A novel solar-aided NOx x removal system in peaking power plants

Solar-coal hybrid power generation achieves the production of efficient, clean, and low-carbon electricity. The association between solar heat and selective catalytic reduction NOx x removal (SCR de-NOx) x ) can lead to the development of a novel solar-aided NOx x removal system for peaking power plants. In this study, a novel system was proposed, in which large amount of flat-plate and small amount of trough solar energies were integrated to optimise the SCR de-NOx x and energy utilisation in the boiler tail. Thermodynamic, NOx x removal, and economic analyses were performed. For a typical peaking unit, the proposed system produced 14.6 MWe e of solar-generated electric power and exhibited a high solar-to-electricity efficiency of 30.15 %. The integrated solar heat significantly increased the SCR de-NOx x temperature and NOx x removal efficiency. Based on its outstanding solar conversion performance, the proposed system achieved a net annual benefit (NAB) of 24.01 million Chinese yuan (CNY) and maintained a low cost of solar-generated electricity (COEs) s ) of 0.56 CNY/kWh. Based on cascade utilisation of solar thermal energy, the proposed system achieved high performance under all loads and significantly improved the NOx x removal performance under low and medium loads, especially for peaking power plants.