Abstract :

The recent surge in environmental awareness along with the increased cost of electricity generation has spurred the need for clean energy sources. This has generated significant interest over the last few years via research, investigation, and evaluation looking for sustainable and economical energy sources. The intended objective is to alleviate some of the exhaust gas emissions and greenhouse effects by recovering the waste heat from industrial processes. Among the heat recovery systems, ORC is found to be an efficient and practical power production thermodynamic cycle, owing to its ability to utilize low grade temperature heat sources such as solar energy, geothermal water, biomass, wasted heat and thermal ocean energy conversion. In this study, the recovery of waste heat is utilized to transfer power to the ORC through an intermediate thermal loop in the production of electricity. The WHR was obtained from exhaust flue gases of rotary kiln in a cement plant in Jordan, possessing a temperature range between 280 °C – 380 °C; the organic liquid used in the ORC is R245fa. The effects of varying factors on the ORC’s performance were analyzed and optimized. The cycle results analysis indicate that the possible electrical power production can be estimated to be around 323.33 kWe, values of 15.86% and 193.3 kW were reached for system performance and exergy, respectively. In addition, an economic analysis performed showed that the payback time period is approximately 3.75 years and monetary net savings could reach up to 200,000 JD per annum.