Sensitivity analysis and multi-objective optimization of the energy, exergy and thermo-economic performance of a Brayton supercritical CO2-ORC configurations

Abstract

The following research compared some energy, exergetic and thermo-economic indicators of a supercritical CO2 simple Brayton cycle integrated with a simple organic Rankine cycle (SORC), and a regenerative organic Rankine cycle (RORC). A thermodynamic model was developed to determine the net power, thermal efficiency, the fuel consumption, and the exergy destruction of all the components of the system. Also, a thermo-economic model was developed to determine some economic indicators such as the levelized cost of energy (LCOE), the payback period (PBP) and specific investment cost (SIC). A sensitivity analysis was carried out to study the influence of the primary turbine inlet temperature (TIT), the high-pressure in the compressor (PHigh), the evaporator pinch point temperature difference (PPT), and the pressure ratio (Pr) on the indicators performance. Three different working fluids were selected in this study: acetone, toluene and cyclohexane. The results showed that cyclohexane had the best energy performance giving an efficiency of 48.02% for the RORC system. Besides, it presented the best thermo-economic results for the LCOE (0.26 USD/kWh), SIC (2626.75 USD/kWh), and a PBP (11.2 years). Finally, a multi-objective optimization was developed based on energy, exergy and thermo-economic performance parameters as objective functions to obtain a technical and economic feasible solution able to implement them in industrial applications.