Economic research of the transcritical Rankine cycle systems to recover waste heat from the marine medium-speed diesel engine

Abstract The aim of this study is to investigate the economic performance of a transcritical Rankine cycle (TRC) system for recovering waste heat from the exhaust gas of a marine medium-speed diesel engine. The variation of net power output, total cost of equipments and exergy destruction are investigated for the TRC system. Furthermore, to evaluate the economic performance of energy utilization, a parameter, net power output index, which is the ratio of net power output to the total cost, is introduced of the TRC system using R125, R143a, R218 and R1234yf as working fluids. The results show that R1234yf performs the highest economic performance, followed by R143a, R125 and R218 of the TRC system. It reveals that R1234yf not only has the smallest high and low pressures of the TRC system for reducing the purchased cost of equipments, but also promotes a larger pressure ratio of the expander for generating power output among these working fluids. The comparisons of optimal pressure ratios obtained from thermodynamic and economic optimizations for these working fluids in the TRC system are also reported. In addition, an evaluation method using thermal efficiency and operating pressure ratio as parameters is proposed to assess the suitability of the working fluids of TRC system in economic analysis for waste heat recovery from the exhaust gas of a diesel engine.