Thermo-Economic Analysis of a Bottoming Kalina Cycle for Internal Combustion Engine Exhaust Heat Recovery

Hong Gao and Fuxiang Chen
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Hong Gao: Key Laboratory of Low-Grade Energy Utilization Technologies and Systems of Ministry of Education, College of Power Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030, China
Fuxiang Chen: Key Laboratory of Low-Grade Energy Utilization Technologies and Systems of Ministry of Education, College of Power Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030, China

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 11, 1-19

Abstract: The use of a Kalina cycle (KC) with a superheater to recover waste heat from an internal combustion engine (ICE) is described in this paper. The thermodynamic and economic analyses are performed for KC. The results indicate that using KC with a superheater is a feasible method to recover waste heat from ICE. The maximum thermal efficiency of KC is 46.94% at 100% ICE percentage load. The improvement of thermal efficiency is greater than 10% at all ICE loads, and the maximum improvement of thermal efficiency is 21.6% at 100% ICE load. Both the net power output and thermal efficiency of the KC subsystem increase with ICE percentage load and ammonia mass fraction. A lower turbine inlet pressure leads to a higher net power output of KC and a greater improvement of thermal efficiency when the ammonia mass fraction of the mixture is greater than 0.34. In the paper, if the same KC, which uses the largest capital investment, is used at different ICE loads, the payback period decreases with ICE load and ammonia mass fraction. In addition, both longer annual operation times and lower interest rates lead to shorter payback periods. However, it is worth noting that the payback period will be longer than the ICE’s lifetime if the ICE load is low and the annual operation time is too short.

Keywords: Kalina cycle; waste heat recovery; power output; thermal efficiency; payback period (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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