Exergo-economic comparison of waste heat recovery cycles for a cement industry case study

This work evaluates the performance regarding exergo-economic and emissions requirements of Waste Heat Recovery configurations (Organic Rankine cycle, Trilateral flash cycle, and Kalina cycle) under different operating conditions and working fluids. It was found that the best economic performance is presented by the Organic Rankine cycle that operates with Cyclo-Pentane and has two intermediate heat exchangers since it pushes the expansion temperature up while allowing a higher heat input to the cycle. As a result, it delivers 6.2 MW with a net present value, the net present value of 0.74 million dollars, saving up to 11480 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. This performance far exceeds that obtained in the previous work, around 50% higher net-work with 80% higher net present value, and constitutes the best alternative in terms of performance to recover waste heat from the source evaluated. Regarding the Trilateral flash cycle, it can be stated that the net work and the exergetic performance are independent of the working fluid as long as there is not a very large volume change in the expander. The Kalina cycle presents slight exergy destruction, but the power delivered does not compensate for the high total capital cost due to the high pressures that must be handled, 55–120 bar, compared to the Organic Rankine cycle, 4–40 bar. An approach was made to more realistic cases where the methodology used facilitates selecting the best alternative when there is a budget restriction using the total capital cost and net work alternatively like a fixed requirement and net present value as the primary decision criterion.