Exergoeconomic Analysis of the Allam Cycle

Abstract

Greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion is one of the main causes of global warming. Carbon capture, storage, and/or utilization consists of technologies and measures focused on diminishing anthropogenic emission of carbon dioxide (CO2), an important contributor to the greenhouse effect. One of the most promising methods for carbon capture is oxy-combustion, for which several innovative alternatives have been proposed in recent years. This paper evaluates a thermodynamic cycle known as the Allam cycle. The novelty of this plant lies in the fact that the cycle uses supercritical CO2 as the working fluid of the process. The evaluation is performed using exergetic, economic, and exergoeconomic analyses. The election of an exergy-based methodology rather than a conventional energy-based analysis is motivated by the better characterization of the thermal system achieved by the first. The goal is to assess the cost effectiveness of the cycle and to determine a way to optimize it by design changes and other modifications. Overall, we find that the calculated efficiency and cost of electricity can compete with other low-emission technologies, but they are higher than those of the currently operating combined cycle plants.

The Allam Cycle: A Review of Numerical Modeling Approaches

“…Hervas et al [25] carried out a thermodynamic, exergetic and economic analysis of a 300 MWe power plant based on the Allam cycle. The used software is EBSILON Professional 13.…”

Techno-economic Optimization of the Combined Supercritical Carbon Dioxide and Air Brayton Cycles Driven by Copper-Based Chemical Looping Combustion

“…Through comparison, they observed that the gas-fired Allam cycle exhibited higher exergy destruction in combustion compared to that in the combined gasifier and combustion in the coalfired Allam cycle. Rodri ́guez et al 28 conducted an exergoeconomic analysis of the Allam cycle and concluded that its efficiency and cost of electricity can compete with other lowemission technologies, albeit being higher than those of current combined cycle plants. Alenezi et al 29 performed an exergoeconomic analysis on the Allam cycle, driven by a combination of concentrated solar power and oxy-fuel combustion.…”