Abstract
This paper investigates the effects of change in cycle pressure ratio and maximum cycle temperature as well as the change in refrigerant in organic Rankine cycle (ORC) on energy and exergy performance of biomass-driven triple-power cycle. The results show that both first and second law efficiencies of the proposed triple-power cycle decreases with the increase in pressure ratio and increases with the increase in the maximum cycle temperature. The effect of change in the refrigerant in ORC is found to be marginal. Second law assessment of the cycle reveals that combustor, heat recovery steam generator (HRSG), and gasifier are the three main sources of irreversibility, where it is shown that out of the 100% fuel exergy input; around 25% of exergy is destructed in the combustor, 19% in HRSG, and 7.6% in the gasifier. Investigations show that the triple-power cycle has better thermodynamic performance than the combined power cycle driven by biomass.