Assessment of a Geothermal Combined System with an Organic Rankine Cycle and Multi-effect Distillation Desalination

An analysis is reported of a geothermal-based electricity-freshwater system in which an organic Rankine cycle is integrated with a multi-effect distillation desalination unit. The system is driven by geothermal hot water extracted from the production well. Mass, energy, entropy, and exergy rate balances are written for all system components, as are energy and exergy efficiency expressions for each subsystem. The exergy destruction rate associated with the temperature and chemical disequilibrium of the freshwater and brine with the reference environment are taken into account to reveal accurate results for irreversibility sources within the desalination process. The developed thermodynamic model is simulated using thermodynamic properties of the working fluids (i.e., ammonia, seawater, distillate, and brine) at each state point. A sustainability analysis is performed that connects exergy and environmental impact concepts. That assessment expresses the extent of the contribution of the system to sustainable development and reduced environmental impact, using exergy methods. Results of the sustainability analysis indicate that, with an increase in the reference environment temperature from 20 to 35 $$^\circ{\rm C}$$ ∘ C , the exergy destruction rate decreases for the multi-effect distillation and organic Rankine cycle systems respectively from 6474 to 4217 kW and from 16,270 to 13,459 kW. Also, the corresponding sustainability index for the multi-effect distillation and organic Rankine cycle systems increases from 1.16 to 1.2 and 1.5–1.6, respectively, for the same increase in reference environment temperature.

Exergy and exergoeconomic analyses of serial and bypass two-stage compression on the household refrigerator-freezer and replacement of R436A refrigerant

In this research, the performance of serial two-stage compression (STC) cycle and bypass two-stage compression (BTC) cycle on the household refrigerator-freezers is tested in the laboratory. Then, based on the results of the experiments, exergy, exergoeconomic analyses, and cycle optimization are carried out. Considering that replacing refrigerants in household refrigerator-freezers is one of the approaches to increase the performance and environmental impact of these systems, R436A refrigerant (46% Isobutene and 54% Propane mixture) is used and analyzed to replace previous refrigerants. Finally, the multi-objective optimization of the mentioned cycles is performed with both refrigerants. For analyses, two models of refrigerator-freezers with different cycles are used (STC cycle with R134a refrigerant and BTC cycle with R-600a refrigerant). In both models, two evaporators for refrigerator-freezer compartments are used. International standards (IEC 62552) are used to test refrigerator-freezers. MATLAB and REFPROP 9.1 software are used to model the systems. According to the results of the analyses, the STC cycle with R436A refrigerant has more total exergy destruction rate (0.727 kW) compared to R134a refrigerant. In the BTC cycle, in which the fresh food compartment (FFC) and freezer compartment (FZC) operate, the total exergy destruction rate with R-600a refrigerant (0.422 kW) is less than with R436A refrigerant. In the case of the BTC cycle in which only the FZC operates, the total exergy destruction rate with R-600a refrigerant (0.455 kW) is less than with R436A refrigerant. The most exergoeconomic factor among cycle equipment is related to the compressor (about 98%). The highest COP value between cycles is related to the STC cycle with R134a refrigerant.

Conventional and Advanced Exergoeconomic Analysis of a Compound Ejector-Heat Pump for Simultaneous Cooling and Heating

This work focused on a compound PV/T waste heat driven ejector-heat pump system for simultaneous data centre cooling and waste heat recovery for district heating. The system uses PV/T waste heat as the generator’s heat source, acting with the vapour generated in an evaporative condenser as the ejector drive force. Conventional and advanced exergy and advanced exergoeconomic analyses are used to determine the cause and avoidable degree of the components’ exergy destruction rate and cost rates. Regarding the conventional exergy analysis for the whole system, the compressor represents the largest exergy destruction source of 26%. On the other hand, the generator shows the lowest sources (2%). The advanced exergy analysis indicates that 59.4% of the whole system thermodynamical inefficiencies can be avoided by further design optimisation. The compressor has the highest contribution to the destruction in the avoidable exergy destruction rate (21%), followed by the ejector (18%) and condenser (8%). Moreover, the advanced exergoeconomic results prove that 51% of the system costs are unavoidable. In system components cost comparison, the highest cost comes from the condenser, 30%. In the same context, the ejector has the lowest exergoeconomic factor, and it should be getting more attention to reduce the irreversibility by design improving. On the contrary, the evaporator has the highest exergoeconomic factor (94%).

Exergy destruction rate minimization in the absorber of a double effect vapor absorption system

Despite the wide applications of multi-effect vapor absorption systems, their energy requirement is relatively higher. Also, their exergy analyses found in the literature reveal that the exergy destruction rate at the absorber is quite significant and has the potential for improvement in its energy efficiency. In this work, the exergy destruction rate at the absorber is minimized using the penalty factor method against the optimized generator temperature of the double-effect vapor absorption system by considering absorber, evaporator, and condenser temperatures into consideration. Modeling of the double-effect vapor absorption system was performed using a thermodynamic toolbox in SIMULINK. The present model employed a refrigerant heat exchanger to enhance the system cooling capacity. The Liquid-vapor ejector valve at the absorber also improved the mixing of the solution and refrigerant vapor resulting in lower irreversibility of the system. Results show that the coefficient of a performance increase by 2.4 % with refrigerant heat exchanger and exergy loss at absorber decrease by 9.4 % with ejector. The optimum performance was seen at the condenser and evaporator temperatures of 308.8 K and 278.1 K, respectively with an 8.2 % improvement in exergetic efficiency. Finally, it is concluded that the multi-effect absorption system shows better performance by minimizing the irreversibility.

Assessment of an integrated solar combined cycle system based on conventional and advanced exergetic methods

An integrated solar combined cycle system based on parabolic trough solar collector and combined cycle power plant is proposed. The advanced system is socio-economic significance compared to traditional combined cycle power system. Plainly, the exergetic analyses (exergy destruction and efficiency) via conventional and advanced methods are used for thermodynamic properties of the integrated solar combined cycle system components. In addition, the exergy destruction is divided into endogenous, exogenous, avoidable, and unavoidable. The results show that the combustion chamber has the largest fuel exergy and the highest endogenous exergy destruction rate of 1001.60 MW and 213.87 MW, respectively. Additionally, the combustion chamber has the highest exergy destruction rate of 235.60 MW(60.29%), followed by the parabolic trough solar collector of 54.20 MW(13.87%). For overall system, the endogenous exergy destruction rate of 320.83 MW (82.10%) and exogenous exergy destruction rate of 69.97 MW (17.90%) are resulted via the advanced exergy analysis method. Besides?Several methods to reduce the exergy destruction and improve the components? efficiency are put forward.

Evaluation of Two-Column Air Separation Processes Based on Exergy Analysis

Cryogenic air separation processes are widely used for the large-scale production of nitrogen and oxygen. The most widely used design for this process involves two distillation columns operating at different pressures. This work focuses on the selection of suitable cryogenic air separation process by evaluating seven alternative designs of the two-column air separation process based on detailed exergy analysis. The feed conditions (500 tons/h, and 50% relative humidity of air), product purities (99 mole% for both nitrogen and oxygen), and operational conditions (pressures of both distillation columns) are kept same in all designs. The two cryogenic distillation columns in each configuration are heat-integrated to eliminate the need for external utilities. Steady-state simulation results are used to calculate the exergy efficiency (%) of each equipment as well as its contribution toward the overall exergy destruction rate (kW) of the process. The results show that the compression section is a major source of exergy destruction, followed by the low-pressure column, and the multi-stream heat exchanger. A Petlyuk-like configuration, labeled as C1, provides the lowest exergy destruction rate.

Improved Exergy Evaluation of Ammonia-Water Absorption Refrigeration System Using Inverse Method

In this study, the compatibility of exergy destruction minimization (EDM) as the main objective is checked by plotting coefficient of performance (COP), exergy coefficient of performance (ECOP), and overall exergy destruction rate by simultaneously varying input operating temperatures for a 28 TR cooling load absorption system. The component-wise variation in exergy destruction is also considered and it is found that the maxima of COP and ECOP, and the minima of overall exergy destruction lies on a common point, and when the variation of operating temperatures is further extended, the exergy destruction in one of the component becomes negative, which marks the upper bound of the present analysis. At highest valid generator temperature (155 °C), the minimum possible overall exergy destruction rate is 53.50 kW and maximum COP is 0.523. Through inverse optimization (IO) using dragonfly algorithm (DA), the same overall exergy destruction rate is achieved for a wide range of generator temperatures much below than 155 °C, and as low as 127.34 °C. The above variation is explained in terms of flow ratio, mass flowrate of steam, and mass flowrate of cooling water.

Evaluation and Optimization of the Annual Performance of a Novel Tri-Generation System Driven by Geothermal Brine in Off-Design Conditions

The difference in heating or cooling to power ratio between required demands for district networks and the proposed tri-generation system is the most challenging issue of the system configuration and design. In this work, an adjustable, novel tri-generation system driven by geothermal resources is proposed to supply the thermal energies of a specific district network depending on ambient temperature in Germany. The tri-generation system is a combination of a modified absorption refrigeration cycle and a Kalina cycle using NH3-H2O mixture as a working fluid for the whole tri-generation system. A sensitive analysis of off-design conditions is carried out to study the effect of operational parameters on the system performances prior to optimizing its performance. The simulation show that the system is able to cover required heating and cooling demands. The optimization is applied considering the maximum exergy efficiency (scenario 1) and minimum total exergy destruction rate (scenario 2). The optimization results show that the maximum mean exergy efficiency in scenario 1 is achieved as 44.67% at the expense of 14.52% increase in the total exergy destruction rate in scenario 2. The minimum mean total exergy destruction rate in scenario 2 is calculated as 2980 kW at the expense of 8.32% decrease in the exergy efficiency in scenario 1.