Sincrotrone Trieste.
Construction of the civil and building services infrastructure required for the 4th-generation light source
Trieste
2017
The works led to the creation of a high-efficiency trigeneration system serving the utilities of the Sincrotrone Trieste complex.
The project was carried out in collaboration with Swiss partners.
The system is based on 3 methane-gas cogeneration units operating at 75% rated load, with a total electrical output of 1,305 kW. The electronic regulation of the entire system gives priority to electricity production, without any disturbance caused by variations in the temperature levels of the plant fluids or flue gases. To ensure the required efficiency of the cogenerators, the plant fluid temperatures are managed by the emergency heat rejection circuit with 3 dedicated dry coolers.
The flue gases produced by the cogenerators are mainly used to feed an absorber for the production of chilled water at 7 °C and, in parallel, are used by the flue-gas heat exchanger system for further heat recovery. An automatic damper system on the flue-gas circuit allows the combustion products to be directed either to the different heat recovery components or to discharge into the atmosphere.
This flue-gas recovery system is supplemented by 3 additional heat pumps with a total rated output of 375 kW for heat recovery from the engine intercoolers and from radiant heat inside the cogenerator enclosures. The thermal energy produced by the heat pumps is fed into the main hot-fluid network.
The absorber is also fed in parallel by the hot-water circuit produced by the cogenerators. The rated cooling capacity is 1.57 MW, delivered in parallel to a chilled buffer tank with a capacity of 16,000 litres. The absorber condenser is connected to a dedicated open evaporative tower with a rated capacity of 3 MW.
The electronic supervision and control system constantly regulates temperature variables and water and flue-gas flow rates, with modulating management of almost all components, in order to maintain the design balance required for the various operating parameters. The system therefore meets the priority demand for electrical energy, first for the no-break load and subsequently for the grid, through a rotary UPS up to a maximum of 700 kW. The thermal and cooling power demands of the Sincrotrone complex network are integrated in parallel.
