Solar-Dish Configurations for a Low-Temperature Turbine in a Parallel-Flow Brayton Cycle
摘要
A single-shaft solar-dish Brayton cycle is being developed at the University of Pretoria to provide electricity to communities with limited or no access to the electricity supply grid. However, small-scale single-shaft gas turbine cycles developed from radial turbomachinery typically operate at low pressure ratios and experience a loss in performance due to pressure drop when components are added for hybridisation or cogeneration. To solve this issue, a parallel flow low-temperature turbine (LTT) can be incorporated and investigated in terms of different solar-dish layouts to determine the performance improvement that the application of concentrating solar power adds to the simple parallel-flow cycle. This study follows an analytical approach to defining four cycle layouts, a simple LTT, two variations of a solar LTT, and a multi-dish solar LTT. Results show that the application of a solar receiver between the split-off point and the combustion chamber allows for improvements of 36% and 64% in thermal efficiency and power output, respectively, in comparison to the simple LTT cycle. Similarly, when the solar receiver is added between the split-off point and the power turbine, the thermal efficiency and power output improve by 36% and 13%, respectively. The multi-dish configuration allows for improvements of 84% and 119% in thermal efficiency and power output, respectively, compared to the simple LTT cycle. Thus, the implementation of a solar LTT setup is feasible for cycle improvement, with the multi-dish layout offering the greatest feasibility. The multi-dish layout would, however, introduce additional costs and piping pressure losses to the cycle that has not been considered in this work. It is recommended to investigate applying a larger solar dish as well as recuperation for further performance improvements.