A techno-economic survey on high- to low-temperature waste heat recovery cycles for UK glass sector

Abstract

ABSTRACT Three heat recovery cycles are studied to recover the waste heat from the exhaust gas outlet of a glass-melting furnace. To determine the viability and potential dangers based on techno-economic aspects, three fundamental recovery cycles for the exhaust gas from UK glass melting furnaces are examined. The parametric thermodynamic and techno-economic study reveals the effects of the key parameters: The condenser temperature of the ORC cycle, the pressure ratio of the s cycle, and the flash pressure of the Kalina cycle. Three thermodynamic parameters (Power production, energy, and exergy efficiency), as well as five techno-economic parameters (LCOE, NPV, PP, IRR, and MOIC), have been studied with varying key factors. The results showed that ORC is the best possible option for low-temperature waste exhaust gases as it is not as expensive as other ones, while super-critical has the highest power production to produce power from high-temperature waste heat sources. Even though ORC’s payback period is 10% longer than ‘s, Comparing the IRR, NPV, and MOIC of the ORC cycle to those of the cycle, the differences are just 8.3%, 5.3%, and 8.2% lower.