Exergetic analysis of solar concentrator aided coal fired super critical thermal power plant (SACSCTPT)

Comparative energetic and exergetic analysis of coal-fired supercritical thermal power plant (CSCTPT) and solar concentrator aided coal fired supercritical thermal power plant (SACSCTPT) have been carried out in this article. Optical analysis of Linear Fresnel reflecting (LFR) solar concentrator is used to predict the effect of focal distance and width of reflector upon the local concentration ratio and the tilt (θ) angles that are important parameters for SACSCTPT performance studies. Energetic and exergetic analysis for evaluating the effect of concentration ratio and inlet temperature of the fluid on LFR solar concentrator are carried out. An instantaneous increase in power generation capacity of about 20 % is observed by substituting turbine bleed streams to all the low pressure and high pressure feed water heaters of CSCTPT with solar concentrator aided feed water heaters (SAFWH). Coal consumption is increased by 3.35 % for reheat of the steam by substitution of high pressure feed water heaters with SAFWH. Energetic efficiencies of SACSCTPT appear high as compared to the solar alone thermal power plant and low as compared to coal-fired super critical thermal power plants. Furthermore, for a SAFWH, it is found that the land area requirement is 4.78 ha/MW.