Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
Deployment of a Small-Scale Model for Evaluation of a Thermal Power Plant Engine Heating Solution Using Hybrid Thermal-Photovoltaic Collectors.
Submission Author:
Alesson Itallo Ribeiro Dias da Silva , PE
Co-Authors:
Alesson Itallo Ribeiro Dias da Silva, Victor César Pigozzo Filho, Luciano Barbosa
Presenter: Luciano Barbosa
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-2166
Abstract
In recent decades, various policies have been adopted to reduce fossil fuel consumption and increase renewable energy production. In Brazil, the use of oil-fired thermoelectric power plants has been common for several decades, but in the early 2000s, due to an imminent risk of energy rationing, a plan was developed to build thermoelectric power plants in strategic locations throughout the country. At that time, thermoelectric generation was chosen due to its short implementation time and complexity, as well as its ability to quickly respond to short-term load variations in the power system. Even today, thermoelectric power plants are a strategic part of the energy matrix, still being significant emitters of CO2. In this work, a laboratory-scale prototype was developed to validate an alternative solution for heating engines of a thermoelectric power plant using an innovative model of heat exchanger. The heat exchanger can be coupled to any type of photovoltaic module, forming a thermal-photovoltaic hybrid collector that reduces the heat of the photovoltaic module, increases electricity production, and produces hot water. With this application in a thermoelectric power plant, the aim is to reduce the thermal demand for engine heating, which is currently done through a steam boiler heated with diesel oil. This reduction will be achieved by obtaining water heated to approximately 45°C from the hybrid collectors. The water then goes through a second heating stage, which consists of a heat pump that raises the temperature to 60°C, the standby temperature of the engine. The heat pump is powered by the electricity generated by the hybrid collectors. For the construction of the prototype, three hybrid collectors were used, each consisting of 535W photovoltaic modules with heat exchangers attached to them. Given the reduced scale of this implementation, equivalent models for a combustion engine and a heat pump were developed using heating resistances, radiators, and water reservoirs to reproduce the desired thermal characteristics. Through the implementation of this prototype, it was possible to evaluate the viability of the heating solution using hybrid collectors in different scenarios, such as daytime operation, nighttime operation, and variation in solar irradiation, as well as measure the contribution of the solution in reducing boiler usage. The results confirmed the hypothesis that it is possible to use thermal-photovoltaic hybrid systems for heating an equivalent model of a thermoelectric power plant engine.
Keywords
Hybrid solar collector, fossil energy, Solar Energy, thermal power plant
