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Emergy-based exergoeconomic and exergoenvironmental evaluation of a combined power and cooling system based on ORC-VCR

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Abstract

Ensuring efficient operation of energy conversion systems in terms of economics and ecology is a prime objective that should be addressed within the design, optimization, and development stages of such systems. Adopting appropriate measures for accurate assessment and comprehensive evaluation of thermodynamic systems is a sheer necessity for accomplishing this purpose. In this study, the newly developed emergy-based exergoeconomic (i.e., emergoeconomic) and emergy-based exergoenvironmental (i.e., emergoenvironmental) analyses have been employed to assess a combined power and cooling system, including a gas turbine cycle, a steam Rankine cycle, and an integrated organic Rankine cycle-vapor compression refrigeration (ORC-VCR) subsystem serving as a waste heat recovery unit. The merit of emergy-based methods is that they can evaluate and express results by an identical unit of measurement (i.e., sej) which enables us to undertake a fair and accurate comparison between the methods in question. The results showed that the combustion chamber, with the total economic emergy rate of 6.83E13 (sej h−1) and the total ecological emergy rate of 6.05E14 (sej h−1), was the most critical component in the entire system from both the economic and ecological viewpoints. Moreover, a parametric study was carried out on the entire system, as well as the ORC-VCR unit, to examine the effect of design parameters on the emergy-based monetary and ecological performances. Increasing the air compressor pressure ratio from 6 to 11 enhanced the entire system’s both emergy-based performances by almost 8%, followed by improvements made by the gas turbine isentropic efficiency and combustor inlet temperature, with 6.5% and 5.5%, respectively. However, other design parameters exerted limited impact. Regarding the ORC-VCR, raising the ORC turbine inlet temperature and the isentropic efficiencies associated with the ORC turbine and VCR compressor improved the emergy-based performances, while the reverse was observed for the ORC condenser and evaporator temperature rise.

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Abbreviations

\(\dot{E}_{{}}\) :

Exergy rate (kW)

\(f_{\text{m}}\) :

Emergoeconomic factor (%)

\(f_{\text{n}}\) :

Emergoenvironmental factor (%)

\(hy\) :

Operation hours per year (h year-1)

LS:

Lifespan (year)

LT:

Lifetime (h)

m :

Specific monetary emergy (sej GJ−1)

\(\dot{M}\) :

Monetary emergy rate (sej h−1)

M :

Component’s mass (kg)

n :

Specific ecological emergy (sej GJ−1º)

\(\dot{N}\) :

Ecological emergy rate (sej h−1)

\(\dot{Q}\) :

Heat transfer rate (kW)

r :

Relative emergy difference (%)

SEM:

Exergy-based specific emergy of a material (sej g-1)

\(\dot{U}\) :

Component-related monetary emergy rate (sej h-1)

\(\dot{V}\) :

Component-related ecological emergy rate (sej h-1)

\(\dot{W}\) :

Power (kW)

\(\dot{Z}\) :

Investment cost rate ($ h−1)

\(\beta\) :

Scale factor

\(\psi\) :

Emergy-based performance (%)

D:

Destruction

F:

Fuel

i:

Flow stream number

in:

Inlet

k:

Component number

M/m:

Monetary

N/n:

Ecological

net:

Net

out:

Outlet

P:

Product

Q:

Heat

system:

System

tot:

Total

W:

Work

CI:

Capital investment

CO:

Construction

DI:

Disposal

OM:

Operating and maintenance

AC:

Air compressor

APH:

Air preheater

CC:

Combustion chamber

EVA:

Evaporator

EXV:

Expansion valve

GT:

Gas turbine

GTC:

Gas turbine cycle

MC:

Mixing chamber

OC:

ORC condenser

OP:

ORC pump

ORC-VCR:

Organic Rankine cycle-vapor compression refrigeration

OT:

ORC turbine

SB:

Steam boiler

SC:

Steam condenser

SP:

Steam pump

SPECO:

Specific exergy costing

SRC:

Steam Rkine cycle

ST:

Steam turbine

VC:

VCR compressor

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Aerospace Engineering, K.N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

    Alireza Mahmoudan

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

    Parviz Samadof

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Jalandhar, Punjab, 144411, India

    Ravinder Kumar

  4. Renewable Energies and Environment Department, Faculty of New Science and Technologies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Mohamad Jalili

  5. Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, Department of Mathematical and Computer Modelling, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan

    Alibek Issakhov

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  1. Alireza Mahmoudan
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  2. Parviz Samadof
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  3. Ravinder Kumar
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Correspondence to Ravinder Kumar.

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Mahmoudan, A., Samadof, P., Kumar, R. et al. Emergy-based exergoeconomic and exergoenvironmental evaluation of a combined power and cooling system based on ORC-VCR. J Therm Anal Calorim 145, 1353–1372 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-020-10422-6

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