Advanced Exergo-Environmental Assessments of an Organic Rankine Cycle as Waste Heat Recovery System from a Natural Gas Engine

Aldair Benavides Gamero, Josué Camargo Vanegas, Jorge Duarte Forero, Guillermo Valencia Ochoa and Rafael Diaz Herazo ()
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Aldair Benavides Gamero: Efficient Energy Management Research Group-Kai, Universidad del Atlántico, Carrera 30 Número 8-49, Puerto Colombia, Barranquilla 080007, Colombia
Josué Camargo Vanegas: Efficient Energy Management Research Group-Kai, Universidad del Atlántico, Carrera 30 Número 8-49, Puerto Colombia, Barranquilla 080007, Colombia
Jorge Duarte Forero: Efficient Energy Management Research Group-Kai, Universidad del Atlántico, Carrera 30 Número 8-49, Puerto Colombia, Barranquilla 080007, Colombia
Guillermo Valencia Ochoa: Efficient Energy Management Research Group-Kai, Universidad del Atlántico, Carrera 30 Número 8-49, Puerto Colombia, Barranquilla 080007, Colombia
Rafael Diaz Herazo: Efficient Energy Management Research Group-Kai, Universidad del Atlántico, Carrera 30 Número 8-49, Puerto Colombia, Barranquilla 080007, Colombia

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 7, 1-29

Abstract: This paper aims to present the real improvement opportunities of a simple organic Rankine cycle (ORC) as waste heat recovery system (WHRS) from the exhaust gases of a natural gas engine using toluene as the working fluid, based on the exergy and environmental point of view. From the energy and exergy balances, the advanced exergetic analysis was developed to determine the irreversibilities and opportunities for improvement. Since the traditional exergo-environmental analysis, it was found that the component with the greatest potential environmental impact associated with exergy (bF = 0.067 mPts/MJ) and per unit of exergy (ḂD = 8.729 mPts/h) was the condenser, while the exergy-environmental fraction was presented in the turbine (52.51%) and pump-2 (21.12%). The advanced exergo-environmental analysis showed that the environmental impact is more associated with the operational behavior of the components, with 75.33% of the environmental impacts being of endogenous nature, showing that the environmental impacts are generated to a reduced magnitude through the interactions between components. However, it was identified that much of the environmental impacts in ITC 1 could be reduced, with 81.3% of these impacts being avoidable. Finally, the sensitivity analysis results revealed that steel is the material of the components with the least environmental impact.

Keywords: exergetic analysis; life cycle assessment; ORC; traditional/advanced environmental analysis; waste heat recovery system (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: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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