Experimental results of an ammonia-water mixture turbine system

The Advanced Research Institute for Science and Engineering at Waseda University designed and constructed an experimental facility, the ACGS (the Advanced Co-Generation System), to investigate various kinds of energy-saving technology for a distributed energy supply system. One of the main targets is a hybrid combined heat and power supply system that uses AWM (ammonia-water mixture) as its working fluid (Amano et. al., 1999). The AMW turbine system was developed for the bottoming stage of "trinary turbine cycle system." The trinary cycle system is the main part of the ACGS and consists of a gas turbine cycle in the topping stage, a steam turbine cycle in the middle stage and the AWM turbine cycle in the bottoming stage. The AWM turbine system is capable of simulating various vapor mixture conditions observed in the heat exchangers proposed for use in the Kalina cycle and other thermodynamic cycles that use AWM as their working fluid. We call the AWM turbine system the Waseda Ammonia-Water Mixture Turbine System (W-MTS). The ACGS project team has constructed an experimental facility for the AWM turbine system and carried out the first trial run. This paper discusses the basic characteristics of the AWM turbine cycle and describes its input/output characteristics. Steady state characteristics experiments were carried out on the W-MTS to investigate the following: (1) the effect on the distillation/condensation subsystem (DCSS), namely, the effect of temperature at the inlet of the separator in the DCSS and the effect of the reflux loop, which enhances heat transfer in the condensing process, and (2) the effect on the vapor generator subsystem, (VGSS), namely, the effect of evaporating pressure and the effect of changes in the heat source. From the experimental results, we derived the basic characteristics of the turbine cycle as an input/output model, and the planning and control guide to be used in the turbine system in the bottoming stage.