Thermodynamic analysis of a supercritical/transcritical CO2 based waste heat recovery cycle for shipboard power and cooling applications

This article presents the energetic and exergetic performance of a novel waste heat recovery system for shipboard platform, while utilising the shipboard gas turbine exhaust for simultaneous production of power and cooling using supercritical and transcritical carbon dioxide, respectively. The mathematical model for the cooling and power bottoming cycles has been developed and the results obtained are found to be in good agreement with the already published work, available in the literature. It is also found that under the specified operating conditions, the proposed system has the potential to enhance the power output by about 18% besides, providing the cooling of about 892 TR having the COP of 2.75. Further, the overall energy efficiency of the shipboard system is found to be increased by more than 11% which is also a significant improvement over the conventional topping Brayton cycle already being used for these applications. The results obtained in this cycle model will be useful to understand and to further improve the design and performance of CO2 based power and cooling cycles for future shipboard applications.