EBSILON PROFESSIONAL

INTRODUCTION

Ebsilon Professional is an all-in-one solution for power plant engineering. It is

widely used for design, evaluation and optimisation of different types power
plants and other thermodynamic processes. During the design process, it
helps in identifying an optimal cycle and also evaluating various options and
alternate configurations. It can be also be used during plant operations to
evaluate losses and suggest possible plant improvements.

Ebsilon Professional is built from first principles physics and conserves the
energy and mass balance of all power plant processes. It can therefore be
used for simulating plant conditions at different loads to a high degree of
fidelity.

Based on Ebsilon professional models, EPOS (Ebsilon Professional and

Optimisation System) is used for on-line plant monitoring and optimisation.

THE SOFTWARE:

The Ebsilon Professional is a mass and energy balance cycle calculation

program that is highly integrated with MS Windows and MS Office
applications. It is suitable for nearly all, stationary thermodynamic modelling
requirements for evaluating thermodynamic cycles or plant schemes. It uses
the well-known mathematical kernel of Ebsilon, which can solve the non-linear
mass and energy balance equations of the plant. The mathematical kernel of
Ebsilon has excellent convergence and stability properties allowing complex
problems to be solved quickly. It is also highly user friendly and fully
compatible with the Microsoft platform. It does not require any special
programming skills allowing engineering personnel to use Ebsilon intuitively
and with ease. This is why it has proven to be the software of choice for a
large number of small and large companies. While originally it was very
popular with equipment suppliers, consultants and utilities in German
speaking Europe, it has now spread to other parts of Europe such as
Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, France and also in a number of other
countries internationally such as India, China, Korea, etc. Ebsilon is available
in German, English and French versions currently.

Data analysis and the generation of process models are supported by a

powerful graphical user interface. All the components are represented both
mathematically and graphically, allowing plant models to be built component
by component and in one-to-one correspondence with the actual plant. The
validation of measure values of the plant allows a reliable and consistent
process representation.

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Using Ebsilon, design, projection and calculation of power plant processes will
be:
• Faster
• More detailed
• More cost efficient

MODELLING FEATURES OF EBSILON:

Ebsilon professional comes with a powerful graphic editor, which allows the
models to be built using single components, group of components, sub
systems or complete systems. It also allows that components or systems can
be in open or closed circuit. This makes it possible to simplify certain areas,
and focus on those areas that are the interest of the modeller, which then can
be modelled in much greater details.

Let us have a look at example-1 to get a short glance at Ebsilon professional’s

most significant features –

Example-1

Fig - 1

Above figure shows a simple cycle built in an Ebsilon graphic editor. This
contains the modules that represent the components of the power plant.

After defining the appropriate operating and design values (according to

specification from manufacturer- Fig 2) for all components, the model is ready
for calculations.

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 Used For OFF-Design

FIG-2

The results of the calculations are stored as reference values. If the

calculations do not run successfully, then the Ebsilon provides an option for
error analysis component wise or system wise. It is also possible to compute
the behavior and performance of each component under different operating
conditions. Ebsilon provides different modes of calculations, viz., Design
mode and Off-design mode. Normally, Design mode is used for the
construction of new cycles and in this mode the designer defines appropriate
values for all components according to specifications from manufacturer. The
calculation results of the Design mode are then stored as reference values for
the Off-design mode calculations.

The Off-design mode is used for a cycle already completed and calculated in
the Design mode. It may be used to calculate different variations (different set
of input data) of plant operations.

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After successful calculations, the model computes the efficiencies and Heat
rates of the system in both design and in different operating conditions (Fig-3).

Shows efficiency
of the Unit

FIG-3

The performance of the components, e.g., Heaters, Turbines, etc., can be

shown in Q-T or H-S diagram, drawn automatically from the operating
behavior of the components in the specified conditions (Fig-4a,b). Also
Ebsilon provides a “convergence diagram” for the evaluation of the
performance of the unit.

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FIG-4a

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 FIG-4b

In addition Ebsilon professional provides another module “Ebsldent” for

identification of relations within the models developed. Generally there is a
target quantity that depends on certain input quantities. The target quantity
may be any quantity that is available in the cycle after the calculations, e.g., a
component property such as efficiency of a turbine or the K*A of a heat
exchanger.

Such identification is useful for two purposes:

• The improved calculation of a component

• The determination of quality factors, for single components, for a group of
components or the whole plant.

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Ebsilon professional can also able to provide information related to losses to
achieve the best efficiency of a Boiler. Profit analysis is also possible using
Ebsilon professional. Here are few examples shows the boiler losses and
efficiency along with HBD with coal calculations and without coal calculations.

FIG-5a – Over all Boiler Model

FIG- 5b- Boiler Efficiency and Losses

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FIG 6a- HBD with coal calculation

FIG 6b- HBD without coal calculation

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EBSILON AS AN EVALUATION AND ENERGY CONSERVATION TOOL

Ebsilon Software is a powerful tool to help the Power Plants identify poor
performance of plant components, sub-systems or the plant as a whole. The
entire plant is first “mapped” by the Ebsilon Software to establish the
consistency of plant data and compare it with the design parameters of the
plant. The outcome of this exercise gives a complete mapping of the target
plant into Ebsilon allows Ebsilon to simulate various plant conditions. This
allows the identification of problems where there are mismatches of the
design data with the plant. Through its powerful validation routines, Ebsilon
also can pinpoint wrong instrumentation data.

The plant personnel provide the data used for the mapping of the Power
Plant. The Power Plant is mapped based on data inputs and validates the
data input set by a number of trial runs. This approach is interactive since
initial power plant data set provided will usually not be consistent due to
hidden or known instrumentation errors as well as inaccurate equipment and
fuel specifications.

This mapping is also required based on the provision of the Energy

Conservation Act, which includes thermal power plants also as designated
consumers. The objective is to demonstrate more innovative methods to
conduct a baseline performance assessment and map the results into
software for further analysis and simulation for the benefit of the plant
operators.

EBSILON COMPONENT AND OTHER LIBRARIES

In the Ebsilon, the modelling is done by using a component library, which

exists of 95 components as e.g. turbines, heat-exchangers, boiler, pumps,
generators, gas-turbines, combustion chambers, tanks, gasifier, FBC, fuel
cell, cooling towers dryer, filters, separators, fans, etc. The toolbox is
developed in cooperation with the Technical University of Darmstadt and is
enlarged by at least 2 – 3 components per year.

The cycle is first modelled topologically by using the component toolbox and
the inserted components are then parameterised. All components are
equipped with sets of default values. The sets are taken from a library, which
can be modified and enlarged by the user. From this library, both total and
parts of cycles can be selected. A gas turbine library is also available.

For media properties, different property libraries and tables are available.
Fuels (bituminous coal, lignite, gas, oil, hydrogen, biomass etc.) can be used
from such a library. Flue gases can be selected with any composition or a
selected from default composition. Ebsilon Professional is powerful enough
that in one model, several power plants, district heating systems, etc. with full

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details can be connected by power-lines or steam-lines and solved in a few
seconds.

The Import and Export of data and results is possible via variety of Excel or
ASCII interfaces. It is also possible to integrate other DLL’s in the Ebsilon
package.

All adjustments as visualization, physical dimensions (or British Units

selectable either initially or on the fly.

A very powerful and interactive error analysis tool leads the user through his
EBSILON model to the error source. Besides, Ebsilon sample calculations
are available for every component as online documentation.

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