Title: Thermo-economic analysis of a solar combined cycle with Brayton, Kalina, and organic Rankine cycle

Authors: Mukundjee Pandey; Biranchi Narayana Padhi; Ipsita Mishra

Addresses: Department of Aerospace Engineering, Centurion University of Technology and Management, Bhubaneswar, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, International Institute of Information Technology, Bhubaneswar, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Siksha 'O' Anusandhan University, Institute of Technical Education and Research, Bhubaneswar, India

Abstract: The power from the sun intercepted by the Earth is approximately 1.8 × 10¹¹ MW, which can be harnessed by solar thermal cycles. The objective is to determine whether from thermo-economic point of view the combined cycle (CC) with Brayton cycle (BC), Kalina cycle (KC), and organic Rankine cycle (ORC) are feasible or not. The highest thermal efficiency (η) and installation cost per unit kW (ICPUK) of CC is observed to be about 74.273% and 2.109 kW/k$ for each component of pressure inlet to the turbines (p_x) at 3.2 bar and a value of mass flow rate (m_x) of sub-cycles as 5 kg/s, 5 kg/s, and 4 kg/s, respectively. The conclusion drawn from the above study suggests using BC and KC in CC and inhibits the use of ORC. Also, thermo-economically ORC should not be used for higher values of Q̇_pro, lower values of ṁ, and higher values of p_x.

Keywords: low-temperature power cycles; Kalina cycle; Brayton cycle; organic Rankine cycle; ORC; combined power cycles.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEX.2023.130364

International Journal of Exergy, 2023 Vol.40 No.4, pp.392 - 413

Received: 03 May 2022
Received in revised form: 16 Aug 2022
Accepted: 22 Aug 2022
Published online: 18 Apr 2023 *

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