Techno-economic and carbon footprint analyses of steam Rankine cycle

Abstract

Steam Rankine cycle (SRC), which is mainly utilised in power generation sector, faces external irreversibility in its daily operation causing inefficiency in the system. To address this issue, reheat Rankine cycle (RHRC) and regenerative Rankine cycle (RRC) have been widely studied and implemented in power plants to improve thermal efficiency and reduce external irreversibility of Rankine cycle. This study investigates the implementation of different RRC configurations in a combined heat and power plant, including RRC with modified thermal deaerator, RRC with open feed water heater (OFWH) and closed feed water heater (CFWH). A base case simulation model was first constructed using commercial simulation software Aspen HYSYS for the basic SRC system based on actual plant data. Various scenarios were then evaluated for their profitability and sustainability through techno-economic analysis (TEA) and carbon footprint analysis (CFA). From both analyses, the scenario of RRC with CFWH showed the greatest long-term potential, generating the highest annual profit of $ 771 691 and carbon footprint reduction of 14.63%, while RRC with modified thermal deaerator showed the greatest potential in the short run with the highest return of investment (ROI) of 201.51% and shortest payback period (PBP) of 0.50 year.