Exergoeconomic analysis of a fluidized-bed coal combustor (FBCC) steam power plant

WOS: 000279907800015Exergoeconomic analysis has been used as a powerful tool to study and optimize various types of energy-related systems. This study deals with an exergoeconomic analysis of an FBCC steam power plant, located in the city of Izmir, Turkey using actual operational data. This plant consists of a ventilation fan (VF), an FBCC, a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG), a cyclone (CY), an economizer (ECO), an aspiration fan (AF), a pump (P) and a chimney (CH) as sub-systems. Quantitative exergy cost balance for each component and the whole FBCC plant is considered. The exergetic efficiency of this plant is calculated to be 20.28% at a steam mass flow rate of 1.861 kg/s. The highest exergy destruction rate occurs in the FBCC with an irreversibility rate of 89.2%, followed by HRSG, VF, ECO, AF, CH and P. The unit exergy cost and exergy cost of steam produced by the FBCC steam plant amount to 17.88 US$/GJ and 93.57 US$/h, respectively. This study demonstrates that exergoeconomic analysis can provide extra information than exergy analysis, while the results obtained from this analysis present cost-based information. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Scientific & Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK)Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK)The authors would like to express his appreciation to Mr. Ender Demirbas, the Energy Manager of the Ekoten Textile Inc. in Izmir, which is Turkey's biggest knitwear fabric exporter, due to the permission to gather the actual operational data, which have been utilized in the analyses and assessments as well as for his kind help. The continuous incentive support given by the Scientific & Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) is also gratefully acknowledged. The authors are very grateful to the reviewers for the valuable and constructive comments, which significantly helped them in improving the quality of the paper. They also would like to thank Dr. Pilavachi Petros due to the prompt handling process of the paper