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Optimization of Fire Tube Heat Recovery Steam Generators For Cogeneration Plants Through Genetic Algorithm
Optimization of Fire Tube Heat Recovery Steam Generators For Cogeneration Plants Through Genetic Algorithm
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 23 September 2009
Accepted 5 June 2010
Available online 16 June 2010
In the present paper, a small cogeneration system including a gas microturbine and a re tube heat
recovery steam generator (HRSG) is considered. The HRSG system is optimized considering two different
objective functions. Sum of the exergy losses resulting from the gases leaving the stack and the exergy
destruction due to the internal irreversibility is considered as the rst objective function while the
second objective function is considered to be the sum of annualized values of the capital cost and the cost
of the energy loss. The cost of energy loss includes the cost of the loss by hot gases leaving the stack and
the cost of the reduction in the power production in the microturbine as the result of the pressure drop
in the HRSG. Finally multi-objective optimization method via genetic algorithm is employed to nd the
optimum values of the design parameters. A decision making process based on nding the closest point
to the ideal point is used. Results of different optimum points on the Pareto front are compared and
discussed. The results show that the thermodynamic optimization doesnt lead to major improvement of
the total cost of the HRSG although the thermoeconomic and multi-objective methods improve the total
cost of the system due decrease in the cost of energy loss due to decrease in the pinch point.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Firetube HRSG
Cogeneration
Optimization
Genetic Algorithm
Thermoeconomic
Multi-objective
1. Introduction
Due to the daily progress in the gas turbine technology cogeneration systems having gas turbines as their prime movers have
became prevalent. In these systems in addition to supplying the
electricity demand, heating and/or cooling load of the building can
be supplied using absorption chillers and heat recovery steam
generators. This results in lower fuel consumption and lower
emission [1]. Fig. 1 illustrates the schematic view of a small
cogeneration system with a gas turbine prime mover.
Heat recovery steam generators are one of the most important
components of a cogeneration system which have a signicant
impact on its efciency. Heat recovery steam generators are classied into two groups of water tube and re tube. In water tube
boilers water ows inside pipes and gas ows inside the shell while
in re tube ones gas ows inside pipes and two phase water boils
inside the shell. Generally, when the mass ow rate of the output
gas is lower than 7 kg/s, it is not economical to use water tube
HRSGs [2]. For gas microturbines having a power output of
30e800 kW, the use of re tube HRSGs is inevitable. Commercial
buildings, light duty industrial facilities including food processing,
Nomenclature
A
Ce, Cf
Cp
D
E_
f
F
ff
h
H
hf
HRSG
I_
k
K
K, Km
L, Le
_
m
nf
NH
Nu
Nw
P
P.P
S
ST, SL
T
U
V
VL
m
DP
DTm
DW
e
h
r
2379
Subscripts
C
convective, compressor
D
destruction
Eco
economizer
Eva
evaporator
F
fuel
f
n
g
gas
i
inner, inside tube, inlet
L
loss
N
non-luminous
o
outer, outside tube, outlet
atm
atmosphere (Restricted dead state)
P
product
s
steam
Sh
superheater
t
turbine
w
water
K
Kth component
2380
_ g Cpg Tg1 Tg3 m
_ w hs2 hw2
m
(1)
Using heat balances for each of the components, gas temperature at the inlet and exit of each component of the HRSG can be
obtained.
_ g hg4 hatm Tatm Sg4 Satm
E_ L m
(2)
(3)
Where E_ P;K and E_ F;K are exergy rates of the product and the fuel of
the Kth component, respectively, which are evaluated considering
the desired outcome of using that component and the resources
spent for that outcome. In [13] and [14], fuel and product exergies
are determined for each component, using the following equations:
_ g hg;in;K hg;out;K Tatm Sg;in;K Sg;out;K
E_ F;K m
(4)
_ w hw;out;K hw;in;K Tatm Sw;out;K Sw;in;K
E_ P;K m
(5)
E_
eK _ P;K
EF;K
(6)
5. Economical analysis
Total annual cost of an HRSG is dened in this work as sum of
the cost of heat transfer surface area and the cost of energy loss as
follows:
(7)
(8)
where CRF is the capital recovery factor. PEC is cost of heat transfer
surface area and other costs such as casing and equipments. It is
assumed that PEC to be a function of heat transfer surface area and
may be calculated as follows
(9)
(10)
2381
Table 2
Variation intervals of decision variables.
Item
Value
Ce
Cf
H
CRF
Keco
Keva
Ksh
0.078 $/Kw hr
0.168 $/m3
5840 h/year
0.2385
39 195 $/m3
42 425 $/m3
115 146 $/m3
0.915
hBoiler
Csl
_ g Cpg Tg;out;eco Tatm H
m
Cf
hBoiler LHV
_ g Cpg ht T3
DW m
!
Patm k1=k
Patm DP k1=k
P3
P3
Table 1
Coefcients required for calculation of costs.
P.P ( K)
Pressure drop (kpa)
Evaporator
VL (m/s)
di (m)
Economizer
L (m)
ST/do
SL/do
hf (m)
nf (ns/m)
Superheater
L (m)
ST/do
SL/do
Lower limit
0.001
e
Upper limit
40
5
15
0.015
50
0.040
1
1.5
1.5
0.005
75
3.5
4.15
4.15
0.020
275
1
1.5
1.5
2.5
4.15
4.15
(12)
Variables
(11)
2382
Table 3
Continuous output of the gas turbine in ISO condition.
Item
Value
Output power
Pressure ratio
Mass ow rate
Exhaust temperature
Fuel
Compressor efciency
Turbine efciency
600 Kw
8.6
5 kg/s
570 C
Gaseous
0.8
0.8
Cpl DW H Ce
(13)
Fig. 5. Pareto optimal frontier.
I_
E_ D;K E_ L
(14)
Value
HRSG Pressure
Output steam temperature
Blow down
Supply water temperature
Supply water pressure
Dew point temperature
Deaerator pressure
550 kpa
196 C
5%
21 C
100 kpa
110 C
100 kpa
F a
I_
I_
ref
Ctot
1 a
Ctot; ref
(15)
Considering a 0 and a 1 leads to optimization of the thermoeconomic and thermodynamic objective functions respectively.
The result is a set of optimum solutions, called Pareto solutions,
each of which is a trade-off between considered objective functions. The designer can choose any set of optimal solutions, by
selecting desired value of a between 0 and 1.
6.2. Optimization method
Genetic algorithm is utilized as the optimization method in the
present work. Genetic algorithm, thanks to its evolutional nature,
can work with any type of objective function, constraints and in any
sort of space. In this algorithm, the solution space is exhaustively
searched and there is less possibility to be trapped in a local
optimum. In genetic algorithms, any possible answer is represented
by a series of genes, called a chromosome. A selected population of
chromosomes is called a society and a society in a specic segment
of time is called a generation. After dening the objective function,
an initial society is generated. This initial population is evaluated
and each chromosome is given a ranking. If the solution requirements are not met, the step of going to a new generation including
selection, mating and mutation with the aim of improving the
Table 5
Results of optimization.
Variables
Base
case
P.P (K)
19
Pressure
1.66
drop
(kpa)
Evaporator
29
VL (m/s)
0.029
di (m)
Economizer
L (m)
1.77
2
ST/do
2.3
SL/do
0.0132
hf (m)
98
nf (ns/m)
Superheater
L (m)
1.6
1.7
ST/do
2
SL/do
Thermodynamic Multi-Objective
opt.
opt.
Thermoeconomic
opt.
5.63
1.24
6.59
2.28
6.26
3.22
15
0.04
29.36
0.022
36.48
0.020
3. 5
1.81
2.62
0.0168
275
3.5
1.84
2.69
0.0105
275
3.35
1.9
2.83
0.0203
216
2.5
2.64
4.15
2.37
2.19
4.15
2.24
2.14
3.43
2383
Fig. 6. Exergetic efciency of components of the HRSG, before and after optimization.
Fig. 7. Comparison of annual costs of the HRSG before and after the optimization.
Base
case
Thermodynamic
opt.
Multiobjective
opt.
Thermoeconomic
opt.
EDeco (kW)
EDeva (kW)
EDsh (kW)
EL (kW)
EP (kW)
22.94
619
24.49
286.05
597.37
19.37
593.49
20.62
237.8
678.7
18.72
595.1
21.87
239.3
675
18.49
605.8
22.09
239.5
664.12
due to decrease in the pinch point in all the three designs with
respect to the existing design as presented in the Table 5. In
references [2,3], pinch point temperatures for evaporators with
bare tubes are suggested to be 70 C. This is due to the need to
achieve an economical thermal area with a reasonable pressure
drop. As can be seen in Fig. 7, most of the costs in the thermoeconomic function are related to the thermal losses. By decreasing the
pinch point temperature to 6.26 C correspond to thermoeconomic
optimum point at the expense of increasing the capital costs and
reduction of power production of the turbine, more heat is recovered and annual costs of the heat loss have signicantly reduced. At
the same time, by optimizing other thermal variables of the HRSG,
the lowest thermal surface area is obtained for this pinch point.
Fig. 7 compares different components of the economic analysis
of the HRSG for four designs. As can be seen, the thermodynamic
optimization doesnt lead to major improvement of the total cost of
the HRSG as compared to the base case. The results show using
multi-objective optimization improves the cost of the work loss in
the HRSG as compared to the thermoeconomic optimization. This
improvement is obtained by decreasing the gas-side velocity (Table
5) via increasing the capital cost.
Table 5 shows that the optimum designs are obtained mostly by
improvements in design variables of the evaporator. This is due to
the fact that thermal variables in the economizer and the superheater have considerably lower effects on the nal cost.
8. Conclusion
In this paper, a re tube HSRG is successfully optimized. Two
different objective functions were suggested. The rst one is sum of
the exergy destruction and exergy loss and the second objective
function is sum of the capital cost and energy loss in term of money.
Finally, a multi-objective optimization is carried out in order to nd
optimum values of the design variables. Three optimum points
based on three objective functions were compared and discussed.
The results show that the design base on the thermodynamic
objective function is not capable to nd optimum values for
the gas-side velocity. This design doesnt improve the total cost of
the HRSG with respect to the existing design due to increase in the
capital cost. The thermoeconomic and multi-objective functions are
capable to nd optimum values for all of decision variables.
The results of economic analysis shows that during the life time
of an HRSG, fuel expenses constitute the major part of its costs. This
show that the pinch point suggested in existing references is higher
than the optimum value. It was also found that costs involving
pressure drop in an HRSG also have a considerable amount. The
2384
_ w h2 h1 m
_ g Cpg Tg3 Tg4 UADTm
m
(A-1)
AT
hi Ai
1
AT
do
do
A
ln
ffi T ffo
hf ho
Aw
2Km
di
Ai
(A-2)
where AT, AW, and Ai are the total area, average area and the tubes
wall area and hf is the n efciency.
A.1.2. Convective heat transfer coefcient inside tube
The convective heat transfer coefcient inside tubes is calculated via DittuseBoelter relationship [17].
hC 110:9u0:8
F1
CP
0:4
F1
d1:8
i
(A-3)
K 0:6
(A-4)
ho hN hC
(A-5)
Ao do 2nf bhf
(A-8)
DPg
f aG2 NH
500rg
do 2hf
do
f C2 C4 C6
(A-9)
0:5
Tg
Tf
!0:25
GCp
K
mCp
0:67
(A-6)
do 2hf
do
(A-10)
DPg
hC C1 C3 C5
(A-7)
Uo
_g
m
ST Ao LNw
8:098 104 f Le u2
rdi
(A-11)
0:316
(A-12)
Re0:25
A.3. Superheater
Thermal design of the superheater is similar to the evaporator,
except that the convective heat transfer coefcient is calculated as
follows:
A.3.1. Convective heat transfer coefcient outside tube
There are a variety of methods for obtaining convective heat
transfer coefcient outside tubes of the superheater. One of the
suitable methods for obtaining Nusselt number is using Grimson
equation:
Nu BReN
hC do
K
(A-13)
Coefcients N and B are given in [3] for bare tubes and for in-line
and staggered arrangements.
A.3.2. Pressure drop of the gas ow in the superheater
DPg
fG2 NH
495:69rg
(A-14)
The friction factor (fg) is obtained using the following relationship for a in-line arrangement and 2000 < Re < 40000:
"
0:15
fg Re
0:044
0:08ST =do
SL =do 10:431:13do =SL
#
(A-15)
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2385
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