Thermo-economic investigation and optimization of parallel double-evaporator organic Rankine & Kalina cycles driven by the waste heat of an industrial roller kiln: A comparative study

Abstract The roller kiln is characterized by significant heat losses mainly caused by flue gas and cooling gas accounting for 70%. In this study, four novel power cycles including a basic organic Rankine cycle (BORC), a regenerative organic Rankine cycle (RORC), a Kalina cycle11 (KC11) and a Kalina cycle 34 (KC34) with the parallel double-evaporator (PD) configuration are proposed for dual-level waste heat recovery for a roller kiln. To identify the superiority system, the recommended power cycles are assessed and compared from an integrated thermodynamic and economic perspective. The impacts of the basic operating parameters on net power output, exergy efficiency, electricity production cost and savings to investment ratio are discussed. Meanwhile, the single-, bi- and three-objective optimizations are conducted and the optimal solutions are compared. The results indicated that for the considered optimization models, PDKC34 achieved the highest net power output of 211.06–224.45​ kW and thermal efficiency of 20.02–21.20%, PDBORC had the best economic performance on electricity production cost of 0.0875–0.0932 $/kWh, payback period of 5.709–6.210 year and savings to investment ratio of 2.191–2.335 while PDRORC with R-141b possessed the best exergy efficiency of 45.11–49.17%. On the whole, the four thermodynamic cycles contributed to the best thermodynamic performance in the maximizing net power output model while these had the best economic performance in the minimum EPC model. Besides, the evaporation unit had the highest impact on exergy destruction and total investment cost among all components for the studied optimization models.