Open Access

ARTICLE

AN ULTIMATE SOLUTION TO PHASING OUT FOSSIL FUELS – PART II: AIR-WATER THERMAL POWER PLANTS FOR UTILITY-SCALE POWER PRODUCTION AT LOW TEMPERATURES

by

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33174, USA

Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer 2022, 19, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.5098/hmt.19.2

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel air-water thermal power plant working at low temperatures and employing hot water as a heat-supply fluid to produce utility-scale power with high second-law efficiency. The air-water power plant uses both air and water as working fluids and employs a direct-contact mass and heat transfer packing to facilitate latent heat (in terms of vapor) and sensible heat transfer from the hot water to moist air for expansion in a gas turbine to produce power. A cycle analysis indicates that with a heat source temperature of around 100o C, the power plant could achieve a power capacity of more than 300 MW, matching the power capacity of fossil-fuel-based power plants, with a thermal-to-mechanical conversion efficiency above 16%. The power plant could also work in summer involving high temperature/high humidity ambient air by using a chiller to cool the powerplant intake air, the inlet air of the compressor system, or the air in a compressor intercooler. In addition to power production, the power plant could supply hot water for heat or water users. This power plant employs completely clean working fluids of air and water, operates at low temperature and pressure, and can use renewable energy such as solar energy and geothermal energy, as well as heat from other sources including industrial waste heat, to produce utility-scale power with low costs. Combined with hot-water thermal-energy storage systems, the power plant introduced could use renewable energy sources to produce dispatchable power reliably for phasing out most fossil fuels used today and becoming a backbone of national power grids to combat global warming and reduce pollution.

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