Modeling of microreactors for clean dispatch of electricity and process heat in a campus setting

Wodrich, Lucas A.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/117831 Copy

Description

Title

Modeling of microreactors for clean dispatch of electricity and process heat in a campus setting

Author(s)

Wodrich, Lucas A.

Issue Date

2022-12-07

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Brooks, Caleb

Committee Member(s)

Kozlowski, Tomasz

Department of Study

Nuclear, Plasma, & Rad Engr

Discipline

Nuclear, Plasma, Radiolgc Engr

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• Microreactors
• Clean Energy
• OpenModelica

Abstract

The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC) has a diverse energy portfolio consisting of various renewable and fossil-fueled sources to supply the campus demands for steam, chilled water, and electricity. Other similar grids such as the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) have similar on campus energy generation sources through their West Campus CHP (Combined Heat and Power) Plant providing steam and electricity through natural gas turbines, reciprocating turbines, heat recovery systems, and chilled water from cooling plants to provide the cooling needs of the campus. A key issue with these systems is that most of the energy consumption within the UIUC, UIC, and other similar grids is still supplied by fossil fuel sources. As energy generation and demand continues to advance, the United States continues to make strong scientific and social cases to support moving away from fossil-fuel consumption. In light of this, small-scale nuclear reactors have been identified to provide a viable solution to decarbonizing United States energy generation, but appropriate markets must be identified which can lead to large scale production of these reactor systems. By finding the proper infrastructure to simulate the operations of small-scale microreactors, the benefits provided by these systems can be fleshed out by simulating various configurations under which a microreactor can operate. The UIUC embedded grid has a well-documented metered utility grid with a wide variety of available information that can be used to validate simulated energy sources throughout the year. Constructing and validating a component-based simulation within OpenModelica allows for the model to be applied to other similar embedded grids or critical infrastructures which need a constant supply of utilities such as hospitals/representative medical centers. Furthermore, implementing a microreactor under various conditions using a representative hospital utility demand would allow for a further analysis based on the economic viability, reduction in imported electricity, load following capabilities, and optimization of a microreactor implementation with other renewable systems and storage options compared to the operations of fossil fuel systems. Through this analysis, the representative medical center may represent a critical market space necessary to drive innovation for microreactor applications in other vital infrastructure resources.

Graduation Semester

2022-12

Type of Resource

Thesis

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2022 Lucas Wodrich

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