Optimum Fuel Allocation in Power Plants

Optimization by direct search and systematic reduction of the size of search region

“…Various authors suggest sectional linearization of nonlinear functions, thus converting the nonlinear programming problem into a linear programming problem. For example, such an approach was used by Hovanessian and Stout (1963) and Hovanessian and Pipes (196!>) in optimizing the fuel allocation in power plants, and by Di Bella and Stevens (1965) in optimizing a complex nonlinear reactor system. However, such approximations are not at all necessary if the following approach is considered.…”

Optimal load allocation of multiple fuel boilers

“…For many years now, the power industry has successfully used economic dispatch quite extensively to allocate electrical generation among multiple electrical generator units. Most of the research in this area however, has been on the optimal allocation of electrical generators rather than steam generation [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. The research that has been done on power boilers in the utility industry has been on the modeling and control aspects [5][6][7][8][9][10] rather than the boiler allocation aspect.…”

“…The research that has been done on power boilers in the utility industry has been on the modeling and control aspects [5][6][7][8][9][10] rather than the boiler allocation aspect. In [3] for instance, the authors find an operating level and fuel mixture ratio that minimizes fuel costs in a boiler-turbine generator combination by using the Simplex method to address certain types of nonlinear problems. Similarly, in [4], an enhanced immune approach is used to address the allocation of dual fuel fired boiler-generator combination units but again in the cogeneration setting.…”

“…[2][3][4][5]. This is generally the case for industrial boilers in which a boiler manufacturer would provide such efficiency versus load curve for each boiler manufactured.…”

“…where, H conv is the steam enthalpy conversion factor, MMBTU / T C i is boiler i operating cost, $ / hr P j is fuel j price, $ / MMBTU L i,j is boiler i steam load from fuel j, T / hr 3,j is boiler i efficiency for fuel j a i,1,j , a i,2,j and a i,3,j are the efficiency coefficients for boiler i, for fuel j.…”