Imperial College London
Portrait Picture

Prof. Sandro Macchietto

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering

Professor of Process Systems Engineering
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 6608s.macchietto Website

 
 
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Assistant

 

Mrs Sarah Payne +44 (0)20 7594 5567

 
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Location

 

ACEX 507aACE ExtensionSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Lozano:2020:10.1016/j.energy.2020.118861,
author = {Lozano, Santamaria F and Luceño, JA and Martin, M and Macchietto, S},
doi = {10.1016/j.energy.2020.118861},
journal = {Energy},
title = {Stochastic modelling of sandstorms affecting the optimal operation and cleaning scheduling of air coolers in concentrated solar power plants},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2020.118861},
volume = {213},
year = {2020}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The operation performance of air-coolers in concentrated solar power plants decays due to particulate deposition on heat transfer surfaces. The deposition process can be seen as a stochastic phenomenon. A modelling approach is proposed to capture the uncertainty and the effect of extreme events, such as sandstorms, affecting the performance of plants located in dry places through dust or sand deposition on the air coolers. A case study of a concentrated solar power plant located in Dubai is analysed. Sandstorms generate acute and drastic fouling of the air coolers, and this is modelled as a stochastic process using historical aerosol dispersion data. Ten scenarios are generated by sampling the probability distribution of sandstorms occurrence and intensity. The optimal operation (cleaning schedule and airflow profiles) of the air coolers is established using Benders decomposition to solve the resulting large-scale mixed integer non-linear programming problem. The results of the stochastic scenarios demonstrate that substantial savings of $ 0.6 M - $ 2.7 M per year are achieved by the optimal operation. Cost is minimised by a combined reactive and proactive cleaning policy which accounts for the frequency, intensity and seasonal variability of sandstorms, in addition to the variability on local radiation and weather conditions.
AU  - Lozano,Santamaria F
AU  - Luceño,JA
AU  - Martin,M
AU  - Macchietto,S
DO  - 10.1016/j.energy.2020.118861
PY  - 2020///
SN  - 0360-5442
TI  - Stochastic modelling of sandstorms affecting the optimal operation and cleaning scheduling of air coolers in concentrated solar power plants
T2  - Energy
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2020.118861
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/83627
VL  - 213
ER  -
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