MODELING AND SIMULATION OF THERMOELECTRIC PLANT OF

COMBINED CYCLES AND ITS ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

J. F. Mitrea ABSTRACT
A. I. Lacerdab
The impact any power plant has upon the environment must be minimized as much as
R. F. de Lacerdac possible. Due to its high efficiency, low emission levels and low cooling requirements,
combined cycle plants are considered to be environmentally friendly. This study evaluates
Universidade Federal Fluminense the effect of operational conditions on pollutants (CO, CO2, SOx, NOx) emissions levels,
waste-heat and wastewater of a combined-cycle natural gas and steam power plant. The
Escola de Engenharia
HYSYS process simulation was used for modelling and simulation. The study clearly
Departamento de Engenharia Qumica shows that the absolute quantity of pollutants emitted is high. Also, it was possible to
Bairro So Domingos verify that the unit operate in the condition of minimal emissions regarding the maximum
possible, and thus a reduction or elimination of such pollutants is not possible.
Niteri, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Keywords: thermoelectric, natural gas, environmental impact, combined-cycle, HYSYS.
a
jf_mitre@yahoo.com.br
b
ailac@vm.uff.br.
c
lacerda@vm.uff.br

NOMENCLATURE the energy generation and the corresponding

environmental impact. The developed model
R stoichiometric fuel-air ratio allows the evaluation of the effect of several
T temperature, C variables on the whole process.

Subscripts

x numbers of oxygen atoms

INTRODUCTION

The thermoelectric plants that use

combined cycles integrate two thermal cycles: the
gas turbine cycle and the steam turbine cycle, such
that the surplus thermal energy from the gas turbine
be employed to vaporize water and generate high
pressure steam, which drives the turbine of the Figure 1. Simplified scheme of a thermoelectric plant.
steam cycle. Figure 1 shows a simplified scheme
of a thermoelectric plant of combined cycles. THE THERMOELECTRIC PLANT
This process has high efficiency and low
level of emission of pollutants, when compared to A thermoelectric plant with combined
thermoelectric plants that use fuel oil or coal as cycles, which uses natural gas as fuel, consists of
fuel. Nevertheless, it is important (and a natural gas cycle and a steam cycle. In these
fundamental) to say that the emissions and the plants, natural gas is burned in a combustion
water consumption in the cooling towers of the chamber, followed by an expansion of the exit flue
steam cycle must be carefully evaluated, gas in a gas turbine, which generates electrical
considering the minimization of the process energy in a turbo-generator. The hot effluent of the
environmental impact, without losing its technical- gas turbine generates steam in the steam-generator
economical feasibility. of the steam cycle, which expands in the steam
From the results herein shown, it is possible turbine and generates additional electrical energy
to evaluate the effects of operational conditions in (Kehlhofer et al., 1999).

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 Mitre et al. Modeling and Simulation of Thermoelectric...

Electrical energy production is achieved by its mechanical and technical reasons. The latter
basically by integrating the production of the is the main constraint and imposes a loss of
natural gas cycle with the production of the steam efficiency to the process, since it is always active
cycle, excluding the necessary energy to compress in the system optimisation. So, it is necessary to
the combustion air up to the operating pressure of use a larger excess air quantity than the effectively
the gas turbine and to recompress the boiler feed necessary for complete gas burning. This fact is
water condensate in the steam cycle. important from the point of view of process effect
It is possible to identify the first source of in the environment, but do not represent the real
environmental impact as the combustion gases and absolute environmental impact, since the use
emitted by the plant gas cycle. There is thermal of more oxygen is accomplished by an increasing
pollution, due to the high temperature of the gases in the nitrogen quantity. If only flue gas
released to the atmosphere, and also chemical composition analysis is considered, even the flue
pollution from these gases. It is possible to gas CO 2 content is very small regarding the
characterize the following pollutants: hydrocarbons nitrogen and oxygen content of the exhaust gases.
and CO from the incomplete burning of the fuel It is important to point out here that, the
(natural gas), SOx (SO2 e SO3) generated by burning low level content does not decrease the whole
sulphur contaminants (H 2S and mercaptans) environmental impact. It could be somewhat more
presents in the natural gas and NOx (NO and NO2), interesting to have one ton of CO2 per hour diluted
generated by the nitrogen from air oxygenation to ppm than the same CO2 quantity with 90% purity
reaction at high temperature. level: but one ton of CO2 per hour still being one
Also, CO 2, which is of unavoidable ton of CO2 per hour.
generation in the combustion process, is The simulation model developed in the
characterized as pollutant, being the main promoter HYSYS simulator integrates all concepts and
of the global warming effect. The main considerations above explained and allows
combustion products of natural burning are CO2 evaluating the effect of each variable on the overall
and H2O, in stoichiometric quantities in relation to process. The process flow sheet drawing in the
the gas being burned. Hereafter shown as tons per HYSYS simulator is show in Fig. 2.
hour of yielded CO2, even though its concentration
in the exhaust gases is not dangerous. HYSYS
Another type of environmental impact is
the water consumption in the cooling towers, HYSYS is a professional simulation
responsible by the condensation of low-pressure software, with tools that are applied to many
steam in the steam cycle. The water consumption chemical engineering process. Other softwares with
of a thermoelectric plant can be of the order of that similar capabilities, e.g. PRO II and CHEMCAD,
of a small city, depending on its capacity. The could be used in the simulation, with variable
thermoelectric plants are usually located nearby the degree of difficulty but giving the same solutions.
cities, so both exploit the same water resource. It It is interesting to observe that HYSYS is a
is a kind of environmental impact since the plant software package that can simulate various types
is using potable water, which will be release in the of processes, but does not have the specific function
atmosphere as vapour, and that will not necessarily to simulate and evaluate thermoelectric plants,
be recovered in the same place. based on natural gas or other fuels.
In the environmental impact evaluation
there exist a necessary comprehension of all aspects
involved in the energy generation by thermoelectric
plants, including its location.
From the process point of view, the
efficiency of useful chemical energy of natural gas
converted to electric energy can be evaluated as
function of the following variables: i) the air-natural
gas molar ratio to be used in the process, and ii)
the flue gas temperature in the turbine, constrained

84 Engenharia Trmica (Thermal Engineering), Vol. 4 No. 1 June 2005 p. 83-88

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Table 1. Natural gas composition (Bolivian).

Figure 2. General scheme of a combined-cycle

gas steam turbine thermoelectric plant.

METHODOLOGY

All simulations done in this work were

based on 1.2 MMm3/d of Bolivian natural gas
From the thermodynamics of chemical
flowrate, whose composition is show in Tab. 1.
reactions equilibrium, the equilibrium state of a
The chemical reactions in the natural gas
system at constant temperature and pressure is that
combustion process, whose mechanisms were not
where their total Gibbs free energy is minimal
considered here, are as follows:
(Santos, 2000). This criterion was used to obtain
the equilibrium composition in the combustion
1. CH4 + O2 CO + 2 H2O
chamber, or the minimization of the total Gibbs
2. C2H6 + 1.5 O2 2 CO + 3 H2O
free energy with respect to the system composition.
3. C3H8 + 3.5 O2 3 CO + 4 H2O
All other aspects shown in the flow sheet
4. i-C4H10 + 4.5 O2 4 CO + 5 H2O
are elementary, and do not require further detailing
5. n-C4H10 + 4.5 O2 4 CO + 5 H2O
regarding the methodology and calculations.
6. i-C5H12 + 5.5 O2 5 CO + 6 H2O
The plant show in the HYSYS scheme,
7. n-C5H12 + 5.5 O2 5 CO + 6 H2O
although does not represent the reality of their
8. CO + O2 CO2
mechanical construction, it is of high fidelity
9. H2S + 1.5 O2 SO2 + H2O
regarding the engineering aspects and concerns.
10. SO2 + O2 SO3
11. N2 + O2 2 NO
RESULTS
12. NO + O2 NO2
The design parameters are: (i) the chimney
temperature; (ii) the equipment pressure drops;
(iii) the water and ambient air temperatures, and
(iv) the turbines efficiencies, taken from literature
experimental data. The water losses in the cooling
towers were considered to be at the water air
saturation concentration.
The simulated data are shown in Tabs. 1
and 2, and agree with the expected results of the
process, demonstrating that the parameters used in
the process modelling is close to the real ones.
The first process variable to be evaluated
is the temperature. Whether in the reactor outlet

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 Mitre et al. Modeling and Simulation of Thermoelectric...

(combustion chamber) or in the turbine outlet of The conditions regarding the chemical
the combined cycle this variable is a function of reactions can also be evaluated. It is interesting to
assumed stoichiometric relation for the natural gas verify the behaviour of pure air in the reaction
and air flow rates. For practical applications, it is conditions, since a similar behaviour is expected
necessary that this temperature does not exceed a during normal operation.
certain limit to ensure the mechanical viability of As a general rule, the other environmental
the turbine. impacts promoted by exhaustion in the proposed
Figure 3 shows the temperature profile at conditions can be observed (NO x and CO
the turbine inlet. This temperature must be formation), based on equilibrium reactions.
approximately 1200C, and this condition implies In Figs. 5 to 7 it is possible to observe that
a stoichiometric fuel-air ratio (R) about 2.8. This all compositions are attenuated and small. But the
value is the operational ratio, which will define all absolute values are not so small, due the plant
other characteristics related to the process. capacity, which produces a very high amount of
exhausting gases, as show in Fig. 8.
Table 2. Energy production.

Figure 4. NOx formation with temperature.

Table 3. Process characteristics.

Figure 5. NOx formation with R.

In a direct way, the absolute amounts of

pollutants generated by the plant in study are shown
Figure 3. Temperature profile at turbine inlet. in Tab. 4.

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Table 4. Pollutants flowrate

As can be seen in Tab. 4, 1.7 tons/h of NOx

are emitted to produce 267 MWh of electrical
energy.
Other important data regards water Figure 8. Molar flow rate of exhausting gases.
consumption, 288.5 m3/d, equivalent to the average
water consumption of 300 families.
CONCLUSIONS

The study clearly shows that the absolute

amount of pollutants emitted is high. Also it was
possible to verify that the unit operates in the
condition of minimal emissions regarding the
maximal possible, and thus a reduction or
elimination of such pollutants is not achievable.
It can be observed from this study that the
ideal condition for energy productivity is to operate
with a fuel-air ratio as the stoichiometric one. The
first constraint to this ideal is the mechanical
conditions of the turbine, which cannot operate at
the corresponding combustion flue gas exit
temperature. So, a stoichiometric ratio in the range
of 2.7-2.9 is used, and these conditions make the
process viable (turbine viability) and minimize
Figure 6. CO formation with R. pollutants production (CO and NO x). These
operational conditions are the optimal considering
environmental concerns. The CO2, being a product,
is maximized in the process, so there is no need to
search for methodologies to minimize their
production, but there is for technologies for their
capture and uses parallel to the process.
The operational conditions are optimum
regarding the environmental impact, but the total
emissions are not ideal, that is: zero NOx production
mainly. Its production is 1.4 (ton/h)/(MMm3/
d_gas), nevertheless the small observed
concentration.
This type of problem must not be studied
and analysed from the point of view of production
or environmental protection. The electrical energy
Figure 7. CO2 formation with R. production is necessary and fundamental for a
society. From the remaining options, some of them
do not guarantee a large amount of energy in a
broad and continuous way, and depend on nature

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 Mitre et al. Modeling and Simulation of Thermoelectric...

behaviour whereas others yield much more

pollutants than the thermoelectric of combined
cycles.
In countries such as Brazil, where natural
gas is available, the utilization of this resource in
thermoelectric plants is of interest. This does not
mean that the plant is not pollutant; the process
pollutes, sometimes in large quantities and with
considerable toxicity, even in small concentrations.
Thus, it is necessary to establish a program that
determines the appropriate distribution and location
of thermoelectric plants, being interesting the
research for new technologies in the search for
better use and less environmental impact.

REFERENCES

Kehlhofer, R.H., Warner, J., Nielsen, H.,

Bachmann, R., 1999, Combined-Cycle Gas Steam
Turbine Power Plants, 2nd Edition, PennWell,
Tulsa Oklahoma.
Santos, N. O., 2000, Termodinmica
Aplicada s Termeltricas, Editora Intercincia, Rio
de Janeiro. (in Portuguese)

88 Engenharia Trmica (Thermal Engineering), Vol. 4 No. 1 June 2005 p. 83-88