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Energy xxx (2014) 1e11

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Thermodynamic analysis of a biomass-fired Kalina cycle with

regenerative heater
Liyan Cao, Jiangfeng Wang*, Yiping Dai
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The biomass fuel is a renewable energy resource, which is viewed as a promising alternative to fossil
Received 1 July 2014 energy. This paper investigates a biomass-fired Kalina cycle with a regenerative heater which is generally
Received in revised form utilized to heat the feedwater and to increase the efficiency in coal-fired steam power plant. The
14 September 2014
mathematical model of the biomass-fired Kalina cycle with a regenerative heater is established to
Accepted 18 September 2014
conduct numerical simulation. A parametric analysis is conducted to examine the effects of some key
Available online xxx
thermodynamic parameters on the system performance. Furthermore, a parametric optimization is
carried out by genetic algorithm to obtain the optimum performance of system. The results demonstrate
Keywords:
Biomass
that there exists an optimum extraction pressure and its corresponding maximum fraction of flow
Kalina cycle extracted from turbine to maximize the net power output and system efficiency. In addition, a higher
Regenerative heater turbine inlet pressure or turbine inlet temperature leads to higher net power output and system effi-
Optimization ciency. And net power output and system efficiency increases as separator temperature rises. The
optimization result of the biomass-fired Kalina cycle with/without regenerative heater indicates the
system is more efficient when regenerative heater is added.
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Fossil fuel consumption accounts for most of total energy con-
sumption nowadays. And population and economic growth lead to
a greater demand for energy, which pose a global threat to sus-
tainable development. Owing to the burning of fossil fuel, a great
number of pollutants and greenhouse gases are emitted into at-
mosphere. Consequently, energy crisis and environment pollution
have been the most serious issues people faced. Renewable energy
including solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy and
biomass is an alternative to fossil energy. Biomass is generally a
mixture of hemicellulose, cellulose, lignin and minor amounts of
other organics. Comprehensively, biomass comprises all the living
matter present on Earth [1]. Biomass-fired systems have been the
subject of much research. New techniques have been devised for
the utilization of biomass for energy production, including thermo-
chemical conversion (combustion, gasification, pyrolysis, liquefac-
tion, hydrothermal upgrading), biochemical conversion and
extraction of vegetable oils. Combustion can be utilized for power
and/or heat generation on a large-scale, which is widely applied [2].
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jfwang@mail.xjtu.edu.cn (J. Wang).
In the US, there are more than 1000 biomass-fired plants typically
ranging from 10 to 25 MW. Two thirds of these plants are owned by
paper and wood product industries for their own use [3]. And some
researchers have combined biomass boiler or burner with novel
power cycle. Liu et al. [4] examined a 2 kW biomass-fired CHP
(Combined Heat and Power) system with ORC (organic Rankine
cycle). They selected three organic working fluids and performed a
thermodynamic assessment of the system. Pouria Ahmadi et al. [5]
proposed a new multi-generation system based on biomass com-
bustion and organic Rankine cycle. They also conducted a para-
metric study to assess the impact of several key parameters on the
energy and exergy efficiencies of the system. Al-Sulaiman et al. [6]
carried out energy and exergy analyses of a biomass trigeneration
system using an organic Rankine cycle. Their study revealed the
fuel utilization efficiency increased from 12% for electrical power to
88% for trigeneration. Bhattacharya et al. [7] studied a BIGCC
(Biomass Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle). They used
biomass as a supplementary fuel and examined the effect of the
amount of fuel burned in the supplementary firing chamber on the
thermal and exergetic efficiencies. However, owing to the high cost
of construction and systematic complexity, IGCC system is not
economically viable for large-scale utilization at present.
In 1984, Alexander Kalina [8] came up with a new thermody-
namic power cycle, namely, Kalina cycle which utilizes ammonia-

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Nomenclature 4 ratio of specific exergy to NCV

B biomass consumption, kg$s
1 Subscript

b biomass consumption rate, kg (kW$h)
1 air air
d Ammonia-water mixture consumption rate per abs absorber
kilowatt, kg (kW$h)
1 amb ambient
E exergy, kJ b basic
e specific exergy, kJ$kg
1 bio biomass
HCV higher calorific value, kJ$kg
1 B boiler
h specific enthalpy, kJ$kg
1 cond condenser
I exergy destruction, kJ dry dry basis
NCV net calorific value, kJ$kg
1 exh exhaust
M mass fraction, % ext extracted steam
m mass flow rate, kg$s
1 fp feed pump
P pressure, MPa g gas
Q heat consumption rate, kJ$s
1 in inlet
q heat consumption rate per kilowatt, kJ (kW$h)
1 max maximum
s specific entropy, kJ (kg$K)
1 NET net
T temperature, K out outlet
t temperature,  C p ammonia-poor solution
W power, kW p1 condensate pump 1
w mass fraction of water in biomass fuel p2 condensate pump 2
x ammonia mass fraction r ammonia-rich vapor
sys system
Greek letters T turbine
a fraction of flow extracted from turbine w ammonia-water working solution
h efficiency

water mixture as working fluid to generate power. By using two
fluids with different boiling points, the ammonia-water mixture
evaporates and condenses over a range of temperatures rather than
at a single, fixed temperature, which enables the Kalina cycle to
accomplish better performance owing to better thermal match
achieved in evaporator and condenser.
A volume of research has been done on Kalina cycle. Marston [9]
conducted a parametric analysis for Kalina cycle. He carried out an
optimization for a simplified form of Kalina cycle and developed a
method of balancing the cycle. Rogdakis [10] considered thermo-
dynamic analysis and the parametric study of a Kalina Power Unit.
Nag and Gupta [11] conducted an exergy analysis of Kalina cycle.
Arslan [12] evaluated the exergoeconomic performances of Kalina
cycle system 34. And the optimum design KCS-34 plant was
determined on the basis of the exergetic and life-cycle-cost
concepts.
Because of Kalina cycle being superior to steam power cycle,
Kalina cycle is used as a bottoming cycle to recover waste heat from
gas turbine, diesel engine or industrial production. Marston et al.
[13] compared the performance of a triple-pressure steam cycle
with a single-stage Kalina cycle and an optimized three-stage
Kalina cycle as the bottoming sections of a gas turbine combined
cycle power plant. They found both Kalina cycles were more effi-
cient than the triple-pressure steam cycle. Ibrahim and Kovach [14]
investigated a Kalina cycle which utilized the exhaust from a gas
turbine. The effects of the ammonia mass fraction at the turbine
inlet on the cycle efficiency were studied. The results indicated that
the Kalina cycle was 10e20% more efficient than a Rankine cycle
with the same the boundary conditions. He et al. [15] studied a
combined thermodynamic cycle used for waste heat recovery of
internal combustion engine. The combined thermodynamic cycle
consists of two cycles: the organic Rankine cycle, for recovering the
waste heat of lubricant and high-temperature exhaust gas, and the
Kalina cycle, for recovering the waste heat of low-temperature
cooling water. They found the combined cycle could recover more
waste heat compared with the traditional cycle configuration.
Bombarda et al. [16] conducted a comparison between the ther-
modynamic performances of Kalina cycle and an ORC cycle which
were adopted to recover waste heat from Diesel engines. The re-
sults showed that a net electric power of 1615 kW and of 1603 kW
respectively for the Kalina and for the ORC cycle was calculated.
However, the Kalina cycle required a very high maximum pressure
in order to obtain high thermodynamic performances in this case.
Wang et al. [17] conducted the exergy analyses and parametric
optimizations for different cogeneration power plants in cement
industry. They compared single flash steam cycle, dual-pressure
steam cycle, organic Rankine cycle and Kalina cycle and
concluded that the Kalina cycle could achieve the best performance
in cement plant. Singh and Kaushik [18] conducted a computer
simulation of Kalina cycle coupled with a coal-fired steam power
plant with the aim of examining the possibility of exploiting low-
temperature heat of exhaust gases for conversion into electricity.
They developed a numerical model to find the optimum operating
conditions for the Kalina cycle. Ogriseck [19] studied an integration
of the Kalina cycle process in a combined heat and power plant for
improvement of efficiency. The calculations showed that the net
efficiency of an integrated Kalina plant was between 12.3% and
17.1% depending on the cooling water temperature and the
ammonia content in the basic solution.
In addition to the application in bottom cycle to recover waste
heat, Kalina cycle is expected to play a more significant role in the
area of renewable energy utilization. Because renewable energy has
advantages in reducing fossil fuel consumption and alleviating
environmental problems [20], many researchers have explored
Kalina cycle utilizing renewable energy resources such as solar
energy and geothermal heat sources. Wang et al. [20] examined a
solar-driven Kalina cycle and conducted a parametric analysis to
examine the effects of some key thermodynamic parameters on the
system performance. Lolos and Rofdakis [21] investigated a Kalina
cycle using low-temperature heat sources provided by flat solar

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L. Cao et al. / Energy xxx (2014) 1e11
collectors. They identified an optimum range of vapor mass frac-
tions and operating pressures which resulted in optimum cycle
performance. Sun et al. [22] investigated the solar-boosted system
with an auxiliary superheater based on the Kalina cycle. They car-
ried out parameter performance analyses on the system and found
the system pressure difference was an important performance
benchmark that could be used to evaluate the thermal efficiency of
the power generation cycle. Sun et al. [23] conducted energy-
exergy analysis and parameter design optimization of the KCS-11
solar system with an auxiliary superheater in LTEC (low-grade
thermal energy conversion). Results showed that the maximum
generated power was 491 kW showing 35.6% exergy efficiency and
6.48% energy efficiency of the system for the month of August in
this case. Nasruddin et al. [24] conducted energy and exergy anal-
ysis of KCS-34 (Kalina cycle system 34) for the utilization of
geothermal heat resource and optimized the system to obtain the
maximum power output and maximum efficiency. DiPippo [25]
made a comparison between Kalina cycle and ORC utilizing low-
temperature geothermal resources on the basis of the Second
Law of thermodynamics. He introduced a methodology to render
the comparison of exergy efficiencies on same heat input and
environmental conditions. Hettiarachchi et al. [26] examined the
performance of the KCS-11 (Kalina cycle system 11) for low-
temperature geothermal heat sources and compared KCS-11 with
an organic Rankine cycle. They found the KCS-11 generally had
better overall performance at moderate pressures than that of the
organic Rankine cycle.
In coal-fired steam plants, a common method for increasing the
thermal efficiency [27] is regenerative feedwater heating that
enables the working fluid to obtain a higher boiler inlet temper-
ature and higher average temperature of heat addition. As a result,
a regenerative heater can also be added to the Kalina cycle to
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of biomass-fired Kalina cycle with a regenerative heater.
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increase the system efficiency. In this paper, the Kalina cycle driven
by a biomass boiler with a regenerative heater is examined based
on thermodynamic analysis. A mathematical model is developed
to simulate the biomass-fired Kalina cycle with a regenerative
heater under steady-state conditions. And a parametric analysis is
conducted to study the effects of some key thermodynamic pa-
rameters on the system performance. In order to verify that
regenerative feedwater heating leads to higher system efficiency
in Kalina cycle as well, the biomass-fired Kalina cycle with/without
is optimized with system efficiency as objective function by means
of GA (genetic algorithm). And comparison between the optimum
performances of two systems is made. Furthermore, exergy
destruction produced by each component in the biomass-fired
Kalina cycle with a regenerative heater at the optimum condition
is identified.
2. System description
Fig. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of Kalina cycle with a
regenerative heater driven by biomass boiler. The Kalina cycle
consists of a biomass boiler, a turbine-generator, a distiller, a
reheater, a regenerative heater, a preheater, a separator, a
condenser, two condensate pumps, a feed pump and a throttle
valve. After being preheated to saturated state in the regenerative
heater, the ammonia-water working solution is compressed by the
feed pump and fed into the biomass boiler to produce superheated
vapor by absorbing heat from biomass energy. The superheated
vapor enters the turbine. A part of superheated vapor expands to
state 21, which is extracted and delivered to the regenerative heater
to increases the temperature of feedwater. Remaining superheated
vapor directly expands to state 3. The turbine exhaust is cooled in
distiller and then diluted by ammonia-poor solution coming from
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4 L. Cao et al. / Energy xxx (2014) 1e11

the separator to form basic ammonia-water solution which is For the turbine, the isentropic efficiency can be expressed as
condensed in absorber and pressurized by condensate pump 1. The
basic ammonia-water solution is divided into two streams at point h2
h3
hT ¼ (3)
B. A stream of basic ammonia-water solution absorbing heat from h2
h3s
ammonia-poor solution in reheater and from turbine exhaust in
The fraction of flow extracted from turbine is
distiller respectively, enters the separator afterwards in which the
basic ammonia-water solution is separated into ammonia-rich mext
a¼ (4)
vapor and ammonia-poor solution. The ammonia-poor solution is mw
throttled down to a low pressure and mixed with turbine exhaust.
And ammonia-rich vapor is cooled in preheater and diluted by the where mext is the mass flow rate of extracted steam from turbine.
rest of basic ammonia-water solution. After being condensed in And turbine power output is
condenser, the saturated basic ammonia-water solution is com-
pressed to extraction pressure and gradually heated by preheater WT ¼ ð1
aÞmw ðh2
h3 Þ þ amw ðh2
h21 Þ (5)
and extraction ammonia-water steam. Finally, ammonia-water In the distiller, energy balance equation is
working solution is pumped to biomass boiler to complete the
cycle. ð1
aÞmw ðh3
h4 Þ ¼ m0b ðh10
h9 Þ (6)

3. Mathematical model and performance criteria where m0b is the mass flow rate of basic ammonia-water solution
that enters separator.
The Kalina cycle driven by biomass boiler is modeled on mass Mass balance, ammonia mass balance and energy balance of
and energy conservation. To simplify the theoretical model, some mixture point A can be respectively written as
assumptions are made as follows:
ð1
aÞmw þ mp ¼ mb (7)
(1) Neglect pressure and heat loss in tubes.
(2) The system reaches a steady state. ð1
aÞmw xw þ mp xp ¼ mb xb (8)
(3) The turbine and the pumps have a given isentropic efficiency,
respectively. ð1
aÞmw h4 þ mp h18 ¼ mb h5 (9)
(4) Terminal temperature difference of heat exchangers is 5  C.
(5) The stream at the condenser and absorber outlet is saturated Energy balance equation of absorber has the form
liquid, and the flows across the throttle valve are isenthalpic.
(6) Boiler efficiency is assumed to be a constant. Qabs ¼ mb ðh5
h6 Þ (10)
(7) Neglect the leakage of working fluid. Isentropic efficiency of condensate pump 1 is

h7s
h6
hp1 ¼ (11)
3.1. Energy analysis h7
h6

The biomass selected in this study is pine sawdust [28], and its and the works input by the condensate pump 1 is
characteristics are listed in Table 1. Pine sawdust is the most
common waste wood product, which is usually used as biomass. Wp1 ¼ mb ðh7
h6 Þ (12)
And in biomass boiler, the energy balance equation between Mass balance, ammonia mass balance and energy balance of
effectively used heat and energy input to biomass boiler is mixture point B are
established.
00
mb ¼ m0b þ mb (13)
Bsys $NCV$hB ¼ mw ðh2
h1 Þ (1)
00
where NCV is net calorific value, according to reference [29], it can mb xb ¼ m0b xb þ mb xb (14)
be represented as
00
mb h7 ¼ m0b h8 þ mb h19 (15)
NCV ¼ HCV
22604MH
2581Mmoisture (2)
00
where mb is the mass flow rate of basic ammonia-water solution
where Mmoisture is the moisture content in the fuel. that is mixed with ammonia-rich vapor.
Energy balance equation of reheater is
Table 1
Characteristics of pine sawdust.
m0b ðh9
h8 Þ ¼ mp ðh16
h17 Þ (16)

Term Mass balance and ammonia mass balance equations of separator

Biomass type Pine sawdust
are
Moisture content in the fuel (wt.) 8%
Higher calorific value (kJ$kg
1) 20,540 m0b ¼ mr þ mp (17)
Ash (wt. dry basis) 0.55%
Ultimate analysis (wt. dry basis)
Carbon (C) 50.54% m0b xb ¼ mr xr þ mp xp (18)
Hydrogen (H) 7.08%
Oxygen (O) 41.11%
In preheater, energy balance equation is
Nitrogen (N) 0.15%
Sulfur (S) 0.57% mr ðh11
h12 Þ ¼ ð1
aÞmw ðh20
h15 Þ (19)

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Mass balance, ammonia mass balance and energy balance 3600hB

mixture point C can be represented as hsys ¼ (34)
qT
00
ð1
aÞmw ¼ mr þ mb (20) The biomass consumption rate per kilowatt of system is

3600Bsys
00 bsys ¼ (35)
ð1
aÞmw xw ¼ mr xr þ mb xb (21) WNET

00
ð1
aÞmw h13 ¼ mr h12 þ mb h19 (22) 3.2. Exergy analysis
Energy balance for condenser is
Thermal efficiency method can indicate the quantity of energy
conversion, but it provides no information about the potential work
Qcond ¼ ð1
aÞmw ðh13
h14 Þ (23)
lost due to irreversibility. Exergy method can also indicate the
For condensate pump 2, the isentropic efficiency is amount of exergy supplied as input to the system. Furthermore, it
can reveal the reasons of exergy losses and points out which
h15s
h14 component of system contributing most to overall system in-
hp2 ¼ (24) efficiency. And exergy consists of physical, chemical, kinetic and
h15
h14
potential exergy. In this study, we can neglect the kinetic and po-
and the works input by the condensate pump 2 is tential exergy. Physical exergy is defined as the maximum theo-
retical useful work obtainable when steam of substance is brought
Wp2 ¼ ð1
aÞmw ðh15
h14 Þ (25) from its actual state to the environment state by physical processes
involving only thermal interaction with environment. The chemical
In regenerative heater, energy balance is given by exergy is equal to the maximum theoretical useful work obtainable
when the substance is brought from the environmental state to the
mw h22 ¼ ð1
aÞmw h20 þ amw h21 (26) dead state where it is in chemical equilibrium with the environ-
ment by process involving heat transfer and exchange of sub-
In feed pump, isentropic efficiency is
stances only with the environment [31].
For boiler, the exergy balance for control volume is.
h1s
h22
hfp ¼ (27)
h1
h22

I ¼ Bsys ebio þ mair eair
mexh eexh
mw e2
e1 (36)
and the works input by the feed pump is
where ebio is the chemical exergy of biomass fuel and eair, eexh, e1
Wfp ¼ mw ðh1
h22 Þ (28) and e2 are exergy of air, exergy of boiler exhaust, boiler inlet exergy
and boiler outlet exergy, respectively.
From assumption (5), enthalpy of state 19 is calculable as We assume that the air is delivered and the products of com-
bustions are exhausted at atmospheric state. That's to say the
h17 ¼ h18 (29) control volume is extended to include the mixing region of the
products of combustions and environment. Thus we have
For power station, researchers [30] utilize system thermal effi-
ciency method based on first law of thermodynamics to evaluate mair eair ¼ mexh eexh ¼ 0 (37)
the thermoeconomic performances of the overall coal fire steam
power plant. In this paper, we also apply system thermal efficiency We define a ratio as
method to analysis thermoeconomic performances of the Kalina
ebio
cycle with biomass boiler and regenerative heater. The system ef- 4¼ (38)
NCV
ficiency is defined as:
For dry biomass fuel, we have
WNET  
hsys ¼ (30)
Bsys $NCV 1:0438 þ 0:1882 M
þ MH MN
0:2509 1 0:7256 MC þ 0:0383 MC
H
MC
The ammonia-water mixture consumption rate per kilowatt of
4dry ¼
1
0:3035 M
MC
O

turbine can be written as

(39)
3600mw
dT ¼ (31) where MH, MC, MN and MO are the mass fraction of hydrogen, car-
WNET
bon, nitrogen and oxygen in biomass fuel at dry basis, respectively.
The heat consumption rate of turbine is The effect of sulfur and water is not taken into consideration in
Eq. (38), so it is necessary to introduce an appropriate correction for
QT ¼ Bsys $NCV$hB ¼ mw ðh2
h1 Þ (32) its effect on ebio of fuel. Thus we have
 
The heat consumption rate per kilowatt of turbine is
ebio ¼ NCV þ whfg 4dry þ ðeS
NCVS ÞMS (40)
3600QT
qT ¼ ¼ dT ðh2
h1 Þ (33) where w is mass fraction of moisture in the fuel and hfg is the
WNET
enthalpy of evaporation of water at the standard temperature. And
From Eq. (30), Eq. (32) and Eq. (33), the system efficiency can be MS denotes the mass fraction of the sulfur in the biomass fuel and S
also expressed as is used as a subscript to indicate sulfur.

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And(eS
NCVS) ¼ 9417 kJ$kg
1. Thus we write 4. Result and discussion

 
ebio ¼ NCV þ whfg 4dry þ 9417MS (41) In this section, we present the results of numerical simulation of
the biomass-fired Kalina cycle with a regenerative heater and
From Eq. (1), Eq. (37) and Eq. (40), we write conduct system analysis as well as optimization. All thermody-
namic properties of ammonia-water mixture are calculated by
mw ðh2
h1 Þ4 REFPROP 9.0 developed by the National Institute of Standard and
Bsys ebio ¼ (42)
hB Technology of the United States. And the simulation process of this
system is carried out by using MATLAB software. The simulation
And e2
e1 can be expressed as
condition of system is listed in Table 2. The calculation flow chart is
e2
e1 ¼ ðh2
h1 Þ
Tamb ðs2
s1 Þ (43) shown in Fig. 2. The thermodynamic parameter of each node and
the performances of system under the simulation condition, as in
Therefore, the exergy destruction of boiler becomes Table 2, are listed in Tables 3 and 4, respectively.
   
4 4.1. Parametric analysis
I ¼ mw ðh2
h1 Þ
1 þ Tamb ðs2
s1 Þ (44)
hB
The mathematical model for exergy destruction of boiler can be Before thermodynamic optimization, we perform the para-
referred to [23]. metric analysis for the biomass-fired Kalina cycle with a regener-
For turbine with regenerative heater, exergy destruction equa- ative heater to examine the effect of system parameter on the
tion is thermodynamic performances. In the parametric analysis, as one
parameter is varied, others are kept constant as those in Table 2.
I ¼ Ein
Eout;1
Eout;2
WT (45) It can be observed in Fig. 3 that the net power output and system
efficiency increase with turbine inlet temperature at the turbine
where I, E and WT are exergy destruction, exergy and power output inlet pressure of 10 MPa and condensing pressure of 0.623 MPa.
of turbine, respectively. And exergy is calculable Specific enthalpy rise in boiler is positively correlated with turbine
asE ¼ m½ðh
hamb Þ
Tamb ðs
samb Þ. inlet temperature. Thereby, the specific enthalpy rise in boiler in-
The exergy destruction of pump is creases as turbine inlet temperature increases. And according to Eq.
(32), the specific enthalpy rise in boiler is negatively correlated
I ¼ Ein þ Wpump
Eout (46) with the mass flow rate of ammonia-water working solution. Mass
flow rate of ammonia-water working solution decreases when
where Wpump is consumption power of pump. turbine inlet temperature increases. Meanwhile, an increase in
In heat exchangers such as distiller, reheater and preheater, turbine inlet temperature leads to a larger specific enthalpy drop
exergy destruction is given by through the turbine. The net power output is under the combined
impact of the growth of specific enthalpy drop through the turbine
I ¼ Ein;1 þ Ein;2
Eout;1
Eout;2 (47) and the reduction in mass flow rate of ammonia-water working
solution. And the rise in net power output can be attributed to the
The exergy destruction of condenser and absorber can be
former cause. Consequently, from Eq. (30) the system efficiency
written as
also increases with the turbine inlet temperature.
I ¼ Ein
Eout (48) Fig. 4 shows the effect of turbine inlet pressure on the net power
output and system efficiency at the turbine inlet temperature of
The exergy destruction caused by valve is 500  C and condensing pressure of 0.623 MPa. Turbine inlet specific
enthalpy decreases as turbine inlet pressure increases, which leads
I ¼ Ein
Eout (49) to a reduction in the specific enthalpy rise in boiler. Thus the mass
For mixture process and direct contact heat exchanger, the flow rate of ammonia-water working solution goes up. Meanwhile,
exergy destruction is a decrease in turbine inlet specific enthalpy leads to a decrease in
specific enthalpy drop through turbine. In fact, the net power
I ¼ Ein;1 þ Ein;2
Eout (50) output and system efficiency are under combined impact of the
increase in mass flow rate of ammonia-water working solution and
decrease in specific enthalpy drop through turbine. And the rise in
net power output and system efficiency can be attributed to the
Table 2
former cause. However, as turbine inlet pressure increases, the
Simulation condition of biomass-fired Kalina cycle with a regenerative heater. impact of latter one has been intensified. That's why we can see a
reduction in growth rate of net power output and system efficiency.
Term Value
Theoretically, it appears that the net power output and system ef-
Ambient temperature 15.00  C ficiency can reach a maximum as turbine inlet pressure increases to
Ambient pressure 0.101 MPa
Turbine inlet temperature 500.00  C
a certain value. But the certain value will exceed the pressure
Turbine inlet pressure 10 .000 MPa bearing capacity of material.
Separator temperature 70.00  C Fig. 5 presents net power output and system efficiency increase
Turbine isentropic efficiency 90% with separator temperature at turbine inlet temperature of 500  C,
Pump isentropic efficiency 70%
turbine inlet pressure of 10 MPa and condensing pressure of
Boiler efficiency 85%
Ammonia mass fraction 75% 0.623 MPa. The heat transfer rate in preheater and preheater outlet
Terminal temperature difference 5.00  C temperature of cold fluid side increase when the separator tem-
Mass flow rate of biomass 0.1 kg$s
1 perature rises, this indirectly leads to an increase in boiler inlet
Extraction pressure of turbine 4.000 MPa temperature. Consequently, the specific enthalpy rise in boiler falls
The fraction of flow extracted from turbine 5%
and the mass flow rate of ammonia-water working solution goes

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L. Cao et al. / Energy xxx (2014) 1e11 7

Fig. 2. Flow chart of calculation.

up. And net power output and system efficiency are positively exchanger. And a certain extraction pressure corresponds to a
correlated with mass flow rate of ammonia-water working saturated temperature. As the extracted mass flow increases, the
solution. temperature of ammonia-water working solution increases and
Figs. 6 and 7 show the effect of extraction pressure and the gradually gets close to the saturated temperature. An increase in
fraction of flow extracted from turbine on the net power output the temperature of ammonia-water working solution leads to a
and system efficiency at turbine inlet temperature of 500  C, decrease in specific enthalpy rise through boiler. Thus the mass
turbine inlet pressure of 10 MPa and condensing pressure of flow rate of ammonia-water working solution goes up. Though the
0.623 MPa. Under a certain pressure, the net power output and specific net power output decreases as the fraction of flow
system efficiency increase with the fraction of flow extracted from extracted from turbine rises, the mass flow rate of ammonia-
turbine. The extracted steam from turbine directly heats the water working solution has greater impact on net power output
ammonia-water working solution in direct contact heat and system efficiency. Furthermore, Figs. 6 and 7 also reveal the
existence of the maximum fraction of flow extracted from turbine,
amax, for extraction pressure. This is because the regenerative
Table 3 heater is direct contact heat exchanger, and each extraction
Thermodynamic parameters of each node under simulation condition.
pressure corresponds to a saturated temperature of ammonia-
State t ( C) P (MPa) x h (kJ$kg
1) s kJ m (kg$s
1) Quality water working solution. If the fraction of flow extracted from
(kg$K)
1 turbine exceeds the maximum value, the ammonia-water mixture
1 75.45 10.000 0.750 449.941 2.089 0.687 0.000 starts to vaporize, which will cause cavitation erosion in feed
2 500.00 10.000 0.750 2989.997 7.286 0.687 1.000 pump. In other words, for certain extraction pressure, the satu-
3 141.11 0.271 0.750 2144.762 7.525 0.653 1.000
rated temperature of working solution determines the maximum
4 52.14 0.271 0.750 1215.649 4.895 0.653 0.665
5 41.91 0.271 0.501 436.584 2.224 1.824 0.217 fraction of flow extracted from turbine, and within the maximum
6 20.00 0.271 0.501 8.969 0.813 1.824 0.000 value, the net power output and system efficiency increase with
7 20.07 0.623 0.501 9.578 0.814 1.824 0.000 the fraction of flow extracted from turbine. And a higher extrac-
8 20.07 0.623 0.501 9.578 0.814 1.516 0.000 tion pressure corresponds to a higher saturated temperature of
9 47.14 0.623 0.501 166.839 1.323 1.516 0.022
ammonia-water working solution. As a consequence, the
10 70.00 0.623 0.501 566.565 2.531 1.516 0.228
11 70.00 0.623 0.972 1789.121 6.501 0.345 1.000
12 25.89 0.623 0.972 1532.081 5.702 0.345 0.917
13 39.14 0.623 0.750 832.545 3.465 0.653 0.453
14 20.00 0.623 0.750 174.292 1.271 0.653 0.000 Table 4
15 20.89 4.000 0.750 180.946 1.277 0.653 0.000 Performance of system under simulation condition.
16 70.00 0.623 0.362 206.269 1.361 1.171 0.000
Term Value
17 25.07 0.623 0.362 2.686 0.726 1.171 0.000
18 25.14 0.271 0.362 2.686 0.727 1.171 0.000 Turbine power 560.764 kW
19 20.07 0.623 0.501 9.578 0.814 0.307 0.000 Net power output 546.380 kW
20 49.14 4.000 0.750 316.889 1.719 0.653 0.000 Pumps power 14.384 kW
21 390.69 4.000 0.750 2717.771 7.332 0.034 1.000 System efficiency 26.60%
22 73.31 4.000 0.750 436.933 2.078 0.687 0.000 Biomass consumption rate 0.6589 kg (kW$h)
1

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8 L. Cao et al. / Energy xxx (2014) 1e11

Fig. 3. Effect of turbine inlet temperature on net power output and system efficiency.
Fig. 6. Effect of extraction pressure and the fraction of flow extracted from turbine on
the net power output.

Fig. 4. Effect of turbine inlet pressure on the net power output and system efficiency.
Fig. 7. Effect of extraction pressure and the fraction of flow extracted from turbine on
the system efficiency.

Fig. 8. Effect of extraction pressure and its corresponding maximum fraction of flow
Fig. 5. Effect of separator temperature on the net power output and system efficiency. extracted from turbine on net power output and system efficiency.

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L. Cao et al. / Energy xxx (2014) 1e11 9

Table 5 power loss. That's why higher extraction pressure leads to lower
Operation parameters for optimization. net power output and lower system efficiency.
Term Value Fig. 8 shows the effect of extraction pressure and its corre-
Population size 30
sponding maximum fraction of flow extracted from turbine on net
Stop generation 100 power output and system efficiency at turbine inlet temperature of
Ranges of turbine inlet temperature 475.00e525.00  C 500  C, turbine inlet pressure of 10 MPa and condensing pressure of
Ranges of turbine inlet pressure 8.000e12.000 MPa 0.623 MPa. As is discussed in Figs. 6 and 7, for a certain extraction
Ranges of separator temperature 60.00e80.00  C
pressure, there exits a maximum fraction of flow extracted from
Ranges of the fraction of flow extracted from turbine 1-20%
Ranges of extraction pressure 1.600e7.000 MPa turbine. And for a certain extraction pressure, within its corre-
sponding maximum fraction of flow extracted from turbine, the net
power output and system efficiency increase with the fraction of
Table 6 flow extracted from turbine. When the fraction of flow extracted
Optimization results for biomass-fired Kalina cycle with/without a regenerative from turbine reaches the maximum value, the net power output and
heater. system efficiency peak at the certain extraction pressure. That's to
Term With regeneration Without regeneration say, each extraction pressure corresponds to maximum net power
output and system efficiency. As Fig. 8 shown, when the extraction
Turbine inlet pressure 11.844 MPa 11.648 MPa
Turbine inlet temperature 524.99  C 525.00  C
pressure increases, its corresponding maximum net power output
Separator temperature 79.99  C 79.93  C and system efficiency increase firstly and then decline, revealing the
The fraction of flow 11.1% existence of optimum extraction pressure and its corresponding
extracted from turbine maximum fraction of flow extracted from turbine. This is because
Extraction pressure 5.888 MPa
the ammonia-water mixture consumption rate per kilowatt of tur-
Net power output 583.944 kW 569.288 kW
System efficiency 28.43% 27.72% bine increases when the extraction pressure and its corresponding
Ammonia-water mixture 4.537 kg (kW$h)
1 4.234 kg (kW$h)
1 maximum fraction of flow extracted from turbine rise. Meanwhile
consumption rate per the inlet temperature of boiler also goes up, and the specific
kilowatt of turbine enthalpy rise in boiler declines. From Eq. (33), we can conclude that
Heat consumption rate per 10,763 kJ (kW$h)
1 11,040 kJ (kW$h)
1
kilowatt of turbine
the heat consumption rate per kilowatt of turbine reaches a mini-
Biomass consumption rate per 0.6165 kg (kW$h)
1 0.6324 kg (kW$h)
1 mum first and then increases. And according to Eq. (34), the system
kilowatt of system efficiency goes up at first and then goes down.

4.2. Optimization results and comparison

maximum fraction of flow extracted from turbine increases with
extraction pressure (see Fig. 8). When the fraction of flow
extracted from turbine is kept constant, for example, the fraction
of flow extracted from turbine is 0.04, an increase in extraction
pressure leads to a decrease in net power output and system ef-
ficiency. This is because the ammonia-water vapor extracted at
higher pressure possesses higher temperature and greater ca-
pacity of generating power. And extracting the ammonia-water
vapor with greater capacity of generating power will cause more
According to the parametric analysis, there may be an optimum
system performance for the biomass-fired Kalina cycle with a
regenerative heater. Thus, we conduct a performance optimization
for the biomass-fired Kalina cycle with a regenerative heater by
employing GA to obtain the maximum system efficiency or mini-
mum biomass consumption rate. We conduct an optimization for
Kalina cycle with/without a regenerative heater and make com-
parison between the two systems. The detailed computation pro-
cess of the genetic algorithm can refer to [32].

Fig. 9. Temperature-entropy diagram for optimization results of biomass-fired Kalina cycle without a regenerative heater.

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10 L. Cao et al. / Energy xxx (2014) 1e11
Fig. 10. Temperature-entropy diagram for optimization results of biomass-fired Kalina cycle with a regenerative heater.
We select the system efficiency as the objective function for both
systems, because the minimum biomass consumption rate is easily
calculable as long as the maximum system efficiency is acquired. For
the biomass-fired Kalina cycle with a regenerative heater, five key
thermodynamic parameters, namely turbine inlet temperature,
turbine inlet pressure, separator temperature, extraction pressure
and the fraction of flow extracted from turbine are chosen as deci-
sion variables. For the biomass-fired Kalina cycle without a regen-
erative heater, we choose turbine inlet temperature, turbine inlet
pressure, separator temperature as decision variables. The operation
parameters of GA (genetic algorithm) and ranges of key thermo-
dynamic parameters for the system are listed in Table 5. Ranges of
turbine inlet pressure, turbine inlet temperature, separator tem-
perature are the same for both systems. And biomass fuel input, heat
source and heat sink for the two systems are identical as well.
Moreover, we set some restricts in optimization program because
the results are not available in all conditions. For example, the outlet
temperature of regenerative heater should not be larger that bubble
point temperature of ammonia-water working solution; the quality
Fig. 11. Exergy destruction of different components at optimum performance
condition.
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of turbine exhaust should not be lower than 0.9. The results of
optimization are listed in Table 6. And the temperature-entropy
diagrams for optimization results of biomass-fired Kalina cycle
with/without a regenerative heater are showed in Figs. 9 and 10.
From Table 6, we can see the turbine inlet pressure, turbine inlet
temperature and separator temperature all reach the upper
bounds. This is because system efficiency increases with the tur-
bine inlet temperature and separator temperature respectively
according to the parametric analysis. At the optimum condition, the
system efficiency is 28.43% for the biomass-fired Kalina cycle with a
regenerative heater, and 27.72% for the biomass-fired Kalina cycle
without a regenerative heater, and system efficiency of the former
one is higher than that of the latter one by 0.71%. The results of net
power output are similar. The regenerative heater increases the net
power output by 14.656 kW. Meanwhile, the biomass consumption
rate per kilowatt is decreased by 0.0159 kg (kW$h)
1. According to
the practical engineering experience, adding more regenerative
heaters to the system can further increase the system efficiency.
And this problem is needed for a further study in the future.
4.3. Exergy destruction of different components
The exergy destruction analysis of different components of the
system at optimum performances condition is displayed in Fig. 9.
The exergy analysis shows that the biomass boiler contributes most
to the overall exergy destruction. The exergy destroyed by biomass
boiler is almost 88% of total exergy destruction, which is mainly
caused by the inherent irreversibility of combustion, irreversibility
in heat transfer and heat loss of boiler. Consequently, the biomass
boiler is the most significant component that needs careful design
and selection. And the exergy destruction of heat exchangers
including distiller, reheater, preheater, condenser, absorber and
regenerative heater is about 8.5%. Exergy destructed by turbine is
3%. Remaining components of system destroy less than 1%. (Fig. 11).
5. Conclusion
In this study, a biomass-fired Kalina cycle with a regenerative
heater is investigated. By establishing the mathematical model to
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L. Cao et al. / Energy xxx (2014) 1e11
conduct systematic analyses and numerical simulations under
steady-state condition, we have a deeper understanding of the
system performance and explore the effects of some key thermo-
dynamic parameter on the system. Moreover, a single-objective
parameter optimization for the biomass-fired Kalina cycle with/
without a regenerative heater is conducted by the means of GA. We
select system efficiency as objective function and compare the
optimization results. The main conclusions drawn from the study
are summarized as follows:
(1) An increase in turbine inlet pressure and turbine inlet tem-
perature has positive effect on the net power output of sys-
tem and system efficiency. And the net power output
increases with separator temperature.
(2) Optimum extraction pressure and its corresponding
maximum fraction of flow extracted from turbine can be
achieved, which could lead to the maximum net power
output of system and maximum system efficiency.
(3) Comparing the optimization results of the two systems, the
net power output and system efficiency of biomass-fired
Kalina cycle with a regenerative heater are higher than
those of biomass-fired Kalina cycle without a regenerative
heater. And the biomass fuel consumption rate per kilowatt
of the system with a regenerative heater is lower than that of
the system without a regenerative heater.
(4) Exergy analysis of biomass-fired Kalina cycle with a regen-
erative heater at the optimum condition indicates that the
main source of exergy destruction is the biomass boiler (88%)
that contributes most to overall system inefficiency. There-
fore, the biomass boiler needs considerable care in their
design and selection. And the exergy destructed by turbine
and heat exchangers is 3% and 8.5% respectively.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51106117)
and the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of
Higher Education of China (Grant No. 201302011100d37).
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