Thermoeconomic evaluation of double-reheat coal-fired power units with carbon capture and storage and waste heat recovery using organic Rankine cycle

Coal-fired power generation units using carbon capture and storage (CCS) can reduce CO2 emissions significantly whereas CCS consumes large amounts of renewable energy, leading to an efficiency penalty. To decrease the steam extraction and promote energy utilization efficiency, this study employs organic Rankine cycle (ORC) to recover the waste heat of reboiler condensate and utilizes the waste heat in CO2 compressed processes to provide energy for carbon capture system. Three technical scenarios are proposed: (1) Coal-fired carbon capture power generation system: the medium-pressure cylinder exhaust is throttled by an auxiliary turbine and exchanges heat with H6 heater to provide energy for a reboiler; (2) Coal-fired carbon capture power generation system using ORC to recover the residual heat of reboiler condensate; (3) Solar-aided coal-fired power generation system using ORC and CCS: waste heat in CO2 compression processes is supplied for a reboiler and ORC recovers the residual heat of reboiler condensate. The energy balance and overall performance of different scenarios are investigated with EBSILON, and the parameter sensitivity of scenario III is conducted. Results reveal that all scenarios improve the thermal performance of the system, and the thermo-economics of scenario III is the best at the heat ratio of 0.4.

Automated summary

This study proposes three technical scenarios to enhance energy utilization efficiency using ORC and CCS systems, improving the thermal performance of the overall system. Through simulation and analysis, it is found that these scenarios can enhance the thermal performance of the system, with the solar-aided coal-fired power generation system showing the best thermoeconomic performance.