About Us
The Problem
The thermodynamic analysis of power plants has always been limited by the inability to apply rigorous proven mathematical optimisation because a real system operates with losses that were not analytically quantifiable.
Real-world plant fluids have irreversible losses, and these prevented full and analysis without assumptions based on observation of plant history and standard operating rules of thumb. More sophisticated analytical approaches using statistical predictions from past operating history of many plants have improved the situation, but these are still averages, contain every good and bad set of parameters, and are non-specific to an individual plant.
This meant that for an operating plant in new condition with standard environmental external conditions an operating point could be calculated and become the basis for plant operators to judge changes need to improve performance as a plant and environmental conditions varied, generally reducing the heat rate. Assumptions and rules of thumb became accepted wisdom but in reality no one knew for sure was optimal.
Data mining and artificial intelligence analysis of past databases of operational plant provides some understanding, but the base data contains every guess, every mistake, and many random attempts to improve performance and it provides no rigorous mathematical and physics-based optimisation process.
The Inventor
Close to 40 years ago the inventor of the patent and a graduate of Technion University (Dr Eli Yasni) applied for a job with my company. We were both young engineers and he had been working in the merchant marine and developed an entropy-based efficiency program for slow speed diesels.
While he worked with me (Stephen Jenkins) Eli developed his ideas and extended them to the Rankin steam cycle which was his next target. He left to go to work at Otago University in their energy research and consulting division and there he enrolled in a PhD course to develop his system further.
His PhD thesis showed that by analysing thermodynamic cycles geometrically in Reimannian space they could be optimised by choosing the shortest distance between the cycle start and end using conventional min/max techniques.
He moved on to develop an operator assist programme for power station operators called Exergy based around the entropy gain possible at each step in the station cycle. This was implemented in a number of stations in New Zealand and Australia and was about to be widely adopted when the Australian Power Industry was privatised and the supply and maintenance contract for the systems lapsed.
The unique advantage of this system was the ability to identify when the system was not operating at full efficiency and drill down into the system to determine where the inefficiency was and get from the system the adjustment to overcome it if possible. If it was due to an inefficiency from machine condition it would report the location of the problem in the thermodynamic cycle and the effect it was having. For example, a condenser air leak would be detected as soon as it appeared. Blade degradation could be tracked, the improvement from reconditioning determined, etc.
He continued to develop his ideas on the optimisation of thermodynamic cycles convinced that the industry standard of rules of thumb, data mining and statistical projection, and first law approximations could be improved by the application of physics based second law calculated systems that relied only on actual operating parameters in real time.
During this time he moved from a post-doctoral position with the Energy Division of the New Zealand Government institute of Geological and Nuclear Science (GNS) to an independent consultant installing and servicing his Exergy System while maintaining a commercial relationship for the promotion of the system with GNS.
About 10 years ago he developed the concept of reverse masking that allowed an irreversible thermodynamic cycle to be modelled in a way that would allow full mathematical calculation of the physics of the cycle, and by carrying out the analysis in geometric space allowed the analysis to carry out a relatively conventional optimisation calculation.
This was tested in prototype and patented. US patent number ….. sets out the basis of the system.
The component that makes the system unique is the ability to carry out the calculations on an irreversible system and in doing so to minimise the losses the functional equivalent of maximising the useful output.
A change in the Government directive to its state-owned enterprises led GNS to request to be released from the combined vehicle that was developing the optimiser and marketing the Exergy System. This occurred with formal agreements signed in 2016 and the work was continued with private support to finalise and obtain patent protection.
In 2015 the inventor died suddenly and unexpectedly in a hotel while visiting Israel and the back-up drive with the prototype software was stolen. Subsequently once the laptop was returned to New Zealand the laptop itself was stolen in a raid on the GNS headquarters where it was held over the Christmas break prior to being passed to the company. The 20 computers and disc drives stolen were never recovered despite investigation by the N Z Police.
In the following period the owner of the patent was confirmed as the inventor’s company and the ownership of the shares held by the inventor was confirmed as the inventor’s widow. The balance of the shares continued to be held by Stephen Jenkins. The company investigated the situation with existing Exergy systems and the prototype he was testing but found that the stations only had complied programmes and that the original software was lost when the hardware was stolen. We did however know that just prior to his death that he had contacted a computer scientist in GNS who had helped with the data analysis to say the optimiser was producing sensible results at the test site at Kwinana.
The further development of the system now needs a company with resources beyond the current owners’ capacity to start a revised software development and marketing programme. The basis for the system is clearly defined in the patent documents. Other documents are available to assist, as are some people who had familiarity with the systems.
The Solution
The late Dr Eli Yasni developed some of the initial concepts in his masters and doctoral theses Otago University, building on his engineering degree from Technion University in Israel. He 1st developed optimisation for marine diesel engines while in the merchant Navy. Working with major power generation organisations he developed a 2nd law entropy based all-plant analysis that successfully allowed operator intervention to identify the location of losses in the plant processes, costing, and make recommendations to test (for example leak tests of condenser seals) were adjustments to remove the losses.
It became an independent researcher and consultant and ability XG optimisation system working significant inventive steps to effectively allow the rank and cycle to be modified as a reversible real system that then allowed rigorous mathematical optimisation to be used to calculate the plant control settings to maximise output.
Dr Yasni died unexpectedly while the prototype for closed-loop control was being tested on a gas-fired combined cycle power station. The last report indicators were encouraging and making sense.
The Company
Exergy Limited, a New Zealand corporation, has developed proprietary software, the Exergy Suite, which is designed to monitor the operation of fossil-fuel power plants and improve their efficiency. When it detects efficiency degradation, it facilitates the restoration and optimization of plant efficiency. The benefits of installing the Exergy Suite in power plants are two-fold: savings of millions of dollars in operating costs, and minimizing CO2 emissions and other pollutants.
The Exergy Suite consists of two modules, a diagnostic module and an optimizing module. The diagnostic module identifies deviations in plant efficiency from baseline benchmark levels and provides recommendations for corrective actions to return the plant to baseline efficiency. The optimizing module goes further: it determines the optimal system configuration and combination of parameters to maximize efficiency above and beyond the plant baseline benchmark. The optimizing module is not limited by the baseline operational parameters of a plant. Thermal efficiency improvements with the application of the Exergy Suite are typically around 2% (range 1%–4%) for coal- and natural gas-fired plants.
The Opportunity
The company has investigated the possibility of developing the patents into commercial systems given the potential that was demonstrated by the prototype testing underway at the time of the death of Dr Yasni. The loss of all records when Dr Yasni’s computer and hard drive were stolen and the cost of developing the software meant that the development was beyond the capacity of the shareholders. Securing the patents was given priority. Seeking partners was investigated but the market environment was not encouraging.
Having reviewed options and trends the shareholders came to the following conclusions:
- The unique physics and mathematical basis protected in the patents has genuine value and potential to improve the economic performance of the power generation industry.
- The current climate crisis needs this carbon dioxide reducing technology to be developed as a low-cost option to reduce carbon dioxide discharge from thermal power
- The climbing cost of carbon is making the economics very attractive
- The system is best developed by an organisation with market penetration in the thermal power industry, an interest in physics based digital twins, and capacity to develop the software required.
- The growing appreciation of the technical and commercial advantages of digital twin asset management
- The first mover market advantages to an organisation that supplies complete systems for power generation
- The patent describes a step by step process to implement the intellectual property, all that is required beyond the patent is prior art.
On the basis of this analysis the shareholders decided that outright sale (or exclusive licence) was the best way to bring this technology to the market.