Thermodynamic performance assessment of different fluids in a typical organic Rankine cycle for usage in municipal solid waste power plant

This paper presents the energy and exergy analyses of some different organic fluids which can be used in an organic Rankine cycle adapted to a municipal solid waste power plant in the frame of energy recovery. The novelty of the study is to adapt a well-known organic Rankine cycle system theoretically to the existing municipal solid waste power plant where the exhaust gas with a temperature of almost 560 °C is sent to atmosphere causing both energy loss and air pollution, and also violating the related legislation. The efficient organic fluid that can be used in such a plant is estimated by means of the thermodynamic analyses. It is known that, in a typical municipal solid waste power plant, a considerable amount of energy is sent up from a plant chimney to the atmosphere. This waste energy can be utilized by using an adapted organic Rankine cycle system with a proper organic fluid. In this frame, some different organic fluids were examined and compared thermodynamically in this study. The optimal operation conditions of some organic fluids, R141b, isobutane, R245fa, n-pentane and n-hexane have been evaluated by means of ASPEN and EES software programs. The effects of the outlet temperature of heat source on the energetic and exergetic efficiencies and the net power output at a given pinch point temperature difference were investigated. It can be deduced from the analyses that n-hexane has the highest energetic and exergetic efficiencies at all outlet temperatures of the heat source such as 8.92% and 34.47% at 82.08°C, respectively. It can also be stated that the maximum net power output is obtained by using the organic fluid n-hexane.