Exergy analysis and investigation for various feed water heaters of direct steam generation solar–thermal power plant

The energy and exergy analysis has been carried out for the different components of a proposed conceptual direct steam generation (DSG) solar–thermal power plant (STPP). It has been found that the maximum energy loss is in the condenser followed by solar collector field. The maximum exergy loss is in the solar collector field while in other plant components it is small. The possibilities to further improve the plant efficiency are identified and exploited. For minimum exergy loss in receiver the inlet temperature of water to the receiver, which is governed by the number of feed water heaters (FWHs), bleed pressure and mass fraction of bleed steam, must be optimum. The only one FWH has been proposed in conceptual DSG STPP. In order to evaluate the optimum bleed pressure and mass fraction of bleed steam to maximize the STPP efficiency, the investigations are carried out for various bleed pressure and mass fractions of bleed steam of proposed conceptual DSG STPP having one FWH. The investigations for bleed pressure and mass fraction of bleed steam are also carried out by incorporating two and three FWHs. It has been found that there will be significant improvement in efficiency by using three FWHs and further gain in efficiency is possible by making provision for more FWHs.