Energy 174 (2019) 478e487

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

A modified Allam cycle without compressors realizing efficient power

generation with peak load shifting and CO2 capture
Zilong Zhu, Yaping Chen*, Jiafeng Wu, Shaobo Zhang, Shuxing Zheng
Key Laboratory of Energy Thermal Conversion and Control of Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing,
210096, China

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

Article history: A modified Allam cycle (Allam-Z cycle) with a simpler system was proposed and investigated using NG
Received 4 October 2018 (natural gas)/O2 combustion products mixing with the circulation CO2 as the working medium for power
Received in revised form generation with high efficiency, zero CO2 emission and peak load shifting. The modifications are that all
28 January 2019
the working media are pumped to high pressure by pumps instead of compressors, the cold energy of
Accepted 31 January 2019
Available online 1 March 2019
both liquid oxygen and LNG is used for degrading the cooling water for CO2 liquefaction and a set of
regenerative heat exchangers are arranged for turbine exhaust heat recovery. The influences of turbine
parameters on the performances of the cycle were investigated. The comparison was performed under
Keywords:
Power generation
the conditions of condensation temperature of 30
C, turbine inlet pressure of 30 MPa, inlet temperature
Oxy-fuel combustion of either 700
C or 900
C and the turbine outlet pressures of Allam-Z cycle and Allam cycle are 7.21 MPa
CO2 and H2O mixture and 4 MPa respectively. The results show that the output power efficiency and the equivalent net effi-
CO2 capture ciency of the Allam-Z cycle with full CO2 capture are 43.64% and 40.83% respectively or 50.87% and
Allam cycle 48.05% respectively, which are 2.15% or 2.96% higher than those of the Allam cycle under the same
Allam-Z cycle condition.
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction are feasible with environment-friendly features.

Beside the emissions of greenhouse gases, the limited resources
The application of CCS (carbon capture and storage) technology and increasing global energy demand compel to reform energy
in power generation for reduction CO2 emission into the atmo- structure through improving energy efficiency and developing
sphere is considered as the main technology to solve the problem of renewable energies. Some new thermal cycles used in solar energy,
climate change [1,2]. The biggest problem for CO2 capture in biomass energy and waste heat have been proposed or studied
traditional coal power plants is the huge economic cost on complex [12e16]. The supercritical or transcritical carbon dioxide power
technical processes with massive power consumption and it also cycles with simple loop and high thermal efficiency have captured
needs a lot of chemicals [3,4]. In a traditional coal power plant with increasing attention in recent years [17]. Carbon dioxide is a natural
CO2 capture, the carbon dioxide composition of flue gas is working fluid, nontoxic and nonflammable, and has good ther-
decreased by about 65% while the thermal efficiency will drop mophysical properties with fairly high heat transfer coefficient.
around 18%. Obviously, oxy-fuel combustion has more advantages Supercritical or transcritical carbon dioxide power cycles have been
than traditional combustion since the CO2 content is concentrated applied in waste heat [18], solar energy [19] and nuclear energy
with oxy-fuel combustion and can be easily separated from the [20] in different occasions. Zhang and Lior [21] proposed a CO2 and
mixture by conventional cooling technologies [5], therefore it H2O mixture Rankine cycle and CO2 Brayton cycle combined power
provides a simple and valuable measure for CO2 capture. Many cycle using LNG and O2 as fuel and oxidant, respectively. Although
scholars and experts performed economic and technical analysis on the thermal efficiency of this power cycle is higher than 50%, the
the operation of oxy-fuel combustion power plants [6e11] in recent cycle system with both gas turbine and steam turbine loops is
years, and got a conclusion that oxy-fuel combustion power plants rather complicated. Purjam et al. [22] studied a supercritical carbon
dioxide cycle and investigated the impacts of some important pa-
rameters on cycle efficiency in different temperature heat re-
* Corresponding author. sources. Chen et al. [23] and Wu et al. [24] proposed and studied a
E-mail address: ypgchen@sina.com (Y. Chen). novel LNG/O2 combustion gas and steam mixture cycle (GSMC)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2019.01.165
0360-5442/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Z. Zhu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 478e487 479

Nomenclature Subscript
digit status point in Fig. 1
a O2
Latin letters ASU air separation unit
G mass flow, mass flow in turbine (kg$s1) b NG
h specific enthalpy (kJ$kg1) c CO2
p pressure (MPa) w H2O
Q heat (kJ$kg1) cp combustion product
RASU percentage of ASU consumed power el electricity
Raux percentage of auxiliary power g electric generator
T, t temperature (K,
C) in inlet
W power output or consumption (kW) m mass
out output, outlet
Greek letters p pressure
g ratio of prices of off-peak and peak electricity P pump
D difference s isentropic
Dtp pinch temperature difference (K) sat saturate
hel out output power efficiency t temperature
heq net equivalent net efficiency T turbine

which is supercritical Rankine cycle using H2O/CO2 mixture work- technology and cooling methods, the biggest obstacle of super-
ing fluid. In the GSMC system, the CO2 is liquefied and captured by critical and ultra-supercritical power plant is going to be eliminated
cryogenic liquids of both LNG and oxygen. In order to solve the [34,35]. To improve the thermal efficiency, the turbine inlet pa-
problem of excessive circulation operation pressure of supercritical rameters in the Allam cycle [31,32] are about 30 MPa and 1150
C
carbon dioxide cycle, Jeong and Yong [25] investigated a super- respectively. The Allam cycle uses gaseous fuel with oxygen com-
critical CO2eXe and CO2eKr mixture Brayton cycle at variable bustion products with the addition of circulation CO2 as working
critical points. The results show that the mixture cycle can achieve fluid, and the liquid or solid fuel such as coal or biomass should be
higher thermal efficiency than S-CO2 cycle with lower operation converted to gaseous fuel before combustion. Liquefied natural gas
pressure. Amann et al. [26] modified natural gas fueled combined (LNG), as a clean energy, with considerable cold energy and high
cycle into O2/CO2 power cycle to realize CO2 capture. Zhang et al. calorific value, is widely used as fuel in peak shaving power gen-
[27] presented a novel combined gas and steam power cycle using eration plant and should be utilized first adopting CCS with the
cryogenic LNG and liquid oxygen to cool the inlet air and the results oxy-fuel combustion technology from the economic consideration.
show a slightly higher thermal efficiency in comparison with the The turbine backpressure in the Allam cycle is set considerably
original cycle. lower than the critical value of CO2 in consideration of the proper
With the rapid development of China's economy, the increasing turbine exhaust temperature for the recuperating heat exchangers.
gap of peak-valley of power grids is becoming hot issue. At present, Thus a set of compressors with intercooling are used to raise the
peak load regulation of coal fired power units is still the main pressure of working medium for condensing by the cooling water
means of peak shaving for power grids in China [28]. The peak load which makes the Allam cycle system rather complicated. In this
regulation by coal fired power units has huge influence on its ser- paper, with the lower turbine inlet temperature (900
C) cases
vice life and also reduces its thermal efficiency. Since the applica- without cooling approach or with only static vane cooling in tur-
tion of hydraulic pumped storage stations are limited by geographic bine first stage, a simplified but still efficient power cycle based on
conditions, while the other large-scale energy storage approaches the Allam cycle (thereafter referenced as the Allam-Z cycle) is
such as air compression and air liquefaction are still under devel- proposed and studied for power generation with peak load shifting
opment or lack of economic justification, there are urgent demands and CO2 capture.
of large-scale energy storage or shifting for the modern and future
smart grid operation [29,30]. In this paper the energy storage or 2. Description of the Allam-Z cycle
shifting is merged with the oxy-fuel combustion technology for
power generation with CO2 capture. 2.1. Main circulation loop
Allam et al. [31,32] proposed a novel trans-critical carbon di-
oxide power cycle (Allam cycle) that utilizes combustion products As shown in Fig. 1, the distinguishes of the Allam-Z cycle with
and recirculation CO2 mixture as working fluid. Allam cycle adopts the Allam cycle are that the turbine backpressure is around the
oxy-fuel combustion technology with little nitrogen in combustion supercritical value rather than the lower one, thus the compressors
to realize nearly zero NOx emission, to overcome the deficiency of can be eliminated and all the working media can be raised to high
high NOx emission of the conventional LNG fueled power plants. pressure by pumps instead of compressors; the cold energy of both
Allam cycle can dramatically achieving higher thermal efficiency LNG and liquid oxygen is used for declining the cooling water
compared to steam Rankine cycle and Brayton cycle. temperature in a heat exchanger (HX5) and a set of other regen-
It is apparent that the thermal efficiency of a power cycle de- erative heat exchangers are properly arranged to make full use of
pends mainly on the cycle operation parameters of working me- the turbine exhaust heat. Since the turbine back pressure of the
dium especially the turbine inlet pressure and temperature. Allam-Z cycle is higher than that of the original Allam cycle and the
Adopting high parameters of supercritical or ultra-supercritical is partial pressure of the H2O in the mixture is higher than the H2O
becoming the trend in the modern and future development of saturation pressure of corresponding temperature at outlet of the
power plants [33]. With the rapid development of material heat exchanger HX3, H2O can be easily separated in the separator as
480 Z. Zhu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 478e487

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of Allam-Z cycle.

liquid state and the remaining moisture in gaseous phase can be pressure and temperature in LNG and LO2 tanks are set as
eliminated with the aid of a dryer. The gaseous CO2 is then cooled p1a ¼ p1b ¼ 0.1 MPa and t1b ¼ 162
C, t1a ¼ 185
C, which are a bit
and condensed in HX4 by the cooling water from the HX5. The lower than the bubble temperatures of NG and O2, respectively.
amount of CO2 corresponding to combustion product is detached as Before entering the combustors, the NG and oxygen are pumped
the captured CO2 at purity and liquid status. and heat up to high pressure and high temperature. Because of the
The main components of the Allam-Z cycle include combustors, pump power consumption, the temperature of the liquids will in-
turbine, pumps, separator, and a set of heat exchangers. This power crease considerably and also both NG and oxygen can only transmit
cycle uses CO2 with very small amount of H2O from combustion the sensible heat under turbine inlet pressure which is much higher
products as the working fluid operating with a turbine that has than their critical pressures. The “cold energy” of both LNG and LO2
inlet pressure in the range of 20e30 MPa and outlet pressure is used for decreasing temperature of the cooling water in HX5 thus
around 7.21 MPa, respectively. This cycle uses pumps to raise a lower temperature cold sink is resulted in this Allam-Z cycle.
pressure of both liquid fuel and oxidant to high value for com- In the combustors the high temperature combustion zone is
bustion, and the high temperature combustion products mix with confined in the flame tube which is well protected by the circula-
the circulation CO2 in the combustors to produce CO2 dominated tion CO2 at other side and also by injected gaseous film through
CO2 and H2O mixture vapor as the working medium, which ex- holes. The circulation CO2 mixes with the combustion products of
pands in a supercritical turbine unit for power generation. The H2O and CO2, forming CO2 predominant mixture of CO2 and H2O at
turbine exhaust medium enters a set of recuperating heat ex- point 1. The turbine inlet temperature of the Allam-Z cycle could be
changers for heating the aforementioned high pressure circulation 1150
C, the same as that of the Allam cycle, or even higher if ref-
CO2, oxygen and NG streams ready for combustion. erences to the working temperature of gas turbine (up to 1600
C),
The combustion takes place in the flame tubes of a set of com- however, 600e900
C with the turbine inlet pressure of 30 MPa
bustors in parallel, some of the circulation CO2 can be mixed with might be reasonably selected in comparison with that of the con-
the O2 before entering the combustors, while the rest of circulation ventional steam Rankine cycle power plant without or with only
CO2 flows in the annular channel of each combustor between cyl- simple cooling technique. Considering the material used in heat
inder and flame tube. The CO2 is directly mixed with the combus- exchangers, the maximum temperature at the turbine outlet is set
tion products through the holes of the flame tube and at the outlet as not to exceed 705
C [31,32], and thus the turbine inlet tem-
end of the annular channel of each combustor, forming predomi- perature is set as not to exceed 900
C. Since the turbine outlet
nant CO2 and minor H2O mixture working fluid which expands and temperature is higher with higher turbine back pressure, for eco-
produces power work in the turbine. LNG as the fuel is purchased nomic consideration only HX1 is used to reduce the turbine exhaust
from oversea market, while the liquid oxygen (LO2) is produced by gas temperature from about 705
C to 560
C for heating the cir-
consuming the off-peak electricity in the air separation unit (ASU). culation CO2 and then split to two streams to both HX2 and HX6. If
Pure O2 with complete combustion assumption is postulated in the the temperature at the turbine outlet is below 560
C, then the
simulation of the system. If only the NG/oxygen combustion exhaust gas of the turbine splits directly into two streams which
products absorb calorific value released by NG and O2 combustion, enter HX1 and HX6 respectively. Then the exhaust flows are cooled
the combustion products temperature might raise to more than to temperatures of 35
C at the both outlets of HX3 and HX6, higher
7000 K, so the circulation medium must be added for degrading than the saturation temperature of carbon dioxide (about 30
C),
temperature. The possible circulation medium is either H2O or CO2. and the two streams merge again (point 7) before the separator. So
Since CO2 has excellent thermodynamic properties above its critical the water is easily separated from mixture in the vapor-liquid
point (31.1
C and 7.38 MPa) and also the cycle system is much separator, with a dryer set at the outlet of the gaseous port. The
simpler than the one using H2O, the CO2 is preferably selected as vapor CO2 is liquefied further by cooling water in HX4. Then the
the circulation medium. captured CO2 splits from the main flow, while the circulation CO2
The fuel LNG is transported to the coastal cities by ships and stream is raised to high pressure by a CO2 pump before entering the
stored in tanks at cryogenic temperature and low pressure. The regenerator HX2 and HX1 in series.
 Z. Zhu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 478e487 481

2.2. Main advantage features 3. Methods

The pressure-enthalpy diagrams of both original Allam cycle 3.1. Parameter conditions and constraints
and Allam-Z cycle are showed in Fig. 2. It can be seen from the
diagrams that the most notable difference between them is the The thermodynamic properties of pure or mixture CO2 and H2O
simplicity. at vapor, liquid and two phase states data were calculated by the
The main advantage features of the Allam-Z cycle are as follows: software of REFPROP 8 based on the NIST [39]. The inlet and outlet
Firstly, since its combustion products become part of the working parameters of each component of the Allam-Z cycle are labeled
medium, which expand in the turbine, this system can eliminate subscripts consistent to the state points in the Fig. 1. Then the
exhaust flue gas loss and make almost full use of the calorific value thermodynamic models of the cycle system and the component
of the fuel with reduced exergy loss. Secondly, the carbon capture equipment are established with governing equations of conserva-
process in this cycle is of high conversion efficiency that needs no tion laws of mass and energy. By thermodynamic analysis of
additional cost of both electricity and chemical additives, and the quantitative evaluation for cycle efficiency, the trends of the in-
captured CO2 can be used in oil industry for squeezing the fluence parameters on the features of the new cycle can be
remaining oil out from underground which makes a perfect revealed. MATLAB code was written to call the software functions
sequestration of CO2 and in other industrial usages; while in the and to organize the whole calculation. Table 1 shows the known
conventional carbon capture approaches with absorption or parameter conditions and the constraints for the calculation. The
adsorption, a lot of energy might be consumed for separation and assumptions are listed as following:
fluid transmission with pumps and fans, and also considerable
chemical materials will be consumed [36e38]. Thirdly, the Allam-Z 1) The composition of NG is simplified as CH4, CO2 and C2H6 which
cycle system is very simple and has less thermal equipment. The are the three most abundant components in NG [24] as show in
turbine is compact and needs fewer stages with raised back pres- Table 2. The combustion is complete for oxidant O2 to CH4 and
sure. The recuperation is performed in limited number of heat
exchangers for heating the circulation CO2 and fuel/oxidant, while
in a steam Rankine cycle or a gas and steam mixture cycle (GSMC)
[23,24] 8 sets of feedwater heaters are usually adopted. The gas and Table 1
steam turbine combined cycle system needs gas turbine and steam Known parameter conditions and constraints.
turbine two cycle systems with much higher equipment cost, and Item Symbol Unit Value
the heat transfer area of the waste heat boiler which connects two
Turbine inlet pressure p1 MPa 20e30
sets of systems is also very large due to poor heat transfer coeffi-

Turbine inlet temperature t1 C 600
cient at flue gas side. The related equipment cost and space with the e900
replacement of combustors to the conventional boiler can be Condensation temperature t8

C 30


greatly reduced too. Fourthly, the economic and ecological benefits Temperature of storage LNG t1b C 162
are remarkable with features of high efficiency, peak load shifting Pressure of storage LNG p1b MPa 0.1
Flow rate of LNG G1b kg$s1 1
and minute quantity NOX emission and zero CO2 emission. The Temperature of storage LO2 t1a

C 185
liquid oxygen production technology and storage facilities are Pressure of storage LO2 p1a MPa 0.1
relatively safe (low pressure) and of high energy storage density. Flow rate of LO2 G1a kg$s1 3.72
The large scaled liquid oxygen production by air separation unit Flow rate of CO2 G1CO2 kg$s1 2.64
Flow rate of ejected H2O G1H2O kg$s1 2.08
(ASU) with the massive consumption of off-peak electricity is
Pinch temperature difference of heat exchangers Dtp K 10
beneficial to the balance and safety of power grid. Because of the Isentropic efficiency of turbine hT 0.85
very compact configuration compared to the air compression en- Isentropic efficiency of pumps hP 0.80
ergy storage unit and free of geographic limitation as pumped Isentropic efficiency of compressors hC 0.85
storage power station, both the investment and space for energy Efficiency of electric generator hg 0.985
Ratio of prices of off-peak and peak electricity g 1/4
storage facility can be greatly reduced. It is a unique stack-free Unit power consumption for oxygen production kWh 0.42
environment friendly power plant. of ASU kg1(O2)
LNG caloric value E MJ$kg1 50

Fig. 2. Pressure-enthalpy diagrams of the Allam cycle and the Allam-Z cycle.
482 Z. Zhu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 478e487

Table 2 4) The heat dissipation losses are neglected, while the pump outlet
Simplified composition of NG. pressure of all fluids is set 1 MPa more than the turbine inlet
component Molecular weight Mass fraction pressure considering the additional pump power consumption
CH4 16 88.8%
due to flow resistance.
C2H6 30 4.51%
CO2 44 6.69%
Total 100%
3.2. Mathematical model

Table 3 shows the calculation model of this cycle with the

C2H6 according to the theoretical proportional value 4:1 and
conservation laws. Eqs. (30) and (31) are respectively performance
56:15 separately as show in Eqs.(1) and (2).
evaluations of cycle system of the output power efficiency and the
equivalent net efficiency of this system, the former only consider
CH4 þ 2O2 ¼ CO2 þ 2H2 O
(1) the subtraction of auxiliary pump power, while the latter further
16 þ 64 ¼ 44 þ 36
subtracted 1/4 off-peak electricity by ASU in consideration of the
ratio of the off-peak/peak electricity prices. Usually, the ratio of the
2C2 H6 þ 7O2 ¼ 4CO2 þ 6H2 O price of off-peak electricity over that of peak electricity g varies in
(2)
60 þ 224 ¼ 176 þ 108
the range of 1/3 to 1/5 in different circumstances, while in this
paper g is taken a mean value of 1/4 [23,24].
2) Gaseous carbon dioxide and liquid water are separated
completely from the vapor-liquid separator. 4. Results and discussion
3) The minimum pinch temperature difference Dtp is set as 5 K in
CO2 condensation heat exchanger HX4, while the other heat 4.1. Impacts of turbine inlet parameters
exchangers are set as 10 K, due to worse heat transfer coefficient
of gas-like supercritical CO2. Fig. 3 shows variations of the output power efficiency and the

Table 3
Mathematical model of Allam-Z cycle.

Item Calculation formula No.

Parameters
Super-heated vapor or sub-cooled liquid hðor r; sÞ ¼ fðt; p; xÞ (3)
Saturate vapor or liquid psat ðor hsat ; rsat ; ssat Þ; h2s ¼ fðt; xÞ (4)
or tsat ðor hsat ; rsat ; ssat Þ; h2s ¼ fðp; xÞ (5)
Combustor G1 ¼ G1a þ G1b þ G10 ¼ G1c þ G1 w (6)
G1c ¼ 2:75G1b þ G10 ; G1 w ¼ 2:25G1b (7)
xcp ¼ 2:75=5; hcpt4b ¼ f ðt4b ; p1 ; xcp Þ (8)
G1 h1 ¼ G10 ðhcpt4b þ EÞ þ G1a hcpt4b þ G10 h10 (9)
CO2 circulation ration RC ¼ G10 =ðG1a þ G1b Þ (10)
Turbine
isentropic outlet h2s ¼ fðp2 ; s1 ; x2 Þ (11)
actual outlet h2 ¼ h1  ðh1  h2s ÞhT (12)
turbine work WT ¼ G1 ðh1  h2 Þ (13)
HX1 G20 0 ðh2  h3 Þ ¼ G12 ðh12  h11 Þ (14)
t3  t11  Dtp ; t2  t12  Dtp (15)
HX2 G30 0 ðh3  h5 Þ ¼ G10 ðh11  h10 Þ (16)
t5  t10 ¼ Dtp ; t3  t11  Dtp (17)
HX3 Gw ðh5w  h4 w Þ ¼ G5 ðh5  h6 Þ (18)
t6  t4w  Dtp ; t5  t5w  Dtp (19)
HX4 Gw ðh4w  h2w Þ ¼ G8 ðh8  h9 Þ (20)
t9  t2w  Dtp ; t8sat  t3w ¼ Dtp ; t8  t4w  Dtp (21)
HX5 G1w ðh1w  h2w Þ ¼ G1a ðh3a  h2a Þ þ G1b ðh3b  h2b Þ (22)
t1w  t3a ðt3b Þ ¼ Dtp ; t2w  t2a ðt2 b Þ  Dtp (23)
HX6 G4 ðh2  h4 Þ ¼ G1a ðh4a  h3a Þ þ G1b ðh4b  h3b Þ (24)
t2  t4a ðt4b Þ  Dtp ; t4  t3a ðt3 b Þ  Dtp (25)
Pumps sin or hin ¼ f ðtin ; pin Þ (26)
houts ¼ fðsin ; pout Þ (27)
hout ¼ houts þ ðhouts  hin Þð1  hP Þ (28)
Cycle
Pump work consumed WP ¼ Gðhouts  hin Þ=hP ¼ Gðhout  hin Þ (29)
P
Output power efficiency hel out ¼ ðWT hg  WP Þ=Qcp (30)
X
Equivalent net efficiency heq net ¼ ðWT hg  WP  WASU g Þ=Qcp (31)
¼ hel out ð1  RASU gÞ
X
Pct. of ASU consumed power RASU ¼ WASU g =ðWT hg  WP Þ (32)
¼ WASU =Wel out
P
Pct. of auxiliary power Raus ¼ WP =Wel out (33)
Heat released by cooling water Qcw ¼ Gw ðh5w  h1w Þ (34)
Heat input by fuel combustion Qcp Qcp ¼ E (35)

Note: f () stands for the state function; G stands for the flow rate, kg/s; the subscripts a, b, c and w stand for NG, O2, CO2 and H2O respectively; the subscripts sat stand
respectively for the saturation point parameter; the subscript digit number stands for the state point shown in Fig. 1; and the subscript s stands for the isentropic process of
turbine and pump. The turbine back pressure is fixed at 7.21 MPa and its corresponding CO2 saturation temperature is 30
C (point 9).
 Z. Zhu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 478e487 483

Fig. 3. Equivalent net efficiency of Allam-Z cycle versus turbine inlet temperature and
pressure (t9 ¼ 30
C, p2 ¼ 7.21 MPa).

equivalent net efficiency of the Allam-Z cycle with turbine inlet

temperature and pressure. Since the differential efficiency (hel,out e
Fig. 4. Enthalpy drop of turbine and CO2 circulation ratio versus turbine inlet tem-
heq,net) is a constant, the trend curves of the equivalent net effi-
perature and pressure.
ciency and the output power efficiency are plotted with the same
curves but different ordinate scales. Fig. 3(a) shows the variation
curves of both efficiencies versus the turbine inlet temperature at higher turbine inlet temperature. It means that the turbine inlet
constant turbine inlet pressure 20 MPa, 25 MPa and 30 MPa. It can pressure should be selected correspondingly to the turbine inlet
be seen that with the inlet temperature of the turbine is limited to temperature for higher efficiency. Nevertheless, since the slop near
900
C, the limit temperature of 705
C in the heat exchanger HX1 the summit of the curves are quite flat, while the cost for higher
can be satisfied [31,32]. It is clear that both output power efficiency pressure is high, the maximum pressure of 30 MPa is recom-
and the equivalent net efficiency increase with the rise of turbine mended in this paper. Fig. 3 also indicates that the output power
inlet temperature or pressure. In order to further reveal the impact efficiency or the equivalent net efficiency is more easily influenced
of turbine inlet pressure on the output power efficiency and by temperature than by pressure at turbine inlet.
equivalent net efficiency, the variation curves of previously Under the conditions of turbine inlet parameters of 30 MPa/
mentioned efficiencies are illustrated in Fig. 3(b). There are four 900
C and condensation temperature of 30
C, the output power
similar upward trend curves that increase with the rise of the efficiency and the equivalent net efficiency are 50.87% and is 48.05%
turbine inlet pressure at constant turbine inlet temperature 600
C, respectively. The value of the equivalent net efficiency is higher
700
C, 800
C and 900
C. However, the curve of both output po- than the conventional power plant without CCS.
wer efficiency and equivalent net efficiency at turbine inlet tem- Turbine inlet working fluid flow and enthalpy drop are two main
perature of 600
C has a maximum value at turbine inlet pressure of indexes of turbine power. Variations of enthalpy drop of turbine
28 MPa, while the other two curves show increasing trends only, with turbine inlet temperature and pressure is shown in Fig. 4(a).
and it seems that the peak moves to higher pressure with the in- According to the graph, the enthalpy drop of turbine always in-
crease of turbine inlet temperature. Thus it can be postulated that creases with the increase of turbine inlet temperature or pressure.
the optimal turbine inlet pressure should be over 30 MPa with Fig. 4(b) demonstrates the variations of CO2 circulation ratio with
484 Z. Zhu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 478e487

Fig. 5. Percentage of auxiliary power consumption and percentage of ASU consumed

power over output power versus turbine inlet parameters.
Fig. 6. Heat transfer curves of heat exchangers.

turbine inlet temperature and pressure. CO2 circulation ratio RC is

defined as the ratio of CO2 circulation flow rate over LNG plus O2 turbine inlet temperature and pressure at equal operation time of
flow rate. It shows that the CO2 circulation ratio decreases with the ASU. As is illustrated in Fig. 5(b), the percentage of ASU consumed
increase of turbine inlet temperature or pressure which is just power decreases with the increase of either the turbine inlet
contrary to the trend of enthalpy drop mentioned before. temperature or the turbine inlet pressure. The value of the per-
For a fixed turbine power, cycle thermal efficiency always in- centage of ASU consumed power is around 23%e33% of the output
creases with the decrease of total auxiliary power consumption by power which indicates that this scheme power plant has capacity of
the pumps. The percentage of auxiliary power consumption by peak load shifting. Beside the oxygen production, the ASU can also
pumps over output power under different turbine inlet parameters produce even more nitrogen which also has great economical value.
is illustrated in Fig. 5(a). It is clear that the percentage of auxiliary
power consumption decreases with the increase of the turbine inlet
4.2. Specific example of the Allam-Z cycle
temperature or the decrease of the turbine inlet pressure and the
downward trend is gradually slow. The reason is apparent that
Under the conditions of condensation temperature of 30
C,
higher temperature increases the enthalpy drop thus decrease the
turbine inlet pressure of 30 MPa and temperature of 700
C, the
CO2 circulation flow rate and the power consumption while the
output power efficiency is 43.64% and the percentage of ASU
higher pressure requires higher pump power consumption.
consumed power over output power is 25.78%. A 200 MW peak
The liquid oxygen is produced by consuming the off-peak
shaving power plant which generates peak electricity on full load
electricity in the air separation unit (ASU) with unit power con-
and consumes off-peak electricity with ASU for 8 h per day is
sumption at 0.42 kWh/kg (O2) which is also a kind of peak load
analyzed for an example of this power cycle. 264 ton of LNG fuel
shifting or energy storage approach. Fig. 5(b) reveals variations of
and 982 ton of LO2 are consumed for combustion which indicates
the percentage of ASU consumed power over output power with
that large volumes of the storage tanks are needed in this power
 Z. Zhu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 478e487 485

plant. Meanwhile, the superfluous liquid CO2 and H2O are the turbine might not compensate the loss in the compressor
reclaimed 697 tons and 549 tons respectively. At off-peak period, especially when the turbine inlet temperature is not very high.
the electric power of 412 MW h is consumed by ASU for oxygen Table 5 shows the performance comparison of the Allam-Z and
production at the rate of 0.42 kW h/kg (O2). The equivalent net Allam cycle under two sets of conditions that the turbine inlet
efficiency is 40.83% considering 1/4 ASU consumed off-peak power. parameters are 30 MPa/700
C and 30 MPa/900
C respectively and
Under the same turbine inlet parameter conditions, the equivalent the condensation temperature is kept 30
C, the minimum pinch
net efficiency of the Allam cycle is 38.15% with much complicated temperature difference of each heat exchange takes the same value.
system. The turbine outlet pressures of Allam-Z cycle and Allam cycle are
Fig. 6(a) reveals the heat transfer curves of fuel and oxidant respectively 7.21 MPa and 4 MPa. Under turbine inlet parameters of
preheating process under abovementioned turbine inlet conditions 30 MPa/700
C, the Allam-Z cycle has output power efficiency and
in HX5 and HX6 successively and Fig. 6(b) shows the heat transfer equivalent net efficiency of 43.64% and 40.83% respectively, which
curves of the pure substance or mixture of CO2 and/or H2O in are all 2.15% higher than those of the Allam cycle. Under turbine
recuperating and condensing heat transfer processes in HX1þHX2, inlet parameters of 30 MPa/900
C, the Allam-Z cycle has output
HX3 and HX4. Turbine outlet temperature is 523
C, so the exhaust power efficiency and equivalent net efficiency of 50.87% and 48.05%
gas is directly divided into two streams entering HX1þHX2 and respectively which are all 2.97% higher than those of the Allam
HX6 respectively. The latent heat of CO2 accounts only 24% of heat cycle under the same condition.
carried away by cooling water in HX3 and HX4. To make the ther- The calculation verified that the modification to raise the tur-
modynamic process of this power cycle more clear, parameters of bine back pressure and eliminate the compressors is justified when
status points of this case is also listed in Table 4. the turbine inlet temperature is not higher than 900
C.

4.3. Comparison of the Allam-Z cycle with the Allam cycle 5. Conclusions

The aim for comparison of the Allam-Z cycle with the Allam Under the turbine inlet temperature not higher than 900
C, the
cycle is to see the quantitative deviation of performances due to a Allam-Z cycle with higher turbine back pressure to eliminate
decreased turbine enthalpy drop without compression power compressors was investigated using combustion product and cir-
consumption with a higher turbine back pressure. The schematic culation CO2 as working medium aiming at high efficiency power
diagram of the Allam cycle for comparison is showed in Fig. 7(a). generation, nearly zero NOx emission, peak load shifting and CO2
The Allam cycle has similar loop as the Allam-Z cycle, but has an capture. The conclusions are as follows:
additional compressor. The Pressure-enthalpy diagrams of the
Allam cycle is also given in Fig. 7(b). Theoretically, the isotropic 1) The output power efficiency increases with the increase of tur-
expansion enthalpy drop in high temperature range is larger than bine inlet temperature at constant turbine inlet pressure. The
the isotropic compression enthalpy rise in low temperature range cycle efficiency varying with turbine inlet pressure at constant
between two pressures, however, the entropy increases in real turbine inlet temperature has a maximum value, and the peak
process of either expansion or compression, thus the power gain in moves to higher pressure with the increase of turbine inlet

Table 4
Parameters of status points of the example of Allam-Z cycle.

Status point Temperature
C Pressure MPa Enthalpy kJ$kg1 Flow rate kg$s1 CO2 fraction kg$kg1

1 700 31 1265.7 133.31 0.9844

2 523.4 7.21 1056.8 133.31 0.9844
4 35 7.21 406.0 4.77 0.9844
5 88.6 7.21 543.6 128.54 0.9844
6 35 7.21 406.0 128.54 0.9844
7 35 7.21 406.0 133.31 0.9844
8 35 7.21 410.0 131.23 1
80 30 7.21 354 131.34 1
9 30 7.21 304.6 128.59 1
10 78.6 31 346.5 128.59 1
12 416.8 31 860.4 128.59 1
13 30.0 7.21 304.6 2.64 1
14 35 7.21 153.1 2.08 e
1a 185 0.1 136.8 3.72 e
1b 162 0.1 3.1 1 e
2a 175.4 31 103.8 3.72 e
2b 149.1 31 80.9 1 e
3a 15 31 200.2 3.72 e
3b 15 31 618.1 1 e
4a 416.8 31 651.2 3.72 e
4b 416.8 31 1917.7 1 e
1w 20 0.1 84.0 459.89 e
2w 19.1 0.1 80.4 459.89 e
3w 25 0.1 104.9 459.89
4w 28.1 0.1 117.7 459.89 e
5w 37.3 0.1 156.2 459.89 e
486 Z. Zhu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 478e487

Fig. 7. Schematic and pressure-enthalpy diagram of the Allam cycle.

Table 5 temperature. Moreover, the impact of turbine inlet pressure on

Comparison of performances of Allam-Z and Allam cycle. the efficiency is smaller than that of the turbine inlet
item unit Allam-Z Allam temperature.
2) The enthalpy drop of turbine always increases with the increase
Turbine inlet pressure p1 MPa 30 30
Turbine outlet pressure p2 MPa 7.214 4
of the turbine inlet temperature and/or pressure. The circulation
Cooling water temperature t1w

C 20 20 CO2 ratio decreases with the increase of turbine inlet tempera-
LNG flow rate G1b kg$s1 1 1 ture or pressure.
LO2 flow rate G1a kg$s1 3.72 3.72 3) The percentage of auxiliary power consumption decreases with


Turbine inlet temperature t1 C 700 900 700 900
the increase of the turbine inlet temperature or the decrease of
Turbine enthalpy drop Dh1-2 kJ$kg1 208.9 255.8 281.1 345.7
CO2 circulation ration RC % 27.24 24.67 19.83 17.23 the turbine inlet pressure. The percentage of ASU consumed
Power output by turbine WT MW 27.85 31.00 29.20 31.43 power decreases with the increase of either temperature or
Power consumption of pumps WP MW 5.61 5.10 4.53 3.96 pressure at turbine inlet and ranges from 23% to 33% of the
Power consumption of compressor WC MW e e 3.483 3.040
output power at equal operation time of ASU with consumption
Power output MW 21.82 25.43 24.23 26.99
rate of 0.42 kW h/kg (O2) in the investigated turbine inlet
Transferring heat of HX1þHX2 MW 66.08 85.45 40.89 53.78
Transferring heat of HX3 MW 17.69 17.18 10.5 9.88
parameter range of temperature 600e900
C and pressure
Transferring heat of HX4 MW 13.83 12.56 20.7 18.08 20e30 MPa.
Transferring heat of HX5 MW 1.67 1.67 1.67 1.67 4) Under turbine inlet parameters of 30 MPa/700
C or 30 MPa/
Transferring heat of HX6 MW 2.98 3.98 2.98 3.98 900
C and condensation temperature of 30
C, the equivalent
Heat released by cooling water Qcw MW 29.86 28.07 29.53 26.29
net efficiency of the Allam-Z cycle is 40.80% or 48.05% which is
Heat input by combustion product Qcp MW 50 50 50 50
Output power efficiency hel out % 43.64 50.87 41.49 47.90 higher than that of the Allam cycle (38.68% or 45.09%).
Equivalent net efficiency heq net % 40.83 48.05 38.68 45.09
 Z. Zhu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 478e487 487

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