Exergy analysis for Generation IV nuclear plant optimization

Overview & Synopsis

This article deals to the application of exergy concept to the energy production system involving a VHTR (Very High Temperature Reactor) coupled with an innovative electricity-generating cycle. The objective is to propose a general formulation to quantify the exergy destruction of the involved process components embedded in a thermodynamic simulator CYCLOP (Haubensack, 2004). The exergy destruction is thus identified as a major criterion to minimize. For this purpose, a genetic algorithm embedded in the so-called MULTIGEN environment is used. Finally, the optimization criterion, based on exergy destruction minimization, is applied to electrical production by a Brayton-Rankine combined cycle connected to a nuclear reactor. Some typical results are presented. The perspectives of this work including the cogeneration of hydrogen and electricity are highlighted