Recovering waste energy of the combined gas turbine system using paraffin melting

Abstract

This work covers waste energy utilization of the combined power cycle by using it in the candle raw material (paraffin) melting process and an economic study for this process. After a partial utilization of the burned fuel energy in a real bottoming steam power generation, the exhaust gas contains 0.033 of the initially burned energy. This tail energy with about 128 ºC is partly driven in the heat exchanger of the paraffin melting system. Ansys-Fluent Software was used to study the paraffin wax melting process by using a layered system that utilizes an increased interface area between the heat transfer fluid (HTF) and the phase change material (PCM) to improve the paraffin melting process. The results indicate that using 47.35 kg/s, which is 5% of the entire exhaust gas (881.33 kg/s) from the exit of the combined power cycle, would be enough for producing 1100 tons per month, which corresponds to the production quantity by real candle's factories. Also, 63% of the LPG cost will be saved, and the payback period of the melting system is 2.4 years. Moreover, as the exhaust gas temperature increases, the consumed power and the payback period will decrease.