Abstract
AbstractThis paper presents the exergoeconomic analysis of a 100 kW solar driven organic Rankine cycle (ORC) power plant for the Port Harcourt climatic zone, latitude 4.5–5.5°N and longitude 6.5–7.5°E, at an ambient temperature range of 23–31°C. A cascade cycle of R134a and R290 working fluids was considered for the proposed plant. The relationships between thermodynamic properties and characteristics were formulated and numerical solutions obtained in the Microsoft Excel and MATLAB environments for the assessment of the performance of the plant. The size and mass flow rate of water through the flat plate solar collector, mass flow rates, efficiencies, and other relevant parameters of the cycles were determined. The energy and exergy efficiencies of the proposed plant, at the optimal collector operation, are 18.92 and 21.61%, respectively. The total capital investment, levelized cost of energy, payback time and the earning power of the investment were estimated to be 352 US$/kW, 0.0072 US$/kWh, 2 years 7 ...
Highlights
Many developing countries such as Nigeria with an increasing population, expanding economy and rise in energy demands are faced with shortages in electric power supply
Analysis suggests that small scale concentrating solar power systems with organic Rankine cycle (ORC) power plant could be economically competitive with photovoltaic and diesel generators based on the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), in the range $0.30−$0.50 per kWh, for off-grid duty (Matthew, Amy, Sylvain, & Harold, 2010)
An optimal First law thermal and overall efficiency of 18.92% and 4.58%, respectively, are obtained, which agrees with the work of Sami (2008) that the efficiency of an ORC is between 10 and 20% depending on the temperature levels of the evaporator and condenser
Summary
Many developing countries such as Nigeria with an increasing population, expanding economy and rise in energy demands are faced with shortages in electric power supply. Where ṁ hf [kg/s], h13 and h14 [kJ/kg] are the mass flow rate of the heating fluid (R600a), inlet and exit specific enthalpies, respectively, Figures 1 and 2. Other exergoeconomic variables include the specific cost of fuel and product per unit exergy of each component and the cost rate of exergy destruction which are given by Audrius and Nick (2011) as cf ,n
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