Thermodynamic, thermoeconomic and life cycle assessment of a novel integrated solar combined cycle (ISCC) power plant

In this study, thermodynamic, thermo-economic and life cycle assessments are carried out for a novel integrated solar combined cycle system (ISCCS). The novel cycle has been developed with the purpose of using parabolic trough solar cycle in an on-line conventional combined cycle power plant (CCPP) with the minimum modifications required for the primary cycle. An attempt is made to determine the components with the most exergy destruction and assessing the investment cost of each element and stream of the system. The thermodynamic analyses are applied to the solar field and the power plant to evaluate the plant performance and pinpointing the zones with the high exergy destruction. The results indicate that the combustion chamber, gas turbine, air compressor, solar collectors account for 63.71%, 13.76%, 7.26% and 3.1% of the plant total exergy destruction, respectively. The life cycle assessment (LCA) is performed for the system, and a comparison is made between different methods of energy generation in the proposed ISCC. The results have indicated that the energy generation in the solar plant of ISCC has a lower environmental impact in human health and resources damage categories; while, the power production in the natural CCPP has less impact in ecosystem damage category.