THERMOELECTRIC POWER PLANT PERFORMANCE AND EMISSION CONTROL SIMULATION

Resumo

Energy is undoubtedly a subject that concerns the government and society. In addition
to the economic liability, the environmental aspects are equally important. A thermoelectric power
plant is a solution that fulfill both requirements. The present work evaluated the composition of the
combustion products of a thermoelectric power plant through an analytic and numerical models. The
main polluent components found in the methane combustion products are COX , SOX , NOX and
solid particles. Regarding the ozone formation, the NOX is the most harmful combustion product.
Brayton’s thermodynamic cycle, including combustion, was numerically modelled and implemented
through Scilab
c
routines. The input data was based on real power plant operation conditions, which the
compressor isotropic process, the compression rate, the air and fuel mass rates, the combustion chamber
and gas turbine’s efficiency are known. The combustion reaction methodology takes into account the
equilibrium constants, as proposed in the literature. The combustion products concentration were then
evaluated as they flow through the turbine and are released to the atmospheric conditions. The chemFoam
solver of the OpenFOAM software was used in order to compare the combustion product’s concentrations
obtained with the proposed model. In addition, the results from the combustion model were compared
with the equivalent air (ideal gas) model, without combustion. The difference in thermal efficiency
estimation was approximately of 28 %.