Improving the Efficiency of a Nuclear Power Plant Using a Thermoelectric Cogeneration System

*Rauf Terzi  -  Turkish Atomic Energy Authority, Çankaya, Ankara, Turkey
Erol Kurt  -  Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Faculty of Technology, University of Gazi, Teknikokullar, Ankara, Turkey
Published: 18 Feb 2018.
Open Access Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Citation Format:
Abstract

The efficiencies of nuclear power plants are rather poor having the ratio %30 by using the conventional energy/exergy tools. According to that information, large amount of energy is wasted during condensation and thrown out to the environment. Thermoelectric generator (TEG) system has a potential to be used as a heat exchanging technology to produce power with a relatively low efficiency (about 5%) and it can transform the temperature difference into electricity and generate clean electrical energy. In the present study, we offer a novel system to recover the waste heat from a VVER-1000 nuclear power plant. The heat transfer of the TEG is analyzed numerically with respect to the various temperature ranges and constant mass flow rate of the exhaust steam entering the system. In the analyses, different hot temperature ranges (35ºC, 45ºC and 55ºC) and a constant cold temperature (i.e. 18ºC) are used for a HZ-20 thermoelectric module and it has been proven that the designed TEG can produce the maximum output power of 76,956 MW for a temperature difference ∆T=37 and the conversion efficiency of 3.854% sits. The TEG is designed for the condenser of a 1000 MW nuclear power plant. It's shown that about 2.0% increasing in the power plant efficiency is expected by using the selected thermoelectric generator in the condensation cycle.

Article History: Received: July 15th 2017; Received:  October 17th 2017; Accepted: February 13rd 2018; Available online

How to Cite This Article: Terzi, R. and Kurt, E. (2018), Improving the efficiency of a nuclear power plant using a thermoelectric cogeneration system, Int. Journal of Renewable Energy Development, 7(1), 77-84.

https://doi.org/10.14710/ijred.7.1.77-84

Keywords: Thermoelectric; cogeneration; nuclear power plant; efficiency

Article Metrics:

Article Info
Section: Original Research Article
In Vol 7, No 1 (2018): February 2018
Statistics: 1345 874
Related articles
Scale up sediment microbial fuel cell for powering Led lighting Optimal Scheduling of Solar-Wind-Thermal Integrated System Using α-Constrained Simplex Method Improving the Quantity and Quality of Biogas Production in Tehran Anaerobic Digestion Power Plant by Application of Materials Recirculation Technique Fractional Order Sliding Mode Control of PMSG-Wind Turbine Exploiting Clean Energy Resource Evaluating the potential energy of a heliostat field and solar receiver of solar tower power plants in the southern region of Turkey Residential Air Conditioning System Integrated with Packed Bed Cool Storage Unit for Promoting Rooftop Solar PV Power Generation
  1. Bianchini, A., Pellegrini, M. and Saccani, C. (2014). Thermoelectric Cells Cogeneration from Biomass Power Plant. Energy Procedia 45, 268 – 277
  2. Gabbar, H.A., Stoute, C.A.B., Steele, D., Simkin, C., Sleeman, T., Newell, D., Paterson, D., Boafo, E. (2017).Evaluation and optimization of thermoelectric generator network for waste heat utilization in nuclear power plants and non-nuclear energy applications. Annals of Nuclear Energy, 101, 454–464
  3. Gou, X., Xiau, H. and Yang, S. (2010). Modeling, Experimental Study and Optimization on Low temperature Waste Heat Thermoelectric Generator System. Applied Energy, 87(10), 3131-3136
  4. Hendricks, T. and Choate, W.,T. (2006). Engineering Scoping Study of Thermoelectric Generator Systems for Industrial Waste Heat Recovery, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, BCS, Incorporated, November 2006
  5. http://hi-z.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Data-Sheet-HZ-20.pdf
  6. http://www.thermoelectrics.caltech.edu/thermoelectrics/index.html
  7. Ismail, B.I. and Ahmed, W.H. (2009). Thermoelectric Power Generation using Waste-Heat Energy as an Alternative Green Technology. Recent Patents on Electrical Engineering, 2, 27– 39
  8. Khamis, I., Koshy, T. and Kavvadias, K.C. (2013). Opportunity for Cogeneration in Nuclear Power Plants” Advances in Nano, Biomechanics, Robotics and Energy Research (ANBRE13), Seoul, Korea, August 25-28, 2013
  9. Kyono, T., Suzuki, R.,O. and Ono, K. (2003). Conversion of Unused Heat Energy to Electricity by Means of Thermoelectric Generation in Condenser. IEEE Transactions On Energy Conversion, 18(2), 330-334
  10. Riffat, S.B. and Ma, X. (2003). Thermoelectrics: a Review of Present and Potential Applications. Applied Thermal Engineering, 23(8), 913–935
  11. Rowe D. M, Min, G. (1996). Evaluation of Thermoelectric Modules for Power Generation. J Power Sources, 73,193-8
  12. Rowe, D.M., (2006). Thermoelectric Waste Heat Recovery as a Renewable Energy Source. International Journal of Innovations in Energy Systems and Power, 1(1), 13-23
  13. Terzi, R., Tükenmez, I. and Kurt, E. (2016). Energy and Exergy Analyses of a VVER Nuclear Power Plant. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 41, 1-12, 2016
  14. Tsai, H.L. and Lin, J.M. (2009). Model Building and Simulation of Thermoelectric Module Using Matlab/Simulink”. Journal of Electronic Materials, 39(9), 2105–2111
  15. Xi, H., Luo, L. and Fraisse, G. (2007). Development and Applications of Solar-based Thermoelectric Technologies”. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 11(5), 923–936

Last update: 2021-03-03 12:40:03

  1. IMPROVING THE EFFICIENCY OF THE UNIT OF THE ZAPORIZHZHIA NPP WITH A WWER-1000 REACTOR

    A.A. Cheilytko, А.V. Karpenko, S.V. Ilin. Problems of Atomic Science and Technology, 2020. doi: 10.46813/2020-125-135

  2. An annular thermoelectric couple analytical model by considering temperature-dependent material properties and Thomson effect

    Yajing Sun, Gang Chen, Bo Duan, Guodong Li, Pengcheng Zhai. Energy, 127 , 2019. doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2019.115922

  3. Thermal, environmental and economic analysis of a new thermoelectric cogeneration system coupled with a diesel electricity generator

    Dhruv Raj Karana, Rashmi Rekha Sahoo. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments, 40 , 2020. doi: 10.1016/j.seta.2020.100742

  4. Thermodynamic Analysis of Advanced Gas Turbine Combined Cycle Integration with a High-Temperature Nuclear Reactor and Cogeneration Unit

    Marek Jaszczur, Michał Dudek, Zygmunt Kolenda. Energies, 13 (2), 2020. doi: 10.3390/en13020400

Last update: 2021-03-03 12:40:04

  1. IMPROVING THE EFFICIENCY OF THE UNIT OF THE ZAPORIZHZHIA NPP WITH A WWER-1000 REACTOR

    A.A. Cheilytko, А.V. Karpenko, S.V. Ilin. Problems of Atomic Science and Technology, 2020. doi: 10.46813/2020-125-135

  2. An annular thermoelectric couple analytical model by considering temperature-dependent material properties and Thomson effect

    Yajing Sun, Gang Chen, Bo Duan, Guodong Li, Pengcheng Zhai. Energy, 127 , 2019. doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2019.115922

  3. Thermal, environmental and economic analysis of a new thermoelectric cogeneration system coupled with a diesel electricity generator

    Dhruv Raj Karana, Rashmi Rekha Sahoo. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments, 40 , 2020. doi: 10.1016/j.seta.2020.100742

  4. Thermodynamic Analysis of Advanced Gas Turbine Combined Cycle Integration with a High-Temperature Nuclear Reactor and Cogeneration Unit

    Marek Jaszczur, Michał Dudek, Zygmunt Kolenda. Energies, 13 (2), 2020. doi: 10.3390/en13020400
Copyright (c) 2018
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Articles are freely available to both subscribers and the wider public with permitted reuse.

All articles published Open Access will be immediately and permanently free for everyone to read and download. We are continuously working with our author communities to select the best choice of license options: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA). Authors and readers can copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, as well as remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, but they must give appropriate credit (cite to the article or content), provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.