Energy and exergy analyses of a regenerative Brayton cycle utilizing monochlorobiphenyl wastes as an alternative fuel

Abstract

This paper develops a thermodynamic model for the regenerative Brayton cycle that uses monochlorobiphenyl waste as fuel in a combustion chamber to power a gas turbine. The regenerator increases the air temperature entering the combustion chamber to react with monochlorobiphenyl wastes to produce a higher turbine inlet temperature. The pressure ratio and turbine inlet temperature can negatively or positively affect power plants' thermal efficiency. Thus, different pressure ratios and turbine inlet temperatures are used to calculate the overall thermal efficiency. A stoichiometric reaction-based gas composition model is used to determine the combustion gas composition at the combustion chamber exit and to calculate the heat capacity of air and combustion gases as a function of temperature. The exergy analysis of the proposed power plant is presented to determine the effect of the pressure ratio on the exergy efficiency of the turbine, compressor, and regenerator. According to the results, an increase in pressure ratio increases cycle thermal efficiency and turbine inlet temperature when using a regenerator, whereas the temperatures decrease when not using a regenerator. The Brayton cycle with a regenerator increases thermal efficiency from 30% to 100% for a pressure ratio of 6–30. This contrasts with the Brayton cycle without a regenerator. In addition, for the regenerative Brayton cycle, the turbine inlet temperature rises from 1050 K to 1200 K as the pressure ratio rises from 1 to 30. In the absence of the regenerator, however, this variation's trend is in the opposite direction. Furthermore, the results show that an increase in pressure ratio will increase the exergy efficiency of the compressor and regenerator, while a decrease will occur in the exergy efficiency of the turbine. Findings indicate that the regenerator has the highest exergy efficiency at a pressure ratio higher than five, followed by turbine and compressor exergy efficiency.