Thermo-economic optimization of waste heat recovery Organic Rankine Cycles

The present paper focuses both on the thermodynamic and on the economic optimization of a small scale ORC in waste heat recovery application. A sizing model of the ORC is proposed, capable of predicting the cycle performance with different working fluids and different components sizes. The working fluids considered are R245fa, R123, n-butane, n-pentane and R1234yf and Solkatherm. Results indicate that, for the same fluid, the objective functions (economics profitability, thermodynamic efficiency) lead to different optimal working conditions in terms of evaporating temperature: the operating point for maximum power doesn’t correspond to that of the minimum specific investment cost: The economical optimum is obtained for n-butane with a specific cost of 2136 €/kW, a net output power of 4.2 kW, and an overall efficiency of 4.47%, while the thermodynamic optimum is obtained for the same fluid with an overall efficiency of 5.22%. It is also noted that the two optimizations can even lead to the selection of a different working fluid. This is mainly due to additional fluid properties that are not taken into account in the thermodynamic optimization, such as the fluid density: a lower density leads to the selection of bigger components which increases the cost and decreases the economical profitability.

► Working fluids studies are numerous but often lead to different optimum ORC fluids.
► This paper proposes an alternative approach for fluid selection.
► A thermodynamic and a thermoeconomic model of a waste heat recovery ORC are built.
► Thermodynamic efficiency and economic profitability are optimized.
► Both optimizations lead to different optimal working conditions and fluids.