Energy, exergy, economic, environmental (4E) analyses of a solar organic Rankine cycle to produce combined heat and power

In this paper with a comprehensive approach, energy, exergy, economic and environmental (4E) analyses of an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) have been performed to produce combined heat and power (CHP) based on solar energy. In order to a plenary survey, after thermodynamic modeling of the ORC, study of flat plate and parabolic through solar collectors (FPC and PTC) and gas-fired boiler as the energy supplier equipments in the independent or combination models; as well as in the open or circulated state of the heat source flow have done. In the open heat source flow state, the outlet flow of heat source at 80 ° C temperature is used in order to provide required heat in different sectors; however, in the circulated flow state, the amount of required primary energy is less than the open heat source flow state. Also, the use of photovoltaic panels to provide the pumping power of cycle is studied. The calculations show that the cost of produced power for this study schale in Iran, from lowest to highest are related to the use of gas-fired boiler, parabolic trough solar collector, photovoltaic panels and flat plate solar collectors respectively. Also, because of the efficient use of energy resources in the combined heat and power generation (open heat source flow) compared to power generation (circulated heat source flow), the energy and exergy efficiencies are increased 8.61% and 8.11% respectively; although the open heat source flow system compared to circulated flow system need to higher investment cost.