Status Report on the Component Models Developed in the Modelica Framework: Reverse Osmosis Desalination Plant & Thermal Energy Storage

This report has been prepared as part of an effort to design and build a Modeling and Simulation (M&S) framework to assess the economic viability of a Nuclear-Renewable Hybrid Energy System (N-R HES). In order to facilitate dynamic M&S of such an integrated system, research groups in multiple national laboratories and universities have been developing various subsystems as dynamic physics-based components using the Modelica programming language. In Fiscal Years (FYs) 2015, Idaho National Laboratory (INL) performed a dynamic analysis of two region-specific N-R HES configurations, including the gas-to-liquid (natural gas to Fischer-Tropsch synthetic fuel) and brackish water Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination plants as industrial processes. In FYs 2016–2017, INL developed two additional subsystems in the Modelica framework: (1) a high-temperature steam electrolysis plant as a high priority industrial plant to be integrated with a light water reactor within an N-R HES and (2) a gas turbine power plant as a secondary energy supply. In FY 2018, the RO desalination system model developed in FY 2015 has been updated such that the model is compatible with the most recent version of the ThermoPower library. Special attention has been given to the controller settings based on process models, aiming to improve process dynamics and controllability. A dynamic performance analysis of the updated RO desalination plant was carried out to evaluate the technical feasibility (load-following capability) of such a system operating under highly variable conditions requiring flexible output. Simulation results involving several case studies show that the suggested control scheme could maintain the controlled variables (including the variable electrical load and RO feed pressure) within desired limits under various plant operating conditions. The results also indicate that the proposed RO plant could provide operational flexibility to participate in energy management at the utility scale by dynamically optimizing the use of excess plant capacity within an N-R HES. For a small-scale energy storage system, a sensible Thermal Energy Storage (TES) model has been developed in the Modelica Framework in FY 2018.