MCEN 3032: Thermodynamics 2 S15

Assigned: 1/30/14

Instructor: Dr. Walker

Due: 12 PM on 2/9 (ME Mailroom)

Assignment 3: Combustion Turbines, Cogeneration and Combined Cycles (complete parts A and B)
A. You start working in a plant that makes tomato and soup products. The plant operates 12 hours per day, and 350 days
per year. Your plant consumes a large amount of electricity each year, as well as natural gas to operate its boiler and
provide process heat. Your plant currently consumes 250,000 MMBTU in natural gas (THIS IS NOT Qin, but can be used
to determine it!) every year to raise steam @ 350 F that is used for process heating. The steam generation efficiency
in the boiler is 82%. Your plant also consumes 41,500 MWh of electricity every year, to operate conveyor belts and
processing pumps in the manufacturing plant (NOT pumps in powerhouse of plant!).
Your first job is to evaluate the economic viability of switching to a cogen system. Your plant pays 7 cents per kWh of
electricity, and $16/1000 s.c.f. for natural gas that has a heating value of 1050 BTU/s.c.f. The complete installation of
the cogen system will cost [$125*(NG fuel flow rate in s.c.f/hr)]. The boiler in the cogen system outputs steam at 1000
F and operates at 1000 psia. The system has a condenser that operates at atmospheric pressure, and the turbine
outlet to the condenser has a vapor quality of 0.95 at the design condition. One intermediate steam stream can be
extracted from the turbine at any pressure below 1000 psia. Efficiency for all pumps is 85%. The cogen system is
shown in the picture below:
3

PH

PH

5
1

Current operation, Qph = x

(Electricity Purchased) Welec = y
a.
b.
c.

d.
e.
f.
g.

B.
C.

Mix

8
9

Cogen Operation, Qph = x

(Electricity Produced) Wnet = y

What is the efficiency of the turbine?

What is the process heating demand (annually)?
How much natural gas (annually) is required if the cogen system operates to satisfy the electricity
consumption and process heating requirement in the problem statement and part (b), respectively.
(assume cogen boiler has 82% steam generation efficiency also)
What is the utilization factor of the cogen plant? (as operated in part (c))
What is the difference in annual cost between the natural gas purchased for the cogen system (as
operated in part (c)) and natural gas + electricity in the current configuration?
Write 1-2 paragraphs that discuss the results you obtained in part (e), would you suggest installing this
system for your plant?
Your products are selling well and your plant plans to expand in coming years. If the cogen system is
overdesigned to handle 150% of the process heating and electricity demand from part (b) and the
problem statement, respectively, what is the max electricity that can be generated by the system? What
is the max process heating the system can deliver? (assuming there is an expansion valve bypass to the
process heater)

Assigned Book problems (C&B): 10-90

Other book problems for your consideration: (For which you will not receive credit. Please dont turn these in, but we
will post solutions.)
a. Chapter 9: 9.86, 9.88, 9.100, 9.107, 9.112, 9.119
b. Chapter 10: 10.73, 10.74, 10.7910.81, 10.82,10.88