Energy and Economic Analysis of Power Generation Using Residual Pressure of a Circulating Cooling Water System

Abstract

With rising energy prices and the intensification of environmental problems, researchers have paid increasing attention to the recovery of the residual pressure energy of the industrial circulating cooling water system (CCWS) in hydraulic turbines. Taking the existing CCWS as the research object, this study analyzes the feasibility of the transformation of the power generation using residual pressure from the perspectives of energy and economy. The energy flow analysis of the system reveals that the hydraulic optimization of the system should be carried out first to obtain the minimum total energy consumption of the pump and the turbine. Then, combined with the advantages of the traditional hydraulic optimization regulation strategy of the water supply network, a synchronous regulation strategy of the pipeline and the pump station is proposed. On the basis of the synchronous regulation strategy of the pipeline and the pump station, this research proposes a method for a comprehensive feasibility analysis of the CCWS’s power generation using residual pressure. Finally, taking a CCWS as an example, the simulation and comparison experiments of four transformations of the power generation using residual pressure are designed. The experiments not only prove the application value of the comprehensive analysis proposed in this research, but also prove the conclusion of the energy flow analysis mentioned above to be correct.