Abstract:
A unique method and ternary cycle process that captures heat from low temperature sources currently considered not commercially usable to produce electricity and desalinate water. In one cycle a novel flash tower operating at vacuum pressure causes a fraction of low temperature water to flash into steam. The steam passes to an indirect heat exchanger with a circulating refrigerating agent such as CO 2 , which condenses the steam on its outside surfaces to produce desalinated water product. The steam heat of condensation vaporizes the refrigerating agent, which is part of a binary refrigerate cycle that uniquely conditions it for turbine expansion to produce electricity in a connected electric generator.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application claims priority as a continuation-in-part of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/120,940, entitled “Ternary Cycle Heat Recovery From Low Temperature Sources”, filed Feb. 26, 2015. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     Specifically, the present invention is a process to capture energy from available heat sources, heretofore not considered commercially attainable because of their low temperature levels. An indirect heat exchanger facilitates heat transfer from these low temperature sources to a refrigerating agent that enters the exchanger as a lower temperature sub-cooled liquid or saturated condition and exits it as a vapor. The vapor is then uniquely superheated to condition it for turbine expansion and to produce electricity in a connected generator. 
     Heat may be extracted from renewable energy sources such as solar heated water in tropical or desert areas, or from geothermal spots. Heat may be extracted from power plant condenser rejected heat or stack gas waste heat. Heat may be extracted from any available source, leaving the source at a lower temperature level. 
     This process can serve as a stand-alone plant or be integrated with a power plant to recover rejected heat from the plant&#39;s condenser and stack gas to significantly improve plant thermal efficiency. A conventional steam power plant using the Rankine Cycle rejects approximately 55% of the fuel heat input in the condenser and 10% from the stack, resulting in a plant thermal efficiency of 35-40%. This process can increase plant thermal efficiency up to 70%. 
     Another feature of this process includes its capability to produce a combination of electrical power and desalinated water, by including a unique steam flash tower with a top-mounted tube and shell condenser. Non-potable water such as sea or brackish water is introduced to the flash tower for vacuum distillation with the remaining water returned to its source at a lower temperature. The flashed steam is then condensed on the outside tube surfaces of the condenser to produce potable water and to maintain flash tower vacuum pressure. The steam heat of condensation is transferred to a refrigerating agent circulating inside the tubes to vaporize it and then produce electrical power as described above. 
     This process allows greater flexibility in new power plant location since it provides independence from a cooling water source. It is an economical replacement for a typical plant&#39;s cooling tower, which discharges rejected heat into the atmosphere, consumes large amounts of expensive water, and may create condensate drift problems. It would not be necessary for plants to return rejected heat in cooling water to its source, mitigating environmental bio-equilibrium problems. Plant seasonal load variations caused by changing cooling water or air temperatures are prevented since a consistently low water temperature is returned to the condenser all year. Alternately, greater plant revenues may be realized by selling condenser cooling water BTU&#39;s as a product. 
     Integrating this process with a Rankine cycle steam power plant can produce a significant increase in electrical output using the recovered rejected heat from the plant condenser. In addition, significant desalinated water output can be produced, which is environmentally friendly. Current desalination plants have high capital investments, high operating and maintenance costs, and leave a mark on the environment. 
     Retrofitting this process to existing plants can significantly increase plant thermal efficiencies, reduce fuel costs, and reduce stack emissions without adding air pollution equipment. Revenues can be generated from sales of electricity, desalinated water, or cooling water BTU&#39;s. Power output from less efficient plants can be proportionally reduced with corresponding credit for reductions in emission of pollutants and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), without requiring the addition of high cost pollution collection equipment. Receiving of operating permits, monitoring of water discharge temperature for limit violations or load reductions, water intake fouling problems, environmental bio-equilibrium impacts, and forced load reductions during peak summer demand seasons would no longer be issues. Power plant efficiency can significantly improve by returning the cooling water to the plant condenser at a lower temperature than it receives through existing cooling equipment, producing more power output. 
     2. Prior Art Description 
     Current power plants operating on the Rankine cycle primarily uses condenser cooling water from nearby sources and cooling towers to reject low temperature energy causing low plant thermal efficiencies. Dissipation of condenser rejected heat from power plants is an environmental issue and various other ideas have been discussed such as using irrigation canals and holding ponds. Prior art has not disclosed a process that efficiently uses low temperature water as an energy source on a commercial scale. 
     This disclosed process can be applied in geothermal power plants, resulting in significantly higher thermal efficiencies of about 50% rather than currently demonstrated efficiencies of 7 to 10%. Application in tropical or desert areas would provide essential resources and greater outputs would be realized from sea water heated solar ponds. The capacity factor for this renewable energy process would be significantly higher than demonstrated with wind or solar cell energy. 
     Other than hydropower and geothermal, prior art has not disclosed an economical system to produce large amounts of renewable, clean electricity in a compact source at more locations. This disclosure includes these attributes. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     This specification includes two applications for this innovative process as outlined below: 
     1. The first application integrates this process with a new or existing power plant to generate additional electric power by substituting a refrigerate condenser for the normal water or air cooled condenser to capture condenser rejected heat, and including a refrigeration loop to capture stack gas heat in an indirect heat exchanger. The refrigerate is vaporized by these rejected heats and then uniquely conditioned to produce electric power.
 
2. The second application integrates this process with a power plant, using the normal cooling water condenser with its cooling water discharge redirected to a unique vacuum flash tower to capture its rejected heat. The flash tower generated steam is condensed on a refrigerate condenser producing desalinated water and its heat of condensation providing input to vaporize the refrigerate, which is then uniquely conditioned to produce electrical power.
 
     This invention consists of a ternary-cycle process, including a refrigerating agent with inherent capabilities of vaporizing at low temperature used in two concurrent cycles to produce work, and a third cycle such as a water-steam cycle to provide heat input. Since organic refrigerates are costly and environmentally unfriendly, carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) agent is used as an example in this disclosure. CO 2  is safely removed from the environment and provides a non-toxic workplace environment. 
     The first CO 2  cycle (path A) operates at sub-critical pressure, initially driven by a startup pump located in the tank storage area. Path A receives low temperature heat input from an indirect heat exchanger (evaporator), entering it as a sub-cooled liquid or saturated mixture condition and discharging as a saturated vapor. Heat input to the evaporator is provided from a low temperature heat source. Path A discharges from the evaporator as a vapor and is superheated in downstream indirect heat exchangers by the second CO 2  cycle (Path B). Path A is expanded through turbines with connected generators to produce electricity before exhausting as a low pressure superheated vapor. 
     The second CO 2  cycle (path B) receives subcritical saturated vapor and compresses it to supercritical pressure. The heat of compression (HOC) superheats path B, converting it to supercritical pressure-temperature fluid. Path B separated into two mass flow streams transfers its heat to path A in two stages of indirect heat exchangers, thereby uniquely superheating path A vapor to condition it for turbine expansion. As detailed below, the power consumption to compress path B is significantly less than the power produced by path A expansion. 
     Path B discharges from the exchangers, recombines, and discharges into an ejector as the motive stream to draw path A from the reheat turbine exhaust. Combined paths A and B mix in the ejector, compress path A, and discharge to a liquid-vapor separator, resulting in a saturated mixture of about 25% of path B inlet pressure, dependent on the ejector design. Assuming a 50% quality mixture, path A and B split into two equal mass flow streams from the separator. The top outlet of the separator discharges saturated vapor to the compressor to complete path B cycle. The bottom outlet of the separator discharges saturated liquid to a throttling valve, which controls inlet temperature to the evaporator, completing path A cycle. 
     During startup, path B receives subcritical pressure vapor from path A via a full turbine bypass and compresses it to supercritical pressure using a startup electric motor drive. After the vapor supply to the compressor is assumed by the separator and turbine startup temperature is achieved, turbine bypass flow is redirected through the superheat turbine and subsequent reheat exchanger and turbine placing them on line with their electric generators. The compressor may then be switched from its startup electric motor drive to turbine drive via hydraulic couplings and the compressor in path B takes over as the driving force for both path A and B. 
     The ejectors significantly reduce compressor power consumption since compression of path B starts from separator outlet pressure and not path A reheat turbine exhaust pressure. Additionally, isentropic compression occurs in the region on the pressure-enthalpy (P-H) diagram with nearly vertical isentrope lines as compared to the less vertical isentropic lines in the turbine expansion region, which helps minimize compressor power consumption. 
     The third cycle that provides heat input to the process is captured from low temperature sources currently considered not to be commercially available, and rejected heat by the Rankine cycle in a steam power plant is a prime example of this. This rejected heat may be captured as demonstrated by this disclosure, along with other available sources. Application 1 shows capturing of rejected heat directly from the low pressure turbine exhaust and stack gas. Application 2 shows capturing of rejected heat from the condenser cooling water. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  depicts an embodiment of the present invention to capture power plant rejected heat to produce additional electric power. The normal plant Rankine cycle is illustrated in thin black lines with feedwater heater train  16 , economizer  2 , boiler  2   a , boiler enclosure  2   b  superheater  3 , high pressure turbine  4 , reheater  5 , intermediate pressure turbine  6 , low pressure turbine  7 , electric generators  8 , and water cooled condenser  12 . The conventional condensate, boiler feedwater, and condenser  12  cooling water pumps are omitted for clarity. The superimposed binary CO 2  cycle is illustrated in heavier solid and dotted black lines. Rankine cycle condenser  12  is removed from the cycle as depicted by cut-lines  9  and replaced by CO 2  cycle condenser  12   a  to capture this rejected heat. Condenser  12   a  is depicted with steam inlet piping  14  from turbine  7  exhaust, refrigerate inlet headers  24 , refrigerate outlet headers  25 , codensate piping  15  routed to feedwater heater train  16 , and refrigerate temperature control valve  34 - 1 . In a second loop, heat exchanger  30 - 3  is added to boiler gas exhaust duct  44  with refrigerate temperature control valve  34 - 2  to capture rejected heat before exhausting it to the atmosphere through stack  41 . The refrigerate from these two loops is recombined before routing to heat exchanger  30 - 1 . 
         FIG. 2  depicts an embodiment of the present invention to capture power plant rejected heat to produce additional electric power and desalinated water. Flash tower  2  is included with multiple levels of steam flash trays  3   a  to reduce footprint area. In this application, normal plant condenser  12  is kept in-place and flash tower  2  and trays  3   a  are supplied with warm cooling water discharge  13  from condenser  12  by the existing plant cooling water pump. Condenser-evaporator E 8  is located in the top section of flash tower  2 . 
         FIG. 3  is a CO 2  P-H diagram with English Units (referenced from 32° F.) marked to show the CO 2  binary cycle conditions and the basis of  FIGS. 1 and 2 . 
         FIG. 4  shows a water and steam pressure-enthalpy (P-H) diagram, marked with a solid black line to show the conditions for this cycle. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The process is similar in relation to electric power production in both  FIGS. 1 and 2  with each including separator  33 , compressor  31 , turbine  32 - 1  and  32 - 2 , electric generators  8 , heat exchangers  30 - 1  and  30 - 2 , and ejector  35 . The processes differ in that  FIG. 1  heat exchanger  30 - 1  receives CO 2  vapor from condenser  12   a , which is superimposed into the Rankine cycle, and from stack gas heat exchanger  30 - 3 . In  FIG. 2  CO 2  vapor to heat exchanger  30 - 1  is supplied from condenser-evaporator E 8  in flash tower  2 , formed by condensing flashed steam from Rankine cycle condenser  12  cooling water discharge  13 . 
       FIG. 1  illustrates condenser  12   a  superimposed into the Rankine cycle. Since the CO 2  can enter condenser  12   a  in a mixed phase condition, it is necessary to arrange the surface in one pass with the tubes sloped upwards from inlet header  24  to outlet header  25 . The total surface conductance of condenser  12   a  is relatively high because of the condensing steam film conductance on the outside of the tubes and boiling film conductance on the inside of the tubes. Stack gas exchanger  30 - 3  may be arranged in one refrigerate vertical up-flow-pass with horizontal cross flow stack gas, allowing for collection and removal of condensed stack gas vapor by trap  42  to waste disposal. These exchangers may have other arrangements. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates flash tower  2  divided into two sections with the lower section serving as steam flash area  3 , and the upper section  5  serving as CO 2  evaporator-steam condensing area. Warm water piping  4   a  is directly connected to flash area  3  via columns  21 . Direct connection of piping  4   a  allows for increasing the height of tower  2  in proportion to the positive pressure head available from the plant&#39;s condenser cooling water pumps or other pumps that may be included with this or other processes. A higher tower  2  allows for more tray  3   a  levels and more desalinated water and power output per footprint area. 
     For applications using natural circulation, warm water is supplied to a nearby reservoir, which is open to the atmosphere via a vent, so that the difference between atmospheric pressure and vacuum pressure inside tower  2  causes the water to be forced upwards to a level equivalent to about 33 feet, which facilitates the supply of warm water to columns  21  and stacked flash trays  3   a . Optionally, compressed gas may be introduced at the reservoir vent to produce more than 33 feet of head. 
     In flash tower  2 , cooling water  13   a  is boiled at low vacuum pressure and corresponding saturation temperature, which is lower than the water inlet temperature. The boiling water takes its energy for heat of vaporization from the remaining water and reduces its temperature to saturation temperature for discharge through downcomer  23   b  at a lower temperature than the water inlet temperature  13   a.    
     Cooling water  13   a  entering flash tower  2  may be sea water, brackish water, river, or lake water. A fraction of this water is distilled from vapor and may be used as potable water  14 . 
     Flash area  3  and upper section  5  are sealed from the atmosphere and operate under vacuum pressure. Vacuum pump  10  serves to create the initial vacuum and then to intermittently vent non-condensable gasses. Vacuum pressure is maintained during operation at the condensing saturation temperature of the steam since the steam collapses into water and occupies less volume, causing the vacuum to be maintained. 
     From column  21 , the warm water  13   a  enters flash trays  3   a  through connecting piping and valves  21   a , which control tray  3   a  water level using water level measuring and control instruments. The entering water  13   a  boils at the saturation temperature of the vacuum pressure, taking its heat of vaporization energy from the water and cooling it to saturation water temperature. Steam  3   b  flashed in trays  3   a  is depicted by the white-filled curved arrows on  FIG. 2 . Steam  3   b  exits trays  3   a , enters up-flow section  3   c , passes through moisture separators  3   d , and enters heat exchanger E 8 . The cooled water  19   a  is shown exiting the center of trays  3   a  through connecting piping and valves  23   a  into downcomer  23  for exiting tower  2  and returning to condenser  12  through piping  19 . Valves  23   a  control tray  3   a  outlet temperature via instruments and controls. 
     CO 2  evaporator-steam condenser heat exchanger E 8  is shown as one upward vertical pass of CO 2  with cross-flowing of steam around a 360 degree periphery, but it can have various arrangements. The water from condensed steam is collected in an under-pan as potable water  14 . The total surface conductance of exchanger E 8  is relatively high because of the condensing steam film conductance on the outside of the tubes and the boiling film conductance of CO 2  inside the tubes. 
     Integrating the desalination feature with a 200 megawatt power plant would require the diameter of tower  2  to be approximately 70 feet as set by the maximum allowable steam velocity leaving the water surface of 15 feet per second. The total height of tower  2  from its base to top would be about 80 feet as set by the required tray geometry. Marked  FIG. 4  shows that about 2% of the plant&#39;s cooling water is flashed into steam, resulting in a desalinated water output of about 1 million pound per hour, equivalent to 9.3 acre-foot/day, or 11,500 cubic meters/day. Average size desalination plants range between 5,000 and 10,000 cubic meters/day. 
     Both  FIGS. 1 and 2  schematically illustrate the CO 2  flow paths. CO 2  flows in parallel paths A and B through process  1  at two different pressure levels and sets of conditions with the only common mixing point being at ejector  35  and moisture separator  33 , where their mixed conditions create a quality mixture, which correspondingly separates the mixture into a ratio of saturated liquid path A and vapor path B. 
     An example cycle follows to demonstrate the process for producing desalinated water and electricity with reference to marked  FIGS. 3 and 4 . Referring to  FIG. 3  and starting with separator  33 , marked as a single point ( 1 ) at 975 psia and 50% quality mixture, the separated saturated liquid (path A) is marked with a solid heavy-weighted black line as it discharges separator  33  at point  2 A, flows through throttle valve  34  to the inlet of evaporator E 8  ( 3 A) as a low quality saturated mixture at 63° F., and then flows through evaporator E 8  absorbing the steam heat of condensation. It exits as a vapor ( 4 A) to exchanger E  30 - 1  for superheating ( 4 A to  5 A), followed by isentropic expansion in turbine  32 - 1  ( 5 A to  6 A). It exhausts to exchanger  30 - 2  for reheating ( 6 A to  7 A), followed by isentropic expansion through turbine  32 - 2  ( 7 A to  8 A) before it exhausts at 85 psia via ejector  35  for return to separator  33  ( 8 A to  1 ). Path B is marked by a short-dotted, heavy-weighted black line flowing as saturated vapor from separator  33  ( 1  to  2 B) to compressor  31 ( 2 B to  3 B). Path B exits compressor  31  as a superheated supercritical pressure fluid at 3900 psia pressure and splits into two mass flow streams to transfer its heat to path A as it passes through the two stages of heat exchangers (E  30 - 1  and E  30 - 2 ). Path B recombines ( 4 B) and flows to ejector  35  as the motive stream to induce path A flow from turbine exhaust  32 - 2  ( 4 B to  1 ). Path A and B mix in ejector  35 , compressing path A and discharging to separator  33 , resulting in a 50% quality mixture for re-splitting into path A and B, completing their cycles. 
     Referring to  FIG. 4 , sub-cooled water at 85° F. near 14.6 psia pressure is introduced to flash tower  2  operating at 0.3 psia pressure. The water boils and about 2% is flashed into steam, which is removed as desalinated water in evaporator  8  where it is condensed as it transfers its heat of condensation to vaporize path A, and the remaining 98% water discharges flash tower  2  at 65° F., corresponding to saturation temperature at 0.3 psia. 
     Referring to  FIG. 2 , path A is shown as a solid heavy-weighted black line discharging as a saturated liquid from the bottom of separator  33  and flowing to throttle valve  34  and to inlet header  24  of exchanger E 8 . Path B is shown as short-dotted, heavy-weighted black line discharging from the top of separator  33  as a vapor and entering compressor  31 , where it is compressed to 3900 psia/250° F. supercritical fluid. Compressor  31  heat of compression (HOC) superheats path B, which discharges and splits into two mass flow streams for transferring its heat to path A in superheater exchanger  30 - 1  and reheat exchanger  30 - 2 . Path B exits exchangers  30 - 1  and  30 - 2  as a sub-cooled liquid and mixes before entering ejector  35  as the motive stream to induce path A from turbine  30 - 2  exhaust. 
     Path A CO 2  saturated liquid pressure is throttled to 63° F. temperature by valve  34  before it flows through the evaporators, in this case exchanger E 8 , absorbing the steam heat of condensation from flash steam  3   b , converting path A to saturated vapor. Path A exits exchanger E 8  and flows through heat exchanger  30 - 1  where it is converted to 230° F. superheated vapor by heat transferred from path B. Path A then flows to superheat turbine  32 - 1 , where it is isentropically expanded to superheated vapor at 150 psia/45° F. Path A then flows through heat exchanger  30 - 2 , where it is reheated to 192° F. superheated vapor. It then enters reheat turbine  32 - 2 , where it isentropically expands to 85 psia/120° F. superheated vapor and exhausted to the suction connection of ejector  35 . 
     Path B transfers heat to path A in exchangers  30 - 1  and  30 - 2  before it enters ejector  35  as the motive stream for path A. Ejector  35  is designed with various ratios of motive flow to induced flow to compress Path A, in this case, resulting in a pressure regain to 975 psia entering separator  33 . The combination of path A and B through ejector  35  is shown as a broadly-dotted, heavy-weighted black line leaving ejector  35  resulting in vertical separator  33  conditions at a 50% quality mixture. 
     Ejector  35  considerably reduces the power consumption of compressor  31  since the pressure in path B is compressed to 3900 psia from separator  33  outlet pressure of 975 psia and not reheat turbine  32 - 2  exhaust pressure of 85 psia. Ejector  35  is available as current technology, but it has not been used in a power generation cycle as disclosed in this invention. Path B serves as the motive stream for ejector  35  in which it flows through an internal converging nozzle to increase its velocity and cause a sufficiently low pressure to be created at the inlet connection for path A. Path A and B mix in ejector  35  followed by flow through a diverging nozzle to help regain about 25% of path B initial inlet static pressure. 
     The ternary cycles shown are examples to demonstrate process  1  and may be modified to suit design conditions of manufacturers, including operating pressures and temperatures, design of turbines for other exhaust pressures or splitting path B into other mass flow proportions. As may be noted by the example cycle marked on  FIG. 3 , compressor  31  enthalpy of compression (˜22 BTU/lb) is considerably less than the total enthalpy of expansion (˜40 BTU/lb) provided by turbines  32 - 1  and  32 - 2 , which is equivalent to recovering about 45% of rejected heat and resulting in a combined plant thermal efficiency of about 70%. 
     CO 2  storage and startup unit  50 , shown in dotted, light-weighted black lines, provides startup and shutdown services by receiving path A liquid during load reductions or shutdowns, and supplying path A liquid during startups or load increases. Unit  50  maintains path A CO 2  liquid condition by holding pressure and temperature during storage. Automatic CO 2  mass flow adjustments are facilitated from unit  50  to or from path A for each load change.