Exergoenvironmental model of Organic Rankine Cycle system including the manufacture and leakage of working fluid

An exergoenvironmental model of the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) system is established in this paper. The manufacture and leakage of working fluid are important in a life cycle assessment (LCA). The environmental impact of the working fluid is allocated to each component of the ORC system according to the exergy destruction of the corresponding component. R134a, R227ea, R152a, and R245fa are selected as the working fluids. In addition, the components in the ORC are manufactured with material steel or copper. The environmental impacts of the working fluids and components are analyzed, and the exergoenvironmental impact factors of the components are discussed. The results showed that the environmental impact of the working fluid cannot be neglected. The environmental impacts of R134a, R227ea, R152a, and R245fa are 13.76%, 26.04%, 2.62%, and 14.77% in the environmental impacts of overall system, respectively. The environmental impact caused by working fluid leakage is 67.52%, 75.62%, 35.71%, and 68.34% in the environmental impacts of the working fluid, respectively. The ORC system with R245fa has a minimal exergoenvironmental impact (steel: 70.06 mPts/h, copper: 83 mPts/h).