Modern nuclear plants sometimes operate at a loss due to a lack of a market for electricity at certain times of day. One possible method to remedy this is through the use of cogeneration where a nuclear plant would produce something other than electricity to be sold. If nuclear cogeneration was to be implemented, then a nuclear plant would not be limited to only the electrical market.
Team: Noah Rebecca, Colin Ruble, Thomas McGowan
Project Advisors: Dr. Shi Shabin
Members of the design group
Project Motivation
Modern nuclear plants sometimes operate at a loss due to a lack of a market for electricity at certain times of day. One possible method to remedy this is through the use of cogeneration where a nuclear plant would produce something other than electricity to be sold. If nuclear cogeneration was to be implemented, then a nuclear plant would not be limited to only the electrical market. By providing greater operation flexibility in where the nuclear plant is able to sell products, the plant would be more profitable as it would not be constrained to sell electricity when there is a limited demand for it. In the future, nuclear plants might focus on other energy services as opposed to electricity which would ultimately lead to nuclear power being more widely used throughout society.
Figure 1 Diagram showing the average daily power price and the benefits of F-T production
Project Description
In the first part of the analysis, different uses of cogeneration were considered including desalination, hydrocarbon production and process cooling. An economic analysis determined that producing hydrocarbons via the Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) process would lead to the greatest value per unit of thermal energy input. The F-T process is a chemical reaction that produces liquid hydrocarbons (such as diesel and jet fuel) using carbon monoxide and hydrogen as feedstocks. Following this, a detailed study of the Fischer Tropsch process was undertaken to determine what the ideal temperature would be to produce diesel fuel. Lastly, using these metrics a SIMULINK model was designed to model an F-T reactor coupled to a nuclear system. An analysis was also performed on the financial performance of the plant in regards to the variable power prices in the NYISO market.
Figure 2 Chart showing 10% thermal diversion in a single day to combat the duck curve
Project Results
It was found that a diversion of 5-10% is possible and that a nuclear plant operating using this would loose less money than a nuclear plant that only participates in the electrical market. In the project, a model of the plant was created in SIMULINK to simulate a 24 hour operation period with a 10% power diversion. This model showed that it is possible to used a valve system to divert power from a turbine to a F-T reactor. In addition a financial analysis was performed to solve for the total profit that a nuclear plant with an F-T reactor could make based on the plant LCOE. From this it was found that the plant would be able to make an extra 18 million dollars per year per 1000 MWe of reactor output.