Energy and Exergy Assessments of a New Trigeneration System Based on Organic Rankine Cycle and Biomass Combustor

Greenhouse gas emission and exergy assessments of an integrated organic Rankine cycle with a biomass combustor for combined cooling, heating and power production

A novel cogeneration system based on a wall mounted gas boiler and an organic Rankine cycle with a hydrogen production unit is proposed and assessed based on energy and exergy analyses. The system is proposed in order to have cogenerational functionality and assessed for the first time. A theoretical research approach is used. The results indicate that the most appropriate organic working fluids for the organic Rankine cycle are HFE700 and isopentane. Utilizing these working fluids increases the energy efficiency of the integrated wall mounted gas boiler and organic Rankine cycle system by about 1% and the organic Rankine cycle net power output about 0.238 kW compared to when the systems are separate. Furthermore, increasing the turbine inlet pressure causes the net power output, the organic Rankine cycle energy and exergy efficiencies, and the cogeneration system exergy efficiency to rise. The organic Rankine cycle turbine inlet pressure has a negligible effect on the organic Rankine cycle mass flow rate. Increasing the pinch point temperature decreases the organic Rankine cycle turbine net output power. Finally, increasing the turbine inlet pressure causes the hydrogen production rate to increase; the highest and lowest hydrogen production rates are observed for the working fluids for HFE7000 and isobutane, respectively. Increasing the pinch point temperature decreases the hydrogen production rate. In the cogeneration system, the highest exergy destruction rate is exhibited by the wall mounted gas boiler, followed by the organic Rankine cycle evaporator, the organic Rankine cycle turbine, the organic Rankine cycle condenser, the proton exchange membrane electrolyzer, and the organic Rankine cycle pump, respectively.

Exergy modeling of a new solar driven trigeneration system

Energy and exergy analyses of a biomass trigeneration system using an organic Rankine cycle

Current CO2-based energy storage systems still face several unsolved technical challenges, including strong thermal destruction between the multi-stage compression and expansion processes, significant exergy destruction in heat exchange units, limited utilization of low-grade heat, and the lack of an integrated comprehensive performance framework capable of simultaneously evaluating thermodynamic, economic, and environmental performance. Although previous studies have explored various compressed CO2 energy storage (CCES) configurations and CCES–Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) couplings, most works treat the two subsystems separately, neglect interactions between the heat exchange loops, or overlook the combined effects of exergy losses, cost trade-offs, and CO2-emission reduction. These gaps hinder the identification of optimal operating conditions and limit the system-level understanding needed for practical application. To address these challenges, this study proposes an innovative system that integrates a multi-stage CCES system with ORC. The system introduces ethylene glycol as a dual thermal carrier, coupling waste-heat recovery in the CCES with low-temperature energy utilization in the ORC, while liquefied natural gas (LNG) provides cold energy to improve cycle efficiency. A comprehensive 4E (energy, exergy, economic, and environmental) assessment framework is developed, incorporating thermodynamic modeling, exergy destruction analysis, CEPCI-based cost estimation, and environmental metrics including primary energy saved (PES) and CO2 emission reduction. Sensitivity analyses on the high-pressure tank (HPT) pressure, heat exchanger pinch temperature difference, and pre-expansion pressure of propane (P30) reveal strong nonlinear effects on system performance. A multi-objective optimization combining NSGA-II and TOPSIS identifies the optimal operating condition, achieving 69.6% system exergy efficiency, a 2.07-year payback period, and 1087.3 kWh of primary energy savings. The ORC subsystem attains 49.02% thermal and 62.27% exergy efficiency, demonstrating synergistic effect between the CCES and ORC. The results highlight the proposed CCES–ORC system as a technically and economically feasible approach for high-efficiency, low-carbon energy storage and conversion.

Multi-objective optimization and exergoeconomic analysis of waste heat recovery from Tehran's waste-to-energy plant integrated with an ORC unit

Analysis of exhaust waste heat recovery from a dual fuel low temperature combustion engine using an Organic Rankine Cycle

Thermodynamic assessment of integrated biogas-based micro-power generation system

Comparison of different optimized heat driven power-cycle configurations of a gas engine

In current study, a low temperature organic Rankine cycle (ORC) based on flat plate solar collectors with storage tank is considered. Due to low cost applications, water at ambient pressure is used in both the tank and collectors. Also, the cooling is done by water in ambient temperature. Energy and exergy analysis is used to evaluate the performance of the system under various conditions to find the main sources of exergy destruction and the potential to improve them. Some parameters including exergetic efficiency, thermal efficiency, exergy destruction rate, fuel depletion ratio and irreversibility ratio are investigated. Exergy efficiency and exergy destruction ratio are calculated for the overall system according to the second law of thermodynamics based on daily efficiency. Exergy analysis of each sub-system leads to the choice of the optimum physical parameters for minimum local exergy destruction ratios. Four different working fluids are considered including R245fa, R134a, pentane and toluene to evaluate the system. Results show that the solar collector, thermal storage tank and the vapor generator are the main sources of exergy destruction respectively. Also a parametric study shows that there is an optimum daily exergy efficiency based on turbine inlet temperature. Under the same load, pentane has the best performance followed by R245fa, toluene and R134a. The corresponding daily exergy efficiencies are 24.08%, 22.53%, 22.09% and 21.76%.

Analysis of a solar driven ORC-absorption based CCHP system from a novel exergy approach

Energy, exergy and exergoeconomic analysis of a combined cooling, desalination and power system

Hydrocarbons are a promising working fluid for organic Rankine cycles and refrigeration systems that have gained increasing attention in recent decades as a replacement for the currently used higher global warming potential fluids. A novel standalone cascade refrigeration system (CRS) has been developed in this study for simultaneous ultra-low temperature cooling and heating production to medical applications most suitable for rural and power outages. Using the energy utilization factor (EUF) metrics, neopentane was chosen as the working fluid for the organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system among the selected hydrocarbon (HC) refrigerants. The standalone ORC-CRS system performance was investigated in terms of cooling and heating capacity, EUF, exergy, and environmental metrics by varying both ORC and CRS key temperature parameters. The exergy destruction of individual components was evaluated, and it was found that the ORC evaporator has the highest exergy destruction, followed by the expander. The highest EUF and exergy efficiency for a combined ORC-CRS system was about 0.64 and 38%. The maximum cooling and heating capacity of novel standalone CRS system was achieved by 70kW and 225kW respectively at a typical operating condition. At a higher ORC evaporation temperature, the exergy efficiency of the ORC-CRS system is decreased, leading to reduction in SI. The standalone ORC-CRS system at ORC evaporator temperature of 150°C achieved the maximum CO2 emission tax savings of $ 6.4 × 107 over a 15-year lifetime period. The total annualized cost index of the combined cooling heating system is in the range between 35 and 60 $/h for the variable operating condition. Non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) method was used to conduct the multi-objective optimization analysis, and the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method used to found the optimal point, which had the following values of TAC 42.22 $/h and exergy efficiency was around 46.10%.

For engine exhaust gas heat recovery, the organic Rankine cycle (ORC) cannot be directly used due to the thermal stability and safety of organic fluids. Thus, a creative power system is given by integrating the supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle and transcritical ORC. This system can directly utilize the thermal energy of a high-temperature exhaust gas. The inefficiencies in the heat exchangers are highly reduced by using supercritical working fluid. The mathematical model of the system, covering both the thermodynamic and economic aspects, is built in detail. It is found that the highest irreversible loss takes place in the gas heater, taking 21.14% of the total exergy destruction. The ORC turbine and CO2 turbine have the priority for improvement, compared to the compressor and pump. The increase in CO2 turbine inlet pressure improves the system exergy efficiency and levelized cost of energy. Both the larger CO2 and ORC turbine inlet temperatures contribute to a decrease in levelized cost of energy and a rise in system exergy efficiency. There is a maximum value of system exergy efficiency and minimum value of levelized cost of energy by varying the ORC turbine inlet pressure. The determined exergy efficiency and levelized cost of energy in the proposed system are 54.63% and 36.95 USD/MWh after multi-objective optimization.

This study presents a comprehensive analysis of an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) integrated with a hybrid solar-geothermal energy system. The research aims to evaluate the thermodynamic performance and exergy efficiency of the hybrid system and compare it with a standalone solar ORC. The problem is approached by analyzing exergy destruction within key components, using the entropy method, and evaluating the impact of different working fluids. For the standalone solar ORC with a 1 MW turbine, the turbine and condenser were identified as the main sources of exergy destruction, contributing 40% and 25%, respectively. In the hybrid solar-geothermal ORC, the solar collectors were the dominant source of exergy destruction, contributing 58%, while the turbine's share was reduced to 10%. The use of R245fa improved the overall efficiency by up to 3%. A validated Simulink model was developed, confirming the reliability of the simulation results. The findings highlight the potential of hybrid systems in improving energy efficiency for small- to medium-scale combined heat and power applications, with future work focusing on optimizing operational parameters and exploring additional working fluids.