Virtual Simulation of Vision 21 Energy Plants

The Vision 21 Energy plants will be designed by combining several individual power, chemical, and fuel-conversion technologies. These independently developed technologies or technology modules can be interchanged and combined to form the complete Vision 21 plant that achieves the needed level of efficiency and environmental performance at affordable costs. The knowledge about each technology module must be captured in computer models so that the models can be linked together to simulate the entire Vision 21 power plant in a Virtual Simulation environment. Eventually the Virtual Simulation will find application in conceptual design, final design, plant operation and control, and operator training. In this project we take the first step towards developing such a Vision 21 Simulator. There are two main knowledge domains of a plant--the process domain (what is in the pipes), and the physical domain (the pipes and equipment that make up the plant). Over the past few decades, commercial software tools have been developed for each of these functions. However, there are three main problems that inhibit the design and operation of power plants: (1) Many of these tools, largely developed for chemicals and refining, have not been widely adopted in the power industry. (2) Tools are not integrated across functions. For example, the knowledge represented by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models of equipment is not used in process-level simulations. (3) No tool exists for readily integrating the design and behavioral knowledge about components. These problems must be overcome to develop the Vision 21 Simulator. In this project our major objective is to achieve a seamless integration of equipment-level and process-level models and apply the integrated software to power plant simulations. Specifically we are developing user-friendly tools for linking process models (Aspen Plus) with detailed equipment models (FLUENT CFD and other proprietary models). Such integration will ensure that consistent and complete knowledge about the process is used for design and optimization. The technical objectives of the current project are the following: Develop a software integration tool called the V21-Controller to mediate the information exchange between FLUENT, other detailed equipment models, and Aspen Plus. Define and publish software interfaces so that software and equipment vendors may integrate their computer models into the software developed in this project. Demonstrate the application of the integrated software with two power plant simulations, one for a conventional steam plant and another for an advanced power cycle. The project was started in October 2000. Highlights of the accomplishments during the first year of the project are the following: Formed a multi-disciplinary project team consisting of chemical and mechanical engineers; computer scientists; CFD, process simulation, and plant design software developers; and power plant designers. Developed a prototype of CFD and process model integration: a stirred tank reactor model based on FLUENT was inserted into a flow sheet model based on Aspen Plus. The prototype was used to show the effect of shaft speed (a parameter in the CFD model) on the product yield and purity (results of process simulation). This demonstrated the optimization of an equipment item in the context of the entire plant rather than in isolation. Conducted a user survey and wrote the User Requirements, Software Requirements and Software Design documents for the V21-Controller. Adopted CAPE-OPEN standard interfaces for communications between equipment and process models. Developed a preliminary version of the V21-Controller based on CAPE-OPEN interfaces. Selected one unit of an existing conventional steam plant (Richmond Power & Light) as the first demonstration case and developed an Aspen Plus model of the steam-side of the unit. A model for the gas-side of the unit, based on ALSTOM's proprietary model INDVU, was integrated with the Aspen Plus model. An industrial Advisory Board was formed to guide the software development effort and one Advisory Board meeting was conducted. Because we are integrating widely used commercial software (Aspen Plus and FLUENT) we expect that the results of the project will find immediate commercial applications at the conclusion of the project. The future activities planned are the following: Complete and test the V21-Controller and complete the integration between process-level and equipment-level models. Conduct power plant Demonstration Case 1 simulations with the integrated software suite. Select power plant Demonstration Case 2 and conduct simulations. Prepare a mock up of a 3-D plant walk through to assess the integration of process and physical domain software in a future phase of the project