Exergoeconomic evaluation of a ground-source heat pump food dryer at varying dead state temperatures

This study deals with exergoeconomic analysis of a ground-source heat pump food dryer through the specific exergy costing method for the first time. Moreover, variations of the exergetic and exergoeconomic performance parameters with dead state temperatures are also investigated and discussed with the literature results. The results show that the condenser is the most important system component from the efficiency improvement point of view with a total cost rate of 1.347 $/h and exergoeconomic factor of 0.029. The main part of the exergy costs accumulated in the condenser is generated during the process and the optimization of the operating conditions of the condenser has a major importance in improving the overall system performance. Furthermore, heat exchangers in the ground-source heat pump system are influenced from the alteration of the dead state temperature. Increase in the dead state temperature generally leads to decrease in the exergetic efficiencies of system components. The total costs occurred in the evaporator significantly increase with the rise in the dead state temperature. Authors expect that the results of the present study can provide some guidelines for the designs of the ground-source heat pump systems.