A R C H I V E S O F M E T A L L U R G Y A N D M A T E R I A L S

Volume 59 2014 Issue 1

DOI: 10.2478/amm-2014-0017

A. ZIĘBIK∗, M. WARZYC∗, P. GŁADYSZ∗

DETERMINATION OF THE OPTIMAL STRUCTURE OF REPOWERING A METALLURGICAL CHP PLANT FIRED WITHTECHNOLOGICAL FUEL GASES

DOBÓR OPTYMALNEJ STRUKTURY ELEKTROCIEPŁOWNI GAZOWO-PAROWEJ OPALANEJ HUTNICZYMI GAZAMIPALNYMI

CHP plants in ironworks are traditionally fired with low-calorific technological fuel gases and hard coal. Among metal-lurgical fuel gases blast-furnace gas (BFG) dominates. Minor shares of gaseous fuels are converter gas (LDG) and surplusesof coke-oven gas (COG). Metallurgical CHP plant repowering consists in adding a gas turbine to the existing traditional steamCHP plant. It has been assumed that the existing steam turbine and parts of double-fuel steam boilers can be used in modernizedCHP plants. Such a system can be applied parallelly with the existing steam cycle, increasing the efficiency of utilizing themetallurgical fuel gases.

The paper presents a method and the final results of analyzing the repowering of an existing metallurgical CHP plant firedwith low-calorific technological fuel gases mixed with hard coal. The introduction of a gas turbine cycle results in a bettereffectiveness of the utilization of metallurgical fuel gases. Due to the probabilistic character of the input data (e.g. the durationcurve of availability of the chemical energy of blast-furnace gas for CHP plant, the duration curve of ambient temperature) theMonte Carlo method has been applied in order to choose the optimal structure of the gas-and-steam combined cycle CHP unit,using the Gate Cycle software. In order to simplify the optimizing calculation, the described analysis has also been performedbasing on the average value of availability of the chemical energy of blast-furnace gas. The fundamental values of optimizationdiffer only slightly from the results of the probabilistic model.

The results obtained by means of probabilistic and average input data have been compared using new information and amodel applying average input data. The new software Thermoflex has been used. The comparison confirmed that in the choiceof the power rating of the gas turbine based on both computer programs the results are similar.

Keywords: metallurgical CHP plant, combined gas-and-steam cycle, structure optimization, probabilistic approach

Tradycyjnie elektrociepłownie hutnicze są opalane niskokalorycznymi palnymi gazami technologicznymi w mieszaninie zpyłem węgla kamiennego. W mieszaninie gazów dominujący jest udział gazu wielkopiecowego. Znacznie mniejsze są udziałygazu koksowniczego i konwertorowego. Modernizacja elektrociepłowni hutniczej (tzw. repowering) polega na dobudowaniu doistniejącej struktury członu gazowego. W analizie założono możliwość wykorzystania istniejących turbin parowych oraz częścidwupaliwowych kotłów parowych. Układ gazowo-parowy zostanie połączony równolegle z istniejącym obiegiem parowym,zwiększając tym samym efektywność energetyczną wykorzystania niskokalorycznych gazów hutniczych.

W artykule zaprezentowano metodologię oraz wyniki końcowe przeprowadzonej analizy modernizacji istniejącej elektro-ciepłowni hutniczej opalanej niskokalorycznymi gazami hutniczymi w mieszance z pyłem węgla kamiennego. Bazowano przytym na zbiorze danych wejściowych z lat 1996-2000. Z uwagi na probabilistyczny charakter danych wejściowych (m.in. wykresuporządkowany dostępności energii chemicznej gazu wielkopiecowego oraz wykres uporządkowany temperatury zewnętrznej)wykorzystano metodę Monte Carlo w celu doboru optymalnej struktury kombinowanego gazowo-parowego układu elektrocie-płowni wykorzystując do tego oprogramowanie Gate Cycle. Obliczenia optymalizacyjne zostały również przeprowadzone woparciu o uśrednioną wartość strumienia energii chemicznej gazu wielkopiecowego dostępnego dla elektrociepłowni. Wynikiobliczeń podstawowych parametrów z tej analizy różnią się w nieznacznym stopniu od wyników uzyskanych za pomocą modeluprobabilistycznego.

Wyniki uzyskane zarówno z metody probabilistycznej, jak i bazującej na wartościach średnich danych wejściowych zostałyporównane z rezultatami obliczeń w oparciu o nowy zestaw danych (lata 2005-2008), jak również nowy model utworzony wprogramie Thermoflex oraz Engineering Equation Solver. Obliczenia zostały przeprowadzone w oparciu o uśredniony strumieńenergii chemicznej gazu wielkopiecowego dostępnego dla elektrociepłowni. Zastosowane do doboru struktury modernizowanejelektrociepłowni hutniczej programy komputerowe Gate Cycle i Thermoflex dały zbliżone rezultaty.

∗ SILESIAN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, 22 KONARSKIEGO STR., 44-100 GLIWICE, POLAND

106

NomenclatureBFG – blast-furnace gas,CHP – combined heat and power,E – flux of energy,J – investment expenditure,k – unit cost,LHV – lower heating value,Nel – electrical power of CHP plant,Sn – net income,δE – losses of the chemical energy of BFG,τa – annual time of CHP plant exploitation.

Subscripts

BFG – blast-furnace gas,c – coal,ch – chemical,CHP – at CHP plant,COG – coke-oven gas,CS – Cowper-stoves,eco – ecological,el – electricity,exist – existing,gas prep – gas preparation devices,GC – gas compressor,GT – gas turbine,HRSG – heat recovery steam generator,LDG – converter gas,MS – mixing station,ng – natural gas,pip – piping and instrumentation,pr – production,rep – after repowering.

1. Repowering of metallurgical CHP plants

CHP plants in ironworks are usually fired with a mixtureof hard coal and low-calorific technological fuel gases [1].The dominating gaseous fuel is in this case blast-furnace gas(BFG) with a lower heating value (LHV) of 70÷75 MJ/kmol.The substantial part of BFG is used in metallurgical process-es (Cowper stoves and heating furnaces). Its remaining partfeeds the metallurgical CHP plant. The converter gas (LDG), aby-product of the converter process of smelting, is also passedto the metallurgical CHP plant. The LHV of this technologicalfuel gas is about 180 MJ/kmol. Occasionally also surpluses ofcoke-oven gas (COG) with a LHV of 380 MJ/kmol are usedin metallurgical CHP plants.

Traditionally, metallurgical fuel gases are fired both withhard coal and metallurgical fuel gases in double-fuel boilers.The energy characteristic of double-fuel boilers fired with hardcoal and technological fuel gases depends on the share of fu-el gases in the mixture. Because the BFG dominates, the fuelgas mixture is characterized by a high content of N2 and CO2.

This leads to a decrease of the adiabatic temperature of com-bustion gases and therefore the amount of heat exchanged inthe combustion chamber is reduced. Therefore, the maximumcapacity of double-fuel boilers drops (Fig. 1) when the shareof the chemical energy of BFG in the fuel mixture increases.If the share of BFG in the mixture is increased, the flux ofcombustion gases increases too, resulting in their insufficientcooling and a rise of flue gases. The deterioration of the com-bustion and heat transfer conditions in the double-fuel boilerand the losses caused by incomplete combustion determinethe energy efficiency of the double-fuel boiler which reach-es its minimum at a share of the chemical energy of BFGamounting to about 60 % (Fig. 2) [1]. The highest efficiencyof the double-fuel boiler is attained when it is fired only withcoal. In the case of firing it with BFG only this efficiencyis lower by several percent. For this reason the effectivenessof the utilization of BFG in traditional CHP plants is not ashigh as in the case of applying combined cycle CHP plants.In many metallurgical CHP plants for several years combinedcycles have successfully been in operation. Such a system canbe applied parallelly with the existing steam cycle, increasingthe efficiency of utilizing the metallurgical fuel gases. This isusually called repowering.

Fig. 1. Capacity of double- fuel boiler vs. share of chemical energyof BFG; Gp max – maximum capacity of the boiler fired with fuelmix, Gp max hc – maximum capacity of the boiler fired with hard coal

Fig. 2. Efficiency of double-fuel boiler vs. share of chemical energyof BFG; ηE – energy efficiency of the boiler fired with fuel mix, ηE hc

– energy efficiency of the boiler fired with hard coal

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The LCA analysis of the metallurgical CHP plant present-ed in [2] indicates that the utilization of blast-furnace gas isalways a more advantageous option for the environment thanthe technology of firing with coal. The modernization of ametallurgical CHP plant consisting in the application of thegas-steam system with a gas turbine fired with blast-furnacegas is a still better environmental solution thanks to the in-creased energy effectivity in the utilization of blast-furnacegas.

The combined cycle fed with metallurgical fuel gas-es requires some changes when compared with CHP’s firedwith natural gas [3]. The application of high efficiencyelectro-filters is inevitable in order to clean the metallurgicalfuel gas before it can be used in GT. An additional elementwhich must be included in the cycle is a gas compressor be-cause the pressure of the metallurgical gas mixture is onlyslightly higher than the atmospheric pressure. Moreover, wash-ing installation must be applied to clean the blades of the gascompressor from the deposits formed by contaminations. Itmay also be necessary to introduce significant changes intothe design of the combustion chamber due to the low LHVof the mixture of metallurgical fuel gases. An important roleis also played by the lower rate of combustion. As the mix-ture contains toxic CO, this gas should not be emitted to theatmosphere. In CHP’s fed with metallurgical fuel gases; there-fore, a by-pass installation is used to expand and cool downthe compressed gas in order to permit its recycling to the inletcollector. These specific problems affect, of course, the initialinvestment but do not preclude the possibility of utilizing met-allurgical fuel gases in the GT cycle. This has been confirmedby several practical implementations of combined cycle CHPplants fired with technological fuel gases.

The interest in applying more effective ways of utiliz-ing low-calorific metallurgical fuel gases increased due to theso-called energy crisis in the seventies of the former century.Towards the end of eighties of the last century MitsubishiHeavy Industries installed in Chiba Works a combined cycleCHP unit fired with a mixture of blast-furnace gas, an LD con-verter gas and coke-oven gas equipped with a GT (124 MW)and double pressure HRSG (6.5 MPa; 518◦C – 0.83 MPa,281◦C), [4]. The steam turbine has a power rating of about 58MW and the gas compressor 37 MW. The power rating of theunit is 145 MW, while the efficiency of electricity productionamounts to 46%.

An identical unit, provided by this company, has been in-stalled at the power station Velsen of the ironworks Hoogovens(Netherlands) [5]. This system is fed with a mixture of BFGand LDG with an admixture of natural gas, so that the re-quired LHV of this mixture amounting to 4.2 MJ/Nm3 wouldbe obtained. The achieved electrical efficiency reached 45.6%.The content of dust is limited to 1 mg/ Nm3.

In the ironworks of Taranto (Italy) a combined cycle CHPplant has been installed comprising three modules with anoverall power rating of 530 MW, utilizing metallurgical fu-el gases [6]. This system differs from that described above,among others, by the application of natural gas which may benot only a component of the mixture, but also alternative fuel,also combusted in HRSG as additional fuel. Every moduleis equipped with a conventional GT (manufactured by NuovoPignone/Turbotechnica) with a power rating of 103 MW after

some constructional changes of the combustion system in or-der to permit the combustion of both a low-calorific fuel mix-ture and natural gas. The exhaust-condensing steam turbinehas a power rating of 86 MW. The efficiency of electricityproduction amounts to 43.4%.

2. An outline of the considered ironworks and its CHPplant

Fig. 3 illustrates the structure of input energy of theconsidered ironworks [7]. There are four major metallurgicalplants: the sintering plant, blast-furnace assembly, LD con-verter plant and assembly rolling mills (semiproducts and finalrolled products). Coke and coke-oven gas are supplied fromoutside. The blast-furnace plant consists of three units, each ofthem with a volume of 3200 m3. The blast is compressed upto 0.5 MPa and preheated to 1100÷1150◦C, and enriched withoxygen up to the level of about 23%. Usually two blast-furnaceunits are operated.

Fig. 3. Structure of energy in ironworks

Figs. 4 and 5 present diagrams of average annual valuesof the blast-furnace gas flux available for the CHP plant and itsLHV. These diagrams concern a five-year period of operationup to the year 2000 and the four-year period of operation inthe current century.

Fig. 4. Average values of BFG’s flux in CHP plant

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Fig. 5. Average lower heating values of BFG

The flux of blast-furnace gas available for CHP plant re-sults from the instantaneous balance of top gas production andits consumption by the respective consumers (mainly Cowperstoves and mixing stations of metallurgical fuel gases):

ECHP = Epr BFG − ECS − EMS − δEBFG (1)

The operation of installations consuming blast-furnace gas de-pends on random factors, which results in the randomness ofthe blast-furnace flux available for the CHP plant (Fig. 6).Also the LHV of blast-furnace gas ought to be considered asa random value.

Fig. 6. Flux of BFG available for the CHP plant

The recovered LD converter gas (LDG) is accumulated ina storage tank in order to equalize the production and LHV ofthis gas. The CHP plant is the only consumer of this gas andtherefore it may be assumed that the flux of chemical energyLDG is constant.

Another component of the gas mixture feeding theCHP plant is coke-oven gas. In the probabilistic approach(Monte-Carlo method) it has been assumed that it will be usedto stabilize the LHV of the metallurgical fuel gas mixture inorder to keep up the Wobbe index within the preset limits.In the approach based on the average value of BFG availablefor CHP plant it has been assumed that all the coke-oven andconverter gas was burned in mixture with blast-furnace gas inorder to achieve the highest possible LHV of the gas mixture.It has been assumed that the flux of the chemical energy ofcoke-oven gas supplied from outside is available on a givenlevel. Such an assumption is justified in the further on consid-ered example, because the coking plant is situated in imme-diate vicinity of the ironworks. Coke-oven gas is traditionallycontained in fuel-gas mixtures firing industrial furnaces.

A metallurgical CHP plant is the main source of en-ergy carriers feeding the technological processes. The in-vestigated one consists of double-fuel boilers and threekinds of turbo-sets are turbo-generators, turbo-blowers andturbo-compressors. The thermal parameters of live steam:9.8 MPa, 540◦C. There are four extraction turbines (25MWel each) and one back-pressure turbine (50 MWel). Theback-pressure steam (0.07 MPa) is supplied to heat exchang-ers of the district heating system. There are two bleeds inthe extraction turbines: process steam (0.8 MPa) and heatingsteam (0.12 MPa). The effective power rating of the turbinedriving the turbo-blower amounts to 31 MW, and in the caseof the turbo-compressor to 22 MW.

The demand for main technological energy carriers pro-duced in CHP plants: flux of the blast – 380·103 Nm3/h, com-pressed air to oxygen plant – 360·103 Nm3/h. The average an-nual production of electricity – 550 GWh/a (it is about 40%of the electricity demand in the considered ironworks). Themaximum demand for power amounts to 180 MWel. Processsteam is produced on two levels of pressure: 0.8 MPa and3 MPa. The maximum fluxes of this steam are 120 t/h and35 t/h, respectively. The maximum power of heat demand fordistrict heating is 210 MWt .

3. Statistical analysis of the availability of blast-furnacegas for the CHP plant

The flux of chemical energy of the blast-furnace gas avail-able for the CHP plant depends both on the amount of its pro-duction and its LHV affected by the thermal parameters of theblast-furnace process and on the level of its consumption bythe major consumers. Both the production of blast-furnace gasand its consumption are random values independent of eachother. Thus, the flux of chemical energy of the blast-furnacegas available for the CHP plant is also a random value, forwhich, basing on statistical data, an empirical distributionfunction can be set up. The LHV of blast-furnace gas de-pends on the thermal parameters of the blast-furnace process,mainly on the share of oxygen in the enriched blast, the kindand amount of auxiliary fuels injected into the tuyere zoneand the temperature of the blast. The randomness of the blastparameters allows to treat the LHV of the blast-furnace gasalso as a random value for which the empirical distributionfunction may be determined basing on a set of statistical data.

Figs. 7 and 8 present empirical cumulative distributionfunctions of the flux of chemical energy of blast-furnace gas,as well as its LHV concerning the analyzed first period of fiveyears, and also the representative average distribution function.In order to investigate the stability of the statistical distributionof the chemical energy of blast-furnace gas available for theCHP plant and its LHV, Kołmogorow-Smirnof’s compatibilitytest has been applied [8]. The correspondence of each indi-vidual distribution function with the representative distribu-tion function has been investigated. In Kołmogorow-Smirnof’scorrespondence test the deviation of the statistic λn from theboundary value was investigated. If on the given level of con-fidence (1 − α), we have:

λn < λα (2)

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whereλn = Dn1,n2

√n (3)

n =n1 n2

n1 + n2(4)

Dn1,n2 = sup∣∣∣ Fn1 (x) − Fn2 (x)

∣∣∣ (5)

the hypothesis of the assumed correspondence is true [8]. InEqs. (3)÷(5) n1 and n2 denote the number of the investigatedpopulation and Dn1,n2 is the measure of discrepancy betweenthe investigated empirical distribution functions.

Fig. 7. Cumulative distribution functions of the BFG chemical energyflux

Fig. 8. Cumulative distribution functions of LHV of the BFG

In both cases reduced random values were used:

ECHP

¯ECHP

andLHVBFG

LHVBFG

where:ECHP,

¯ECHP – instantaneous and average flux of chemicalenergy of the blast furnace gas available for CHP plant,

LHVBFG, LHVBFG – instantaneous and average LHV ofblast-furnace gas.

In the considered cases the statistics of λn was containedwithin the range 0.37÷0.97 concerning the flux of chemi-cal energy of the gas and 0.37÷1.21 concerning the LHV ofblast-furnace gas. The boundary value on the level of signifi-cance α = 0.05 amounts to λα = 1.36. Hence, the conclusionarises that average distribution functions are in both cases rep-resentative and may be used to construct load duration curvesof the flux of the chemical energy of blast-furnace gas and its

LHV applied in the probabilistic method of determining theoptimal structure of repowering metallurgical CHP plants.

The empirical equations describing representative dura-tion curves concerning the flux of the chemical energy of BFGavailable for the CHP plant and its LHV have the followingform:

ECHP

ECHP= 29.628

(ττ0

)6 − 116.62(ττ0

)5+ 171.04

(ττ0

)4 −−120.5

(ττ0

)3+ 42.547

(ττ0

)2 − 7.4567(ττ0

)+ 1.6667

(6)

LHVBFG

LHVBFG= 16.156

(ττ0

)6 − 55.492(ττ0

)5+ 73.638

(ττ0

)4 −−47.691

(ττ0

)3+ 15.643

(ττ0

)2 − 2.5415(ττ0

)+ 1.1921

(7)where:

ECHP

ECHP

and LHVBFG

LHVBFGdenote the relative value of the flux of

the chemical energy of BFG available for the CHP plant andthe relative value of its LHV; the average values ECHP andLHVBFG concern the considered set of statistical data; τ\τ0denotes the relative time.

In order to verify the empirical equations describing therepresentative duration curves of the flux of the chemical en-ergy of BFG available for the CHP plant and its LHV, a newset of statistical data was used based on industrial informa-tion gathered in the years 2005÷2008 (Figs. 9 and 10). Thesediagrams present duration curves of the flux of the chemi-cal energy of BFG available for the CHP plant and its LHVin the respective years. Besides, also the representative du-ration curves described by the Eqs. (6) and (7) have beenpresented. The representative duration curves evidently coin-cide well with the set of duration curves concerning the years2005÷2008. This proves that the Eqs. (6) and (7) may be auseful tool in the prediction of the flux of the chemical energyof BFG and its LHV which is inevitable in thermoeconomicalanalyses of a CHP plant fired with BFG.

Fig. 9. Duration curve of the flux of chemical energy of blast-furnacegas available for CHP plant

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Fig. 10. Duration curve of blast-furnace gas LHV

4. Simulative optimization model of metallurgical CHPplant repowering

The existing traditional part of the considered metallurgi-cal plant is shown in Fig. 11 together with the added gas part(marked by the balance cover shield) [9]. The parallel connec-tion of the gas and traditional part of CHP plant is realizedboth in the gas fuel part as well as in the steam part [10].

Fig. 11. Flowsheet of the repowered CHP plant

The algorithm of the choice of the optimal structure ofrepowering the metallurgical CHP plant is based on a largeextent of probabilistic information:• duration curve of the flux of chemical energy of the

blast-furnace gas available for the CHP plant,• duration curve of blast-furnace gas LHV,• load duration curve of process steam,• duration curve of ambient temperature.

Other input data comprise, among others:• fluxes and LHV of converter gas and coke-oven gas,• fluxes of live steam supplied to the turbo-blowers and

turbo-compressors,• information about the types of GT turbines available in

the used data base softwareare deterministic data.

Duration curves of the flux of the chemical energy ofblast-furnace gas and its LHV were determined basing on thestatistical analysis discussed in Section 3. The method of thechoice of the power rating of a gas turbine fired with metal-

lurgical fuel gases differs from the way of choosing a turbinefed with natural gas, because the annual operation of GT isconstrained not only by the demand for products (e.g. heat)but also by the supply of metallurgical fuel gases available forthe CHP plant.

Due to the probabilistic character of some input informa-tion the Monte Carlo method has been applied in simulativecalculations [11]. The application of the Monte Carlo methodconsists in multiple sampling of sets of input data determinedby means of distribution functions of random values, such asthe chemical energy of blast-furnace gas available for CHPplant, ambient temperature etc.

It has been noticed that the application of GT, conven-tionally fired with natural gas in order to utilize low-calorificmetallurgical gases, affects its operation [12,13]. The follow-ing aspects of changing the fuel in the GT must be taken intoconsideration:• an increase of the flow rate through the turbine leads to

a higher pressure ratio in the air compressor which maycause its unstable operation,

• if low-calorific fuel is used, usually an increase of thepower rating is observed; thus the admissible torque maybe exceeded,

• a larger fuel flux affects the dimensions of the fuel supplysystem and thus also the costs of investments,

• after their processing technological fuel gases are saturat-ed with humidity, which changes the conditions of heattransfer and leads to an increase of the temperature of theblades.For this reason the following rules of modeling the GT

have been assumed:• the flux of flue gases leaving the GT must be kept con-

stant by reducing the flow rate through the air compressor,making use of inlet guide vanes with a changing angle ofinclination,

• the temperature of flue gases leaving the turbine must bekept constant,

• in the case of the determined fluxes of air and fuel gasthe stability of operation of the air compressor must bechecked (in order to avoid surging).In the case of combusting low-calorific gases the follow-

ing specific features of combustion are to be observed in com-parison with natural gas:• a narrow range of combustibility characterized by the up-

per and lower coefficient of air excess,• slow combustion due to the high share of an inert com-

ponent (N2), involving its enrichment with some richerfuel.Therefore the coefficient of air excess must be accurately

controlled and a larger combustor must be applied.A lower adiabatic temperature of combusting

low-calorific gases ensures more favorable the characteris-tic of NOx emissions. Therefore it is not necessary to injectwater or steam into the combustion chamber. Practically theadaptation of standard GT in order to combust low-calorificmetallurgical fuel gases consists in:• designing an adequate combustion chamber,• diminishing the flow rate through the air compressor by

applying inlet guide vanes with a varying angle of incli-nation,

111

• restricting (in some cases) the temperature of the inlet tothe GT in order to keep up the temperature of the bladeswithin the permissible range.The main assumptions concerning the determination of

the optimal structure of a modernized CHP plants are as fol-lows:• the production of energy carriers for the needs of metal-

lurgical processes remains unchanged, i.e. on the level ofthe existing CHP plant,

• the gas-and-steam part is introduced (Fig. 11) parallelly tothe existing CHP plant fired with gas and hard coal; themain parallel connection between both parts will be theoutput steam; also on the side of feeding gaseous fuels aparallel connection is foreseen; the excess of BFG abovethe demand of GT will be combusted in gas and hard coalboilers, as so far,

• it is anticipated that the steam turbine island remains un-changed (4 extraction-condensing units with a power rat-ing of 25 MW each and the back-pressure turbine witha power rating of 50 MW); also some gas and hard coalboilers fired mainly with hard coal will still be used, func-tioning, however, only as buffering consumers of surplusmetallurgical fuel gases; the remaining part of hard coalboilers serves as a stand by,

• the designed combined cycle system replaces partially theexisting CHP plant; in other words, some part of the gasand hard coal boilers will be replaced by HRSG; the elec-tricity produced in the gas turbine replaces partially thesupply of electricity from the electroenergy grid; thanksto the GT operation a larger production of electricity isexpected, in comparison with the existing CHP plant,

• it has been assumed that a double-pressure HRSG, (9.0and 0.8 MPa) will be applied and feed the existing steamcollectors,

• the possibility of combusting additional rich fuel (naturalgas) in HRSG has been taken into account, as the temper-ature of the combustion gases does not allow to achievethe required thermal parameters of live steam,

• the water feeding the HRSG will be supplied from thedeareators of the existing part of CHP plant,

• two blast-furnaces are assumed to operate, which deter-mines the level of the mean available chemical energy ofthe BFG,

• the fluxes and composition of LDG and COG gases areassumed to be constant,

• the supply of natural gas used to enrich the gas fuel mix-ture is not limited (each determined flux of natural gasmay be ordered and delivered to the CHP plant).The mathematical model of CHP plant is based on sub-

stance and energy balances of the respective machines andequipment. It has been developed making use of Gate Cyclesoftware [14]. The data base of Gate Cycle software containstechnical characteristics of GT fired with natural gas. As men-tioned above, the adaptation of a gas turbine fired with naturalgas in order to utilize low-calorific gases (e.g. metallurgicalfuel gases) requires some changes in its design and leads tochanges of its main indices, such as the power rating of theturbine or the pressure ratio [12,13]. The necessity of thesechanges causes also an increase of capital investment costscompared with a gas turbine fired with natural gas.

The algorithm of determining the power rating of a gasturbine fired with low-calorific fuel comprises the followingitems:• the Wobbe index of gaseous fuel (enriched mixture of

technological fuel gases), as well as a specific model ofthe gas turbine determines the variant of repowering; asimulation model of the turbine is developed, using thetechnical data contained in the Gate Cycle data base; thenthe model is adjusted and its results are compared withthose of the Gate Cycle standard GT model in the nom-inal operation point when GT is fired with natural gas;the Wobbe index is chosen within the range of 95÷175MJ/kmol (the bottom limit corresponds to BFG, whereasthe upper limit concerns LDG); basing on the balance ofthe mixing chamber of combustible gases the deficiency ofmetallurgical fuel gases supplemented with natural gas orthe surplus of BFG to be supplied to the gas and hard coalboilers is determined, the demand for chemical energy ofmixed gaseous fuels conditioned by the given type of GT,

• in the next step it is assumed that the turbine is fired withlow-calorific gases; the same characteristic of the com-pressor is used in these simulations; it has been assumedthat the flux and temperature of the flue gases leaving thegas turbine should be kept constant [15-17]; this assump-tion and the balance of the combustion chamber and theexpander of the turbine permit to determine the fluxes ofair and low-calorific fuel, as well as the temperature at theoutlet of the combustion chamber; if due to the limited fluxof air at the outlet of the compressor its operational pointis situated in the zone of unstable operation (surging), theair flux must be increased in order to keep up an adequatesafety distance from the surging line,

• further on the capacity of the gas compressor and dimen-sions of the heated surfaces of the recovery boiler aredetermined.Besides design-case calculations concerning the opera-

tion in nominal conditions off-design calculations are carriedout. Because of the variability of the flux of chemical energyof BFG the GT may be run with a load below the nominalone. Then, basing on the assumed characteristics of air andgas compressors their working points ensure that they operatewithin the range of stable work. In the case of a shortage offuel gases at first a stable temperature of the combustion gasesis kept up, reducing the flow rate through the air compressorby means of guide vanes and utilizing the entire available fluxof metallurgical gases. If the stable work of the compressoris endangered, the flux of air is kept at the lowest requiredlevel, and natural gas is used to keep up the temperature ofcombustion gases at the outlet of the GT. If the gas compressoroperates in the unstable range, the GT is shut down.

Both in the design and off-design case calculations, thecomposition of the fuel gas mixture is chosen in such a waythat first the low-calorific metallurgical fuel gases are com-busted as much as possible. Natural gas is applied later.

The optimization part of the model bases on the methodof reviewing the permissible solutions. The objective functionis the Net Present Value [18], in which the main items are:• net income results from the increase of sale of electricity

after repowering the CHP plant

112

Sn = kel

τa∫

0

Nel repdτ − Eel exist

(8)

• change of costs due to the change in the consumption ofthe chemical energy of fuels

∆KE = kc

τa∫

0

Ech c repdτ − Ech c exist

+kng

τa∫

0

Ech ng repdτ (9)

• main part of the change in environmental costs is the resultof a change in consumption of coal

∆Keco =∆Ech c

LHVckeco c (10)

• capital investment comprises the following items

J = Jgas prep + JGC + JGT + JHRSG + Jpip (11)

After the utilization of probabilistic information byMonte-Carlo random sampling, the simulations of the repow-ered plant are performed for each sampled set of inputs. Theresults of plant simulations are input values for the analysis ofthe economical effectiveness of repowering. The modernizedvariant with the best economical performance is the optimalsolution.

5. The choice of the optimal structure of a modernizedCHP plant

The presented algorithms have been applied in bothanalyses aiming at the choice of an optimal structure of amodernized CHP plant. The range of modernization compris-es the addition of the gas-and-steam unit, consisting of themixing station of fuel gases, the gas cleaning system, the gascompressor, the GT system and HRSG. The scheme of thismodernized CHP plant is to be seen in Fig. 11 concerningboth cases. The structure of the power plant is determined bythe components of the system, the connections existing be-tween them and the structural parameters of the incorporateddevices.

In the analysis the decision variables were: the powerrating of the gas turbine and the Wobbe index of the gasmixture supplying the combustion chamber. Table 1 presentsthe selected parameters of the gas turbines considered in theanalysis as possible variants of modernization.

The operation of the gas turbine is determined by theWobbe index (correlated closely with the LHV) of the gaseousfuel. The lower the Wobbe index, the higher is the flux of thefuel, which results in a higher decrease of the flow throughthe air compressor. This causes that the compressor operationpoint is far from the nominal one and the efficiency of thecompressor and whole gas turbine drops (if compared withthe use of natural gas). The lower the LHV of the fuel, thelower is also the efficiency of the turbine. An increase of theWobbe index of mixed fuel gases involves a lower dependenceof the system on the availability of BFG. In such a case a lowerflux of BFG is available for a longer time during the year andwarrants a better utilization of the nominal power rating of GT.An increase of the Wobbe index decreases the capacity of theinstallation preparing the fuel gas mixture (electrical precipita-tor and gas compressor), and thus also leads to a reduction ofthe investment costs. On the other hand, however, this effectsa higher consumption of natural gas and an increase of theoperation costs due to the considerable price of natural gas.The range of variation of the power rating of GT, consideredas variants of modernization, is determined by GTX100 witha nominal power rating of 43 MW permitting the utilizationof only a third part of the average flux of low-calorific met-allurgical fuel gases. This is the bottom level of the GT set.The upper level is GT13D with a nominal power rating of 98MW. Its application permits to utilize the average flux of thechemical energy of metallurgical fuel gases. In the case ofsuch a power rating the influence of the restriction of the sup-ply of fuel gases on the energy characteristics of GT operationbecomes distinct. The considered decision variables determinethe structure of the CHP plant because they affect the powerof the gas compressor and heat recovery steam generator.

Fig. 12 presents a diagram of the net nominal power rat-ing of the GT-gas compressor unit fired with a mixture oflow-calorific gases (ISO conditions). The power rating of theGT itself grows slightly if low-calorific fuel gases are used(reduction of the air flux due to the assumption that the fluxof flue gases is constant), but the necessity of compressing thegases leads to a decrease of the power rating of the system ifcompared with GT fired with natural gas. Fig. 13 shows thedependence of the efficiency of electricity production on theconsidered variant. The effect of decreasing the efficiency re-sults in the case of low-calorific gases, compared with naturalgas conditioned by keeping up the temperature of flue gasesafter leaving the GT on a constant level (the higher share ofdiatomic gases in combustion gases leads to a decrease of theexpansion line in the GT).

TABLE 1Parameters of analysed gas turbines [15,16]

GT model – GTX100 GT8C V64.3 PG6101 PG7111EA GT13D

Producer – ABB ABB Siemens GE GE ABB

Power rating MW 43.14 52.9 63.2 70.05 83.7 97.85

Efficiency % 37.1 34.4 35.2 34.25 32.55 32.3

GT exhaust outlet temperature ◦C 547 520 532 598 531 490

113

Fig. 12. Power rating of the unit

Fig. 13. Average annual efficiency of the GT fired with low calorificfuel

A simulative analysis of the plant operation has been car-ried out for a number of input sets obtained from the MonteCarlo method. This causes that the results are quoted in theform of statistical distributions of operational parameters. Inthe case of a bigger gas turbine, utilizing a gas mixture withthe Wobbe index amounting to 95 MJ/kmol, the character ofthe distribution is different from the others (Fig. 14). This iscaused by the shortage of gas fuel, which can be avoided byapplying a smaller gas turbine or when the enrichment of theblast furnace gas is higher. In Fig. 15 a decreasing share ofdouble-fuel boilers can be observed at an increasing powerrating of the gas turbine. A higher enrichment of the BFG gasresults in a longer operation of the GT, but also causes that theshare of utilization of less efficient steam boilers increases.

Fig. 14. Duration curves of GT efficiency

Fig. 15. Shares in utilisation of technological fuel gases

Fig. 16 presents the results of the production of electricity,obtained thanks to repowering. A characteristic feature is thegrowing increase of electricity production with the growingWobbe index. This effect is higher in the case of a higherpower rating of GT. This results from the time of operationwith a nominal power rating growing with the Wobbe index.Fig. 17 presents the annual consumption of natural gas in amodernized CHP plant. With the increasing power rating ofGT and Wobbe index the annual consumption of natural gasrequired to enrich the fuel gas mixture grows, too. Only inthe case of the smallest GT the enrichment of the mixtureto the Wobbe index 115 kJ/kmol does not require natural gasconsumption (for its enrichment COG and LDG are sufficient).Fig. 18 illustrates the quantities of the increment of hard coalconsumption depending on the GT power rating and Wobbeindex. In the case of low Wobbe indexes an increase of theGT power rating means a reduction of the amount of metal-lurgical fuel gases for double-fuel boilers and an increase ofhard coal consumption. A higher Wobbe index indicates anincrease of natural gas consumption and a growing surplusof low-calorific fuel gases for double-fuel boilers. The annualincrease of power production, the annual natural gas consump-tion and change of the consumption of coal are input values inthe analysis of the economical effectiveness of modernization.

114

Fig. 16. Increase in annual CHP’s production of electricity

Fig. 17. Annual consumption of natural gas within CHP plant

Fig. 18. Increase of the annual hard coal consumption within CHPplant

Fig. 19 presents the results of the economical analysis ofthe considered variants of modernization. In the economicalassumptions the achieved discount rate of cash flows amountsto 5.42%. The highest NPV is achieved in the case of theturbine PG6101 and the lowest considered Wobbe index. This

implies that the enrichment of BFG gas by means of naturalgas is in the considered conditions not profitable, increasingthe costs because of the high unit price of natural gas. Fig.20 presents the discounted pay-back time for the consideredvariants of modernization. The investment costs are repaidafter 6.6 years. The corresponding IRR amounts to 23.3%.Among the investment costs the highest item is the GT andgas compressor (about 55%). Also the costs of the installationand pipelines are a considerable item (∼33%). The investmentsfor HRSG constitute 10÷12% of the total costs. The structureof investment costs depends on the power rating of GT onlyin a small degree [9].

Fig. 19. Net present value of modernisation of CHP plant

Fig. 20. Discounted pay-back time of the venture

The sensitivity analysis has shown that the highest in-fluence on the objective function is exerted by the price ofelectricity. Important is also the accuracy of assessing the in-vestment costs. The price of hard coal depends on the incre-ment of its consumption differing in various variants. Thiseffect displays opposite trends if the consumption of hard coaldecreases (negative increment). The influence of the price ofnatural gas is distinctly important when the power rating ofGT and the Wobbe index are higher, in which case the con-sumption of natural gas is considerable.

115

6. Choosing the optimal structure of repoweringmetallurgical CHP plant

In practical designing the choice of the energy structureof CHP plant is usually based on a set of input data, whichare annual mean values. The duration curve of ambient tem-perature is used to determine the average temperature in theheating and off-heating season. Comparative calculations, bas-ing on average data, have shown that the fundamental valuesdetermined by means of optimization differ from the results ofthe probabilistic model only slightly [9]. Thus, for instance, inthe case of the power rating of a gas turbine differs by 1.2%. Asfar as the production of electricity is concerned, this differenceamounts merely to 0.3%. Although the results concerning thediscounted pay back time differ by about 9%, in this case wemust keep in mind that the economical input values are char-acterized by a considerable uncertainty. Larger differences areencountered only in the assessment of the consumption of nat-ural gas (mainly used to stabilize the LHV of the fuel gas mix)and the consumption of hard coal (combusted in double-fuelboilers). This did not influence, however, the basic result ofoptimization, i.e. the choice of the power rating of the gasturbine. In both cases the result of the optimizing analysis isthe same (PG 6101 gas turbine from General Electric).

The obtained results of the comparative analysis of bothmentioned approaches to optimization motivate the verifica-tion of the results of choosing the structure of a modernizedmetallurgical CHP plant. For this purpose new informationhas been gained and on its base optimizing calculations havebeen carried out, making use of the model, applying averageinput data.

In the verifying analysis a new mathematical model ofthe combined cycle of the CHP unit was developed, makinguse of two kinds of commercial software:• the existing CHP unit was designed by means of the pro-

gram Engineers Equation Solver (EES),• the gas turbine and heat recovery steam generator (HRSG)

performed in the program Thermoflex.The program concerning to the existing part is based on im-plemented equations describing the individual elements of thesystem by means of mass and energy balances. On the otherhand, the program Thermoflex is based on built-in modelsand databases (as in the Gate Cycle software). For a properoperation of both these programs it is necessary to determinethe parameters at the characteristic points of the CHP unitmodel [19], including steam pressure in the turbine bleeders,temperature limitations in the heat exchangers, nominal effi-ciencies etc. Those data have been updated in comparison to

the data used in previous analyses. Also, specific dependencesconcerning metallurgical CHP plant have been included inthe mathematical model, as the change in the boiler efficiencydepending on the ratio of the blast-furnace gas in the totalchemical energy of the fuel burned in the boiler. The properoperation of the developed mathematical model is controlledby procedures implemented into the EES program. They areresponsible for the regulation of flows and temperatures inthe steam-water cycle depending on the ambient temperature(in the given season). In order to implement the heat demandfor the heating systems in the mathematical model, the de-pendence of the temperature of hot and return water on theambient temperature has been taken into account. Also, aspreviously (basing on average values), the availability of thechemical energy of blast-furnace gas was assumed to be anaverage value [19].

The coupling of those two models consists in exchangingthe data between them, including steam flows on both pressurelevels from the HRSG to the collectors of the existing part ofthe CHP unit, the consumption of low-calorific gases in thegas turbine, and so on.

In the verifying analysis the decision variable was thepower rating chosen from the set of nine gas turbines takenfrom the built-in Thermoflex software database. A specialdesign mode was used, which allows later to determine thetotal investment costs more accurately for all elements of theadded part. Table 2 presents selected parameters of the gasturbines considered in the analysis as possible variants ofmodernization.

The total investment costs were taken from the Ther-moflex program database [19]. They were in the range from115.3 (GE 651B) to 260.2 millions PLN (GE LMS 100PA).The division of the cost between the parts of the gas cycleunit was similar in all cases and amounted to about 60% for amodernized gas turbine, about 20% for the gas compressor andheat recovery steam generator each. About 3% of investmentcosts were assigned for the gas purification unit.

The results obtained in the economical analysis [19]are similar to the previously presented probabilistic approachbased on the Monte Carlo method [9]. The investment costsare returned in all cases and provide positive values of NPVin the range from 150 (GT8C2) to over 300 millions PLN(GE 6111FA). Thus, the gas turbine GE 6111FA was chosenas an optimal solution. Here it should be stressed that theGT 6111FA constitutes the same series of types as the GTPG6101, chosen as the optimal one in the analysis applyingthe Monte Carlo method.

TABLE 2Parameters of analysed gas turbines [19]

GT model – GE

6581

B

GE

6591

C

SGT-

800

SGT-

900

GT

8C2

SGT-

1000

F

V64

.3A

GE

6111

FA

GE

LM

S10

0PA

Producer - GE GE Siemens Siemens Alstom Siemens Ansaldo GE GE

Power rating MW 42.1 42.9 47.0 49.5 56.5 67.4 75.0 78.3 98.5Efficiency % 32.2 36.4 37.5 32.9 34.3 35.3 35.9 35.7 45.1

GT exhaust outlet temperature ◦C 546 568 544 514 508 583 574 594 417

116

7. Conclusions

The application of gas-and-steam CHP plants permitsto utilize more effectively the chemical energy of metallur-gical fuel gases in comparison with the traditional utiliza-tion of these gases in double-fuel boilers. A characteristicfeature of these gases is the changeability of the flux andLHV of blast-furnace gas available for the CHP plant. There-fore, the input data concerning the supply of such gases areof probabilistic character. In the considered case representa-tive diagrams have been developed concerning the durationcurves of the reduced flux of the chemical energy of BFGand its LHV, basing on a set of operational data of 5 years.Kołmogorow-Smirnoff’s test has been applied to determinethe stability of statistical distribution. The presented durationcurves were confirmed in the verification analysis, provingthem to be a good tool for predicting the availability of blastfurnace gas in the coming years. Further probabilistic informa-tion is provided by the duration curve of ambient temperatureand the duration curve of the demand for process steam.

An important part of the analysis of the gas-and-steamsystem is devoted to the gas turbine (GT). Available cataloguedata concern GT’s fired with natural gas. This requires thedevelopment of a method permitting to pass over from naturalgas GT to gas turbines fired with a mixture of low-calorificmetallurgical gases. This method has been applied in the al-gorithm of repowering a metallurgical CHP plant.

The Monte Carlo method was applied in simulative cal-culations due to probabilistic input information. The resultsof simulations of the operation of a CHP plant before and af-ter its modernization (repowering) provided input data for aneconomical analysis. The objective function of such an opti-mization was the NPV. The method of optimizing the structureof a modernized CHP plant consisted in reviewing the set ofpossible solutions within a definite range of decision variables.

The main aim of the paper is to optimize the structure of amodernized CHP plant making use of input data in the form ofduration curves. The application of probabilistic informationpermits to obtain more adequate results of calculations, but inthe case of an analysis based on average values the fundamen-tal values determined by the approach based on average datadiffer from the results of the probabilistic model only slightly.

The maximum of NPV (objective function) was achievedby applying a PG6101 turbine produced by General Elec-tric and determining the Wobbe index of the fuel mixtureon its lowest level. The application of the Gate Cycle pro-gram in calculations complying with the first set of input data(1996-2000) and of the data from 2005-2008, applied in cal-culations based on Thermoflex and the Engineering EquationSolver provide similar results in the choice of the structure ofa repowered metallurgical CHP plant fired with technologicalfuel gases. Both analyses indicate an unfavorable effect ofapplying natural gas as a component enriching low-calorificgases, because its price is rather high for industrial consumersin Polish conditions. Summarizing, the obtained DPB indices(in the optimal variant of 6.6 years) show that the consideredmodernization of a metallurgical CHP plant to a gas and steamcycle is profitable.

Acknowledgements

Partially this paper was elaborated within the frame of the grantNo NR 06 0004 06/2009 “CHP STRATEG” supported by the PolishMinistry of Science and High Education and the National Centre forResearch and Development, for which the Authors wish to expresstheir gratitude.

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Received: 20 May 2013.