ECOFlex LaBreVer – Load- and Fuel-flexible Combustion
ECOFlex LaBreVer – Last- und Brennstoffflexible Verbrennung The research project is part of the collaborative research project ECOFLEX-turbo with the goal to improve turbomachines and help to implement the Germans Energiewende. In this subproject the flexibility of combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants will be improved via implementation of a local energy storage.
Motivation
Conventional power plants, as today, will be necessary in the long term to provide security of supply. With the expansion of wind and photovoltaic plants, the requirements of conventional power plants are changing. This is expressed by shorter start-up and shut-down times, a higher load gradient and a lower minimum load. Gas turbines and CCGT power plants are more flexibility in their operation in general and with their lower CO2-Emissions compared to other plants, they are suitable for those requirements. With the project LaBreVer, the plants flexibility will be expanded further.
Goal and Approach
By integration of a local energy storage in gas turbine and CCGT power plants, the higher requirements concerning the plants flexibility can be achieved. A technology and marked analysis help to evaluate storage technologies with regard to future economic environment. Thermal, mechanical, chemical, thermochemical and electrical energy storage technologies and Power-to-Gas (PtG) will be investigated. If hydrogen is produced by PtG, it can be burned in the gas turbine of the plant. The storage technologies will be evaluated with a stationary simulation of the power plant at first. A further investigation of the promising solutions will be done with a dynamic simulation, which also will provide information about the load dynamic and the controlling of the power plant with integrated storage. With the simulation, a thermoeconomic optimization of the concepts will be done with an economic analysis and a comparison to other storage and load lowering technologies.