Exergoeconomic analysis and optimization of a solar energy-based integrated system with oxy-combustion for combined power cycle and carbon capturing

This work presents a newly developed integrated system that produces multiple useful products, namely electricity, space cooling, freshwater, and ammonium bicarbonate. The two sources of energy for this integrated system are solar energy and natural gas. The natural gas is consumed in an oxy-combustion Brayton cycle to produce electricity, while the solar energy provides electric power to the carbon capturing unit to produce ammonium bicarbonate as a valuable chemical product to compensate for the operation costs of carbon capture. This integrated system is studied using the exergoeconomic analysis and the multi-objective optimization method of genetic programming and genetic algorithm to enhance the thermodynamic and economic aspects of this system. Applying such an analysis to this integrated system adds more understanding and knowledge on how effectively and efficiently this carbon capture and utilization system operates and whether or not it is financially viable to pursue this integrated system for further prototyping and concept demonstration. The results of this exergoeconomic analysis show that the production cost of ammonium bicarbonate per 1 kg in this integrated system is 0.0687 $ kg-1, and this is much lower than the market price. This means that producing ammonium bicarbonate as away to capture carbon dioxide is feasible financially. Furthermore, the optimization results show that the overall exergy destruction rate and the overall unit cost of products are 86,000 kW and 5.19 x 10-3 $ kJ-1, respectively, when operated under optimum conditions.

Automated summary

This work presents a newly developed integrated system that produces multiple useful products, such as electricity, space cooling, freshwater, and ammonium bicarbonate. The system utilizes solar energy and natural gas as energy sources, and applies exergoeconomic analysis and optimization methods to enhance its thermodynamic and economic performance. The results show that the production cost of ammonium bicarbonate in this system is much lower than the market price, and the overall performance is good under optimum conditions.