Performance improvement of combined cycle power plant with combined ice slurry thermal energy storage cooling and adsorption cooling

To increase the performance and power output of the conventional combined cycle power plant (CCPP), a combined cooling system (CombC) of adsorption cooling system (AdCS) and ice slurry thermal energy storage (ISTES) is proposed for CCPP inlet air cooling. A simplified model for CCPP power output prediction under different inlet air temperatures is developed, and it is verified through practical operational data. The power outputs and economic analyses of CCPP-CombC with different cooling energy storage scales are evaluated. For the present CCPP, AdCS with a maximum cooling capacity of 6000 kW and ISTES with 600 GJ of cooling energy storage completely cover the cooling demand of the CCPP. The daily electricity increment increases as the cooling energy storage scale increases, but with a declining growth rate. The net profit of the CCPP-CombC increases first and then decreases, and the maximum net profit appears when the cooling energy storage is 500 GJ, and it is 82.7 % and 17.0 % higher than the net profit when the cooling energy storage is 200 GJ and 600 GJ, respectively. Cost recovery occurs within 1 year of installing the combined cooling system.

Automated summary

A combined cooling system of adsorption cooling system and ice slurry thermal energy storage is proposed to improve the performance and power output of a conventional combined cycle power plant (CCPP). A simplified model is developed to predict the CCPP power output under different inlet air temperatures, which is verified with practical operational data. The power outputs and economic analyses of CCPP-CombC with different cooling energy storage scales are evaluated. For the present CCPP, AdCS with a maximum cooling capacity of 6000 kW and ISTES with 600 GJ of cooling energy storage completely cover the cooling demand of the CCPP. The net profit of the CCPP-CombC increases first and then decreases, with the maximum net profit appearing when the cooling energy storage is 500 GJ.