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Technical-economic and environmental protection performance evaluation of a novel hybrid solar-nuclear thermally coupled power and desalination plant

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Abstract

Clean energy complementary system can reduce environmental pollution effectively and is considered as a future energy development direction. In this paper, an innovative solar-nuclear thermally coupled power and desalination plant for electricity and freshwater productions is proposed. As solar power and nuclear power are combined, this multi-energy system is a clean energy system and basically has no emissions of soot, sulfur oxides, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. The operating behavior assessment results of the multi-energy system show that the power generation and freshwater production systems can operate synergistically. The electric power and corresponding efficiency of the multi-energy system are 290.7 MW and 38.2%, in which the solar proportion is about 38.1%. The daily freshwater production of the multi-energy system is 3761.3 t. The economic assessment results reveal that the levelized costs of electricity and freshwater of the multi-energy system are 0.361 yuan/(kWh) and 1.645 yuan/t. The environmental protection analysis results show that in contrast with a coal-fired system, the annual emission reductions of soot, sulfur oxides, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen oxides of the multi-energy system are 7350.94 t, 12,634.42 t, 513,034.14 t, and 11,945.28 t, revealing a significant environmental protection performance.

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Abbreviations

c p :

constant-pressure specific heat capacity (J/(kg∙K))

F cap :

capacity factor of power generation (−)

FOMC :

annual fixed operating and maintenance costs of the solar energy block (yuan)

k :

thermal conductivity (K∙m−1)

k solar :

solar power capacity proportion (−)

LCOE :

levelized cost of electricity ($/(kWh))

P nuclear :

electric power of the standalone nuclear reactor (MW)

P snpd :

output power of the SNPD system (MW)

P solar :

incremental electric power (MW)

Q n,th :

heat input contributed by the nuclear reactor for electric power generation (MW)

Q s,th :

heat input contributed by the solar energy island for electric power generation (MW)

r solar :

discount rate of the solar energy block (−)

T :

temperature (K)

VOMC :

variable operating and maintenance costs ($/(kWh))

W act :

actual power generation value of every month (MWh)

W nom :

nominal power generation of every month (MWh)

η e :

electric efficiency of the SNPD system (−)

η solar :

efficiency of the incremental output electric power (−)

μ :

dynamic viscosity (N∙s/m2)

ρ :

density (kg/m3)

htf :

heat transfer fluid

n :

nuclear

s :

solar energy

snpd :

SNPD system

CTPP :

coal-fired thermal power plant

HMEU :

hybrid multi-energy utilization

O&M :

operation and maintenance

NREL :

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

NSSS :

nuclear steam supply system

PV :

photovoltaic

PWR :

pressurized water reactor

SNPD :

solar-nuclear power and desalination

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Energy and Power Engineering, Northeast Electric Power University, Jilin, 132012, Jilin, China

    Gang Wang, Dongyu Li, Jianqing Lin & Chuntian Gao

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  1. Gang Wang
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  2. Dongyu Li
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Contributions

Gang Wang: writing — original draft, Dongyu Li: writing — review and editing, Jianqing Lin: writing — review and editing, and Chuntian Gao: writing — review and editing.

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Correspondence to Gang Wang.

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Wang, ., Li, D., Lin, J. et al. Technical-economic and environmental protection performance evaluation of a novel hybrid solar-nuclear thermally coupled power and desalination plant. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 94639–94648 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-29095-3

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