Performance comparison of low-grade ORCs (organic Rankine cycles) using R245fa, pentane and their mixtures based on the thermoeconomic multi-objective optimization and decision makings

•The thermoeconomic comparison between pure and mixture working fluids is investigated.•The Pareto-optimal solutions with bi-objective function using three decision makings are obtained.•The optimum values from TOPSIS decision making are selected as the preferred Pareto-optimal solution.•The mixture yields lower thermodynamic performance and moderate economic performance.

Based on the thermoeconomic multi-objective optimization and decision makings, considering both exergy efficiency and LEC (levelized energy cost), the performance comparison of low-grade ORCs (organic Rankine cycles) using R245fa, pentane and their mixtures has been investigated. The effects of mass fraction of R245fa and four key parameters on the exergy efficiency and LEC are examined. The Pareto-optimal solutions are selected from the Pareto optimal frontier obtained by NSGA-II algorithm using three decision makings, including Shannon Entropy, LINMAP and TOPSIS. The deviation index is introduced to evaluate different decision makings. Research demonstrates that as the mass fraction of R245fa increasing, the exergy efficiency decreases first and then increases, while LEC presents a reverse trend. The optimum values from TOPSIS decision making are selected as the preferred Pareto-optimal solution for its lowest deviation index. The Pareto-optimal solutions for pentane, R245fa, and 0.5pentane/0.5R245fa in pairs of (exergy efficiency, LEC) are (0.5425, 0.104), (0.5502, 0.111), and (0.5212, 0.108), respectively. The mixture working fluids present lower thermodynamic performance and moderate economic performance than the pure working fluids under the Pareto optimization.