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Industries and commercial buildings all over the world are the major energy end-users. In the developing countries of the Asia-Pacific region, electricity accounts for only around 20 per cent of the total energy demand of the industrial sector, the remaining demand being mostly in the form of thermal energy. Likewise, as much as 60 per cent of the energy demand of modern high-rise buildings in the tropical climate comes from comfort cooling. Typically, state-owned power companies assure electricity supply whereas on-site boilers and chillers meet the heating and cooling needs of the users, respectively. Thermal power plants are a major source of electricity supply in many developing countries. The conventional method of power generation and supply to the customer is wasteful in the sense that about a quarter of the primary energy fed into the power plant is actually made available to the user in the form of electricity. The major source of loss in the conversion process is the heat rejected to the surrounding water or air due to the inherent constraints of the different thermodynamic cycles employed in power generation. Moreover, users may be far from the point of generation, which results in additional transmission and distribution losses in the network. The concept of cogeneration is based on the principle of thermal cascading which consists of generating power on site where a substantial fraction of waste heat produced is recovered to satisfy the heating/cooling demand of the end-user. There is thus a considerable enhancement of the overall conversion efficiency. Combined heat and power generation (CHP), or cogeneration as it is popularly known, is widely recognized world-wide as an attractive alternative to the conventional power and heat generating options due to its low capital investment, shorter gestation period, reduced fuel consumption and associated environmental pollution, and increased fuel diversity. Though the concept of cogeneration has been in existence for over a century now, it found its popularity and renewed interest during the later half of the 70s and the early 80s. The main factors that attributed to this phenomenon are the two oil shocks that led to spiralling energy prices and the availability of efficient and small-scale cogeneration systems which became cost-effective and competed well with the conventional large-scale electricity generation units. A variety of measures were undertaken by several national authorities to promote the growth of cogeneration. As energy prices started to fall during the mid-80s, some countries lost interest in this technology, particularly those that had excess generating capacities. Taking the example of Europe, a great diversity can be observed among the member countries; electricity produced from cogeneration ranged from over 34 per cent in the Netherlands whereas it was less than 1.5 per cent in France. The main reasons that have revived the interest in cogeneration once again are the rapidly increasing demand for electricity, constraints faced by the national authorities to finance additional power generating capacities, and the growing concern to limit the environmental emission and pollution associated with the use of energy. Cogeneration is presently being recommended when there is plan for expansion of existing facilities, development of new industrial zones, replacement of outdated steam generation systems, or when the cost of energy is high and there is scope for selling power.
1.2
Principle of Cogeneration
Cogeneration is defined as the sequential generation of two different forms of useful energy from a single primary energy source, typically mechanical energy and thermal energy. Mechanical energy may be used either to drive an alternator for producing electricity, or rotating equipment such as motor, compressor, pump or fan for delivering various services. Thermal energy can be used either for direct process applications or for indirectly producing steam, hot water, hot air for dryer or chilled water for process cooling. Cogeneration provides a wide range of technologies for application in various domains of economic activities. The overall efficiency of energy use in CHP mode can be up to 80 per cent and above in some cases. A typical small gas turbine based CHP unit can save about 40 per cent of the primary energy when compared with a fossil fuel fired conventional power plant and a boiler house (see Figure 1.1 below). Along with the saving of fossil fuels, cogeneration also allows to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases (particularly CO2 emission) per unit of useful energy output. The production of electricity being on-site, the burden on the utility network is reduced and the transmission line losses eliminated.
Input for Power Generation 86 Input Energy Input for Boiler 56 142
Heat Loss 6
(ii)Conventional System
Figure 1.1
Cogeneration makes sense from both macro and micro perspectives. At the macro level, it allows a part of the financial burden of the national power utility to be shared by the private sector; in addition, indigenous energy sources are preserved or the fuel import bill is reduced. At the micro level, the overall energy bill of the users can be reduced, particularly when there is a simultaneous need for both power and heat at the site, and a rational energy tariff is practised in the country.
1.3
In Asian developing countries, it is not unusual to come across situations of grid power supply interruptions either due to technical failure of the system or because the consumer demand during a given time period exceeds the utility supply capacity. Industries and commercial buildings normally adopt stand-by power generators for taking care of their essential loads during these periods. It is essential to assure continuity of some activities to minimize production losses or guarantee minimum comfort of the clients. The stand-by generators have limited use in the year; moreover, these devices require investment and
incur operation and maintenance costs while contributing practically nothing to reduce the overall energy bill of the site. Since these generators serve the main purpose of assuring emergency power to priority areas of the site, no financial analysis is carried out to assess their economic viability. However, these generators offer the possibility of continuous power generation so that the monthly power bill of the site can be reduced. Such benefits accrued can well justify the need for higher investment that is associated with prime movers which are designed to operate continuously and at higher efficiencies. In a gas turbine or reciprocating engine, typically a third of the primary fuel supplied is converted into power while the rest is discharged as waste heat at a relatively high temperature, ranging between 300 and 500C. At sites having a need for thermal energy in one form or the other, this waste heat can be recovered to match the quantity and level of requirements. For instance, steam may be needed at low or medium pressures for process applications. Any heat recovered from the exhaust gases of the prime movers will help to save the primary energy that would have been otherwise required by the on-site conversion facility such as boilers or dryers. An ideal site for cogeneration has the following characteristics: a reliable power requirement; relatively steady electrical and thermal demand patterns; higher thermal energy demand than electricity; long operating hours in the year; inaccessibility to the grid or high price of grid electricity.
Typical cogeneration applications may be in three distinct areas: a) Utility cogeneration: caters to district heating and/or cooling. The cogeneration facility may be located in industrial estates or city centres; b) Industrial cogeneration: applicable mainly to two types of industries, some requiring thermal energy at high temperatures (refineries, fertilizer plants, steel, cement, ceramic and glass industries), and others at low temperatures (pulp and paper factories, textile mills, food and beverage plants, etc.); c) Commercial/institutional cogeneration: specifically applicable to establishments having round-the-clock operation, such as hotels, hospitals and university campuses.
1.4
Cogeneration technologies that have been widely commercialized include extraction/back pressure steam turbines, gas turbine with heat recovery boiler (with or without bottoming steam turbine) and reciprocating engines with heat recovery boiler.
economic factors. The extraction points of steam from the turbine could be more than one, depending on the temperature levels of heat required by the processes.
Steam Steam Fuel Fuel Turbine Boiler Boiler Condenser Turbine
Process Process
Cooling Water
Figure 1.2
Another variation of the steam turbine topping cycle cogeneration system is the extractionback pressure turbine that can be employed where the end-user needs thermal energy at two different temperature levels. The full-condensing steam turbines are usually incorporated at sites where heat rejected from the process is used to generate power. The specific advantage of using steam turbines in comparison with the other prime movers is the option for using a wide variety of conventional as well as alternative fuels such as coal, natural gas, fuel oil and biomass. The power generation efficiency of the cycle may be sacrificed to some extent in order to optimize heat supply. In backpressure cogeneration plants, there is no need for large cooling towers. Steam turbines are mostly used where the demand for electricity is greater than one MW up to a few hundreds of MW. Due to the system inertia, their operation is not suitable for sites with intermittent energy demand.
Figure 1.3
On the other hand, if more power is required at the site, it is possible to adopt a combined cycle that is a combination of gas turbine and steam turbine cogeneration. Steam generated from the exhaust gas of the gas turbine is passed through a backpressure or extractioncondensing steam turbine to generate additional power. The exhaust or the extracted steam from the steam turbine provides the required thermal energy.
1.5
Cogeneration systems are normally classified according to the sequence of energy use and the operating schemes adopted.
Exhaust Heat
Figure 1.4
A cogeneration system can be classified as either a topping or a bottoming cycle on the basis of the sequence of energy use. In a topping cycle, the fuel supplied is used to first produce power and then thermal energy, which is the by-product of the cycle and is used to satisfy process heat or other thermal requirements. Topping cycle cogeneration is widely used in pulp and paper, food processing, textile industries, districting heating, hotels, hospitals and universities. In a bottoming cycle, the primary fuel produces high temperature thermal energy and the heat rejected from the process is used to generate power through a recovery boiler and a turbine generator. Bottoming cycles are suitable for manufacturing processes that require heat at high temperature in furnaces and kilns, and reject heat at significantly high temperatures. Typical areas of application include cement, steel, ceramic, gas and petrochemical industries. Cogeneration systems can also be classified according to the operating scheme whose choice is very much site-specific and depends on several factors, as described below:
1.6
While selecting cogeneration systems, one should consider some important technical parameters that assist in defining the type and operating scheme of different alternative cogeneration systems to be selected.
Back-pressure steam turbine Extraction-condensing steam turbine Gas turbine Combined cycle Reciprocating engine
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requiring thermal energy at about 1450C, a bottoming cycle cogeneration system can meet both high quality thermal energy and electricity demands of the plant.
kW kW
kW
Time
Time
(i) Factory A
Electricity
(ii) Factory B
Thermal Energy
Figure 1.5
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