Energetic and exergetic efficiencies of coal-fired CHP (combined heat and power) plants used in district heating systems of China

• Extraction flow rate and extraction pressure are the most important parameters.
• The exergetic efficiency depends on the energy to exergy ratio and system boundary.
• The minimum extraction ratio is a key indicator for CHP plants.
• Program Hysys and Taguchi method are used in this research.

The efficiencies of coal-fired CHP (combined heat and power) plants used in the district heating systems of China were analyzed with a thermodynamic model in the Hysys program. The influences of four parameters were evaluated by the Taguchi method. The results indicated that the extraction steam flow rate and extraction steam pressure are the most important parameters for energetic and exergetic efficiencies, respectively. The relations between extraction steam flow rate, extraction steam pressure and the energetic and exergetic efficiencies were investigated. The energetic and exergetic efficiencies were compared to the RPES (relative primary energy savings) and the RAI (relative avoided irreversibility). Compared to SHP (separate heat and power) generation, the CHP systems save fuel energy when extraction ratio is larger than 0.15. In the analysis of RAI, the minimum extraction ratio at which CHP system has advantages compared with SHP varies between 0.25 and 0.6. The higher extraction pressure corresponds to a higher value. Two of the examined plants had design conditions giving RPES close to zero and negative RAI. The third had both positive RPES and RAI at design conditions. The minimum extraction ratio can be used as an indicator to design or choose CHP plant for a given district heating system.