| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 300647 | Renewable Energy | 2013 | 9 Pages |
In the present work, a dry cooling tower and a solar chimney design are recombined in order to increase the thermal efficiency of a steam Rankine cycle. The rejected heat from the condenser into the dry cooling tower supplemented by the solar radiation gained through its transparent cover are the sources of wind energy generation that is captured by a wind turbine which is located at the beginning of the chimney. In this research a case study for a 250 MW steam power plant of Shahid Rajaee in Iran has been performed. A CFD finite volume code is developed to find the generated wind velocity at the turbine entrance for a 250 m dry cooling tower base diameter and a chimney height of 200 m. Calculations have been iterated for different ambient temperatures and solar irradiances, representing temperature gradient within day length. A range of 360 kW to 3 MW power is obtained for the change in the chimney diameter from 10 to 50 m. The results show a maximum of 0.37 percent increase in the thermal efficiency of a 250 MW fossil fuel power plant unit; which proves this design to be a significant improvement in efficiency of thermal power plants, by capturing the heat that is dissipated from dry cooling towers.
► A hybrid cooling tower – solar chimney concept has been introduced. ► The hybrid system generates over ten times more power than a typical solar chimney. ► The system recaptures the heat of radiators that are dissipated through atmosphere. ► 3 MW power output is obtained for a hybrid system with 50 m chimney diameter. ► The concept saves lots of construction cost as well as required construction time.
