Energy Conversion and Management 50 (2009) 567575

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Energy Conversion and Management

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A combined power cycle utilizing low-temperature waste heat and LNG cold energy
Xiaojun Shi, Defu Che *
State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xian Jiaotong University, Xian 710049, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
This paper has proposed a combined power system, in which low-temperature waste heat can be efciently recovered and cold energy of liqueed natural gas (LNG) can be fully utilized as well. This system consists of an ammoniawater mixture Rankine cycle and an LNG power generation cycle, and it is modelled by considering mass, energy and species balances for every component and thermodynamic analyses are conducted. The results show that the proposed combined cycle has good performance, with net electrical efciency and exergy efciency of 33% and 48%, respectively, for a typical operating condition. The power output is equal to 1.25 MWh per kg of ammoniawater mixture. About 0.2 MW of electrical power for operating sea water pumps can be saved. Parametric analyses are performed for the proposed combined cycle to evaluate the effects of key factors on the performance of the proposed combined cycle through simulation calculations. Results show that a maximum net electrical efciency can be obtained as the inlet pressure of ammonia turbine increases and the peak value increases as the ammonia mass fraction increases. Exergy efciency goes up with the increased ammonia turbine inlet pressure. With the ammonia mass fraction increases, the net electrical efciency increases, whereas exergy efciency decreases. For increasing LNG turbine inlet pressure or heat source temperature, there is also a peak of net electrical efciency and exergy efciency. With the increase of LNG gas turbine outlet pressure, exergy efciency increases while net electrical efciency drops. 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 25 August 2007 Received in revised form 1 April 2008 Accepted 28 October 2008 Available online 9 December 2008 Keywords: Power generation Low-grade waste heat Ammoniawater mixture LNG Thermodynamic analysis

1. Introduction The consumption of fossil fuels continues to increase to satisfy the demand for energy and electricity in the world. This results in serious energy shortage and environmental pollution. In order to save energy and protect the environment, greater attention than ever has been paid to the utilization of low-grade waste heat to generate power in recent years. Much work has been carried out on using organic Rankine cycle to recover low-temperature waste heat [16]. It is found that less energy in the low-temperature waste heat can be converted to power by organic Rankine cycle because boiling essentially takes place at constant pressure and temperature in the evaporator. Kalina [7] developed a new power cycle, which utilizes ammonia water mixture as working uid. Kalina cycle shows higher exergy efciency than organic Rankine cycle due to better temperature prole matching between heat source and working uid [89]. But it operates with high temperature waste heat, such as the heat in the ue gas from gas turbine. Furthermore the lower pressure ratio across turbine limits its efciency improving. A novel ammnia-water binary mixture thermodynamic cycle capable of producing power and refrigeration has been proposed by Goswami [10]. This cycle can be driven by low-temperature heat source and has
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 29 82665185; fax: +86 29 82668703. E-mail address: dfche@mail.xjtu.edu.cn (D. Che). 0196-8904/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2008.10.015

been thoroughly studied [11,12]. Although the cycle exhibits higher thermal efciency at typical working conditions, the higher temperature of exit heat source uid lowers heat source utilization efciency. Liqueed natural gas (LNG) is produced by cryogenic refrigeration of natural gas after removing the acid and water. Producing one ton of LNG consumes about 850 kWh of electric energy [13]. At receiving terminal, LNG, which is approximately at atmospheric pressure and at a temperature of around 160 C, has to be regasied and fed to a distribution system at the ambient temperature and at a suitably elevated pressure. Typically sea water is used as the heat source to vaporize LNG. This process not only consumes a large amount of power for driving the sea water pump but also wastes plenty of physical cold energy. With the increasing demand for cleaner fuels, LNG is now playing an even signicant role as energy resource. It is estimated that the amount of LNG imported to China will be 20 million tons by 2010. Therefore, the utilization of the cold energy generated during LNG vaporization becomes more and more important. Bisio et al. [14] proposed a closed-cycle nitrogen turbine to recover the cold energy of LNG. Some power generation cycles utilizing low-grade heat source and the cold energy of LNG have been put forward by Hisazumi et al. [15], Wang et al. [16]. In previous studies, ammoniawater mixture that is suitable for sensible source was not used as working uid. Then the electricity efciency of power cycle is far from

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Nomenclature cp ex _ Ein h hs _ m P _ Q r Rg s T _ W x z specic heat at constant pressure (kJ kg1 K1) specic exergy (kJ kg1) exergy input (kW) specic enthalpy (kJ kg1) isentropic specic enthalpy (kJ kg1) mass ow rate (kg s1) pressure absolute (MPa) heat transfer rate (kW) latent heat of vaporization (kJ kg1) gas constant (kJ kmol1 K1) specic entropy (kJ kg1 K1) temperature (K) work (kW) mass fraction of ammonia compress factor

gEG gP gT

generator efciency isentropic pump efciency isentropic turbine efciency

Abbreviations HX heat exchanger LNG liqueed natural gas Greek symbols net electrical efciency of combined cycle exergy efciency of combined cycle waste heat recovery efciency

g1 g2 gwh

Subscripts 120 state points in Fig. 1 A basic solution of ammoniawater AC ammoniawater power cycle B ammonia vapor FP feed pump C weak solution of ammoniawater cc combined power cycle CG city gas CP condensate pump i inlet condition or composition e exit condition LC LNG power cycle LP LNG pump P pump T1 ammonia turbine T2 LNG turbine W hot water 0 reference state

maximization. The research on utilizing the cold energy of LNG to enhance the efciency of the power cycle with ammonia water mixture as working uid is quite limited. Although Miyazaki [17] established a combined power cycle using refuse incineration and LNG cold energy, which operates at high temperatures, ammoniawater cycle using LNG vaporization as low-temperature thermal sink has not been studied in the lowgrade energy source utilization area. In this paper, a novel combined power system is proposed to convert more energy in the low-temperature waste heat to power and utilize the cold energy of LNG to the utmost extent. The proposed combined cycle provides power output as well as vaporization LNG with power generation as the primary goal and contributes both to saving of energy and to environmental protection. 2. The proposed combined power system description This proposed combined system consists of the Rankine cycle with ammoniawater mixture as the working uid and the LNG power generation cycle. The schematic diagram of the system is shown in Fig. 1. In the Rankine cycle, low-temperature waste heat and cold energy of LNG are used as heat source and as thermal sink, respectively. Low-temperature waste energy can be recovered from the exhaust of industrial processes and power plants. The LNG cycle with natural gas directly expanding utilizes the latent heat of the spent ammonia vapor from the ammonia turbine and the sensible heat of the weak solution of ammoniawater returning to mixer as heat sources for power generation. In order to thoroughly recover both the low-temperature waste heat and the heat exchanged within the system components, the heat exchanges are cascaded according to the temperature of both hot and cold streams.The regasied LNG is heated continuously up to the ambient temperature and delivered to the gas supplying system. The main advantages of the proposed combined system in comparison to other power cycles utilizing low or mid temperature sources are as follows:

Low-temperature waste heat

18 A 3

Separator
14

T1 T2
5 15

HX3

C 8

HX1
2 9 13 19 1

FP
10

TV

12

Condenser Mixer
11

City gas
17

HX2
20

16 7

LP CP

LNG tank
6

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the proposed combined power cycle. A, basic solution of ammoniawater; B, ammonia vapor; C, weak solution of ammoniawater; CP, condensate pump; FP, feed pump; HX, heat exchanger; LP, LNG pump; T1, ammonia turbine; T2, LNG turbine; TV, throttle valve.

 Ammoniawater mixture is used as working uid to recover low-temperature waste heat because multi-component working uid is suitable for sensible heat source. The boiling temperature of the ammoniawater mixture increases during the boiling process, so that a better thermal matching between the heat source and working uid is obtained and exergy destruction is decreased in the heat exchanger HX3.  Low-temperature heat can be efciently converted to electrical energy. Power is generated by the ammoniawater mixture Rankine cycle as long as the temperature of the ammoniawater mixture is higher than bubble point, such that partial boiling produces ammonia vapor in the heat exchanger HX3. But for Kalina cycle, there will be no power output unless all liquid ammoniawater mixture is vaporized. Therefore, Kalina cycle is not suitable to recover low-temperature waste heat.

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 The proposed combined system can not only efciently recover low-temperature waste heat but also fully utilize the cold energy of LNG. Because ammonia is a working uid with low boiling point and the cold energy generated during the LNG vaporization is used to condense the ammonia turbine exhaust, the ammonia vapor can expand to a much lower temperature. Compared to other conventional power cycles with ammonia water as working uid, the pressure ratio of ammonia turbine is increased greatly. In the condenser, both the ammonia vapor and the LNG go through a low constant pressure phase change process, so that a better thermal matching is obtained and the exergy destruction is reduced.  The proposed combined cycle vaporizes natural gas as useful products while it mainly produces electrical energy. Therefore, a great amount of electrical power for driving sea water pump can be saved because sea water is no longer required as the heat source to vaporize the LNG. 3. Analysis To determine the performance of the proposed combined system, the steady-state component models are used. Every component is modelled in consideration of mass, energy and species balances. In this study, the saturated hot water, which is produced in an improved LNG fuelled combined cycle power plant with waste heat recovery system established by Shi and Che [18], is selected as a typical waste heat for the proposed combined system analysis. Main parameters of the proposed combined cycle for the calculations are listed in Table 1. The values within the parentheses represent the variable range for parametric analysis. The thermodynamic properties of working uid are calculated by REFPROP 7.1 [19]. The following assumptions are made for the proposed system analysis:  The ow is steady and the state of the working uid at each specic location within the system does not change with the time.  All components are well insulated.  The LNG is assumed to be pure methane.  Pressure drop and heat loss in pipe lines are neglected.  The ammoniawater mixture is saturated liquid at ambient temperature in the mixer.  To avoid moisture erosion at the turbine outlet, the quality of ammonia vapor turbine exhaust is maintained higher than 90%.

_ _ W FP mA h2 h1
where

1 2

h2 h1 hs2 h1 =gP
3.2. Heat exchanger HX3

The basic solution of ammoniawater coming out of the feed pump is heated in the HX3 by low-temperature waste heat and partial boiling produces ammonia vapor. Saturated hot water is selected as the low-temperature heat source. It is assumed that the temperature of the basic solution at the HX3 outlet is 17 K lower than that of the hot water. The heat transfer in the HX3 is calculated as follows:

_ _ _ Q HX 3 mA h3 h2 mW h18 h19
3.3. Separator

In the separator, the basic solution is separated to ammonia and a weak solution. The ammonia is in the vapor-phase, while the weak solution is in the liquid-phase. The temperatures of the ammonia vapour and weak solution leaving the separator are assumed to be equal to that of the basic ammoniawater mixture from the HX3.

T3 T8 T4
The total mass balance is given as

_ _ _ mA mB mC
3.4. Ammonia vapour turbine

The ammonia vapor passes through ammonia turbine to produce work. After expansion in the turbine, it drops to the lowest possible temperature to generate more power output and to reduce the exergy loss in the condensation process. The turbine back pressure is determined by an iterative procedure under the condition that the turbine exhausts quality of 90%. Gross power output of ammonia turbine is

_ _ W T1 mB h4 h5 h5 h4 h4 hs5 =gT

6 7

Net power output of ammonia turbine cycle is dened as follows: 3.1. Feed pump The ammoniawater mixture leaves the mixer as saturated liquid at ambient temperature and is pumped to a high pressure. The required pump work rate is given by:
Table 1 Main parameters for the calculations. Parameters Heat source temperature (C) Heat source ow rate (kg/s) Generator efciency Inlet pressure of ammonia turbine (MPa) Inlet pressure of LNG turbine (MPa) Natural gas supplying pressure (MPa) Ammonia mass fraction of basic solution Isentropic efciency of turbine Isentropic efciency of pump Ambient temperature (C) Ambient pressure (MPa) Effectiveness of heat exchanger Pressure loss of heat exchanger Value 167 (157197) 46 0.99 3.0 (1.83.2) 3.0 (24.35) 0.3 (0.30.8) 0.5 (0.480.52) 0.9 0.8 15 0.1 0.85 0.05

_ _ _ _ W AC W T1 gEG W FP W CP
3.5. Condenser

Utilizing the cold energy generated during the LNG vaporization, the ammonia turbine exhaust is condensed into a state of saturated liquid at very low-temperature. At the same time, LNG is converted into saturated gas. The condenser heat duty is

_ _ _ Q condenser mB h5 h6 mLNG h13 h12

_ The mass ow rate of vaporized LNG is equal to Q condenser =rLNG , where rLNG is the LNG latent heat of vaporization at the pressure of LNG pump outlet. 3.6. Condensate pump The saturated ammonia liquid leaving the condenser is compressed to mixer pressure. The pump power consumption is calculated as follows:

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_ _ W CP mB h7 h6
where

10

_ _ W T2 mLNG h14 h15 h15 h14 h14 hs15 =gT

18 19

h7 h6 hs7 h6 =gP
3.7. Throttle valve

11

Net power output of LNG turbine cycle is dened as follows:

_ _ _ W LC W T2 gEG W LP

20

The poor liquid mixture rejects heat to natural gas in the HX1 (weak solution/natural gas heat exchanger) and throttle into the mixer. Throttle valve is used to lower pressure of the weak solution from the separator pressure to the mixer pressure. The throttling process is assumed adiabatic. Mass balance is

3.12. Heat exchanger HX2 (hot water/natural gas heat exchanger) Natural gas from the mixer passes through the HX2 and heated continuously up to ambient temperature by the hot water leaving the HX3. Finally, it is delivered to the gas supplying system. Energy balance

_ _ m10 m9
Energy balance is

12

_ _ mW h19 h20 mLNG h17 h16

3.13. Efciency Power output of the proposed combined system is

21

h10 h9
3.8. Mixer

13

_ _ _ W CC W AC W LC
The corresponding net electrical efciency is dened as
CC g1 _ mW h18 h19

22

The liquid ammonia at the condensate pump outlet condition mixes with the weak solution from the throttle valve in the mixer to regenerate the basic of ammoniawater. Then, the basic solution leaves the mixer as saturated liquid at ambient temperature to complete the Rankine loop. The natural gas from the LNG turbine is used as the cooling uid for the mixer. The conversation of energy in the mixer gives:

_ W

23

_ _ _ _ mB h7 mC h10 mA h1 mLNG h16 h15

3.9. LNG pump

14

Electrical energy and thermal energy are at different grade. Therefore, in order to have deeper insight into the thermodynamic performance, exergy efciency is dened as the exergy output divided by the exergy input to the system. The exergy input is taken as the exergy change of the heat source. The exergy output is the exergy of the net work and the exergy of the city gas.

_ _ _ g2 W CC mLNG ex17 =Ein

where

24

The LNG at a low temperature of 162 C is removed from the storage tank and pumped to the required pressure. The required pump work rate is given by:

_ _ _ Ein mw ex18 ex19 mLNG ex11

The specic exergy is dened as follows in the calculations:

25

_ _ W LP mLNG h12 h11

where

15

For LNG : ex 16

  T0 T0 p 1 r C p T 0 T C p T 0 ln zRg T 0 ln p0 T T 26

h12 h11 hs12 h11 =gP

3.10. Heat exchanger HX1 (weak solution/natural gas heat exchanger) The regasied LNG at saturate state is further heated in the HX1 by recovering the heat from the weak solution from the separator. The heat balance for the HX1 is

For water : ex h h0 T 0 S S0

27

The reference conditions are taken as T0 = 288.15 K and P0 = 0.101325 MPa. Waste heat recovery efciency is dened as

_ _ mC h9 h8 mLNG h14 h13

3.11. LNG turbine

17

gwh h18 h20 =h18 hwh;288K

3.14. Validation

28

The superheated natural gas expands through LNG turbine to the gas supplying pressure to generate power. Gross power output of LNG turbine is

All component models are individually validated by comparison with previously published and validated models [17,20]. Table 2 compares the results of this work with the simulation results from

Table 2 Comparison of the component models of this work with the simulation results from reference [21]. Component Main assumption Simulation results Ref. [21] Pump Heat exchanger Turbine Throttle valve Ti = 40.4 C, Pi = 150 kPa, Pe = 1484 kPa, g1 = 0.75, m = 1kg/s, x = 0.3 Ti = 37.5 C, Pi = 1400 kPa, Te = 9.2 C, m = 0.229 kg/s, x = 0.979 Ti = 450 C, Pi = 5100 kPa, Pe = 19.1 kPa, g1 = 0.75 , m = 0.771 kg/s, x = 0.098 Ti = 9.2 C, Pi = 1358 kPa, Pe = 165 kPa, x = 0.098 _ W = 2.2 kw _ Q = 59.4 kw _ W = 726.9 kw Te = 22.7 C This work _ W = 2.09 kw _ Q = 55.2 kw _ W = 757.8 kw Te = 21.3 C

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reference [21] for the same operating conditions. The maximum deviation is within 5%, which may be caused by using different thermodynamic properties calculation models of ammoniawater mixtures. The results of this work are in good agreement with the results from reference [21] on condition that the thermodynamic properties of working uid are calculated with the same thermal property method. 4. Results and discussion 4.1. Results of the energy analysis Based on the above mentioned modules, a computer program is developed to simulate the proposed combined system. Table 3 summarizes the thermodynamic properties for each state of the system with the ammonia mass fraction of basic solution of 0.5, the heat source temperature of 167 C, the natural gas supplying pressure of 0.3 MPa, the LNG turbine inlet pressure of 3 MPa and the ammonia turbine inlet pressure of 3 MPa. The performance of the proposed combined system under the typical operating condition is presented in Table 4. This system can generate a power of 8.3 MW and the net electrical efciency is estimated as 33.28%. At the same time, about 58.9 t h1 of LNG can be heated up to 35.8 C, about 0.2 MW of electric power for operating sea water pumps can be saved due to eliminating about 2356 t h1 of sea water as the heat source to vaporize 58.9 t h1 of LNG. The temperature of hot water leaving the system drops to 35.5 C at this typical condition. Therefore, the waste heat recovery efciency of the system can reach about 86.57% according to Eq. (28). The exergy efciency of the proposed combined cycle is equal to 48.87% based on the Eq. (24) and higher than the net electrical efciency. 4.2. Effect of ammonia turbine inlet pressure In the calculations, the heat source temperature is set to be 167 C, the natural gas supplying pressure is taken as 0.3 MPa and the LNG turbine inlet pressure is taken as 3 MPa. Other thermal conditions are still the input data shown in Table 1. When the ammonia mass fraction of basic solution x is 0.48, 0.50 and 0.52 respectively, evaluation is made to clarify the effect of the ammonia turbine inlet pressure P4 varying from 1.8 to 3.2 MPa on net electrical efciency g1 and exergy efciency g2. The calcu-

Table 4 Calculation results for the proposed combined cycle. _ W T1 (kW) 3450.7 _ W T2 (kW) 5147.3 _ W CC (kW) 8334.6

g1 (%)
33.28

g2 (%)
48.87

gwh (%)
86.57

_ mCG (kg/s) 16.36

TCG (C) 35.8

lated results are shown in Fig. 2. In order to illustrate the impact of the ammonia turbine inlet pressure P4 and the ammonia mass fraction of basic solution x on efciency, parametric analysis is performed for the ammonia vapor ow rate, pressure ratio of ammonia turbine, LNG turbine ow rate, LNG turbine inlet specic enthalpy, ammonia turbine work output and LNG turbine work output variations. The results are demonstrated in Fig. 3. It can be seen that net electrical efciency goes up rst to a maximum and then decreases with increased ammonia turbine inlet pressure. The maximum net electrical efciency increases as the ammonia mass fraction increases. It is known that the enthalpy drop across the turbine decreases as the pressure ratio decreases. As shown in Fig. 3, the pressure ratio of ammonia turbine decreases with increase ammonia turbine inlet pressure under the condition of the quality of ammonia vapor turbine exhaust maintained about 90%. In addition, increasing ammonia turbine inlet pressure leads to less ammonia vaporized in the HX3. Therefore, the lowered ammonia vapor ow rate and pressure ratio result in a lower ammonia turbine work output. LNG ow rate decreases with decreased ammonia vapour ow rate because LNG is vaporized through absorbing the latent heat of spent ammonia vapor from the ammonia turbine. When the ammonia vapor ow rate decreases, there is more weak solution owing through the HX1 to heat the natural gas, so natural gas specic enthalpy at LNG turbine inlet increases. Although LNG ow rate decreases with increased ammonia turbine inlet pressure, the LNG turbine inlet specic enthalpy increases rapidly as the pressure goes up, such that the LNG turbine work output increases. The variation of the LNG turbine work output rst has a more signicant effect on the net electrical efciency than that of ammonia turbine work output, while it is reversed as the ammonia turbine inlet pressure increases. Compared to net electrical efciency, exergy efciency continuously increases as the pressure increases. It is can be explained that exergy input decreased with the increase of the pressure due to the reduced LNG ow rate.

Table 3 Thermodynamic parameters of the working uids in the proposed combined cycle power plant. State No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Fluid Basic solution Basic solution Basic solution Ammonia Ammonia Ammonia Ammonia Weak solution Weak solution Weak solution LNG LNG Natural gas Natural gas Natural gas Natural gas Natural gas Water Water Water TK 288.15 288.59 423.15 423.15 219.61 218.79 218.82 423.15 309.64 310.14 111.67 113.06 178.81 383.62 238.99 293.61 308.9 440.15 311.57 308.65 P kPa 0.22385 3.15789 3 3 0.033 0.03135 0.23563 3 2.85 0.2356 0.1013 3.3241 3.1579 3 0.3 0.2850 0.285 0.8400 0.7980 0.7581 h kJ/kg 14.404 10.002 1037.5 1903.4 1387.61 99.425 99.786 584.13 54.954 54.954 0 9.518 536.18 1092.903 778.3413 897.995 932.382 706.02 161.650 149.418 s kJ/(kg K) 0.73308 0.73613 3.5656 6.0848 6.3459 0.48015 0.48048 2.2851 0.83413 0.84371 0 0.01688 3.3013 5.4713 5.6228 6.0998 6.2139 2.012 0.55102 0.5117 ex kJ/kg 52.359 55.883 288.072 498.83 136.09 309.82 310.09 117.46 6.399 3.642 1013.7 1018.3 598.55 530.01 171.81 154.01 155.5 127.860 4.472 3.570 _ m kg/s 23.9055 23.9055 23.9055 6.6901 6.6901 6.6901 6.6901 17.2154 17.2154 17.2154 16.3636 16.3636 16.3636 16.3636 16.3636 16.3636 16.3636 46 46 46 x 0.5 0.5 0.5 1 1 1 1 0.30569 0.30569 0.30569

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0.335

X=0.48 X=0.50 X=0.52

0.52

X=0.48 X=0.50 X=0.52

Net electrical efficiency

0.50

Exergy efficiency
1.6 2.0 2.4 2.8 3.2

0.330

0.325

0.48

0.320

0.46

0.315

0.44

1.6

2.0

2.4

2.8

3.2

Ammonia turbine inlet pressure (MPa)

Ammonia turbine inlet pressure (MPa)

Fig. 2. Effect of ammonia turbine inlet pressure on the efciency.

7.6

Pressure ratio of ammonia turbine

180 160 140 120 100 80 1300 1200 1100

7.2

mB (kg/s)

6.8

6.4

6.0

X=0.48 X=0.50 X=0.52

19 18

X=0.48 X=0.50 X=0.52

mL N G (kg/s)

16 15

X=0.48 X=0.50 X=0.52

h14 (kJ/kg)

17

1000 900 800 5400 5200 5000

4200 4000

X=0.48 X=0.50 X=0.52

WT 2 (KW)

WT 1 (KW)

3800 3600 3400 3200 3000

4800 4600 4400 4200 2.0 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3.0 3.2

X=0.48 X=0.50 X=0.52

2.0 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3.0 3.2

Ammonia turbine inlet pressure (MPa)

Ammonia turbine inlet pressure (MPa)

Fig. 3. Ammonia vapour ow rate, pressure ratio of ammonia turbine, LNG turbine ow rate, LNG turbine inlet specic enthalpy, ammonia turbine work output and LNG turbine work output vs. ammonia turbine inlet pressure.

If the ammonia mass fraction becomes high, ammonia turbine work output increases due to more ammonia vapour expanding through the ammonia turbine for given ammonia turbine inlet pressure, whereas LNG turbine work output is decreased due to the reduced natural gas specic enthalpy at the LNG turbine inlet.

The work output variation of ammonia turbine is weaker than that of the LNG turbine, so total work output of the system increases with the increase of ammonia mass fraction at a given ammonia turbine inlet pressure. However the rise in ammonia mass fraction causes an increase of the ow rate of LNG regasied in the con-

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denser and consequently a rise in the exergy input. Furthermore, the increased amplitude exergy input is larger than that of the total work output of the system. Therefore, the net electrical efciency increases as the ammonia mass fraction increases, but exergy efciency decreases as shown in Fig. 2. 4.3. Effect of LNG turbine inlet pressure The heat source temperature is 167 C, the inlet pressure of ammonia turbine is 3 MPa, the natural gas supplying pressure is taken as 0.3 MPa and the ammonia mass fraction of basic solution is set to be 0.5, other thermal conditions summarized in Table 1 are kept unchanged. The performance of the proposed combined system is evaluated for LNG turbine inlet pressures from 2 to 4.35 MPa. The calculated results are presented in Fig. 4 and 5. From the results, net electrical efciency increases rst as the pressure goes up. Then due to the reduced LNG turbine work output at a pressure of about 4 MPa, net electrical efciency goes down at the corresponding pressure. The LNG turbine work output curve can be explained in Fig. 5, which shows the specic enthalpy drop of the LNG turbine peaks with the pressure. The reason is that

pressure ratio across the LNG turbine increases while the natural gas specic enthalpy at the LNG turbine inlet continuously decreases with increased the LNG inlet pressure. The variation of the exergy efciency with LNG turbine inlet pressure is similar to that of net electrical efciency. However the maximum point of exergy efciency does not coincide with the maximum LNG turbine work output. This is mainly because increasing the LNG turbine inlet pressure results in a reduction the LNG latent heat of vaporization at the corresponding pressure, and then LNG ow rate increases rapidly, leading to a higher exergy input. 4.4. Effect of low-temperature heat source temperature It should be pointed out that there are three cases of the system with the increase of the heat source temperature. If the temperature of the basic solution at the HX3 outlet is lower than that of the bubble point, no ammonia will be vaporized to generate power in the ammonia turbine and then all basic solution from the separator will be used to heat LNG which is expanded through the LNG turbine. However, it will be reversed if the temperature of the basic solution at the HX3 outlet is higher than that of the dew point, i.e. basic solution will be completely vaporized by waste heat in the HX3 and then no regasied LNG drive the LNG turbine. What interests us is the third case of partial vaporization, the temperature of basic solution is between the bubble and dew point at the HX3 pressure, partial vaporized ammonia is sent to ammonia turbine and weak solution from the separator heat the LNG to drive LNG turbine. Both the inlet pressure of ammonia turbine and LNG turbine are set to be 3 MPa, keeping other thermal conditions unchanged as summarized in Table 1. The performance of the proposed combined system is calculated for different heat source temperatures at the natural gas supplying pressure of 0.3 MPa and the ammonia mass fraction of basic solution of 0.5. The calculated results are presented in Fig. 6 and 7. Fig. 6 shows that the net electrical efciency increases to a maximum point and then decreases with increased the heat source temperature. The variation of exergy efciency is almost in same trend as that of the net electrical efciency. As the heat source temperature approaches the bubble point temperature of the basic ammoniawater mixture, ammonia turbine work output approaches zero due to less ammonia vapour vaporized in the HX3. When heat source temperature increases, more ammonia vapour

0.50 0.48 0.46 0.44 0.42

Efficiency

0.40 0.38 0.36 0.34 0.32 0.30 2.0

net electrical efficiency exergy efficiency

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

LNG turbine inlet pressure (MPa)

Fig. 4. Effect of LNG turbine inlet pressure on the efciency.

20

1100

mL N G (kg/s)

18

16

h1 4 (kJ/kg) WT 2 (KW)
2 3 4

1000

900

320

specific enthalpy drop of LNG turbine (kJ/kg)

5400 300 5100 4800 4500 260 2 3 4

280

LNG turbine inlet pressure (MPa)

LNG turbine inlet pressure (MPa)

Fig. 5. LNG ow rate, LNG turbine inlet specic enthalpy, specic enthalpy drop of LNG turbine and LNG turbine work output vs. LNG turbine inlet pressure.

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X. Shi, D. Che / Energy Conversion and Management 50 (2009) 567575

0.50

0.45
0.45

Efficiency

0.40

Efficiency

net electrical efficiency exergy efficiency

0.40

net electrical efficiency exergy efficiency

0.35

0.35

0.30

0.30

0.25 420 430 440 450 460

0.25 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8

Heat source temperature (K)

Fig. 6. Effect of heat source temperature on the efciency.

LNG turbine outlet pressure (MPa)

Fig. 8. Effect of LNG turbine outlet pressure on the efciency.

City gas temperature

expands through the ammonia turbine, such that ammonia turbine work output continuously goes up. The variation of LNG ow rate is almost the same trend as that of ammonia ow rate because more LNG is vaporized in the condenser with the increase of ammonia vapour ow rate. Natural gas specic enthalpy at the LNG turbine increases rst due to the increasing of heat source temperature and then decreases because less weak solution ow through the HX1 to heat the natural gas. Therefore the peak value of LNG turbine work output exists as the heat source temperature increases, which results in the curves of the net electrical efciency and exergy efciency. 4.5. Effect of LNG turbine outlet pressure LNG turbine outlet pressure is decided by the natural gas supplying pressure. The performance of the proposed combined system is calculated as the LNG turbine outlet pressure increases from 0.3 to 0.8 MPa. The effect of LNG turbine outlet pressure are presented in Fig. 8 and 9 at the ammonia turbine inlet pressure of 3 MPa, LNG turbine inlet pressure of 3 MPa and the ammonia mass fraction of basic solution of 0.5.

75 70

5500

5000 65 60 4500 55 50 45 40 35 3000

0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8

WT 2 (KW)

4000

3500

LNG turbine outlet pressure (MPa)

LNG turbine outlet pressure (MPa)

Fig. 9. City gas temperature and LNG turbine work output vs. heat source temperature.

20 18

mL N G (kg/s) W (KW)

mB (kg/s)

16 14 12

4 1150 5000 1100 4500 4000 3500 3000 2500 2000 420 430 440 450 460 420 430

h14 (kJ/kg)

1050 1000 950 900

ammonia turbine LNG turbine

440 450 460

heat source temperature (K)

Heat source temperature (K)

Fig. 7. Ammonia vapor ow rate, LNG ow rate, LNG turbine inlet specic enthalpy, ammonia turbine work output and LNG turbine work output vs. heat source temperature.

X. Shi, D. Che / Energy Conversion and Management 50 (2009) 567575

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According to the calculated results, the net electrical efciency decreases as the LNG turbine outlet pressure increases. This is because lowered pressure ratio across the LNG turbine results in a lower LNG turbine work output. However, the exergy efciency increases with the pressure. This can be explained as follows: for increasing the LNG outlet pressure, although LNG turbine work output decreases, city gas exergy increases because city gas temperature increases with the pressure. Furthermore, the change of the city gas exergy is larger than that of the LNG turbine work output. Then exergy output increases with the pressure. The variation of LNG turbine outlet pressure has no effect on the performance of ammonia turbine cycle.

a improvement potential for the system by applying optimization techniques. In order to further evaluate the advantages of the proposed combined system and compare it with other power cycle recovering low-temperature waste heat and determine if this system is protable, a more detailed design and a techno-economic study based on the results of thermodynamic analyses are expected. References
[1] Sternlicht Beno. Waste energy recovery: an excellent investment opportunity. Energy Conversion and Management 1982;22:36173. [2] Hung TC, Shai TY, Wang SK. A review of organic Rankine cycles (ORCs) for the recovery of low-grade waste heat. Energy 1997;22(7):6617. [3] Hung Tzu-Chen. Waste heat recovery of organic Rankine cycle using dry uids. Energy Conversion and Management 2001;42:53953. [4] Liu BT, Chien KH, Wang CC. Effect of working uids on organic Rankine cycle for waste heat recovery. Energy 2004;29:120717. [5] Wei D, Lu X, Lu Z, Gu J. Performance analysis and optimization of organic Rankine cycle (ORC) for waste heat recovery. Energy Conversion and Management 2007;48:11139. [6] Madhawa Hettiarachchi HD et al. Optimum design criteria for an Organic Rankine cycle using low-temperature geothermal heat sources. Energy 2007:01. [7] Kalina IA. Combined cycle system with novel bottoming cycle. ASME Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbine and Power 1984;106:73742. [8] Marston CH. Parametric analysis of the Kalina cycle. ASME Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbine and Power 1990;112:10716. [9] Nag PK, Gupta AVSSKS. Exergy analysis of the Kalina cycle. Applied Thermal Engineering 1998;18:42739. [10] Goswami DY, Xu F. Analysis of a new thermodynamic cycle for combined power and cooling using low and medium temperature solar collector. ASME Journal of Solar Energy Engineering 1999;121:917. [11] Tamm G, Goswami DY, Lu S, Hasan AA. Theoretical and experimental investigation of an ammoniawater power and refrigeration thermodynamic cycle. Solar Energy 2004;76:21728. [12] Martin C, Goswami DY. Effectiveness of cooling production with a combined power and cooling thermodynamic cycle. Applied Thermal Engineering 2006;26:57682. [13] Hongtan Liu, Lixin You. Characteristics and applications of the cold heat exergy of liqueed natural gas. Energy Conversion & Management. 1999;40: 151525. [14] Bisio G, Tagliaco L. On the recovery of LNG physical exergy by means of a simple cycle or a complex system. Eexergy, an international journal. 2002;2:3450. [15] Hisazumi Y, Yamasaki Y, Sugiyama S. Proposal for a high efciency LNG power generation system utilizing waste heat from the combined cycle. Applied Energy 1998;60:16982. [16] Wang Q, Li YZ, Wang J. Analysis of power cycle based on cold energy of liqueed natural gas and low-grade heat source. Applied Thermal Engineering 2004;24:53948. [17] Miyazaki T. A combined power cycle using refuse incineration and LNG cold energy. Energy 2000;25:63955. [18] Shi X, Che D. Thermodynamic analysis of an LNG fuelled combined cycle power plant with waste heat recovery and utilization system. International journal of energy research. 2007;31:97598. [19] REFPROP Version 7.1, NIST Standard Reference Database 23, the Us Secretary of Commerce, America; 2003. [20] Donghong Wei, Xuesheng Lu, et al. Performance analysis and optimization of organic Rankine cycle (ORC) for waste heat recovery. Energ Convers Manage 2007;48:11139. [21] Zhang N, Lior N. Methodology for thermal design of novel combined refrigeration/power binary uid systems. International Journal of Refrigeration 2007;30:107285.

5. Conclusion This paper has proposed a combined power system that can efciently recover low-temperature waste heat and fully utilize the cold energy of LNG as well. The proposed combined system consists of the Rankine cycle with ammoniawater mixture as the working uid to recover low-temperature waste heat and the LNG power generation cycle. It produces power and provides certain amount of regasied LNG. The steady-state component models are developed in consideration of mass, energy and species balances, and validated by comparison with previously published models and simulation results of other investigators. Based on the validated models, this system has been simulated for a typical operating condition. The results show that the net electrical efciency and the exergy efciency of the proposed combined cycle are 33.28% and 48.87%, respectively. The waste heat recovery efciency of the proposed combined cycle reaches 86.57%. About 16.36 kg s1 of natural gas, whose conditions are 35.8 C, 0.3 MPa, can be delivered to the natural gas supplying system and no less than 0.2 MW of electrical power for operating sea water pumps can be saved. To improve the net electrical efciency and exergy efciency of the system, a parametric analysis has been performed to investigate the effects of ammonia mass fraction of basic solution, heat source temperature, natural gas supplying pressure, as well as the inlet pressure of ammonia turbine and LNG turbine. It is found that a maximum net electrical efciency can be obtained as the inlet pressure of ammonia turbine increases and the maximum value increases as the ammonia mass fraction increases. Exergy efciency goes up with the increased ammonia turbine inlet pressure. As the ammonia mass fraction increases at given ammonia turbine inlet pressure, the net electrical efciency increases, whereas the exergy efciency decreases. There is also a peak of net electrical efciency and exergy efciency with increased LNG turbine inlet pressure or heat source temperature. As the LNG gas turbine outlet pressure increases, exergy efciency increases while net electrical efciency drops. The parametric analysis results imply that there is