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Exergetic and economic evaluation of a novel integrated system for trigeneration of power, refrigeration and freshwater using energy recovery in natural gas pressure reduction stations

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Abstract

Nowadays, with increasing energy consumption, global warming, and many problems caused by weather conditions, the tendency to use novel methods of energy generation with high efficiency and low cost that reduce environmental pollution has increased. This study investigates the feasibility of using gas pressure energy recovery in natural gas pressure reduction stations by turboexpanders for cogeneration of power and refrigeration. Turboexpanders and compression refrigeration cycles are employed to recover the energy from natural gas pressure reduction stations. Then, natural gas along with the compressed air enters the Brayton power generation cycle and its waste heat is used in the carbon dioxide (CO2) power generation plant, multistage Rankine cycle, and multi-effect thermal desalination unit. This integrated structure generates 105.6 MW of power, 2.960 MW of refrigeration, and 34.73 kg s−1 of freshwater. The electrical efficiencies of the Rankine power generation cycle, CO2 power generation plant, and the whole integrated structure are 0.4101, 0.4120, and 0.4704, respectively. The exergy efficiency and irreversibility of the developed integrated structure are 60.59% and 68.17 MW, respectively. The exergy analysis of the integrated structure shows that the highest rates of exergy destruction are related to the combustion chamber (59.68%), heat exchangers (14.70%), and compressors (14.46%). The annualized cost of the system (ACS) is used to evaluate the developed hybrid system. The economic analysis of the integrated structure indicated the period of return, the prime cost of the product, and capital cost are 2.565 years, 0.0430 US$ kWh−1, and 372.3 MMUS$, respectively. The results reveal that the period of return is highly sensitive to the electricity price, such that the period of return in the developed integrated structure is less than 5 years for the electricity price of 0.092 US$ kWh−1 and more. Also, the period of return is less than 5 years for the initial investment cost of 632.9 MMUS$ and less, which is economically viable.

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Abbreviations

E :

Specific flow exergy (kJ kmol−1)

Ex :

Exergy (kW)

ṁ :

Mass flow rate (kg s−1)

H :

Enthalpy (kJ kmol−1)

P :

Pressure (kPa)

T :

Temperature (°C)

W :

Work (kW)

S :

Entropy (kJ kmol−1 °C−1)

\(\eta\) :

Efficiency

Σ:

Sum

\(\int {}\) :

Integration

C :

Cold

H :

Hot

I :

Inlet

O :

Outlet

Id:

Ideal

Ph:

Physical

Ch:

Chemical

T :

Total

acap:

Annualized capital cost

Cap:

Capital cost

amain:

Annualized maintenance cost

Main:

Maintenance cost

aope:

Annualized operating cost

P :

Pressure component

T :

Thermal component

CGSs:

City gate stations

LNG:

Liquefied natural gas

MED-TVC:

Multi-effect distillation-thermal vapor compression

SRA:

Structured retrofitting approach

HRSG:

Heat recovery system generator

MED:

Multi-effect desalination

CO2 :

Carbon dioxide

CRF:

Capital Recovery Factor

ACS:

Annualized cost of system

Ope:

Operating cost

arep :

Annualized replacement cost

Rep:

Replacement cost

(LCOE):

Levelized cost of energy

ORC:

Organic Rankine cycle

Ti:

Turbine

CCi:

Combustion chamber

Vi:

Valve

Ci:

Compressor

HXi:

Heat exchanger

Si:

Flash drum

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Acknowledgements

The research work has been supported by a research grant from the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), Semnan, Iran.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran

    Hooman Golchoobian & Seyfolah Saedodin

  2. Faculty of Engineering Modern Technologies, Amol University of Special Modern Technologies, Amol, Iran

    Bahram Ghorbani

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  1. Hooman Golchoobian
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Contributions

Hooman Golchoobian contributed to methodology, investigation, software, validation, original draft, writing—original draft. Seyfolah Saedodin and Bahram Ghorbani contributed to supervision, conceptualization, methodology, investigation, software, validation, original draft, writing—original draft.

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Correspondence to Hooman Golchoobian.

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Golchoobian, H., Saedodin, S. & Ghorbani, B. Exergetic and economic evaluation of a novel integrated system for trigeneration of power, refrigeration and freshwater using energy recovery in natural gas pressure reduction stations. J Therm Anal Calorim 145, 1467–1483 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-021-10607-7

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