Effect of Superheated Steam Pressure on the Performance of RDE Energy Conversion System

Abstract

An experimental power reactor (RDE) is designed based on the high-temperature gas cooled reactor (HTGR) type with the thermal power of 10 MW. The energy conversion system of RDE is designed in a cogeneration configuration with a Rankine cycle to generate electricity and to supply a thermal energy for experimental purposes. The temperature of the reactor outlet is 700 °C and the temperature of the steam generator outlet is 530 °C. One of the performance parameters for energy conversion systems is thermal efficiency. To achieve better performance parameters of the RDE, optimization of thermal efficiency need to be determined. This research aims to optimize the thermal efficiency by conditioning the pressure of superheated steam in the turbine inlet. The calculation and analysis of cooling thermodynamic parameters and coolant system performance parameters are performed by simulation using ChemCad. The result shows that at 90 bar steam pressure and 3.3 kg/s cooling mass flow rate, the highest thermal efficiency was 29.21%. This thermal efficiency is higher than thermal efficiency at a pressure of 60 bar and the cooling mass flow rate of 3.2 kg/s. Therefore, a pressure of 90 bar can be considered as an operating parameter for the energy conversion system of RDE.