Thermoeconomic models, which combine the concept of cost in the field of economics and the concept of exergy in the field of thermodynamics, provide a possibility of optimizing complex energy-generating systems to achieve a best balance between thermodynamic efficiency and economic cost (including investment cost and operation cost). For the first time, operation optimization on a 300 MW coal-f...

In a deregulated energy market the adoption of multipurpose and flexible software tools for the optimal design and sizing of energy systems is becoming mandatory. For these reasons, we have developed WIDGET-TEMP (Web-based Interface and Distributed Graphical Environment for TEMP, ThermoEconomic Modular Program), a tool which is the result of an interdisciplinary research which applied recent IT...

This paper presents a thermoeconomic analysis aimed at the optimization of a novel zero-CO2 and other emissions and high-efficiency power and refrigeration cogeneration system, COOLCEP-S (Patent pending), which uses the liquefied natural gas (LNG) coldness during its revaporization. It was predicted that at the turbine inlet temperature (TIT) of 900 C, the energy efficiency of the COOLCEP-S sys...

The authors of the main thermoeconomic methodologies developed in the last two decades have recently focused their efforts on the analysis of dissipative devices, i.e. those components whose productive purpose is neither intuitive nor easy to define. Coherent and unanimously accepted cost structures have been identified for dissipative components, while ambiguities still exist as concerns the c...

The purpose of this research is to investigate thermoeconomic optimization and exergy analysis of transcritical CO2 refrigeration cycle with an ejector. After modeling thermodynamic equations of elements and considering optimization parameters of emerging temperature of gas of cooler (Tgc) , emerging pressure of cooler's gas (Pgc) , and eva...

This paper presents a methodology to integrate life cycle assessment (LCA)in thermoeconomic models used for the optimal conceptual design of energy conversion systems. It is illustrated by an application to a thermo-economic model developed for the multi-objective optimization of combined synthetic natural gas (SNG) and electricity production from lignocellulosic biomass. The life cycle invento...

In this paper the design of annular fin heat exchanger based on economic optimization has been carried out. The optimization process targeted minimizing the lifecycle cost of annular fin heat exchanger that has the same frontal area, effectiveness and heat load of available practical standard geometry exchangers. The lifecycle cost includes both capital and operating costs. Beside the pumping c...

Thermoeconomic analyses in thermal system design are always focused on the economic objective. However, knowledge of only the economic minimum may not be sufficient in the decision making process, since solutions with a higher thermodynamic efficiency, in spite of small increases in total costs, may result in much more interesting designs due to changes in energy market prices or in energy poli...