Deterioration effects on the performance of a steam plant for the waste heat recovery from a marine diesel engine

The study aims to investigate the effects of the steam plant components deterioration in a marine Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) system. WHR technology can significantly improve the energy efficiency of merchant ships, because it allows to recover thermal energy from the exhaust gas of the main diesel engines, in order to produce electric energy through a steam turbo-generator. On the other hand, the complexity of the power plant is obviously increased together with its maintenance procedures. For this reason, it is essential to monitor and foresee, as far as possible, the health status of the steam plant components. Then the overall performance of the WHR system is numerically evaluated in design and off-design conditions, taking into account the effects of the increased back-pressure (due to the steam plant components degradation) on the diesel power plant efficiency. The obtained results are presented in graphical form and suitably discussed.