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Economic assessment of greenhouse gas reduction through low-grade waste heat recovery using organic Rankine cycle (ORC)

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Abstract

Low-grade waste heat recovery technologies reduce the environmental impact of fossil fuels and improve overall efficiency. This paper presents the economic assessment of greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction through waste heat recovery using organic Rankine cycle (ORC). The ORC engine is one of the mature low temperature heat engines. The low boiling temperature of organic working fluid enables ORC to recover low-temperature waste heat. The recovered waste heat is utilized to produce electricity and hot water. The GHG emissions for equivalent power and hot water from three fossil fuels—coal, natural gas, and diesel oil—are estimated using the fuel analysis approach and corresponding emission factors. The relative decrease in GHG emission is calculated using fossil fuels as the base case. The total cost of the ORC system is used to analyze the GHG reduction cost for each of the considered fossil fuels. A sensitivity analysis is also conducted to investigate the effect of the key parameter of the ORC system on the cost of GHG reduction. Throughout the 20-year life cycle of the ORC plant, the GHG reduction cost for R245fa is 0.02 $/kg to 0.04 $/kg and that for pentane is 0.04 $/kg to 0.05 $/kg. The working fluid, evaporation pressure, and pinch point temperature difference considerably affect the GHG emission.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Energy System Engineering, University of Science & Technology, Daejeon, 305-350, Korea

    Muhammad Imran, Byung-Sik Park, Hyouck-Ju Kim & Muhammad Usman

  2. Energy Network Team, Korea Institute of Energy Research, Daejeon, 305-343, Korea

    Muhammad Imran, Byung-Sik Park, Hyouck-Ju Kim, Dong-Hyun Lee & Muhammad Usman

Authors
  1. Muhammad Imran
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  2. Byung-Sik Park
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  3. Hyouck-Ju Kim
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  4. Dong-Hyun Lee
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  5. Muhammad Usman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Byung-Sik Park.

Additional information

Recommended by Associate Editor Tong Seop Kim

Muhammad Imran is a Ph.D. student of Energy System Engineering at the University of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Korea. His research interests include thermodynamic analysis and optimization for sustainable energy systems. The investigation of heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of the organic Rankine cycle working fluids in heat exchangers is one of the core research areas of his Ph.D. works.

Byung-Sik Park is a principal researcher at the Korea Institute of Energy Research, Korea. He received his doctorate degree from Chungnam National University, Daejeon, Korea. He has over 20 years of experience in research and development of national projects, focused on district heating, organic Rankine cycle systems, Stirling engines, and combined heat and power systems.

Hyouck-ju Kim is a principal researcher at the Korea Institute of Energy Research, Korea. He received his doctorate degree from Kuyngpook National University, Daegu, Korea. His research interests include district heating, Stirling engines, design and optimization of CHP systems, and combustion engineering.

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Imran, M., Park, BS., Kim, HJ. et al. Economic assessment of greenhouse gas reduction through low-grade waste heat recovery using organic Rankine cycle (ORC). J Mech Sci Technol 29, 835–843 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-015-0147-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-015-0147-5

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