Preference-based multiobjective artificial bee colony algorithm for optimization of superheated steam temperature control

In order to incorporate the decision maker＇s preference into multiobjective optimization a preference-based multiobjective artificial bee colony algorithm PMABCA is proposed.In the proposed algorithm a novel reference point based preference expression method is addressed.The fitness assignment function is defined based on the nondominated rank and the newly defined preference distance.An archive set is introduced for saving the nondominated solutions and an improved crowding-distance operator is addressed to remove the extra solutions in the archive.The experimental results of two benchmark test functions show that a preferred set of solutions and some other non-preference solutions are achieved simultaneously.The simulation results of the proportional-integral-derivative PID parameter optimization for superheated steam temperature verify that the PMABCA is efficient in aiding to making a reasonable decision.

Neuro-fuzzy generalized predictive control of boiler steam temperature

Power plants are nonlinear and uncertain complex systems. Reliable control of superheated steam temperature is necessary to ensure high efficiency and high load-following capability in the operation of modem power plant. A nonlinear generalized predictive controller based on neuro-fuzzy network （NFGPC） is proposed in this paper. The proposed nonlinear controller is applied to control the superheated steam temperature of a 200MW power plant. From the experiments on the plant and the simulation of the plant, much better performance than the traditional controller is obtained,

Effect of long reaction distance on gas composition from organic-rich shale pyrolysis under high-temperature steam environment

When high-temperature steam is used as a medium to pyrolyze organic-rich shale,water steam not only acts as heat transfer but also participates in the chemical reaction of organic matter pyrolysis,thus affecting the generation law and release characteristics of gas products.In this study,based on a long-distance reaction system of organic-rich shale pyrolysis via steam injection,the effects of steam temperature and reaction distance on gas product composition are analyzed in depth and compared with other pyrolysis processes.The advantages of organic-rich shale pyrolysis via steam injection are then evaluated.The volume concentration of hydrogen in the gas product obtained via the steam injection pyrolysis of organic-rich shale is the highest,which is more than 60%.The hydrogen content increases as the reaction distance is extended;however,the rate of increase changes gradually.Increasing the reaction distance from 800 to 4000 mm increases the hydrogen content from 34.91%to 69.68%and from 63.13%to 78.61%when the steam temperature is 500℃ and 555℃,respectively.However,the higher the heat injection temperature,the smaller the reaction distance required to form a high concentration hydrogen pyrolysis environment(hydrogen concentration>60%).When the steam pyrolysis temperature is increased from 500℃ to 555℃,the reaction distance required to form a high concentration of hydrogen is reduced from 3800 to 800 mm.Compared with the direct retorting process,the volume concentration of hydrogen obtained from high-temperature steam pyrolysis of organic-rich shale is 8.82 and 10.72 times that of the commonly used Fushun and Kivite furnaces,respectively.The pyrolysis of organic-rich shale via steam injection is a pyrolysis process in a hydrogen-rich environment.

Generalized Predictive Control for Superheated Steam Temperature Regulation in a Supercritical Coal-fired Power Plant

The design and implementation of a Generalized Predictive Control(GPC)strategy for the superheated steam temperature regulation in a supercritical(SC)coal-fired power plant is presented.A Controlled Auto-Regressive MovingAverage(CARMA)model of the plant is derived from using the experimental data to approximately predict the plant’s future behavior.This model is required by the GPC algorithm to calculate the future control inputs.A new GPC controller is designed and its performance is tested through extensive simulation studies.Compared with the performance of the plant using a conventional PID controller,the steam temperature controlled by the GPC controller is found to be more stable.The stable steam temperature leads to more efficient plant operation and energy saving,as demonstrated by the simulation results.Plant performance improvement is also tested while the plant experiences the load demand changes and disturbances resulting from the malfunctioning of coal mills.

A novel time-span input neural network for accurate municipal solid waste incineration boiler steam temperature prediction

A novel time-span input neural network was developed to accurately predict the trend of the main steam temperature of a 750-t/d waste incineration boiler.Its historical operating data were used to retrieve sensitive parameters for the boiler output steam temperature by correlation analysis.Then,the 15 most sensitive parameters with specified time spans were selected as neural network inputs.An external testing set was introduced to objectively evaluate the neural network prediction capability.The results show that,compared with the traditional prediction method,the time-span input framework model can achieve better prediction performance and has a greater capability for generalization.The maximum average prediction error can be controlled below 0.2°C and 1.5°C in the next 60 s and 5 min,respectively.In addition,setting a reasonable terminal training threshold can effectively avoid overfitting.An importance analysis of the parameters indicates that the main steam temperature and the average temperature around the high-temperature superheater are the two most important variables of the input parameters;the former affects the overall prediction and the latter affects the long-term prediction performance.

Application of PID Controller Based on BP Neural Network in Export Steam’s Temperature Control System

By combining the Back-Propagation （BP） neural network with conventional proportional Integral Derivative （PID） controller, a new temperature control strategy of the export steam in supercritical electric power plant is put forward. This scheme can effectively overcome the large time delay, inertia of the export steam and the influencee of object in varying operational parameters. Thus excellent control quality is obtaitud. The present paper describes the development and application of neural network based controller to control the temperature of the boiler＇s export steam. Through simulation in various situations, it validates that the control quality of this control system is apparently superior to the conventional PID control system.

Application of Response Surface Methodology for Analysis of Reheat Steam Temperatures in a Double Reheat Coal-Fired Boiler

For the improvement of reheat steam quality and performance of double reheat coal-fired utility boiler under wide load operation, a variety of temperature regulation ways were utilized to adjust the energy distribution between different heating surfaces. In this paper, thermodynamic calculation based on the fundamental heat transfer theory was conducted for the analysis of temperature regulation strategy effects to steam temperature. In consideration of the specific overlapping heating surface arrangement, the compartment model was adopted to solve this problem. Response surface methodology(RSM) was used to analysis the effect of each temperature regulating variables on the steam temperature and boiler efficiency;then the polynomial model was fitted to predict the primary and secondary steam temperature simultaneously. Results showed that the flue gas recirculation rate has a relatively significant influence on the steam temperature, the maximum temperature deviation between fitting value and calculation value is 3.85℃ in 75% THA;the quadratic model can well predict the steam temperature under different operation conditions in wide load change. The variation of flue gas baffle has a significant influence on the boiler efficiency, compared to the flue gas recirculation and angle of burner oscillation. The influence of various factors on the reheat steam temperature is flue gas baffle > flue gas recirculation > angle of burner oscillation.

Control system design for a pressure-tube-type supercritical water-cooled nuclear reactor via a higher order sliding mode method

Nuclear power plants exhibit non-linear and time-variable dynamics.Therefore,designing a control system that sets the reactor power and forces it to follow the desired load is complicated.A supercritical water reactor(SCWR)is a fourth-generation conceptual reactor.In an SCWR,the non-linear dynamics of the reactor require a controller capable of control-ling the nonlinearities.In this study,a pressure-tube-type SCWR was controlled during reactor power maneuvering with a higher order sliding mode,and the reactor outgoing steam temperature and pressure were controlled simultaneously.In an SCWR,the temperature,pressure,and power must be maintained at a setpoint(desired value)during power maneuvering.Reactor point kinetics equations with three groups of delayed neutrons were used in the simulation.Higher-order and classic sliding mode controllers were separately manufactured to control the plant and were compared with the PI controllers speci-fied in previous studies.The controlled parameters were reactor power,steam temperature,and pressure.Notably,for these parameters,the PI controller had certain instabilities in the presence of disturbances.The classic sliding mode controller had a higher accuracy and stability;however its main drawback was the chattering phenomenon.HOSMC was highly accurate and stable and had a small computational cost.In reality,it followed the desired values without oscillations and chattering.

Composite Cathode based on Mn-doped Perovskite Niobate-Titanate for Efficient Steam Electrolysis

Redox-active Mn is introduced into the B site of redox-stable perovskite niobate-titanate to improve the electrocatalytic activity of composite cathode in an oxide-ion-conducting solid oxide electrolyzer. The XRD and XPS results reveal the successful partial replacement of Ti/Nb by Mn in the B site of niobate-titanate. The ionic conductivities of the Mndoped niobate-titanate are significantly improved by approximately 1 order of magnitude in reducing atmosphere and 0.5 order of magnitude in oxidizing atmosphere compared with bare niobate-titanate at 800 ℃. The current efficiency for Mn-doped niobate-titanate cathode is accordingly enhanced by ,-25% and 30% in contrast to the bare cathode with and without reducing gas flowing over the cathode under the applied voltage of 2.0 V at 800 ℃ in an oxide-ion-conducting solid oxide electrolyzer, respectively.

Yield and mechanical properties of veneer from Brachystegia nigerica

In an effort to find suitable wood from natural forest to meet the demand for veneer products, the yield and tensile strength of veneers produced from Brachystegia nigerica were investigated. Two trees of B. nigerica were separately selected from 10 different natural forest zones while two logs were obtained from each tree. The logs were debarked and steamed in a vat prior to rotary peeling and slicing for veneer production. The optimum steam temperature was determined by considering different temperatures： 50℃, 60℃, 70℃, 80℃ and 90℃ for 24 h. Thereafter, optimum steam time was determined at the optimum temperature by considering durations of 24, 48, 72 and 96 h. The average taper of 0.75 mm per 1.0 m length was recorded for B. nigerica, indicating that the logs were reasonably cylindrical; thereby its logs are good for the production of veneer. The yield ranged from 44% to 61% with an average of 52% of the log input. The tensile strength of the veneer was tested perpendicular to grain and both peeled and sliced veneers had the highest tensile strength between 70℃ and 90℃, suggesting that softening of wood polymers, especially lignin, is between 70℃ and 90℃. The optimum temperature and time for veneer production are 70℃ and 48 h, respectively. Commercial production of veneer from B. nigerica is feasible based on the yield and mechanical properties of the obtained veneer, thereby encouraging the expansion of the scope of its utilization.

Design and Optimization of Multiple Interconnected Utility Systems in An Integrated Refining and Petrochemical Complex

In an integrated refining and petrochemical complex,a centralized utility system(CUS)is introduced to integrate the steam demands of production plants.Besides,two sub-utility systems(SUSs)located inside the alkene and refinery plants,respectively,can satisfy the shaft demands.It is difficult to determine the steam production of the CUS because the steam demands of the alkene and refinery plants also depend on the design and operation of the SUSs.To explore the complicated interaction between the CUS and SUSs,we proposed a mixed-integer nonlinear programming(MINLP)model for the design and optimization of multiple interconnected utility systems to minimize the total annualized cost(TAC).An extended superstructure was suggested to contain multiple inter-plant connected steam pipe alternatives between the CUS and SUSs.A more accurate model of the complex steam turbine was proposed.Then the proposed MINLP framework is applied to a new integrated refining and petrochemical complex.Two scenarios are investigated in the case study to explore the effect of steam main temperatures on system configurations and operating parameters.By optimizing the main temperatures,a TAC of$2.7 million can be saved.Judging from the results of the two scenarios,the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed framework for the design and optimization of multiple interconnected utility systems have been demonstrated.

Dropwise Condensation Heat Transfer of Steam on a Polytethefluoroethylene Film

Excellent dropwise condensation of steam was observed on a polytethefluoroethylene (PTFE) coated plate. The experimental results indicated that the condensation heat transfer performance was increased by 30 to 47 times when compared with film condensation values at the same surface subcooling degrees. The random fluctuation of the surface temperature was resulted from the high thermal conductivity of the copper substrate and the ultra thin coated polymer film with lower surface free energy. The effect of the steam temperature for pressures near atmospheric pressure on the dropwise condensation heat transfer characteristics was investigated as well.

Effects of steam on CO2 absorption ability of calcium-based sorbent modified by peanut husk ash

The CO_2 absorption ability of synthetic calcium-based sorbent modified by peanut husk ash (PHA) was tested by Thermal Gravimetric Analyzer (TGA), and the effects of steam and calcination temperature were investigated. The PHA composition was analyzed by X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), the apparent morphology was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), and the phases of the sorbent before and after calcination were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The addition of PHA effectively improved the cyclic stability of the calcium-based sorbent. The optimal molar ratio of SiO_2 in PHA to CaO was around 0.07. Steam had positive effect on keeping porosity of the sorbent at the chemical reaction stage, and improved its CO_2 absorption ability. Steam also reduced the diffusion resistance of the product layer, and depressed the influence of high temperature calcination. It was also found that the steam hydration after calcination was an effective way to recover the absorption ability of the sorbent, while the hydration duration of 10 min was enough.