Exergoeconomic analysis and optimization of an innovative municipal solid waste to energy plant integrated with solar thermal system

Waste to energy technology is the most promising method to deal with municipal solid waste. However, electrical efficiency of conventional waste-to-energy incineration is low due to the limits of steam turbine inlet parameters by the high moisture in municipal solid waste with low heating value. An integration of municipal solid waste incineration plant with solar thermal system was proposed and designed to increase the energy production efficiency. The integration is accomplished by increasing the steam temperature with the secondary heating by solar parabolic dish system, installed between the exit of the incineration boiler and the entrance of steam turbine. Thermodynamic and exergoeconomic performance of the integrated waste-to-energy plant is evaluated using engineering equation solver, while optimization is performed to set the optimal parameters of the system. Thermodynamic results conclude that the thermal and exergetic efficiencies of the integrated plant are 30.57% and 32.42%, while for conventional plant are only 28.35% and 26.74% respectively. Exergoeconomic analysis reveals that the exergetic cost rate of destruction for the integrated plant is 907.3 $/h and 25.61% more than the conventional design whereas, the total cost rate of the proposed system is approximately 1103 $/h. Generally, it can be concluded that the solar integrated waste to energy plant depicts great performance from a thermodynamic, economic, and environmental perspective.