Simulation of an Innovative Integrated Solar Receiver/Combustor Unit for Flexible Gas Turbine Based CSP

Sammanfattning: In the wake of climate change, the generation of renewable power is of vital importance to ensure a sustainable development with reduced carbon emissions. Among all renewable energy sources, solar power is the most abundant and has a great potential to move the global energy production away from fossil fuels as well as to bring power into regions that currently lack access to electricity. The hybridization of gas turbines with solar power is a promising way to harness the solar energy while ensuring that the technology can meet the demand at any times. Currently, the researchers from the Department of Energy Technology at KTH and Compower AB are working on developing an innovative hybrid solar micro-turbine, which allows nominal power output with a solar share between 0% and 100% by integrating a biogas based internal combustor. The current thesis explores different ways in which the hybridization of the micro-turbine can be achieved. Specifically, the thesis examines three different configurations of integrating the receiver with the combustor e.g. serial, parallel or externally fired gas turbine. The first part of the thesis develops a steady state model to simulate the three different configurations at the design point. The results indicate that the parallel configuration has a slightly better thermodynamic performance. However, given the fact that the series arrangement is still the preferred choice considering its reduced complexity. The second part of the thesis develops a methodology to evaluate the market potential and identify the most suitable countries where the technology could be deployed. Based on the identified suitable location, annual simulations were run. South Africa is identified as the most suitable country since it has a high solar and biogas availability, as well as a high-power demand.