Professional Documents
Culture Documents
rec
95%
T
93%
C
89%
As the pressure drop value in heat exchanger, 0.1 bar
or 100 kPa is a reasonable value for gas
22)
. The pressure
drop along the pipeline is negligible in the preliminary
design.
Reactor:
The mass of helium coolant needed can be obtained by
Q
= m
Hc
(B
out
-B
In
) (1)
m
Hc
=
Q
(H
out
-H
n
)
(2)
The enthalpy data for a given temperature and pressure can
be found from NIST property database
23)
.
Turbine:
To find the turbine outlet operating condition, first we
have to assume isentropic process in the turbine.
T
1,IscntropIc
= T
out
[
P
1
P
out
1-
1
(3)
where turbine outlet pressure (P
1
) can be calculated after
estimating turbine pressure ratio. The actual turbine outlet
temperature (T
1
) can be calculated by
TT,IscntropIc
= T
out
- T
1,IscntropIc
(4)
TT
=
T
T1,IscntropIc
(5)
T
1
= T
out
-
T1
(6)
Recuperator:
Heat transfer equation in recuperator can be formed as
Q
1-2
= Q
In-4
(7)
m
Hc
(B
1
-B
2
) = m
Hc
(B
In
-B
4
) (8)
rcc
=
H
1
-H
2
H
1
-H
4
=
H
n
-H
4
H
1
-H
4
(9)
Intermediate Heat Exchanger
The heat that can be extracted from the primary side to
secondary side is then
Q
hcat
= m
Hc
(B
2
-B
3
) (10)
Compressor
The mathematical equation in compressor side is
similar with turbine which is
T
3,IscntropIc
= T
4
[
P
3
P
4
1-
1
(11)
TC,IscntropIc
= T
4
-T
3,IscntropIc
(12)
TC
=
C
TC,IscntropIc
(13)
T
3
= T
4
-
TC
(14)
Electricity Production
To calculate how much electricity is produced, the
turbine power, compressor power, and generator efficiency
is necessary. The other factors that needed for calculating
how much the electricity is produced are mechanical losses
(1%), parasitic losses (2%), and switchyard losses
(0.5%)
24)
. Therefore,
P =
98-(1+2+0.5)
100
(Q
T
-Q
C
) (15)
The operating condition of each case is shown in Table
III while the heat and electricity production is shown in
Table IV. The condition of every stream in Case I and Case
II are shown in Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 respectively.
TABLE III
Operating Parameter for 2 Design Cases
Parameter Case I Case II
Reactor inlet temperature (
o
C) 167 287.3
Reactor outlet temperature (
o
C) 345 490
Helium mass flow (kg/s) 324.9 285.3
Turbine pressure ratio 1.6 1.6
Max Pressure (MPa) 6 6.5
2754
Proceedings of ICAPP 12
Chicago, USA, June 24-28, 2012
Paper 12039
TABLE IV
Heat and Electricity Production
Parameter Case I Case II
Heat to secondary side (MWth) 265.84 240.64
Electricity produced (MWe) 31.26 56.11
Fig. 9. Block diagram of primary system design for
case I.
Fig. 10. Block diagram of primary system design for
case II.
Table IV shows that case I provides more heat to the
secondary system but case II produce more electricity.
From the system main purpose point of view, case I
provides a better system than case II. However, there is
another aspect, which should be considered, for choosing
the operating condition: the Wigner effect. As it was stated
before, the Wigner effect should be concerned of when the
graphite moderated nuclear reactor is operated below 300
o
C. Since case I reactor inlet temperature is 167
o
C, the
amount of energy stored in the graphite due to the Wigner
effect should be carefully estimated. In this sense, case II is
a better system in terms of operation since the Wigner
effect is less worrisome.
IV.D. Secondary Side Design & Coupling Scheme
For the secondary side design, water system is the best
option to connect the primary system with desalination
system. Open loop system using seawater and closed loop
system using cooling water are the two most commonly
adopted systems for connecting a nuclear reactor with a
seawater desalination system. An open loop system using
seawater has a risk of radiation leak from the primary
system and also has a scaling problem that could occur in
high temperature. Therefore, from the safety point of view,
closed loop system using cooling water is preferable. The
next step for the secondary side design is designing the
secondary side operating condition. MED top brine
temperature is usually up to 70
o
C. The operating condition
of the intermediate loop should be arranged to make it
possible for seawater feed temperature to reach the
appropriate condition.
The other part of the design that should be considered
for the intermediate loop is whether to use a steam
generator to change the water phase from liquid to steam
and send it to MED plant or using a flash tank and send the
vapor portion to MED plant. By using the steam generator,
the amount of water needed by system will be smaller
compare to using the flash tank but the steam temperature
will be much higher. By using the flash tank, steam
temperature will be lower but the vacuum system is needed.
Besides that, higher amount of water also means larger
pipeline size. Further economical analysis is needed for
accurate comparison.
Coupling of the nuclear reactor with a MED
desalination plant is usually done with one nuclear reactor
coupled to several MED plants. The capacity of a MED
unit that has been demonstrated in the market is about
20,000 m
3
/day
25)
. From the DEEP code calculation, the
thermal power required for providing 20,000 m
3
/day is
around 50 MWth. Based on this data, the heat provide by
the KAIST designed system will be sufficient for 4 MED
plants. As to provide 300,000 m
3
/day desalinated water, 4
reactors will be needed which will result in maximum
capacity of 320,000 m
3
/day.
V. SUMMARY
In this paper, we studied the potential of developing
nuclear desalination system with thermal desalination
method for the UAE. Based on the economical analysis
using the UAE local condition, the nuclear desalination
plant is economically favored over the fossil fuel (natural
gas) desalination plant. The reason is because fossil fuel
desalination system depends on natural gas price which is
unstable parameter while nuclear energy offers a stable and
fairly low fuel price which results in stable and low water
production cost. Therefore, it can be concluded that the
nuclear desalination system has a high chance to be
developed in the UAE.
2755
Proceedings of ICAPP 12
Chicago, USA, June 24-28, 2012
Paper 12039
A dedicated nuclear system for desalination which
focused on supplying process heat for a MED system is
being studied by KAIST research team. One type of reactor
under consideration is helium cooled graphite moderated
reactor. The low operating pressure of the reactor is
preferable to ensure the safety of the proposed reactor
system. Operating at lower temperature can produce more
heat and less electricity than operating at higher
temperature. However, the high temperature operating case
is a better option if we consider the graphite Wigner effect.
To provide 300,000 m
3
/day desalinated water, the best
coupling scheme would be 4 reactors with each reactor
coupled to 4 MED plants with 20,000 m
3
/day capacity.
The further works for developing helium cooled
graphite moderated nuclear reactor which is dedicated for
the fresh water production only are: optimizing the
operating condition which can result in higher performance
of the system, selecting the operating condition for
intermediate loop , and designing the fuel assembly and
safety system for the proposed nuclear reactor.
.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work is supported by KUSTAR-KAIST
Research Project Proposal on "Development of Highly
Passive Small Modular Reactor System for Large Scale
Seawater Desalination".
NOMENCLATURE
H enthalpy (kJ/kg)
m mass flow (kg/s)
P pressure (MPa)
Q heat flow (kW)
T temperature (
o
C)
Greek symbols
effectiveness
efficiency
T
temperature difference
Subscripts
C compressor
T turbine
in reactor inlet
out reactor outlet
REFERENCES
1. Mohammed Al Hajjiri, Einar Al Hareeri, ADWEC
Winter 2011/2012 Electricity & Water Demand
Forecasts, Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Company.
2. T. Mezher, H. Fath, Z. Abbas, and A. Khaled,
"Techno-economic assessment and environmental
impacts of desalination technologies," Desalination
255, p. 263-273 (2011).
3. Yuan Zhou, Richard S.J.Tol, Evaluating the cost of
desalination and water transport, WATER
RESOURCES RESEARCH, VOL. 41, W03003, p.
10(2005).
4. O. A. Hamed, H. A. Al-Washmi, and H. A. Al-Otaibi,
"Thermoeconomic analysis of a power/water
cogeneration plant," Energy 31, p. 2699-2709 (2006).
5. K. C. Kavvadias and I. Khamis, The IAEA DEEP
desalination economic model: A critical review,
Desalination, Vol. 257, p. 150-157 (2010).
6. International Energy Agency, Beyond the OECD
United Arab Emirates, http://www.iea.org/, (2011).
7. International Atomic Energy Agency, Desalination
Economic Evaluation Program (DEEP) Users
Manual, Computer Manual Series No.14, p. 32, IAEA,
Vienna (2000).
8. International Atomic Energy Agency, Examining the
economics of seawater desalination using the DEEP
code, IAEA-TECDOC-1186, p. 14, IAEA, Vienna
(2000).
9. World Nuclear Association, The Economics of Nuclear
Power, http://www.world-nuclear.org/, (2011).
10. U.S. Energy Information Administration, Natural Gas
Prices, http://www.eia.gov/, (2011).
11. L. El-Katii, Interlinking the Arab Gulf: Opportunities
and Challenges of GCC Electricity Market
Cooperation, p. 8, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies
(2011).
12. Korea Ministry of Education, Science and Technology
and Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, 2010 White
Paper on Nuclear Safety, p. 106-108, Korea Ministry
of Education, Science and Technology and Korea
Institute of Nuclear Safety (2010).
13. D. E. Shropshire, "Lessons Learned From GEN I
Carbon Dioxide Cooled Reactors." Proceedings of
ICONE 12, Virginia (2004).
14. International Atomic Energy Agency, "Status of design
concepts of nuclear desalination plants," IAEA-
TECDOC-1326, IAEA, Vienna (2002).
15. S. Dardour, S. Nisan, and F. Charbitt, "Utilisation of
waste heat from GT-MHR and PBMR reactors for
2756
Proceedings of ICAPP 12
Chicago, USA, June 24-28, 2012
Paper 12039
nuclear desalination," Desalination 205, p. 254-268
(2007).
16. International Atomic Energy Agency, "Optimization of
the coupling of nuclear reactors and desalination
systems," Final report of a coordinated research
project 1999-2003, IAEA-TECDOC-1444, IAEA,
Vienna (2005).
17. M. Methnani, "Influence of fuel costs on seawater
desalination options," Desalination 205, p. 332-339
(2007).
18. B. J. Marsden, "Irradiation Damage and Annealing,"
Nuclear Graphite Research Group, School of
Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, The
University of Manchester.
19. HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, Report on the
results of Magnox Long Term Safety Reviews (LTSRs)
and Periodic Safety Reviews (PSRs).
20. Idaho National Laboratory and General Atomics,
"Prismatic HTGR Thermal-Fluid Behaviour," HTGR
Technology Course for the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (2010).
21. R. Schleicher, A. R. Raffray, and C. P. Wong, "An
Assessment of the Brayton Cycle for High
Performance Power Plants," Proceedings of 14th
Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy,
Utah (2000).
22. R. Mukherjee, "Effectively Design Shell-and-Tube
Heat Exchangers," CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
PROGRESS, American Institute of Chemical
Engineers (1998).
23. E. W. Lemmon, M. O. McLinden, and D. G. Friend,
"Thermophysical Properties of Fluid Systems" in NIST
Chemistry WebBook, NIST Standard Reference
Database Number 69, Eds. P. J. Linstrom and W. G.
Mallard, National Institute of Standards and
Technology, Gaithersburg MD, 20899,
http://webbook.nist.gov, (retrieved January 16, 2012).
24. V. Dostal, "A Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Cycle for
Next Generation Nuclear Reactors," Doctoral Thesis,
MIT (2004).
25. J. Goossen, "Nuclear Process Heat Desalination",
GCEP - Fission Energy Workshop, Stanford (2007).
2757