Thermoeconomic analysis of a cogeneration system of a university campus

In this paper, a thermoeconomic analysis method based on the First and the Second Law of Thermodynamics and applied to analyse the replacement of an equipment of a cogeneration system is presented. The cogeneration system consists of a gas turbine linked to a waste boiler. The electrical demand of the campus is approximately 9 MW but the cogen system generates approximately one third of the university requirement as well as 1.764 kg/s of saturated steam (at 0.861 MPa), approximately, from a single fuel source. The energy-economic study showed that the best system, based on pay-back period and based on the maximum savings (in 10 years), was the system that used the gas turbine "M1T-06" of Kawasaki Heavy Industries and the system that used the gas turbine "CCS7" of Hitachi Zosen, respectively. The exergy-economic study showed that the best system, which has the lowest EMC, was the system that used the gas turbine "ASE50" of Allied Signal. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd All rights reserved.