Energy, exergy and economic evaluation comparison of small-scale single and dual pressure organic Rankine cycles integrated with low-grade heat sources

Low-grade heat sources such as solar thermal, geothermal, exhaust gases and industrial waste heat are suitable alternatives for power generation which can be exploited by means of small-scale Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC). This paper combines thermodynamic optimization and economic analysis to assess...

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Autores:
Fontalvo Lascano, Armando Enrique
Solano, José P.
Pedraza Yepes, Cristian Antonio
Bula Silvera, Antonio José
Gonzalez Quiroga, Arturo
Vasquez Padilla, Ricardo
Tipo de recurso:
Article of journal
Fecha de publicación:
2017
Institución:
Corporación Universidad de la Costa
Repositorio:
REDICUC - Repositorio CUC
Idioma:
eng
OAI Identifier:
oai:repositorio.cuc.edu.co:11323/1615
Acceso en línea:
http://hdl.handle.net/11323/1615
https://repositorio.cuc.edu.co/
Palabra clave:
Economic analysis
Exergy analysis
Low grade heat
Organic rankine cycle
R1234ze(Z)
Small scale power
Thermodynamic optimization
Rights
openAccess
License
Atribución – No comercial – Compartir igual
Description
Summary:Low-grade heat sources such as solar thermal, geothermal, exhaust gases and industrial waste heat are suitable alternatives for power generation which can be exploited by means of small-scale Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC). This paper combines thermodynamic optimization and economic analysis to assess the performance of single and dual pressure ORC operating with different organic fluids and targeting small-scale applications. Maximum power output is lower than 45 KW while the temperature of the heat source varies in the range 100-200 °C. The studied working fluids, namely R1234yf, R1234ze(E) and R1234ze(Z), are selected based on environmental, safety and thermal performance criteria. Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) and Specific Investment Cost (SIC) for two operation conditions are presented: maximum power output and maximum thermal efficiency. Results showed that R1234ze(Z) achieves the highest net power output (up to 44 kW) when net power output is optimized. Regenerative ORC achieves the highest performance when thermal efficiency is optimized (up to 18%). Simple ORC is the most cost-effective among the studied cycle configurations, requiring a selling price of energy of 0.3 USD/kWh to obtain a payback period of 8 years. According to SIC results, the working fluid R1234ze(Z) exhibits great potential for simple ORC when compared to conventional R245fa.