Optimal Sizing of a Trigeneration Plant Integrated with Total Site System Considering Multi-period and Energy Losses

¹ Process Systems Engineering Centre (PROSPECT), Research Institute of Sustainable Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Malaysia
² School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Malaysia
³ Sustainable Process Integration Laboratory–SPIL, NETME Centre, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology–VUT BRNO, Technická 2896/2, 616 69 Brno, Czech Republic

^* Corresponding author: syarifah@utm.my

Abstract

Rising awareness for the environment as well as concerns over the sustainability of fossil fuels has encouraged developed and developing countries to find alternative ways to enhance the thermal efficiency of current power systems. The thermal efficiency of power plants can be increased from 30 – 40 % up to 80 – 90 % through the implementation of a trigeneration system by recovering dissipated waste heat for other purposes. The trigeneration system can be defined as a technology that can produce simultaneous power, heating, and cooling energy from the same fuel source. Trigeneration System Cascade Analysis (TriGenSCA) methodology is an optimisation approach based on Pinch Analysis that has been used to establish the guidelines or the proper size of the trigeneration system. This paper proposes a modification of TriGenSCA by considering a multi-period of energy consumption to optimise the size of the utility in the centralised trigeneration system by considering the transmission and storage of energy losses in the Total Site system. There are six steps involved including data extraction, identification of time slices, Problem Table Algorithm (PTA), Multiple Utility Problem Table Algorithm (MU PTA), Total Site Problem Table Algorithm (TS PTA), and modified TriGenSCA. The methodology has been tested on the centralised nuclear trigeneration system in a Total Site System as a case study and results shown that thermal energy needed by the Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) trigeneration system with transmission losses is 2,427 MW whereas thermal energy needed by the PWR trigeneration system without transmission losses is 2,424 MW. The TriGenSCA with consideration of transmission and storage energy losses is useful for engineers and designers to determine the exact value of energy for trigeneration plant.