Keywords
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exergy analysis, parabolic solar dish, PCM, regenerative boiler, steam power plant
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Abstract
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In this study, a conventional steam power plant with two regenerative boilers is
considered, and one of its boilers is replaced with parabolic solar dish collectors
and storing the produced thermal energy by the phase change material (PCM)
in a storage tank. The results show the necessity of the existence of an auxiliary
fired‐gas boiler to provide constant load during the whole 24 hours. The perfor-
mance of the proposed hybridized system is evaluated through energy and
exergy analyses. It was demonstrated that substituting solar collectors with
one of the boilers marginally lowers the energy efficiency but increases the
exergy efficiency of the whole power plant up to 41.76%. Moreover, it is found
out that this hybridization decreases the total irreversibility of the power plant
in comparison with the base case, from 51.1 to 47.2 MW. The parametric anal-
ysis states that raising the mass flow rate of the heat transfer fluid in the solar
collectors not only enhances the system performance but also increases the vol-
ume of the PCM tank.
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