Design and thermodynamic analysis of a new multigenerational plant with modular high‐temperature gas‐cooled reactor

Abstract

Summary In this study, a novel multigeneration plant driven by the heat energy coming from a nuclear reactor cooling fluid is designed, modeled, and analyzed. The primary aim of this multigeneration system is to generate useful products by using the waste heat of a nuclear reactor. The useful products of the multigeneration plant are electricity, heating, cooling, compressed hydrogen, drying, and freshwater. Then it is targeted to increase the plant's overall effectiveness by integrating sub‐plants. All parameters and thermodynamic balance equations are presented belonging to the multigenerational system and its sub‐parts. For the evaluation of the designed multigeneration system, thermodynamic analysis, including energy and exergy efficiency analyses with parametric analysis, is performed. The reference temperature, the nuclear reactor cooling fluid, and the pinch point temperature of the heat exchanger 1 are selected as parameters. The study's outputs reveal that the highest energy and exergy efficiencies are achieved as 66.69% and 60.82% when nuclear reactor cooling reactor temperature is 1000°C. Based on the performance assessment, the high and low‐pressure turbines could generate 3670 and 3137 kW, respectively, while the ORC turbine produces 9544 kW power.