exergy in the power plants are revealed. With the main
Accepted 12 January 2020
Available online 15 January 2020
gas parameters of 32MPa/620
C and double-reheat process, the power generation efficiencies of the S
eCO2 coal-fired power plant and the power plant with steam Rankine cycle are 49.06% and 48.12%,
respectively. The corresponding exergy efficiencies are 48.02% and 47.10%, respectively. The energy-
Keywords:
S-CO2 cycle
saving mechanism of the SeCO2 coal-fired power plant is revealed: the smaller boiler efficiency and
Steam rankine cycle larger exergy efficiency of the boiler system in the SeCO2 coal-fired power plant make the energy level of
Exergy analysis the energy being transferred to the SeCO2 cycle is higher than that of the energy being transported to the
Coal-fired power plant Rankine cycle. The CO2 absorbs the high-level energy and produces more mechanical power through the
SeCO2 cycle to obtain higher power efficiency.
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction (USC) technology is the most remarkable method [4]. Double

reheat can increase efficiency by means of raising the average
Coal is the second source of primary energy (approximately temperature of the steam parameters at turbine inlet (i.e. the
30%), and contributes over 40% of the worldwide electricity pro- endothermic process). Thus, the potential to produce work in the
duction [1]. For China, coal is the most important primary energy. turbine is greatly improved while the exhaust steam humidity
Raw coal production and coal consumption account for 73.6% of the requirement of the turbine is fulfilled [5]. The thermal efficiencies
total primary energy production and approximately 65.6% of the of typical double-reheat USC power plants include Kawagoe Power
total energy consumption in 2014 based on coal equivalent method Plant in Japan, Mannheim Power Plant in Germany and Nordjylland
[2]. Serious haze, 90% of the SO2 emissions, 70% of the dust emis- Power Plant in Denmark can reach over 45% on a lower heating
sions, and 67% of the NOx emissions were produced during coal value (LHV) basis [6]. Until the end of 2016, there are 6 double-
combustion processes [3]. It is urgent to make efforts to improve reheat USC power plants in China. The unit 3 and unit 4 of Guo-
the efficiency and reduce the emissions of coal-fired power plants. dian Taizhou power plant were successfully operated from
Coal-fired power plants based on steam-Rankine cycle have September 2015 and January 2016, respectively. The boiler effi-
been widely utilized for a long history. The parameters have been ciencies of the two units reach 94.78% and 95.12%, and the power
extremely improved over the past few decades to increase the ef- generation efficiencies reach 47.81% and 47.95%, respectively [7].
ficiency of coal-fired power plants. Many technologies are The pressure and temperature of the fresh steam, reheat temper-
employed, among which the double reheat ultra-supercritical atures of Taizhou Power Plant are 31MPa/600
C/620
C/620
C.
Further improvement on the steam parameter is limited by the
material problem. Thus, further enhancement on power generation
efficiency of coal-fired power plant comes to be a large challenge.
* Corresponding author. The Beijing Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow and Heat
Transfer, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, 102206, China. Supercritical CO2 (SeCO2) cycle has been paid much attention in
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (Z. Chen), [email protected] recent years. Compared to USC steam Rankine cycle, the SeCO2
(Y. Wang).

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2 Z. Chen et al. / Energy 195 (2020) 116965

Nomenclature m Mass flow rate

MC Main compressor
A Energy level MT Mid-pressure turbine
AP Air preheater N Nitrogen
ar As-received O Oxygen
C Carbon Q Heat
CON Condenser R Universal gas constant
Cp Specific heat capacity RC Re-compressor
DEA Deaerator S Sulfur
e Exergy s Entropy
EUD Energy Utilization Diagram SeCO2 Supercritical carbon dioxide
ef,ph Physical exergy of different flows T0 Environment temperature
ef,ch Chemical exergy of different flows V Volatile matter
FC Fixed carbon VHT Very high-pressure turbine
H Hydrogen W work
h Enthalpy w Mass fraction
HRH High-pressure regenerative heater x Mole fraction
HT High-pressure turbine
HTR High temperature recuperator Greek symbols
HV Heating value De Exergy change
i Unit i DEXL Exergy destruction
j Component j DH Enthalpy change
k Composition k hb Boiler efficiency
L Latent heat of vaporization hc Cycle efficiency
LHV Lower heating value heb Exergy efficiency of the boiler system
LRH Low-pressure regenerative heater hec Exergy efficiency of the power cycle
LT Low-pressure turbine hex Exergy efficiency
LTR Low temperature recuperator hp Power generation efficiency
M Moisture

cycle has more compact turbine machinery, and is more effective power plants. In the aspect of power generation system integration,
and flexible [8,9]. A brief development history of SeCO2 cycle is many works have been done on integrating SeCO2 cycle with solar
presented in Fig. 1. The researches began with a patent for partially energy [17], nuclear energy [9], gas turbine [18], and coal-fired
condensing CO2 Brayton cycle by Sulzer Bros in 1948 [10]. The power plant [19].
SeCO2 Brayton cycle was further developed by researchers such as The energy structure of China determines that developing
Feher and Angelino until the late 1970s [11,12]. During the mid- SeCO2 coal-fired power plants is necessary and promising. Mecheri
1970s to late-1990s, the researches were aimed at solving the and Moullec investigated the influences of heat exchange pinches,
problems within the fluid machinery and heat exchange caused by pressure losses, and cycle configurations on the thermodynamic
high-temperature and -pressure characteristics of SeCO2 cycle [8]. performance of the SeCO2 coal-fired power plant. The efficiency of
From the beginning of the 21century, the SeCO2 cycle has been the system reaches 48% under the condition of 30MPa/620
C and a
extensively studied in basic theoretical analysis [13], process double reheat single recompression cycle [20]. Xu et al. emphasized
innovation optimization [14], boiler design and optimization [15], the two key issues of large boiler pressure drops and residual flue
technical and economic analyses [16], and demonstration of small gas heat extraction of SeCO2 coal-fired power plant [21]. The 1/8

In 1948, Sulzer Bros From the mid-1970s From the beginning of the 21 century,
published a patent for to late-1990s, the the S-CO2 cycle has been extensively
partially condensing CO2 characteri s tics of studied in basic theoretical analysis ,
Brayton cycle; In 1967, high temperature and process innovation optimization, full-
E.Feher Proposed S-CO2 pressure made the S- scale calculation, and demon
ration of
Brayton cycle. CO2 cycle
agnant . small power plants.

In the late 1990s, due to the breakthrough in

In 1968-1969, Angelino fluid machinery and heat exchanger design,
proposed reheat and and the operation experience in advanced
recompressing S-CO2 cycle. Rankine cycle with high temperature and high
pressure , the S-CO2 cycle was re-examined.

Fig. 1. The brief development history of SeCO2 cycle.

 Z. Chen et al. / Energy 195 (2020) 116965 3

principle to reduce the frictional pressure drop in the boiler and a Flue Gas
flue gas cooler arrangement to extract the flue gas heat were pro-
16 AP Air
posed. The power generation efficiency of the power plant reaches
48.37% under the condition of 30MPa/620
C and a double reheat 15 7
single recompression cycle. Zhou et al. conducted the exergy
analysis of a single reheat SeCO2 Brayton cycle coal-fired power 14 12 11
MC
plant [22]. The results showed that the exergy loss ratios of the
SeCO2 boiler system and fuel combustion process are 82.2% and HTR LTR
53.5%, respectively. The former is close to that of the steam boiler, 13
but the latter is about 5.3% higher than the traditional steam boiler.
1 HT
Ishiyama et al. compared the power generation systems with in-
tegrated steam, helium, SeCO2 cycles and prototype nuclear fusion 2 8 10
6
reactor [27]. The SeCO2 Brayton cycle is recommended due to its RC
efficiency and turbine compactness. 3 MT
Viewing from the literature review, many works have been done
in the aspects of energy and exergy analyses on the SeCO2 coal- 4
fired power plant. The comprehensive comparisons between the
5 9
SeCO2 Brayton cycle and the steam Rankine cycle were limited to LT
constant temperature heat sources such as nuclear and solar en-
Condenser
ergy. The comparison between the coal-fired power plant with
SeCO2 Brayton cycle and steam Rankine cycle is mainly from aspect Coal
of energy analyses. The energy analyses should be combined with Boiler
exergy analyses to reveal the energy conversion and transfer routes
in the power plants, and then obtain the energy-saving mechanism
of SeCO2 coal-fired power plant. Especially for China, the replace-
ment of steam Rankine cycle with SeCO2 cycle for the coal-fired
Fig. 2. The flow sheet of SeCO2 coal-fired power plant with double-reheat single
power plant is a large project, and needs to be carefully expoun- recompression cycle.
ded and proved.
This paper investigates the energy-saving mechanism of SeCO2
coal-fired power plant against conventional coal-fired power plant - {12e14} high temperature recuperator (HTR) cold side {total
with steam Rankine cycle. The comparison is carried out mainly flow}
from aspects of the first law and the second law of thermody-
namics. The energy utilization diagram (EUD) methodology is The fuel coal is combusted with the pre-heated air in the boiler.
implemented for key processes and unis to reveal the origins of Most of the high-temperature heat is transferred to the cooling wall
exergy destructions. of the boiler by means of radiation and convection. The rest of the
heat is partially absorbed by the air in the air-preheater (AP) and
2. Proposal of the technologies the remaining is discharged into the atmosphere with a tempera-
ture of 120
C. SeCO2 from the HTR absorbs the radiation and
SeCO2 Brayton cycle technology is a power generation tech- convection heat in the tube on the cooling wall of the boiler, and is
nology with supercritical CO2 as the working medium of the power heated to 620
C. The high-temperature and epressure CO2 enters
cycle. The operation parameters of CO2 are beyond its critical point the high-pressure turbine (HT) to generate electricity. Then, the CO2
(7.38MPa/30.98
C). The compression processes should be con- goes through a double-reheat process, and generate electricity in
ducted near the critical point due to the low work consumption the mid-pressure turbine (MT) and low-pressure turbine (LT),
here [12]. In the other hand, considering the utilization of the respectively. The parameters of CO2 at the outlet of the LT are
double-reheat technology in large-scale coal-fired power plant 7.9MPa/561.75
C. The CO2 flows into the HTR and LTR for two-stage
with steam Rankine cycle, the double-reheat technology is also heat recovery. After the heat recovery process, the CO2 flow is split
adopted in the SeCO2 coal-fired power plant. The processes sim- into two separate flows. The first flow (68.3% of the total flow) is
ulations have been performed with Aspen Plus software. Among cooled in the condenser and compressed to 33.45 MPa in the main
property methods such as PENG-ROB, PR-BM, RK-SOAVE, SRK, compressor (MC). Then this flow is heated to 230
C in the LTR by
BWRS and LK-PLOCK, the LK-PLOCK property method was proved the recovered heat. The second flow (31.7% of the total flow) is
to exhibit satisfactory results and revealed the best trends near the compressed to 33.4 MPa in the re-compressor (RC), and mixes with
critical point compared to REFPROP. LK-PLOCK is also more accurate the first flow at the outlet of the LTR. The mixed total flow is heated
at high pressure and temperature [20]. Thus, LK-PLOCK property to 515.5
C in the HTR by the recovered heat.
method is selected to perform the simulations in this paper. In this paper, the coal-fired power plant with integrated steam
The flow sheet of SeCO2 coal-fired power plant with double- Rankine cycle and 10-stage heat recovery and double-reheat pro-
reheat single recompression cycle is illustrated in Fig. 2. The cesses is chosen as the reference power plant. The flow sheet is
SeCO2 Brayton cycle is composed of: shown in Fig. 3. The parameters are 32MPa/620
C for the main
steam, 620
C/620
C for the reheat steams. The turbines consist of
- {1e6} turbine {total flow} one single-flow very high-pressure turbine (VHT), one double-flow
- {6e7} high temperature recuperator (HTR) hot side {total flow} high-pressure turbine (HT), one double-flow mid-pressure turbine
- {7e8} low temperature recuperator (LTR) hot side {total flow} (MT), and two double-flow low-pressure turbines (LT).
- {8e10} heat sink {part flow} The steam outlets of the VHT and HT undergo two reheating
- {8e13} re-compressor {part flow} processes and are transferred to the MT and LT for further expan-
- {10e11} main compressor (after the heat sink) {part flow} sion. The power plant adopts a 10-stage regenerative system with
- {11e12} low temperature recuperator (LTR) cold side {part flow} four high-pressure regenerative heaters (HRHs), one deaerator
4 Z. Chen et al. / Energy 195 (2020) 116965

Flue Gas
AP Air

19
IP
20

18 LP1 LP2
HP

17 21
VHP
Condenser

22
23
Coal

Boiler HRH1 HRH2 HRH3 HRH4 DEA LRH6 LRH7 LRH8 LRH9 LRH10

Fig. 3. The flow sheet of coal-fired power plant with steam Rankine cycle.

(DEA), and five low-pressure regenerative heaters (LRHs). The The H2O in the flue gas comes from two aspects: the moisture
pressure of the exhaust steam from the LT into the condenser is set exists in the coal, and the H2O formed by the hydrogen combustion.
as 0.045 bar. Because the lower heating value of the coal is used in the calcula-
tion, the latent heat of the H2O formed by the hydrogen combustion
3. Methodology should not be contained in the enthalpy of the flue gas. Thus, the
latent heat of the H2O formed by the hydrogen combustion is
The energy and exergy analyses are conducted out for calculated by: ðm_ H2 O  m_ coal Mar ÞLH2 O ;
comprehensive comparison of SeCO2 and steam Rankine coal-fired The heating value of the CO in the flue gas is calculated by: HVCO .
power plants. The mass balance, energy balance, and exergy bal- Where hfluegas is the enthalpy of the flue gas; h0fluegas is the
ance for certain unit i can be expressed as follows: enthalpy of the flue gas at standard status; (Cp)fluegas is the average
specific heat capacity of the flue gas between T0 to Tfluegas; Tfluegas is
X X _ H2 O is the mass flow rate of H2O in
m_ ij ¼ m_ ij (1) the temperature of the flue gas; m
in out the flue gas; Mar is the mass fraction of H2O in the as-received fuel
coal; L H2O is the latent heat of vaporization for H2O; HVCO is the
X X heating value of CO.
mij hij  mij hij ¼ Wi þ Qi (2)
out
The exergy of the coal and particular flow is calculated by:
in

X X
DEXLi þ Wi þ eQi ¼ mij eij  mij eij (3)
ecoal ¼ LHVcoal
in out  
w w w
While m_ ij , hij , and eij are the mass flow rate, specific enthalpy,  1:0064 þ 0:1519 H þ 0:0616 O þ 0:0429 N (5)
wC wC wC
and specific exergy of component j at the inlet or outlet of unit i. Wi
is the work output of unit i. Wi is positive for turbines, negative for
compressors and pumps, and is zero for other units. Qi is the heat X X
released from unit i. Qi is positive for condensers. DEXLi is the ef ¼ef ;ph þef ;ch ¼ðhh0 ÞT0 ðss0 Þþ xk ef ;k þRT0 xk lnxk
exergy destruction of unit i; eQi is the exergy of Qi . X X X
¼ xk ½ððhh0 ÞT0 ðss0 ÞÞk þ xk ef ;k þRT0 xk lnxk
The energy balances of the power plants are based on the en-
ergy balances of each unit. Particularly, for the energy balance of (6)
the boiler, the enthalpy of the flue gas exhausted into the atmo- In the equations, wH,wO, wN,wC are the mass fractions of ele-
sphere should be calculated by the following equation because the ments H, O, N, C in the coal; ecoal is the specific exergy of the fuel
lower heating value of the fuel coal is adopted: coal, kJ/kg; ef is the specific exergy of different flows in the system;
    ef,ph and ef,ch are the physical exergy and chemical exergy of
hfluegas ¼ h0fluegas þ Cp fluegas Tfluegas  T0 different flows in the system; ef,k and xk are the standard chemical
  exergy and the mole fraction of the composition k in the flow.
 m_ H2 O  m_ coal Mar LH2 O þHVCO (4)
In accordance with the energy balance and exergy balance
The sensible heat of the flue gas is calculated by: equations, the power generation efficiency and exergy efficiency of
h0fluegas þ ðCp Þfluegas ðTfluegas  T0 Þ; the overall system can be expressed as follows:
 Z. Chen et al. / Energy 195 (2020) 116965 5

Table 2
Woutput The parameters of the steam extractions of the regenerative heaters.
hp ¼ _ (7)
mcoal  LHVcoal Temperature/
C Pressure/bar Mass flow/kg/s Extraction ratio

HRH1 396.47 93 0.333 0.08

Woutput
hex ¼ (8) HRH2 574.46 70 0.257 0.067
ecoal HRH3 499.13 45 0.214 0.06
HRH4 531.06 25 0.161 0.048
The ultimate and proximate analyses of the fuel coal are listed in DEA 450.55 15 0.096 0.03
Table 1. The steams extraction parameters of the 10-stage heat re- HRH6 360.73 8 0.152 0.049
HRH7 266.72 3.8 0.144 0.049
covery in the coal-fired power plant with steam Rankine cycle are
HRH8 168.52 1.53 0.140 0.05
illustrated in Table 2. HRH9 89.31 0.6 0.133 0.05
The following assumptions are made to simplify the simulation HRH10 62.09 0.18 0.132 0.052
of the power plants:

- The minimum temperature approaches are set to 5
C for the widths of the blocks and lines represent the amount of energy.
recuperators and 30
C (±1
C) for air-gas heat exchangers [22]. The only energy input of the power plant is the enthalpy of the fuel
- The pressure drops of the HTR and LTR are 0.05 MPa [25], and coal, 12.70 MW.
the pressure drops for the SeCO2 boiler and the water boiler are The electricity generated by the HT, MT and LT is 8.63 MW.
1.5 MPa and 5.9 MPa [26], respectively. However, the main compressor and the re-compressor consume
- Neglect the shaft seal loss, mechanical loss, the pressure loss of 1.07 MW and 1.33 MW, respectively. Thus, the work output is
pipelines and separators [22]. 6.23 MW, leading to a net power generation efficiency of 49.06%.
- The isentropic efficiencies of the turbomachinery and com- The exhaust energy of the boiler is 1.11 MW, including the enthalpy
pressors are set to 93% [24] and 90% [24,25], respectively. And of the high-temperature ash and enthalpy of the flue gas. Thus, the
the compressors are assumed to be driven by turbine shaft and boiler efficiency can be calculated by the ratio of heat absorbed by
not by electrical motors. the working fluids in the power cycles and the enthalpy of the coal,
which is 91.26% for the boiler in the SeCO2 coal-fired power plant.
All other parameters are determined by process constraints af- The exhaust energy of the condenser in the SeCO2 cycle is
ter the main parameters are set. The main parameters used in the 5.36 MW. The heat exchange capacities of the HTR and LTR are
simulation are concluded in Table 3. 14.54 MW and 7.14 MW, respectively. The recuperators should be
The parameters of key flows in the power plants (Figs. 2 and 3) efficiently designed to satisfy the large-capacity heat exchanges.
are illustrated in Table 4. As can be seen in Table 4, in the SeCO2 The energy balance diagram of the coal-fired power plant with
coal-fired power plant, the temperature of the exhaust CO2 at the steam Rankine cycle is illustrated in Fig. 5. Same to the SeCO2 coal-
outlet of LT is as high as 561.75
C due to the small expansion ratio fired power plant, the energy input of the power plant is only the
of CO2 through the turbines. Thus, the heat recovery processes enthalpy of the fuel coal. The electricity generated by the VHT, HT,
should be implemented to maintain high energy efficiency. MT and LT is 6.41 MW. The pumps in the power plant consume
The temperatures of pre-heated air enters the boilers are electricity of 0.30 MW. Thus, the work output of the power plant is
506.53
C and 263.64
C, respectively. In current conditions, the 6.11 MW, making a net power generation efficiency of 48.12%.
high-temperature characteristic of the pre-heated air is a challenge The exhaust energy of the boiler is 0.83 MW, therefore the boiler
faced by the SeCO2 coal-fired power plant. In the other hand, under efficiency is (12.70e0.83)/12.70 ¼ 93.46%. The exhaust energy in
the condition of same boiler heat load, the mass flow rate of the CO2 the condenser is 5.76 MW. The heat exchange capacities of the
in the boiler is 39.565 kg/s, which is almost 10 times that of the HRHs, DEA, and LRHs are 5.68 MW. The enthalpy of the feed water
H2O. The larger mass flow rate would cause larger pressure drop enters the boiler is 5.98 MW, with a temperature of 300
C.
when CO2 goes through the boiler. According to the 1/8 principle The heat exchange capacity distribution of the regenerative
proposed by Xu et al. [13], the pressure drop of the SeCO2 in the heaters is shown in Fig. 6. The total heat exchange capacity is
boiler is set to be 1.5 MPa, which is nearly 1/4 that of the water in 5.68 MW. The largest heat exchange capacity locates in the DEA,
the boiler. The pressure drops of the CO2 and H2O in the boilers are which accounts for approximately 22.31% of the total heat ex-
shown in Table 3. change capacity. The heat exchange capacity of the 5 LRHs is close
to each other.
As can be seen in Table 5, the boiler efficiency of the SeCO2 coal-
4. Results and discussions
fired power plant is lower than that of the power plant with steam
Rankine cycle. In the other hand, the efficiency of the SeCO2
4.1. Energy balances of the power plants
Brayton cycle is higher than that of the steam Rankine cycle. As a
result, the net power generation efficiency of the SeCO2 coal-fired
The energy balances of the power plants are based on the en-
power plant is larger than that of the coal-fired power plant with
ergy balances of each unit. The energy balance diagram of the
steam Rankine cycle.
SeCO2 coal-fired power plant is illustrated in Fig. 4. In the figure,
In our research, the boiler efficiency of the SeCO2 coal-fired
power plant is only 91.26%, which is smaller than that of the po-
Table 1 wer plant with steam Rankine cycle (93.46%). This is mainly caused
Ultimate analysis and proximate analysis of the fuel coal. by the larger incomplete combustion loss of CO in the SeCO2 coal-
Ultimate analysis, wt% Proximate analysis, wt% fired power plant, as can be seen in Fig. 7. Due to the higher tem-
peratures of CO2 entering the boiler (515.48
C) and the pre-heated
Car 68.55 Mar 8.84
Har 3.96 Ashar 9.98 air (506.53
C) in the SeCO2 coal-fired power plant than that of the
Oar 6.85 Var 49.52 H2O entering the boiler (300
C) and the pre-heated air (263.64
C),
Nar 0.74 FCar 31.66 the average temperature in the SeCO2 boiler is higher than that in
Sar 1.08 LHVcoal, MJ/kg 26.51 the water steam boiler. According to the chemical reaction (R1),
6 Z. Chen et al. / Energy 195 (2020) 116965

Table 3
The values of key parameters in the calculation.

Parameters values Parameters values

Pressure/temperature of the fresh steam and SeCO2/MPa/
C 32/620 Isentropic efficiency of turbines/% 93
Minimum temperature approaches of the boilers/
C 30 Double-reheat temperatures/
C 620
Minimum temperature approaches of the heat exchangers/
C 5 Isentropic efficiency of compressors/% 90
Excess air ratio in the boiler 1.3 Pump mechanical efficiency/% 99
Pressure drop in SeCO2 boiler/MPa 1.5 Pressure drop in water boiler/MPa 5.9
Pressure drop in HTR and LTR/MPa 0.05

Table 4 Net generation efficiency =6.11/12.70=48.12%

The key parameters in the power plants. Work output
Boiler efficiency =(12.7-0.83)/12.7=93.46%
6.11MW
Temperature/
C Pressure/bar Mass flow/kg/s
6.41MW
Coal 25.00 1.0 0.479
Air 25.00 1.0 5.534 Exhaust Work consumption
energy
1 620.00 320.0 39.565 12.70MW Boiler Turbine Con for the pump
Coal 5.76MW 0.3MW
2 550.77 192.3 39.565
3 620.00 192.3 39.565 RH Feedwater
4 560.58 123.3 39.565 18.68MW 17.85MW 5.68MW

5 620.00 123.3 39.565

Exhua stenergy
6 561.75 79.0 39.565 0.83MW Width
7 235.00 79.0 39.565
8 86.58 79.0 39.565 Length
9 86.58 79.0 27.023 Recovered heat Note: The Width represents
10 32.50 79.0 27.023 5.98MW the amount of energy
11 80.74 334.5 27.023 The Length do not have
12 230.00 334.0 27.023 physical meaning
13 229.66 334.0 12.542
14 515.48 333.5 39.565 Fig. 5. The energy balance diagram of coal-fired power plant with steam Rankine
15 543.48 1.0 5.965 cycle.
16 506.53 1.0 5.534
17 620.00 320.0 4.171
18 620.00 90.0 3.837 more CO would exist in the flue gas of the SeCO2 boiler, which
19 620.00 42.0 3.365 causes larger incomplete combustion loss. To avoid this and
20 266.72 3.8 2.814
21 36.12 0.045 2.408
improve the SeCO2 boiler efficiency, new boiler configuration
22 24.72 373.0 3.112 design should be adopted.
23 300.00 373.0 4.171 This part presents the comparison on the energy balances of the
24 263.64 1 5.534 power plants. Due to the larger incomplete combustion of CO
Flue gas 120.00 1.0 5.965
caused by higher average temperature in the boiler, the boiler ef-
ficiency of SeCO2 boiler is smaller than that of the water steam

Work output
8.63MW 6.23MW
Net generation efficiency =6.23/12.70=49.06%
Boiler efficiency =(12.7-1.11)/12.7=91.26% 3.82MW W1 for RC
1.33MW
12.03MW

8.21
W2 for MC
12.70MW Coal Turbine MW
1.07MW

Boiler 14.99MW
HTR RC 2.49MW
LTR
39.27MW 29.53MW CON MC
Capacity:
7.14MW
Capacity:
14.54MW
38.16MW

Exhau
energy
Exhuast energy
5.36MW
1.11MW
Width

Length

Recovered heat Note: The Width represents

26.57MW the amount of energy
The Length do not have
physical meaning

Fig. 4. The energy balance diagram of SeCO2 coal-fired power plant.

 Z. Chen et al. / Energy 195 (2020) 116965 7

HRH1
Total capacity: 7.15% 1.4 Incomplete combustion loss of CO
10.74% HRH2
Ash sensible heat loss
5.68MW HRH3

Energy losses in boiler/MW

7.06%
HRH4 1.2 Dry exhuast heat loss
12.16% DEA
7.08% LRH6 1.0
LRH7
LRH8 0.8
7.13% LRH9
11.6%
LRH10 0.6
7.22% 0.4

7.56% 0.2
22.31% 0.0
S-CO2 boiler system Water steam boiler system
Fig. 6. The heat exchange capacity distribution of the regenerative heaters.
Fig. 7. The energy loss distribution in boiler of the power plants.

Table 5
The comparison on relative efficiencies of power plants with SeCO2 and steam combustion processes, which are 2.653 and 3.109 MW for SeCO2
Rankine cycles.
boiler and water steam boiler systems, respectively. Due to the
Power plant with SeCO2 Power plant with Rankine higher average combustion temperature in the SeCO2 boiler, the
cycle cycle energy level difference between the coal combustion reaction and
Boiler efficiency/% 91.26 93.46 the high-temperature flue gas is smaller than that in the water
Cycle efficiency/% 53.76 51.49 steam boiler. Thus, the exergy destruction of the coal combustion
Net power 49.06 48.12 process in the SeCO2 boiler is smaller. The exergy loss of the flue
efficiency/%
gas in the SeCO2 boiler system is larger due to the existence of
more CO in the flue gas. For the air-preheater, the heat exchange
capacity of the AP in the SeCO2 boiler system is much larger than
boiler. However, benefiting from the higher cycle efficiency of that in the water steam boiler system, which leads to larger exergy
SeCO2 cycle than that of the steam Rankine cycle, the net power destruction in the air-preheating process.
generation efficiency of the SeCO2 coal-fired power plant reaches Combined with energy balance of the power plants, we can see
49.06%, which is higher than that of the coal-fired power plant with that despite the boiler efficiency of the SeCO2 boiler is smaller than
steam Rankine cycle (48.12%). that of the water steam boiler, the exergy efficiency of the SeCO2
boiler system is higher than that of the water steam boiler. The
exergy destructions of other units in the power plants are relative
4.2. Exergy balances of the power plants small. The exergy efficiencies of the SeCO2 cycle and steam Rankine

The exergy of the flows in the flow sheets of the technologies,

exergy destructions in different processes or units, and the exergy Table 6
efficiencies of the power plants are calculated by equations (3), (5), The exergy balances of the power plants.
(6) and (8). According to the equations, the exergy balances of the Items SeCO2 power plant Power plant with steam
SeCO2 coal-fired power plant and power plant with steam Rankine Rankine cycle
cycle are listed in Table 6. Values/MW Proportion/% Values/MW Proportion/%
The exergy inputs of the power plants are 12.975 MW. The
Exergy input
exergy outputs are considered to only be the work output of the Coal 12.975 100 12.975 100
power plants. The exergy of the flue gas and ash is handled to be the Total 12.975 100 12.975 100
exergy loss of the power plants. As can be seen in Table 6, the Exergy output
exergy outputs of the SeCO2 coal-fired power plant and the power Work output 6.231 48.02 6.111 47.10
Exergy Destruction
plant with steam Rankine cycle are 6.231 MW and 6.111 MW,
Boiler 4.465 34.41 5.300 40.84
respectively. Thus, the exergy efficiencies of the power plants are Air-preheater 0.223 1.72 0.173 1.33
48.02% and 47.10%, respectively. The largest exergy destructions VHT 0.051 0.39
exist in the boilers in both power plants, which account for HT 0.098 0.76 0.024 0.19
approximately 34.39% and 40.86% of total exergy input for the MT 0.074 0.57 0.078 0.60
LT 0.077 0.59 0.113 0.88
SeCO2 coal-fired power plant and the power plant with steam HTR 0.296 2.28
Rankine cycle, respectively. LTR 0.088 0.68
The exergy destructions of the boiler systems (include the HRHs 0.103 0.79
exergy destruction in the boiler, the air-preheater, and the exergy LRHs 0.106 0.81
Condenser 0.356 2.74 0.204 1.57
loss of the flue gas) of the SeCO2 coal-fired power plant and the
MC 0.09 0.69
power plant with steam Rankine cycle are 5.582 MW and RC 0.08 0.62
6.121 MW, respectively. Thus, the exergy efficiencies of the boiler Pumps 0.066 0.51
systems are 56.98% and 52.82%, respectively. As can be seen in Flue gas 0.897 6.91 0.647 4.99
Fig. 8, the exergy destruction distributions of the boiler systems are Total 6.744 51.98 6.864 52.90
Exergy efficiency/% 48.02 47.10
illustrated. The largest exergy destructions exist in the coal
8 Z. Chen et al. / Energy 195 (2020) 116965

cycle are 84.28% and 89.16%, respectively. For the condensers, implemented to analyze the energy-saving mechanism of SeCO2
although the energy losses of the SeCO2 coal-fired power plant and coal-fired power plant.
the power plant with steam Rankine cycle are separately 5.36 MW According to the results about the energy and exergy balances of
and 5.76 MW, the exergy destructions are only 0.356 MW and the SeCO2 coal-fired power plant and the coal-fired power plant
0.204 MW, respectively. with steam Rankine cycle, the energy and exergy transfer routes in
the power plants are illustrated in Fig. 9. The energy-saving
4.3. Energy-saving mechanism of SeCO2 coal-fired power plant mechanism of the coal-fired power plant with SeCO2 cycle
compared to steam-Rankine cycle can be revealed. The energy
The graphical exergy analyses (EUD methodology) method was transfer in both power plants is divided into three processes: en-
firstly proposed by Ishida [23], and is implemented to analyze the ergy transfer in the boiler system, energy transfer in the power
origins of the exergy destructions. The energy level of a process is cycles, and energy transfer between the boiler system and the
defined as: power cycle. Actually, the energy transfer between the boiler sys-
tem and the power cycle is realized in the cooling wall, super-
De .
heaters, and re-heaters throughout the boiler.
A¼ ¼ 1  T0  DS DH: (9)
DH In Fig. 9, Acoal is the energy level of the fuel coal; Acom pro is the
energy level of the combustion product; At is the energy level of the
where A is the energy level of the process; De, DS and DH are the energy being transferred between the boiler system and the power
exergy change, entropy change and enthalpy change during the cycle; hb, heb, hc, and hec are the boiler efficiency, exergy efficiency
process, respectively. T0 is the environmental temperature. For an of the boiler system, cycle efficiency and exergy efficiency of the
energy-transformation process, there exist an energy donor (Aed) power cycle, respectively. hcoal is the enthalpy of the fuel coal.
and an energy acceptor (Aea): As can be seen in Fig. 9, the energy levels of the coal in both
power plants are the same value (1.02). In the coal combustion
Deed
Aed ¼ (10) process, the energy donor is the coal combustion reaction, and the
DHed energy acceptor is the combustion product. The energy level of the
combustion product in the SeCO2 boiler is 0.81, which is higher
Deea than that in the water steam boiler (0.78). This is mainly caused by
Aea ¼ (11)
DHea the higher combustion temperature in the SeCO2 boiler. In the
And DHea þ DHed ¼ 0, (12) other hand, the exergy destruction of the coal combustion process
Thus, the total exergy destruction during the energy- in the SeCO2 boiler is smaller due to the higher energy level of the
transformation process is: combustion product. After the energy is transferred from the coal
combustion reaction to the combustion product, most of the energy
Deea þ Deed ¼ Aed  DHed þ Aea  DHea (hbhcoal) is absorbed by the work medium in the cooling wall, super-
(13)
¼ ðAed  Aea Þ  DHed heaters, and re-heaters. Although the amount of the energy being
transferred between the boiler system and the power cycle in the
For a continuous energy-transformation process, the exergy SeCO2 power plant is smaller than that in the power plant with
destruction can be obtained by the integral form: Rankine cycle, the energy level is higher (0.64) than that in the
ð power plant with Rankine cycle (0.58). In other words, more exergy
De ¼ ðAed  Aea Þ  dH (14) exists in the energy being transported from the boiler system to the
SeCO2 than to the steam of the Rankine cycle. The energy with
In the energy-utilization diagram (EUD diagram), the x-coordi- higher energy level in the SeCO2 coal-fired power plant produces
nate is energy change, and the y-coordinate is energy level A, which more electricity (6.231 MW) than that in the power plant with
is a dimensionless criterion. So the exergy destruction is illustrated steam Rankine cycle (6.111 MW), which results in the higher entire
by the shaded areas between the curves of the energy donor and power generation efficiency of the SeCO2 coal-fired power plant
energy acceptor. In the following part, the EUD methodology is (49.06%) than the power plant with steam Rankine cycle (48.12%).
In conclusion, the exergy efficiency of the SeCO2 boiler system
(57.0%) is higher than that of the water steam boiler system (52.8%),
but the boiler efficiency shows the opposite result (91.3% and 93.5%
8 Flue gas Combustion for SeCO2 boiler system and water steam boiler, respectively). Thus,
Heat exchange in AP
7 although the amount of energy being transferred from the boiler
Exergy destruction/MW

Heat exchange with working medium system to the work medium is smaller, more available energy
6 0.647 (exergy) is transported to the work medium in the SeCO2 coal-fired
0.173 power plant. In other words, the energy level of the energy being
0.897
5 transferred between the boiler system and the power cycle in the
0.223 SeCO2 coal-fired power plant is higher than that in the power plant
2.19
4 with steam Rankine cycle. In the other hand, the cycle efficiency of
1.812
the SeCO2 cycle (53.8%) is higher than that of the Rankine cycle
3 (51.5%), and the exergy efficiency denotes the adverse trend (84.3%
and 89.2% for the SeCO2 cycle and steam Rankine cycle, respec-
2
3.109 tively). Thus, the energy with higher energy level being transferred
2.653
1 from the boiler system to the power cycle produces more work in
the SeCO2 cycle, which contributes to higher power generation
0 efficiency of the entire SeCO2 coal-fired power plant.
S-CO2 Boiler Water steam Boiler
Fig. 8. The exergy destructions distribution in boiler systems.
 Z. Chen et al. / Energy 195 (2020) 116965 9

Acoal=1.02 S-CO2 power plant

1.0 H2O power plant
Acom pro 0.81 b
=91.3% eb
=57.0% b
=93.5% eb
=52.8%
=53.8% =84.3% =51.5% =89.2%
Energy level A
c ec c ec
0.78
0.64 At

0.58
0.5
6.231MW
hcoal h
b coal

6.111MW
Exhaust
energy
Boiler system Energy transfer Power cycle
0.0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Heat capacity/MW
Fig. 9. The energy-saving mechanism diagram of SeCO2 coal-fired power plant.

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