Thermodynamic and thermoeconomic analysis of a 21 MW binary type air-cooled geothermal power plant and determination of the effect of ambient temperature variation on the plant performance

Abstract

Abstract The thermodynamic and thermoeconomic performances of a 21 MW geothermal power plant with air-cooled two level binary type organic Rankine cycle was numerically investigated based on its design and operating data. The investigated plant is the Sinem Geothermal Power Plant in Germencik, Aydin, Turkey. The paper provides a detailed comparison of the exergetic performance of this plant with other eight similar type of plant units, which make use of geothermal resources with similar specific exergies. Results indicate that the exergetic efficiency of the Sinem Geothermal Power Plant is the highest with 48.2% and the others vary between 9.6% and 42.7%. This result is mainly related to the exergy losses due to suppression of heat transfer in this plant, via low temperature brine reinjection, small temperature difference in the heat exchangers and high efficiencies of the individual components. First and second law efficiencies, as well as the exergy losses and improvement potentials of each component in the plant are also calculated. In air-cooled geothermal power plants, since ambient temperature is a critical parameter for the plant performance, both thermal and economic analysis of the plant is performed based on variation in ambient air temperature. Specifically, thermoeconomic analysis of the plant is evaluated to determine the exergoeconomic factor, the relative cost difference and the sum unit cost of the product (SUCP) of the plant. The effect of ambient temperature on the SUCP of the power plant, power generation, energy and exergy efficiencies are also examined in the present study. The results showed that; when the ambient temperature increases from 5 °C to 35 °C the reduction in power generation is 6.8 MW, energy efficiency decreases from 13.7% to 9.2% while exergy efficiency decreases from 54.9% to 36.7 and SUCP of the plant increases from nearly 230 $/GJ to 330 $/GJ.