Oxy-fuel combustion (OFC) belongs to one of the three commonly known clean coal technologies for power generation sector and other industry sectors responsible for CO2emissions (e.g., steel or cement production). The OFC capture technology is based on using high-purity oxygen in the combustion process instead of atmospheric air. Therefore flue gases have a high concentration of CO2- Due to the limited adiabatic temperature of combustion some part of CO2must be recycled to the boiler in order to maintain a proper flame temperature. An integrated oxy-fuel combustion power plant constitutes a system consisting of the following technological modules: boiler, steam cycle, air separation unit, cooling water and water treatment system, flue gas quality control system and CO2processing unit. Due to the interconnections between technological modules, energy, exergy and ecological analyses require a system approach. The paper present the system approach based on the 'input-output' method to the analysis of the: direct energy and material consumption, cumulative energy and exergy consumption, system (local and cumulative) exergy losses, and thermoecological cost. Other measures like cumulative degree of perfection or index of sustainable development are also proposed. The paper presents a complex example of the system analysis (from direct energy consumption to thermoecological cost) of an advanced integrated OFC power plant.
Efficiency and electrical power output of combined cycle power plants vary according to the ambient conditions. The amount of these variations greatly affects electricity production, fuel consumption, and plant incomes. Obviously, many world countries have a wide range of climatic conditions, which impact the performance of power plants. In this paper, a thermodynamic analysis of an operating power plant located in Jordan is performed with actual operating data acquired from the power plant control unit. The analysis is performed by using first and second laws of thermodynamics. Energy and exergy efficiencies of each component of the power plant system are calculated and the effect of ambient temperature on the components performance is studied. The effects of gas turbine pressure ratio, gas turbine inlet temperature, load and ambient conditions on the combined cycle efficiency, power outputs and exergy destruction are investigated. Energy and exergy efficiencies of the combined cycle power plant are found as 45.29%, and 42.73% respectively when the ambient temperature is 34 ◦C. Furthermore, it is found that the combustion chamber has the largest exergy destruction rate among the system components. The results showed that 73% of the total exergy destruction occurs in the combustion chamber when the ambient temperature is 34 ◦C. Moreover, the results show that the second major exergy loss is in HRSC. The results show that the energy and exergy efficiency of the combined cycle power plant decreases as the ambient temperature increases. According to the calculation results, improvement and modification suggestions are presented.