Optimizing Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) Configurations Integrated with Transient Industrial Waste Heat: A Multi-Objective Approach

Decarbonizing heat-intensive industries by reusing the waste heat for power or combined heat and power systems is becoming increasingly important to address global warming. The organic Rankine Cycle has shown a high level of feasibility and performed efficiently for utilizing medium-to-low-grade heat from renewable resources and heat-intensive industries for direct power generation. This study contributes to the field by conducting a techno-economic investigation of various ORC configurations to enhance energy conversion when real-life transient waste heat sources are available. These configurations were optimized to maximize energy output along with economic benefits. The NLPQL, a computational in-intensive yet accurate optimization algorithm, was utilized for the multi-objective optimization. The optimized cycle configurations showed a 12.57% enhancement of turbine efficiency. Combining regeneration and recuperation enhanced the superheating by 32%, and the optimized air preheater cycle improved the overall objective by 64.2% compared to the pre-optimized conventional cycle, leading to a feasible 1.72-year payback period.