Energy, Exergy, Exergoeconomic and Exergoenvironmental Impact Analyses and Optimization of Various Geothermal Power Cycle Configurations

Abstract

Energy, exergy, and exergoeconomic evaluations of various geothermal configurations are reported. The main operational and economic parameters of the cycles are evaluated and compared. Multi-objective optimization of the cycles is conducted using the artificial bee colony algorithm. A sensitivity assessment is carried out on the effect of production well temperature variation on system performance from energy and economic perspectives. The results show that the flash-binary cycle has the highest thermal and exergy efficiencies, at 15.6% and 64.3%, respectively. The highest generated power cost and pay-back period are attributable to the simple organic Rankine cycle (ORC). Raising the well-temperature can increase the exergy destruction rate in all configurations. However, the electricity cost and pay-back period decrease. Based on the results, in all cases, the exergoenvironmental impact improvement factor decreases, and the temperature rises. The exergy destruction ratio and efficiency of all components for each configuration are calculated and compared. It is found that, at the optimum state, the exergy efficiencies of the simple organic Rankine cycle, single flash, double flash, and flash-binary cycles respectively are 14.7%, 14.4%, 12.6%, and 14.1% higher than their relevant base cases, while the pay-back periods are 10.6%, 1.5% 1.4%, and 0.6% lower than the base cases.

4E Assessment of an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) Activated with Waste Heat of a Flash–Binary Geothermal Power Plant

“…Exergoeconomics is a powerful and influential knowledge driven by a combination of economic and exergy concepts; it helps researchers better understand systems from an exergy and economic point of view. It makes possible the economic design of power systems that cannot be obtained by standard economic models [ 13 , 22 ]. In exergoeconomic analysis, a cost value is associated with each exergy flow within a system, since exergy is considered the only rational basis for assigning the cost of a thermal system [ 17 , 46 ].…”

“…In addition to exergetic and exergoeconomic methods, exergoenvironmental analysis, which is a combination of exergetic analysis and life cycle assessment (LCA) concepts, is a recent method for evaluating the environmental impacts of energy conversion systems, such as geothermal power plants with waste heat recovery [ 18 ]. Several authors have investigated this type of systems from this perspective [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ]. Table 1 shows previous works focused on evaluations of a low temperature ORC cycle.…”

Evaluation of the energy and exergy of a trans‐critical CO2 cycle driven by a double flash geothermal power plant

“…Their findings highlighted the efficiencies of the first and second laws of thermodynamics for both configurations, offering insights into the operational variables that affect exergy destruction in geothermal plants. Shamoushaki, et al 22 reported on energy, exergy, and exergoeconomic evaluations of various geothermal configurations, using the artificial bee colony algorithm for optimization. They found the flash‐binary cycle to have the highest thermal and exergy efficiencies, demonstrating the influence of production well temperature on system performance.…”

The Use of Organic Rankine Cycles for Recovering the Heat Lost in the Compression Area of a Cryogenic Air Separation Unit

“…The exergoeconomic analysis enabled the determination of the monetary cost of the output power and the capital investment amortization rate of the key apparatuses. Shamoushaki M. et al [ 15 ] conducted a comprehensive analysis and optimization of different configurations of power cycles. The method of analysis combined the energetic and exergoeconomic balances.…”