Thermo Economic

Energy Conversion and Management 148 (2017) 1409–1425
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman
Life cycle integrated thermoeconomic assessment method for energy

conversion systems
Baris Burak Kanbur a,b, Liming Xiang c, Swapnil Dubey a, Fook Hoong Choo a, Fei Duan b,⇑
a
Energy Research Institute @ NTU, Interdisciplinary Graduate School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637141, Singapore
b
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore
c
School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637371, Singapore
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: Life cycle assessment (LCA) based thermoeconomic modelling has been applied for the evaluation of
Received 25 March 2017 energy conversion systems since it provided more comprehensive and applicable assessment criteria.
Received in revised form 30 May 2017 This study proposes an improved thermoeconomic method, named as life cycle integrated thermoeco-
Accepted 28 June 2017
nomic assessment (LCiTA), which combines the LCA based enviroeconomic parameters in the production
Available online 10 July 2017
steps of the system components and fuel with the conventional thermoeconomic method for the energy
conversion systems. A micro-cogeneration system is investigated and analyzed with the LCiTA method,
Keywords:
the comparative studies show that the unit cost of fuel by using the LCiTA method is 3.8 times higher
Thermoeconomic analysis
Life cycle assessment
than the conventional thermoeconomic model. It is also realized that the enviroeconomic parameters
Combined heat and power during the operation of the system components do not have significant impacts on the system streams
Environmental impact since the exergetic parameters are dominant in the thermoeconomic calculations. Moreover, the
Exergoenvironmental analysis improved sustainability index is found roundly 67.2% higher than the previously defined sustainability
Exergy costing index, suggesting that the enviroeconomic and thermoeconomic parameters decrease the impact of
the exergy destruction in the sustainability index definition. To find the feasible operation conditions
for the micro-cogeneration system, different assessment strategies are presented. Furthermore, a case
study for Singapore is conducted to see the impact of the forecasted carbon dioxide prices on the ther-
moeconomic performance of the micro-cogeneration system.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Cost (AVCO) technique by Gaggioli and El-Sayed [4], Exergoeco-

nomic analysis (EA) by Tsatsaronis and Winhold [5,6], Engineering
Thermoeconomics is an interdisciplinary method to find or Functional Analysis (EFA) by von Spakovsky and Evans [7,8] and
assess the feasibility of the energy conversion systems from the Theory of Exergetic Cost (TEC) by Lozano and Valero [9]. EA is
viewpoints of thermodynamics and economics. Apart from the one of the most used thermoeconomic methods, and various sub-
individual thermodynamic and economic analyses, thermoeco- models [10–12] were developed by using the same concept. Struc-
nomics combines both perspectives, and provides a common equa- tural Theory of Thermoeconomics (STT) [13], Extended Exergy
tion which includes thermodynamic and economic parameters Accounting (EEA) [14], Exergy-Cost-Energy-Mass (EXCEM) [15]
together. Thermoeconomics studies had started in 1950s by estab- are other well-known thermoeconomic approaches which consider
lishing a relationship between the energy/exergy streams and cost the cost and exergy streams together. The thermoeconomic appli-
streams in the energy conversion systems [1]. Between 1980 and cations are broad for the energy conversion systems. Up to now,
2000, the fundamentals of the modern thermoeconomics the thermoeconomic studies were conducted in various energy
approaches were constituted and developed thanks to different conversion systems from waste heat recovery to the solar power
perspectives and studies. The pioneer exergy costing method was plants [16–25].
proposed by Gaggioli and Wepfer [2]. Differently from that study, Environmental analyses have been also gaining importance
various thermoeconomic models were presented such as Thermoe- since the impacts of the greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) on the
conomic Functional Analysis (TFA) by Frangopoulos [3], Average environment were realized [26]. Especially for the combustion-
based energy conversion systems, the emissions were considered
as crucial parameters for the evaluation. Conventional environ-
⇑ Corresponding author.
mental analysis is directly related to the combustion equation that
E-mail address: feiduan@ntu.edu.sg (F. Duan).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2017.06.079
0196-8904/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1410 B.B. Kanbur et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 148 (2017) 1409–1425
Nomenclature
b life cycle integrated unit cost, $/kJ Greek letters

B_ life cycle integrated levelized cost, $/s k fuel-air ratio
c unit cost, $/kJ g energetic efficiency
C cost, $ e exergetic efficiency
C_ levelized cost, $/s 1 carbon dioxide emission rate
CRF capital recovery factor, – s annual operation time, hours
e specific exergy, kJ/kmol
E_ exergy, kJ/s Superscripts
Em produced carbon dioxide emission rate per material a air
weight, kg emission/kg material CH chemical exergy
EPC environmental pollution cost, $/kg emission
f fuel
f exergoeconomic factor, % p product

h specific enthalpy, kJ/kmol PH physical exergy
H_ energy, kJ/s
ISI improved sustainability index, %
L heat loss ratio from combustion chamber, % Subscripts
0 dead state
LHV lower heating value, kJ/kg
m _ mass flow rate, kg/s a air
M molar mass, kg/kmol B LCiTA related
n system lifetime, years C compressor
CC combustion chamber
n_ molar flow rate, kmol/s
p pressure, bar D destruction
PEC purchased equipment cost, $ f fuel
Q_ heat, kJ/s GT gas turbine
gen generated
r relative cost difference, %

R universal gas constant, kJ/kmol K HE heat exchanger
RH relative humidity, % in inlet
s L loss
specific entropy, kJ/kmol K
SDp sustainable depletion ratio, % NG natural gas
T temperature, K O&M operation and maintenance
w weight, kg p product
_ REC recuperator
W work, kJ/s
x molar fraction
Z_ levelized component cost, $/s
gives the molar or mass based emitted carbon dioxide and other beginning (raw material) to the end (disposal). Therefore, combi-
GHG rates. Apart from the classical environmental analyses, envi- nation of LCA and thermoeconomics aspects is a more sustainable
roeconomic analyses were applied to consider the environmental way to evaluate the energy conversion systems. Not merely for the
and economic impacts together [27–30]. Thermoenvironmental reassessments of the conventional energy conversion systems, the
analysis is another assessment method for the energy conversion combined LCA and thermoeconomics idea can also be applied to
systems, and they can be called as exergoenvironmental studies better evaluate the some new energy conversion ideas like the
when the exergy terms are considered instead of the energy terms. organic Rankine cycles [42–44]. Although the commercial LCA soft-
From past to present, different methods and assessment criteria ware based exergoenvironmental studies present some advan-
have been presented by researchers for the exergoenvironmen tages, the comparisons between the conventional and LCA based
tal/thermoenvironmental analyses [31–34]. methods is restricted due to fact that both methodologies have dif-
In addition to thermoeconomics, enviroeconomics and exer- ferent units which means the conventional thermoeconomic or
goenvironmental perspectives, there are crucial models which ana- exergoenvironmental studies gives the outputs as dollar per sec-
lyze the thermal, economic and environmental issues together, and ond while the commercial LCA based exergoenvironmental meth-
they can also be defined as exergoenvironmental analyses. The ods represent the results as a unit of millipoints.
exergoenvironment term is used for two different approaches: (i) In this study, we propose to fill this gap. The presented model is
the studies which focus on thermal/economic/environmental called as life cycle integrated thermoeconomic assessment (LCiTA),
nexus, and (ii) the studies which focus on thermal/environmental and it evaluates the energy conversion systems like the conven-
analyses as mentioned above. The studies which are related to ther tional thermoeconomic and exergoenvironmental studies from
mal/economic/environmental nexus have been analyzed in differ- the point of assessment unit. LCiTA considers the GHG emission
ent studies [35–40]. Although different perspectives are combined related enviroeconomic part of LCA. The produced carbon dioxide
and analyzed together, more detail assessment methods are rates during the manufacturing processes of the system compo-
required to evaluate the energy conversion systems in a sustain- nents, the carbon dioxide rates in the system operation (before
able way. Meyer et al. [41] presented a well-prepared procedure and after combustion processes), and the produced carbon dioxide
for the exergoenvironmental analyses with a commercial LCA soft- rates during the fuel production and processes are integrated into
ware. In the proposed method, the units of the system and system the life cycle integrated thermoeconomic matrix of the energy con-
components are millipoints that is the unit of the commercial LCA version system. LCA has the other factors such as raw materials,
software. LCA can be simple defined as the assessment methodol- manufacturing, reusing/recycling, and operation factors [45], they
ogy which investigates the whole stages of a real product from the are not considered in the present method so far due to fact that
B.B. Kanbur et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 148 (2017) 1409–1425 1411
the large and reliable data mining is required for their investiga-
tions. However, it is possible to consider their impacts with the Fuel Production and Processing Units
LCiTA method when the reliable data sources are found, as men- (fossil based, solar based, geothermal based,
biomass based, etc.)
tioned in detail in Section 5. In addition, the observation of the
emission impacts in the life cycle integrated thermoeconomic
Supplemet
Fuel
matrix is possible thanks to the LCiTA method as it is going to be
mentioned in Section 3. The LCiTA can also allow the see the
impacts of the carbon dioxide capture processes from the point
of thermoeconomics with relevant emission calculations. There- 10
fore, the thermoeconomic assessments of the carbon dioxide cap- Combustion
ture systems would be more reliable than the conventional Chamber
thermoeconomic matrices since the thermoeconomic impacts of 4
the emissions are considered in the solution matrix of LCiTA. 3 Electricity
Fig. 1 illustrates the main application area of LCiTA method, and
Comp 11 Gas 12
its content, respectively. As seen from Fig. 1, the LCiTA method is Turbine
ressor
located in the intersection region of thermoeconomic, enviroeco-
nomic and exergoenvironmental approaches. To illustrate the 5
LCiTA study, a micro-cogeneration plant is applied. In addition to Ambient
Air Recup
the conventional thermoeconomic parameters, the new parame- 1 erator
ters are developed from the previous studies. After the thermody- 2
City 6 Hot
namic and environmental calculations, the LCiTA method is
Water Water
calculated and the method is compared with the conventional
8 Heat 9
thermoeconomic methodology to investigate the impacts of the Exchanger
emission related enviroeconomic parameters during the operation,
and manufacturing processes of the system components. 7 CHP
Flue gas from CHP

2. System description
CO2 Capture Technologies

The STA method is studied on the micro-cogeneration system as (Chemical/Physical Absorption)
shown in Fig. 2. The micro-cogeneration system is a well-known (Chemical/Physical Adsorption) Product
cogeneration design which was also used in the development of (Cryogenic Capture)
previous thermoeconomic methods, and it includes a compressor, etc.
a combustion chamber, a micro turbine, a recuperator and a heat
exchanger (for hot water production). More details on the design Emission gas
can be found in Ref. [46]. As mentioned in Section 1, LCiTA consid-
ers the produced GHG emissions during the fuel process and sup- Fig. 2. Schematics of the fuel, power generation, and emission control processes.
ply steps so that various fuel production and process types are
shown in Fig. 2. The current study does not include any carbon
dioxide capture process, but the capture steps are shown in the for the performance investigations of the GHG capture processes
schematic to show the feasibility of the proposed LCiTA method as mentioned in Section 1.
During the investigation, the assumptions are made. The micro
cogeneration system is designed according to Capstone C30 model
with the pressure ratio of 3.64 [47,48] with steady-state condi-
tions, and the purchased equipment cost of the overall system is
assumed 1130 $/kW [49]. The isentropic efficiencies of the com-
pressor and gas turbine are 79 and 84%, respectively while the
Ec
ses Thermoeconomic on
om
recuperator effectiveness is 92% [48]. The heat exchanger capacity
aly Analyses ic A is assumed as 50 kW at the ambient air temperature of 298.15 K
An
al na with reference to real applications of the micro-cogeneration
erm Life Cycle
lys
es model [50,51]. The study is conducted between the ambient air
Th
integrated temperatures of 298.15 and 313.15 K, and the relative humidities
Thermoeconomic of 50 and 90%. There is no steam generation is aimed in the thermal
Assessment energy production part, the main idea of the thermal energy part is
l
al me o
es ta
ic
An iron rm
the hot water production. The micro-cogeneration system is

ys n
(LCiTA) m
no
v he
co es fuelled by natural gas, and the natural gas is assumed 100%

en T
o e
vir lys methane. Molar mass of the natural gas is 16.043 kg/kmol [52].
En Ana
The unit cost of the natural gas (cNG ¼ c10 ) is assumed as
6:49524 106 $/kJ [53]. The low heating value of the natural gas
is assumed 48,632 kJ/kg [54]. Except the combustion chamber, all
Environmental Analyses the system equipments are well-insulated that means there is no
heat loss from the system equipments. Thus, the exergy losses of
the well-insulated system equipments are assumed zero. To calcu-
late the exergy loss from the combustion chamber, it is assumed
that the surface temperature of the chamber is equal to combustor
Fig. 1. Concept of the LCiTA. outlet temperature (T 4 ). Also, the pressure drops are assumed 5%
Table 1 3.1. Thermodynamic model

Material properties of the micro-cogeneration system components.
System Material Percentage kgCO2 /kg Approximate The flow rates (fuel, ambient air and product gas) are significant
component [58] (%) [58] material weight in the calculations of the energetic and exergetic performances of
[59–61] (kg) [58,62] the micro-cogeneration system. The mass flow rate of the fuel is
Compressor Steel 33 3.012 163.36 calculated by using the manufacturer data [47]. The proportion
Steel low 45 3.012 of the fuel flow rate of the micro turbine to LHV of natural gas gives
alloy
Cast iron 22 1.510
the required mass flow rate of the fuel. The molar flow rate of the
fuel is found by the ratio of the mass flow rate the fuel to the molar
Combustion Steel 33 3.012 103.96
chamber Steel high 77 3.012
mass of the fuel. The manufacturer data also gives the mass flow
alloy rates of the product gas. The mass flow rate of the required ambi-
Micro turbine Steel 25 3.012 174.28
ent air can be reached by finding the difference between the mass
Steel high 75 3.012 flow rate of the product gas and fuel. The molar flow rate of the
alloy ambient air can be calculated by using the molar fractions of the
Recuperator Steel 25 3.012 33 chemical contents in the air (nitrogen-N2 , oxygen-O2 , carbon
Steel low 75 3.012 dioxide-CO2 , water vapor-H2 O). The fuel-air ratio is a parameter
alloy in the combustion equation, as defined in Eq. (1),
Heat Exchanger Steel 100 3.012 163.5
_
k ¼ nf ð1Þ
n_ a
for each system component as applied in Ref. [46]. The chemical The solution of the combustion reaction provides to understand
contents of the ambient air are nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, the chemical contents of the product gas, and it is calculated by
and water vapor which was received from Bejan et al. [46]. The using the molar fractions of the chemical contents of the air, and
enthalpy and entropy data of methane, nitrogen and oxygen are the fuel-air ratio as shown in Eq. (2),
received from Refs. [55–57], respectively whereas the data for car- kCH4 þ ½xa þ xa þ xa þ xa
N2 O2 CO2 H2 O
bon dioxide and water vapor is taken from Cengel and Boles [52].
The system lifetime and interest rate are selected as 20 years and ! ½1 þ k½xpN2 þ xpO2 þ xpCO2 þ xpH2 O ð2Þ
3.7%, respectively. The annual operation time of the system is Thanks to Eq. (2), the chemical contents of the product gas can
determined as 8000 h. Also, the unit cost of the ambient air (c1 ) be seen, and the molar flow rate of the product gas can be calcu-
and the city water inlet (c8 ) are assumed zero [46]. The materials lated. To calculate the energy and exergy rates, the specific
of the system components are required data for the reliable enthalpy and entropy data must be calculated. For the ambient
approach of LCiTA. The material properties of the system compo- air and the product gas, the specific enthalpy and entropy calcula-
nents are given in Table 1 with reference to the study of Cavalcanti tions are presented in Eqs. (3)–(6), respectively,
[58]. The produced carbon dioxide rates during the manufacturing
of the system components are determined according to combining a ¼ ½xa h
h N þ xa h
O þ xa h
CO þ xa hH O ð3Þ
N2 2 O2 2 CO2 2 H2 O 2
of different Refs. [59–61], and the determined mean values are
shown in Table 1. The same value is presented for the all steel p ¼ ½xp h
h N þ xp h
O þ xp h
CO þ xp hH O ð4Þ
N2 2 O2 2 CO2 2 H2 O 2
types in the related sources. The weights of the system compo-
nents are also crucial for the reliable analyses. The total weight
sa ¼ ½xaN sN2 þ xaO sO2 þ xaCO sCO2 þ xaH O sH2 O ð5Þ
of the micro turbine system (compressor, combustion chamber, 2 2 2 2
gas turbine and recuperator) is roundly 475 kg [62]. The approxi-

mate weights of the system components of the micro turbine sys- sp ¼ ½xpN sN2 þ xpO sO2 þ xpCO sCO2 þ xpH O sH2 O ð6Þ
2 2 2 2
tems are determined proportionally while the approximate weight

It is important to remind that the specific enthalpy and entropy
of the heat exchanger is determined by weight function [58]. The
values of the streams are different due to fact that the each stream
approximate weights are also presented in Table 1. In addition,
has different temperature and pressure values. The required
the produced carbon dioxide rate during the fuel production and
sources to read the enthalpy and entropy values at different tem-
process is determined in Ref. [59].
perature and pressure are given in Section 2. By using the specific
entropy data, it is possible to calculate the specific exergy values.
3. Modeling The specific exergy is calculated in two different terms: (1) chem-
ical exergy, and (2) physical exergy [46]. Both these terms are rep-
Modeling part is divided into five different subsections as the resented in Eqs. (7) and (8), respectively,
thermodynamic model, environmental model, thermoeconomic X X
eCH ¼ xi eCH
i þ R T0 xi ln xi ð7Þ
model, LCiTA model, and the case studies. The thermodynamic
model is also divided into energetic and exergetic modelings. After
these fundamental modelings, thermoeconomic modeling is pÞ hðT
ePH ¼ hðT; 0 ; p Þ T 0 ½sðT; pÞ sðT 0 ; p Þ ð8Þ
0 0
explained. The presented micro-cogeneration schematic is well-
where i represents any component in the system. The physical
known design for the conventional thermoeconomic calculations.
All the significant parts of the design are modeled, but the detail exergy rate, E_ PH , and chemical exergy rate, E_ CH , are obtained by pro-
information on the conventional thermoeconomic case can be duct of the molar flow rate and values of the specific physical and
found in Refs. [46,63]. Also, more details on the thermodynamic chemical exergy in the related stream, respectively. The summation
model can be found in Ref. [49]. After the thermoeconomic model, of E_ PH and E_ CH are equal to total exergy rate of the stream, E. _ The
the LCiTA model is defined in detail with the developed evaluation multiplication of the molar flow rate and the specific enthalpy of
parameters. Lastly, the case studies of some natural gas importer _ To calculate the exergetic
the stream gives the total energy rate, H.
countries are modelled according to LCiTA method under different performance of the system components, the general exergy balance
carbon dioxide price predictions between 2020 and 2050. equation is defined as shown in Eq. (9),
E_ f ¼ E_ p þ E_ D þ E_ L ð9Þ Table 2
Thermodynamic balance equations of the system components in the micro-cogen-
It is known that the product exergy is always smaller than the eration system.
fuel exergy owing to definition of the second law of thermodynam- System Energy balance Fuel exergy Product exergy
ics. Exergy destruction, E_ D , and exergy loss terms, E_ L , define the components balance balance
unavailable exergy rates in the system components. E_ D occurs Combustion H_ 10 þ H_ 3 ¼ H_ 4 þ Q_ comb L E_ 10 E_ 4 E_ 3

due to entropy generation during the transport process so that it chamber
can only be decreased by the improvements of the transport pro-
Compressor H_ 2 ¼ W _ C þ H_ 1 W _ C E_ 2 E_ 1
Recuperator H_ 2 þ H_ 5 ¼ H_ 3 þ H_ 6 E_ 5 E_ 6 E_ 3 E_ 2
cesses in the system component, but it can never be equal to zero
Gas turbine W _ GT ¼ H_ 4 H_ 5 E_ 4 E_ 5 W _ GT
due to fact that the actual systems cannot be assumed as the ideal
Heat exchanger Q_ HE ¼ H_ 6 H_ 7 ¼ H_ 9 H_ 8 E_ 6 E_ 7 E_ 9 E_ 8
system. E_ L occurs due to heat losses from the system component.
For the proposed micro-cogeneration schematic, the exergy loss
is the summation of the exergy rate of stream 7 and the exergy rate
of the heat loss from the combustion chamber. As mentioned in Refs. [46,63], and three main assessment parameters are proposed
Section 2, all the system equipments are well-insulated so that as evaluation criteria which are the levelized product cost, relative
the exergy loss is only considered for the combustion chamber. cost difference, and exergoeconomic factor. The levelized product
To calculate the exergy loss from the combustion chamber, the cost depends on the levelized fuel cost and the levelized costs of
total heat input to the combustion chamber must be calculated the system components as defined in Eq. (16),
firstly, as defined in Eq. (10),
C_p ¼ C_f þ Z_ ð16Þ
Q_ in ¼ n_ f LHV NG ð1 LÞ ð10Þ
The levelized costs includes the unit cost and exergy rate for
where the heat loss ratio, L, depends on the operating conditions of each stream that means the levelized cost combines both economic
the overall system such as climate conditions and pressure ratio. In and thermodynamic parameters. Thus, for each stream, the leve-
this study, the pressure ratio is constant, 3.64, but various ambient lized cost is explained as the product of the unit cost and the
air temperatures and relative humidity values are used. Thus, L has exergy rate as shown in Eq. (17),
different values under different operating conditions. Eqs. (11) and
(12) represent the heat and exergy loss rates from the combustion C_ ¼ c E_ ð17Þ
chamber, respectively,
The levelized cost of the system components are directly related
Q_ L ¼ n_ f LHV NG L ð11Þ to purchased equipment costs and the relevant economic parame-
ters such as annual operation time, interest rate, operation and
maintenance cost, and system lifetime. Operation and mainte-
T0
E_ L ¼ Q_ L 1 ð12Þ nance cost of the system is assumed 1.092% of the purchased
T4
equipment cost [63]. By using the interest rate and the system life-
Energy and exergy balance equations for the system compo- time, the capital recovery factor is calculated and the obtained
nents are the crucial points to see the energetic and exergetic per- value is used to calculate the levelized product cost of the system
formances of the components so that the energy and exergy components, individually. Eqs. (18) and (19) present the calcula-
balance equations of each component is presented in Table (2). tion of the capital recovery factor and the levelized cost of the sys-
By using these balance equations, the energetic and exergetic effi- tem components, respectively,
ciencies can be calculated. Eqs. (13) and (14) give the energetic and n
exergetic efficiencies of the overall system, respectively [46], i ði þ 1Þ
CRF ¼ n ð18Þ
ði þ 1Þ 1
W_ þ Q_
g ¼ gen_ HE ð13Þ
Q in ðCRF C O&M Þ PEC
Z_ ¼ ð19Þ
s
E_ þ E_
e¼1 D_ L ð14Þ The exergy calculations are mentioned in thermodynamic mod-
Ef elling, but it is also required to calculate the unit costs for the
streams in the micro-cogeneration system. The unit costs are cal-
culated by using exergy-cost matrix in thermoeconomic studies.
3.2. Environmental model
The exergy-cost matrix (also known as the thermoeconomic
matrix) is presented in Eq. (20),
The thermodynamic outputs are also used in the environmental
2 _ _C 3
modeling to see the trends of the emitted carbon dioxide rate E2 0 0 W 0 2 3 2 3
according to generated net work. The emitted carbon dioxide rate 6 _ 7 u Z_ C
_
6 E2 E3 _
E6 E5 _ 07 6 7
in the combustion product gas is used in the conventional environ- 6 0 76 v 77 6 Z_ REC 7
6 76
6 7 6 7
mental modeling. The molar flow rate of carbondioxide is known 6 0 E_ _
E4 0 7
0 76 z 7 ¼ 6 Z_ CC þ cNG E_ 10 7
6
6 7
76 7
3
from Eq. (2). Then, the emitted carbon dioxide rate can be calcu- 6 6 7 6 7
6 0 _
E5 E4 _ _
WT þ W _C 07 6 7
lated by using Eq. (15), 6 0 74 t 5 4 _Z GT 5
4 5
k _
xpCO2 n_ p M CO2 0 0 E_ 7 E_ 6 0 E_ 9 Z HE
1¼ _ gen
ð15Þ
W ð20Þ
where u; v ; z; t and k are the unknowns for the thermoeconomic

3.3. Thermoeconomic model modelling of the system components which means u deduces the
unit cost of stream 2 whereas v defines the unit cost of stream 3.
The thermoeconomic model for the presented micro- The unit costs of the combustion product gas are equal to z for all
cogeneration case is well-known model which can be found at the product gas streams that are streams 4, 5, 6 and 7. the unit costs
Table 3
Thermoeconomic and LCiTA balance equations for the system components.
System components Thermoeconomic model LCiTA model

Balance equations Auxiliary equations Balance equations Auxiliary equations
Combustion chamber C_ 10 þ C_ 3 þ Z_ CC ¼ C_ 4 c3 ¼ v ; c4 ¼ z B_ 10 þ B_ 3 þ Z_B CC ¼ B_ 4 b 3 ¼ v B ; b 4 ¼ zB
Gas Turbine C_ 4 þ Z_ GT ¼ C_ 5 þ C_ 11 þ C_ 12 c11 ¼ c12 ¼ t; c5 ¼ z B_ 4 þ Z_B GT ¼ B_ 5 þ B_ 11 þ B_ 12 b11 ¼ b12 ¼ tB ; b5 ¼ zB
Compressor C_ 1 þ C_ 11 þ Z_ C ¼ C_ 2 c1 ¼ 0; c2 ¼ u B_ 1 þ B_ 11 þ Z_B C ¼ B_ 2 b1 ¼ 0; b2 ¼ uB
Recuperator C_ 2 þ C_ 5 þ Z_ REC ¼ C_ 6 þ C_ 3 c5 ¼ c6 ¼ z B_ 2 þ B_ 5 þ Z_B REC ¼ B_ 6 þ B_ 3 b5 ¼ b6 ¼ zB
Heat Exchanger C_ 6 þ C_ 8 þ Z_ HE ¼ C_ 7 þ C_ 9 c8 ¼ 0; c9 ¼ k B_ 6 þ B_ 8 þ Z_B HE ¼ B_ 7 þ B_ 9 b8 ¼ 0; b9 ¼ kB
of the streams of the work consumer (stream 11) and producer from the system to the environment as applied in the exergoenvi-
(stream 12) devices are shown with t. Lastly, the unit cost of the ronmental analysis by Ahmadi et al. [35]. Z_B is explained in Eq.
hot water (stream 9) is shown with k. To better understand the (24),
exergy-cost matrix of the micro-cogeneration system, thermoeco-
nomic balance equations are presented in Table 3. In addition to Z_B ¼ Z_ þ m_ pCO EPC CO2
2
ð24Þ
the levelized product cost, the relative product cost difference and
the exergoeconomic factor are two additional significant parame- The environmental pollution cost of CO2 ; EPC CO2 , is 0.0327 $/
ters during the thermoeconomic analysis. Eqs. (21) and (22) show kgCO2 which is calculated from Ref. [34] by using the related infla-
the relative cost difference and the exergoeconomic factor, tion and exchange rates. Moreover, it is seen that the system has
respectively, two main inputs: (1) ambient air input (stream 1), and (2) fuel
input (stream 10) when the system schematic is considered. In
cp cf addition to the produced carbon dioxide rate in the product gas,
r¼ ð21Þ
cf the enviroeconomic impacts on the ambient air and the fuel are
also considered in the LCiTA method. For example, in the conven-
Z_ tional thermoeconomics, the unit cost of the ambient air, c1 , is
f ¼ ð22Þ assumed 0 $/kJ [46,63]. However, in the LCiTA method, the envi-
_Z þ cf E_ D þ E_ L
roeconomic impact of the carbon dioxide rate in the ambient air
is considered, and the life cycle integrated unit cost of stream 1,
In general, it is desired to minimize the relative cost difference
b1 , is shown in Eq. (25),
since the smaller product cost is more feasible from the point of
thermoeconomics. Also, in this study, the minimum value of the m_ aCO EPC CO2
2
exergoeconomic factor is preferred due to fact that a less f means b1 ¼ c1 þ ð25Þ
the levelized cost of the system components are less dominant E_ PH _ CH
4 þ E4
than higher a f value. The exergy destruction and loss terms have Since the reference state is assumed as the ambient conditions,
more importance by decreasing of the f value. The exergy destruc- the specific physical exergy of stream 1 is equal to zero so that the
tions and losses can be decreased by system improvements, but physical exergy rate of stream 1 becomes zero. However, the speci-
the levelized costs of the system components are directly related fic chemical exergy of stream 1 can be calculated, then b1 value can
to external economic parameters which means it is difficult to be obtained. If the specific chemical exergy of stream 1 is consid-
decrease the levelized costs of the system components by improve- ered as a negligible parameter, b1 becomes zero like c1 value. The
ments due to its external parameters. enviroeconomic parameters are also considered for the fuel
(stream 10). In the conventional thermoeconomics, the unit cost
3.4. LCiTA model of fuel, c10 , is equal to unit cost of natural gas, cNG ). In the LCiTA
method, two different emission parameters are added to cNG value.
Similar to conventional thermoeconomic model which is mod- First, enviroeconomic impact of the consumed natural gas
elled in the previous section, the LCiTA method also uses the (assumed 100% methane) is considered, and then the enviroeco-
matrix for the assessment. However, the environmental impacts nomic impact of the produced carbon dioxide rate during the fuel
such as the carbon dioxide rates in the ambient air and the product production and process [59] is calculated. Eq. (26) explains the cal-
gas streams, and LCA-based terms such as the produced carbon culation of the life cycle integrated unit cost of the stream 10, b10 ,
dioxide rates during the manufacturing of the system components
_ f EPC CH4
m f
according to their material properties, and the produced carbon b10 ¼ c10 þ þ cCO EPC ð26Þ
E_ PH þ E_ CH 2
CO2
dioxide rates during the fuel production and processes are inte- 10 10
grated into the solution matrix. Thus, the solution matrix is called Like EPC CO2 ; EPC CH4 is also received from Ref. [34] by using the
as sustainable thermoeconomic matrix in the LCiTA method, same interest and exchange calculations, and EPC CH4 is found as
instead of the exergy-cost or the thermoeconomic matrix defini- 1.06 $/kgCH4 . The cost of the produced carbon dioxide during the
tions. The evaluation steps are similar to the conventional ther- f
fuel production and process is denoted by cCO , and it is found as
moeconomics. The levelized product cost of the LCiTA method is 2
0.000063 kgCO2 /kJ from Ref. [59]. Furthermore, the cost of pro-
defined as the life cycle integrated levelized product costs, and it
duced carbon dioxide rates during the manufacturing of the system
is presented in Eq. (23),
components are calculated according to given data in Table 1. The
B_p ¼ B_f þ Z_B ð23Þ calculation of the levelized cost of the system component is given
in Eq. (27),
The life cycle integrated levelized cost of the system compo-
ðCRF C O&M Þ wi Emi EPC CO2
nents (Z_B ), includes the levelized cost of the system components Z_Bi ¼ Z_i þ ð27Þ
_ and the levelized cost of the exhausted carbon dioxide rate s
(Z),
where subscript i denotes the any component in the system. After have never evaluated in thermoeconomic studies. In the presented
defining all the LCA-related enviroeconomic parameters for the method, the LCiTA parameters are added to the exergy terms, and
overall system, the life cycle integrated thermoeconomic matrix of the sustainable depletion ratio, SDp, and improved sustainability
the micro cogeneratiom system can be written as shown in Eq. (28), index, ISI, are developed, as can be seen in Eqs. (32) and (33),
2 _ _C 3 respectively,
E2 0 0 W 0 2 3 2 3
6 _ 7 uB Z_ þ B_ 1
6 E2 _E3 _E6 E_ 5 0 0 76 7 6 BC B_D
6 76 v B 7 6 Z_BREC 7 7 SDp ¼ ð32Þ
6
6 0
76 7 6
76 7 6 _ 7 B_f
6 E_ 3 E_ 4 0 0 76 zB 7 ¼ 6 Z BCC þ B_ 10 7
6 76 7 6 7
7
6 0
6 0 E_ 5 E_ 4 _ T þW
W _C 0 74 t B 5 4 Z_
7 BGT 5 1 B_f
4 5 ISI ¼ ¼ ð33Þ
kB Z_BHE SDp B_D
0 0 E_ 7 E_ 6 0 E_ 9
ð28Þ
3.5. Case studies: Future projections for gas importer countries
where uB ; v B ; zB ; t B and kB are the unknowns of the LCiTA balance
equations. Due to the integrated LCA-related terms, the unit costs of Owing to emission considerations in the solution matrix, it is
the streams are going to show difference when they are compared possible to see the impacts of the emission gas prices on the overall
to unit costs of the streams for conventional thermoeconomic thermoeconomic performance. The carbon dioxide emissions have
method. Like the conventional method, uB and v B denote the unit significant importance for the energy conversion systems from the
costs for streams 2 and 3, respectively whereas t B shows the unit point of their environmental evaluations. Luckow et al. [66] pre-
costs of streams 11 and 12. The unit cost of stream 9 is shown with pared three different forecast scenarios from 2020 to 2050 for car-
kB . During the matrix solution, the unit costs of streams 4, 5, 6 and 7 bon dioxide pricing, and the forecast cases are defined as low case,
are shown with zB , but an additional enviroeconomic parameter medium case, and high case, respectively. Each case has its own
must be added to the unit cost of stream 7 since stream 7 denotes increment trends between 2020 and 2050. The forecasted carbon
the outlet stream from the micro cogeneration plant to the environ- dioxide prices were calculated according to the U.S. Dollar for
ment. Thus, enviroeconomic term is added to its unit cost calcula- 2014. By using the related inflation rate, the forecasted carbon
tion as can be seen in Eq. (29), dioxide prices are updated for 2017, and the prices are presented
in Table 4 for every five years between 2020 and 2025. According
m_ pCO EPC CO2
2 to presented future projections of carbon dioxide prices, the case
b 7 ¼ zB þ ð29Þ
E_ PH _ CH
10 þ E10
studies are conducted for three natural gas importer countries
which are Singapore, India and Brazil by using the LCiTA model.
The added enviroeconomic parameters of the unit cost of The presented micro-cogeneration system is operated according
stream 7 tell that the unit cost of the output streams are also going to the climate conditions of these countries as illustrated in
to be different when the comparison will be performed with the Fig. 3, and the life cycle integrated levelized product cost, life cycle
conventional thermoeconomic and LCiTA method. Furthermore, integrated relative cost difference, and life cycle integrated exer-
owing to integrated enviroeconomic parameter of the stream 7, goeoconomic factor parameters with the corresponding ISI values
heat exchanger assessments may show differences between the are investigated with respect to three different forecast cases.
LCiTA and conventional methods due to fact that the stream 7 is The climate data for the countries are withdrawn from RETScreen
also output stream of the heat exchanger. The details on the heat software [67]. The interest rates of India and Brazil are selected as
exchanger assessment are going to mentioned in Section 4. The 6.25% [68] and 13.75% [69], respectively.
LCiTA balance equations of the micro-cogeneration system is pre-
sented in Table 3. The relative cost difference and exergoeconomic
factor are also crucial assessment parameters for the LCiTA 4. Results and discussion
method. However, the relative cost difference and exergoeconomic
factor values of LCiTA are going to show differences since the val- 4.1. Thermodynamic and environmental analyses
ues of unit costs for streams change due to the life cycle integrated
parameters. Thus, to avoid the confusion for terms, the relative cost The thermodynamic and environmental performance trends of
difference and exergoeconomic factor terms are defined as life the micro cogeneration system are illustrated in Fig. 4. for various
cycle integrated relative cost difference and life cycle integrated ambient air temperatures and relative humidity values. The net
exergoeconomic factor, as they are explained in Eqs. (30) and generated work trends can be seen in Fig. 4a. The maximum net
(31), respectively, generated work is observed at the highest relative humidity and
the lowest ambient air temperature values while the minimum
bp bf work rate is occurred at the minimum relative humidity and the
rB ¼ ð30Þ
bf maximum ambient air temperature. The thermal efficiency perfor-
Z_B
fB ¼ ð31Þ Table 4
_
Z B þ bf E_ D þ E_ L The levelized carbon dioxide price forecasts for low, medium and high cases.
Year CO2 Price ($/kgCO2 )

In addition to these assessment criteria, LCiTA presents addi-
Low Medium High
tional assessment criterion which is sustainability index (SI),
which was first proposed by Rosen et al. [64] for the studies on 2020 0.017171 0.022895 0.028619
2025 0.022895 0.03148 0.040066
the exergy/environment/sustainability nexus. SI simply means 2030 0.028619 0.040066 0.061816
the ratio of the total exergy input to the exergy destruction which 2035 0.034342 0.055234 0.083566
was the inverse definition of the depletion ratio, Dp, that was first 2040 0.040066 0.070402 0.105316
proposed by Connelly and Koshland [65] to characterize the fossil 2045 0.04579 0.085283 0.121343
2050 0.051513 0.100737 0.137369
fuel consumption. Both definitions include exergy terms and they
humidity. Thus, it can also be said that the energetic and exergetic
efficiency trends show different behaviors due to fact that the
exergy destruction rates are considered in the exergetic analyses
while the energetic analyses does not investigate the exergy
destruction. Fig. 4d gives a perspective about the environmental
analyses of the micro-cogeneration system. Apart from the ther-
modynamic studies, the environmental analyses show that the car-
bon dioxide emission rate finds its maximum value at 308 K in the
range of 288.15–313.15 K. For all the illustrated figures, the
impacts of the relative humidity is not as high as the ambient air
temperature values though it has slight impacts on the thermody-
namic and environmental performances. For a general discussion
of the thermodynamic and environmental outputs, it is not feasible
to determine an optimal point according to these four investigation
parameters due to different trends of the investigated parameters.
Therefore, the different strategies such as multiobjective assess-
ment and optimization studies must be improved to find a optimal
point or optimal points for the reliable assessment of the micro-
cogeneration systems from the point of thermodynamic and envi-
ronmental parameters.
4.2. Comparative assessments between the conventional

thermoeconomic and LCiTA methods
In the conventional thermoeconomic analyses, Fig. 5 presents

the unit cost of the fuel from the point of LCiTA and conventional
thermoeconomic methods, respectively. The LCiTA unit cost is
named as life cycle integrated unit cost. The unit cost of fuel
increases roundly 3.8 times when the enviroeconomic and envi-
ronmental parameters of the fuel are considered and added, and
this shows the LCA based enviroeconomic and environmental
parameters have significant impacts on the unit cost of fuel. As
mentioned in detail in Section 3, the LCA-based enviroeconomic
parameter is received from a source for the conventional methane
production processes. However, the various fuel production pro-
cesses such as conventional or novel biomass and gasification pro-
cesses can provide various enviroeconomic parameters for the
LCiTA assessment. Therefore, the LCiTA method brings the scopes
of the comparisons which focus on the impact of various fuel pro-
duction processes on the thermoeconomic analyses of the energy
conversion systems by using the unit cost of fuel. By this way,
the investigation of the energy conversion systems with relevant
fuel supplier processes can be easier for the future studies.
Beside the unit cost of fuel, the impacts of the enviroeconomic
and environmental parameters on the micro-cogeneration streams
are also analyzed. Table 5 gives the unit costs of the streams which
belong to the subcomponents of the micro-cogeneration system.
The LCA-based enviroeconomic and environmental parameters
do not cause significant increments for the streams in the micro-
Fig. 3. Monthly mean ambient air conditions for: (a) Singapore, (b) Brazil, and (c)
India. cogeneration system. For instance, the unit cost of streams 2 and
3 increase by 0.17 and 0.18% when the enviroeconomic parameters
are applied. As can be seen in the table, b1 value is not equal to
mances which are presented in Fig. 4b have opposite trends when zero, but its value is very close to zero. The main reason for this
compared to the trends of the net generated work. The lowest ther- low number is the air usage for the micro-cogeneration systems.
mal efficiency of the cogeneration system is 67.32% at the mini- The carbon dioxide rate in the ambient air is very small, and its cor-
mum ambient air temperature and relative humidity values responding unit cost is very low, inherently. However, the unit cost
while the maximum efficiency is 73.67% at the highest ambient of the inlet stream may show significant increments for various
air temperature and the relative humidity which mean the differ- energy conversion systems by the LCiTA application. For example,
ence between the minimum and maximum thermal efficiencies gasification plants or fuel cells may have some inlet streams which
is roundly 6.35%. From the point of second law analysis, the exer- have high carbon related gas contents so that the unit cost of the
getic efficiency performance of the micro-cogeneration system is inlet stream may be increased when the LCiTA methods are applied
presented in Fig. 4c, and it is realized that the trends of the exer- to these conversion systems. For the streams of combustion prod-
getic performance are almost same with the trends of the net gen- ucts (streams 4, 5, 6 and 7) the LCiTA increases the unit cost by
erated work rate. Both trends have their minimum value at the roundly 0.25%. The main products of the micro-cogeneration sys-
highest ambient air temperature and the minimum relative tem are electric and thermal energy, and their unit costs are
Fig. 4. Performance analyses of the micro-cogeneration system: net generated work (a), energetic efficiency (b), exergetic efficiency (c), and emission analysis (d).
environment. However, b7 has the same value with the other pro-
duct gas streams when Table 5 is viewed. The main reason for this
issue is the significantly small value of the enviroeconomic param-
eters of the exhausted gas in the applied study. Apart from this
micro cogeneration system study, the enviroeconomic parameters
may affect the unit cost of the exhausted gas stream significantly
for other conversion applications such as large scale conversion
systems and different waste heat utilization applications. As one
of the main outputs of Table 5, it can be said that the LCiTA method
causes slight increments for the streams in the conversion system,
but the increments may show different increment ratios according
to different conversion systems under various operation
conditions.
4.3. LCiTA assessments
Fig. 5. Trends of the unit fuel cost in both conventional and life cycle integrated After the comparisons between the conventional thermoeco-
thermoeconomic methods. nomic and LCiTA method, the main assessment studies are con-
ducted for the LCiTA study. Fig. 6 illustrates the life cycle
integrated relative cost difference and the life cycle integrated
increased by 0.18 and 0.34%, respectively. Furthermore, it is impor- exergoeconomic factors for the system components according to
tant to mention about the unit cost of stream 7. As defined in Eq. the determined ambient air and relative humidity ranges. For all
(29), b7 has different unit cost value than the other product gas the system components, the relative humidity has less impact than
streams (b4 ; b5 and b6 ) due to the integration of the enviroeco- the ambient air temperature. As determined in Section 3.3, the
nomic parameters of the exhausted gas from the system to the minimization of both parameters are desired cases for all the sys-
tem components and the overall system. For the combustion
7.08E08
chamber, f B;CC and rB;CC have opposite trends according to both
0.02348
0.02352
0.02634
0.02639
0.01945
0.01945
0.05241
0.02613
0.02608
0.0194
0.0526
ambient air temperature and relative humidity values as can be
90
0
seen in Fig. 6a. f B;CC increases by rising of the ambient air temper-
7.02E08
0.02318
0.02322
0.02612
0.01926
0.01931
0.01931
0.05228
0.05247
0.02593
0.02598
0.02608
ature and relative humidity while the r B;CC has decreasing trends
80
0
according to same parameters. Thus, the minimization trends of
6.96E08
313.15 K
0.02288
0.02292
0.02581
0.02586
0.01911
0.01916
0.01916
0.05214
0.05233
0.02577
0.02583
both parameters are contradict to each other that means optimiza-
70
tion studies may be required to define the optimal region for the
0
0
6.90E08
combustion chamber, if the combustion chamber has an important

0.02258
0.02262
0.02555
0.01897
0.05219
0.02562
0.02567
0.01902
0.01902
0.0256
0.052
role in the analysis and assessment of the energy conversion sys-
60
0
tem. Fig. 6b represents the performance trends of the gas turbine.
6.84E08
0.02228
0.02232
0.02528
0.02533
0.01882
0.01887
0.01888
0.05185
0.02547
0.02552
0.05205
Both f B;GT and r B;GT parameters decrease by rising of the ambient air
50
0
temperature, but the rB;GT trends are more dramatic than the f B;GT
6.97E08
0.02368
0.02372
0.02667
0.02672
0.01965
0.01966
0.04917
0.02668
0.02673
0.0196
trends. Relative humidity has different impacts on both parameters

0.049
90
for gas turbine. The rB;GT decreases while f B;GT increases by rising of
0
0
6.92E08
the relative humidity value. However, the impact of the relative

0.02342
0.02346
0.02644
0.02649
0.01948
0.01953
0.01953
0.04889
0.02655
0.04906
0.0266
humidity is very small and both parameters have decrement

80
trends. The changes in r B;C and f B;C are nearly equal to zero accord-
6.86E08
308.15 K
0.02316
0.02622
0.02627
0.01936
0.01941
0.01941
0.04878
0.04896
0.02642
0.02647
0.0232
ing to relative humidity increment as presented in Fig. 6c. How-

70
ever, the ambient air temperature has significant impact,

6.81E08
0.02294
0.02599
0.01924
0.01928
0.01929
0.04868
0.04885
0.02629
0.02634
0.02604
especially on r B;C . With 40 K temperature increment, rB;C decreases

0.0229
60
by 12.3%. f B;C also drops by rising of the ambient air temperature,

0
0
6.76E08
but the decrement rate is not as dramatic as the r B;C trends. The
0.02264
0.02268
0.02576
0.02581
0.01911
0.01916
0.01916
0.04857
0.04874
0.02616
0.02621
effects of rB;REC and f B;REC are also investigated in Fig. 6d, and it is
50
found that both parameters have decrement trends by rising of

6.85E08
0.02384
0.02388
0.02697
0.01978
0.01983
0.01984
0.04485
0.02727
0.02732
0.02702
0.045
the relative humidity with a small proportion. However, they have

90
opposite trends according to the ambient air temperature incre-

6.81E08
0.02363
0.02367
0.02678
0.02683
0.01968
0.01973
0.01973
0.04477
0.04492
0.02716
0.02721
ment which make the LCiTA assessment of recuperator is further

80
optimization required study. That is to say, to determine the best

0
0
6.77E08
303.15 K
operation parameters in the recuperator from the points of life

0.02341
0.02345
0.02659
0.02664
0.01958
0.01963
0.01963
0.04469
0.04484
0.02705
0.0271
cycle integrated relative cost difference and the life cycle inte-
70
grated exergoeconomic factors, more complex assessment strate-

6.73E08
0.02319
0.02323
0.02644
0.01948
0.01953
0.01953
0.04461
0.04476
0.02694
0.02699
0.0264
gies or optimization procedures can be applied. Fig. 6e gives the

60
main perspectives about the heat exchanger for the thermal energy
0
0
6.68E08
production. Like the recuperator and combustion chamber, the

0.02297
0.02625
0.01938
0.01943
0.01943
0.04452
0.04468
0.02683
0.02688
0.02301
0.0262
heat exchanger has also opposite trends when rB;HE and f B;HE are
50
compared. The relative humidity does not have significant impor-

6.74E08
0.02397
0.02723
0.02728
0.01994
0.01999
0.01999
0.02784
0.02789
0.02401
0.04063
0.0405
tance while the ambient air temperature really affects the perfor-
Unit costs of the streams for the conventional and life cycle integrated thermoeconomic models.
90
mance trends of parameters, especially for rB;HE . It must be

6.71E08
0.02384
0.02713
0.01986
0.01991
0.01991
0.02775
0.02708
0.04044
0.04058
highlighted that the thermodynamic and thermoeconomic perfor-

0.0238
0.0278
80
mance data of the heat exchanger can be changes according to con-

0
0
6.68E08
298.15 K
sumer preferences easily, while the other components

0.02363
0.02367
0.02693
0.02697
0.01978
0.01983
0.01983
0.02767
0.02772
0.04038
0.04052
(compressor, combustion chamber, recuperator, gas turbine) are

70
not feasible to external consumer responses due to their complex

6.64E08
0.02346
0.02677
0.02682
0.01975
0.01975
0.02758
0.02763
0.04032
0.04046
0.0235
0.0197
structures. However, the different configurations may be added

60
or extracted for the thermal energy production instead of the heat

0
0
6.61E08
exchanger. Thus, rB;HE and f B;HE trends can show different trends
0.02328
0.02332
0.02662
0.02666
0.01962
0.01967
0.01967
0.02755
0.04026
0.0275
0.0404
under various operating conditions. When the overall system sche-

50
matic is investigated, the trends of rB;TOT and f B;TOT can be observed

6.52E08
0.02414
0.02418
0.02765
0.03242
0.03252
0.02895
0.02899
0.02024
0.02025
0.0277
0.0202
in Fig. 6f. Both rB;TOT and f B;TOT decrease by rising of the ambient air
90
temperature while the relative humidity does not show significant

6.50E08
0.02758
0.02763
0.03239
0.03249
0.02891
0.02896
0.02406
0.02016
0.02021
0.02021
0.0241
differences though it has opposite trends in both parameters. How-

80
ever, the trends of r B;TOT is more dramatic than the trends of f B;TOT .
6.49E08
288.15 K
0.02398
0.02751
0.02756
0.03237
0.03247
0.02887
0.02892
0.02402
0.02012
0.02017
0.02017
The r B;TOT decreases by 18.9% while f B;TOT drops 3.17% when the
70
ambient air temperature increases from 288.15 K to 313.15 K. As

0
0
6.47E08
an overall output, Fig. 6 shows that the system components have

0.02394
0.02744
0.02748
0.03235
0.03245
0.02883
0.02888
0.02014
0.02014
0.02009
0.0239
different trends from the viewpoints of the life cycle integrated rel-
60
ative cost difference and the life cycle integrated exergoeconomic

6.46E08
0.02382
0.02386
0.02737
0.02741
0.03232
0.03242
0.02879
0.02884
0.02005
0.0201
0.0201
factor. Thus, detail assessment strategies or the optimization

50
methods can be applied for the better assessment of the system

0
0
c4 ¼ c5 ¼ c6 ¼ c7
components or the overall system. The presented study focuses

b4 ¼ b5 ¼ b6
on the detail assessment strategies to find the feasible operation

b11 ¼ b12
c11 ¼ c12
c 8 ¼ b8
RH (%)
Table 5
T 0 (K)
points from the point of LCiTA method as presented in Fig. 9.

b1
b2
b3
b7
b9
c1
c2
c3
c9
Fig. 6. Life cycle integrated relative cost difference (r B ) and life cycle integrated exergoeconomic factor (f B ) trends of the system components: combustion chamber (a), gas
turbine (b), compressor (c), recuperator (d), heat exchanger (e), and overall system (f).
The life cycle integrated levelized product cost trends are As defined in Section 3.4, previously existed depletion ratio and
observed in Fig. 7 after the investigation of the life cycle integrated relevant sustainability index parameters are improved by adding
relative cost difference and the life cycle integrated exergoeco- the thermoeconomic and LCA-based enviroeconomic parameters
nomic factor. The life cycle integrated levelized product cost of the system components and system streams. The maximization
decreases by 16.6, 16.2, 15.8, 15.4 and 14.93% for the relative of SI or ISI are desired cases due to fact that the maximum SI and ISI
humidities of 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90% from 288.15 K to 313.15 K, values deduce the minimization of the destruction impacts on the
respectively. The minimization of the life cycle integrated levelized overall performance when it is evaluated according to the fuel
product cost is a desired case so that it is possible to say that the input. Fig. 8 shows the difference between the SI and ISI values.
higher ambient air temperatures give more convenient Bp values ISI is more realistic parameter since it covers thermoeconomic
during the LCiTA analyses. However, Bp is not the only parameter and enviroeconomic terms in addition to the exergy related terms,
for the LCiTA investigation. Bp trends must be evaluated by the and it is seen that ISI values are significantly higher than the SI val-
other LCiTA and thermodynamic parameters to have better deci- ues. That is, when the thermoeconomic and enviroeconomic fac-
sion on the operating conditions. tors are also considered for the ISI definition, the impact of
max
Fig. 7. Life cycle integrated levelized cost performance of the overall system.
ters should be developed and they also consider the ISI trends dur-
ing the decision process to present better operating conditions.
The detailed LCiTA assessments are carried out in Fig. 9 for the
system components and overall system. The assessment criteria
ðB_ D þB_ L Þ
are based on the rB and f B trends according to B_ trend that pre-
p
sents the ratio of the life cycle integrated levelized cost of the
destruction and losses to the life cycle integrated levelized cost
ðB_ D þB_ L Þ
of the product. The minimum B_ is desired during the determi-
p
nation of the feasible operation points. Similar but not the same
assessment were conducted by Bejan et al. [46] that evaluated
ðE_ D þE_ L Þ
the cp according to the trend of E_ . In the current assessments,
p
ðB_ D þB_ L Þ
the minimum value of r B , f B , and B_ p
are observed. The assess-
ment for the combustion chamber is illustrated in Fig. 9a, and
the minimum point of the rB is observed at the ambient air temper-
Fig. 8. Trends of the classical and proposed sustainability indices. ature of 313.15 K and the relative humidity of 90%. When the rela-
ðB_ D þB_ L Þ
tion between f B and B_
is investigated, both the parameters
p
ðB_ D þB_ L Þ
exergy destruction decreases for the sustainability index defini- have opposite trends that refers f B decreases while B_ p
rises.
tion. Both parameters decrease by rising of the ambient air temper- Therefore, determining an exact minimum point is not possible.
ature, but they are roundly constant when the relative humidity Instead of the minimum point, an approach is used, and an optimal
varies between 50 and 90%. It is also seen that the difference point is investigated by using a diagonal line that is shown as
between both parameters are smaller at the lower ambient air black-dashed line. The junction point of the diagonal line and f B
temperature values when they are compared to the high ambient trends give the optimal point of the combustion chamber. The sim-
air temperatures. For instance, the ISI is nearly 62.5% higher than ilar but not the same approach was applied by Dincer and Rosen
the SI at the ambient air temperature of 288.25 K while it is [70] to find the optimum point of the compressor cost/exergertic
approximately 71.7% higher than SI value at the ambient air tem- efficiency trends. The optimal point is found at the ambient tem-
perature of 313.15 K. Lastly, Fig. 8 also inferred that the trends of perature of 308.15 K and the relative humidity of 70% for the com-
ISI is opposite with the Bp parameters that makes more complex bustion chamber from the point of f B . Thus, it is possible to say that
the general assessment of the energy conversion systems. Thus, the optimum point must be between 308.15 K and 313.15 K when
as mentioned above, various strategies and optimization parame- the r B and f B values are considered. Fig. 9b presents the LCiTA
Fig. 9. Life cycle integrated thermoeconomic assessments of the system components: combustion chamber (a), gas turbine (b), compressor (c), recuperator (d), heat
exchanger (e), and overall system (f).
assessment for the gas turbine. Both r B and f B have opposite trends
ðB_ D þB_ L Þ
with B_ so that the diagonal line is used for both parameters to
p
detect the optimal points. The ambient air temperature of 303.15 K

and the relative humidity of 55.5% is the optimal point of rB while
f B have two different optimal points which are the ambient air
temperature-relative humidity of 303.15 K to 75.8% and 308.15 K
to 50.9%, respectively. The optimal points are found between
303.15 K and 308.15 K with different relative humidity values.
The assessment for the compressor is presented in Fig. 9c, and it
is seen that both the parameters do not have minimum points like
the gas turbine case so that the optimal points are determined by
using the diagonal line. The relative humidity of 50% and the ambi-
ent air temperature of 306.8 K is the optimal point of the rB while
the f B has three different optimal points which are at the ambient
air temperature-relative humidity of 303.15 K to 77.32%, 308.15 K
to 64.16%, and 313.15 K to 55.27%, respectively. Thus, the optimal
region of the compressor is very wide region between 303.15 K and
313.15 K. The assessments of the recuperator in Fig. 9d show that
the rB has an optimal point at the ambient air temperature of
313.15 K and the relative humidity of 78.3% while f B has the opti-
Fig. 10. Comparative assessments between the life cycle integrated levelized
mal point at the ambient air temperature of 303.15 K and the rel- product cost and depletion ratio.
ative humidity of 73.15%. Like the combustion chamber, the heat
exchanger has its minimum r B point at the ambient temperature-
relative humidity of 288.15 K to 90% as it can be seen in Fig. 9e. the exergetic efficiency. The similar assessment was performed in
When the f B value is investigated, the heat exchanger does not Ref. [64] which focused on the conventional sustainability index,
have any minimum point so that the optimal point is determined carbon dioxide emission rates, and the exergetic efficiency. Instead
at the ambient temperature-relative humidity of 304.75 K to 90%. of the conventional SI; ISI is evaluated in Fig. 11. In the assessment,
It is realized that all the system components have different mini- the minimum point of the carbon dioxide rate, and the maximum
mum or optimal points according to their own r B and f B trends. points of the exergetic efficiency and ISI are aimed. The results
Beside the component based assessments, the assessment of the deduce that the ambient air temperature-relative humidity of
overall system can also be observed as shown in Fig. 9f. The assess- 288.15 K to 90% gives the best operation point for the carbon diox-
ments show the optimal points of the r B and f B are very close to ide emission rate, exergetic efficiency and ISI trends when they are
each other which means the optimal point of rB is at the ambient considered together. That is to say, the high relative humidity and
air temperature-relative humidity of 301.9 K to 90% whereas the the low ambient air temperature values provide the most conven-
optimal point of the f B at the ambient air temperature-relative tional operation parameters from the point of carbon dioxide emis-
humidity of 302.3 K to 90%. Therefore, it is possible to say that sion rate, exergetic efficiency, and ISI. However, as mentioned in
the ambient air temperature of 302.15 K and the relative humidity the paragraphs above, the convenient points for the operation
of 90% is the optimal point of the investigated micro-cogeneration may change when the other significant criteria are considered such
system from the point of the life cycle integrated relative cost dif- as Bp ; r B or f B . Therefore, the selected criteria are significant to
ference and the life cycle integrated exergoeconomic factor. Fur- determine the best operation parameters. The importance of more
thermore, the assessments show that the relative humidity complex assessment/optimization strategies for the energy con-
causes important trends for the overall system and the system version systems is also seen thanks to discussion of Fig. 11.
components except the heat exchanger. Thus, the assessment
deduces the importance of the relative humidity for the further
optimization procedures.
The similar assessments are conducted for Bp and SDp according
ðB_ D þB_ L Þ
to the B_ trends in Fig. 10, and it is aimed to find the minimum
p
points of these parameters due to fact that the minimum points of

all these parameters are desired cases. When the parameters are
viewed, SDp has the minimum point at the ambient temperature of
288.15 K and the relative humidity of 90%. However, the impact of
the relative humidity is very small. On the other hand, the Bp trends
do not have any minimum point for the assessment so that the opti-
mal point is studied thanks to be drawn diagonal line that is shown
as red-dashed line, and the optimal point is detected at the ambient
air temperature of 303.15 K and the relative humidity of 80.44%.
Figs. 9 and 10 deduce that Bp ; r B and f B have different minimum or
ðB_ D þB_ L Þ
optimal points when they are investigated according to B_ so that
p
it can be said that the more complex assessment/optimization strate-

gies should consider the optimal or minimum points of these param-
eters for the more general optimal region description.
The other assessments are carried out for the carbon dioxide Fig. 11. Comparative assessments between the carbon dioxide emission rate and
emission rate and the improved sustainability index according to sustainability index.
Fig. 12. LCiTA case studies according to the levelized carbon dioxide prices.
4.4. Case study the decision process of the presented system when the proposed
design will be considered for India. case of Brazil are also analyzed
As presented in Section 3, LCiTA provides the integration of the in Fig. 12e and f for the Bp , and r B /f B , respectively. The Bp has the
LCA-based enviroeconomic and environmental parameters to the highest values for the case of Brazil among the investigated cases,
thermoeconomic solution matrix. Thus, the impact of the enviroe- but the behaviors of trends are also similar to other two cases.
conomic trends on the energy conversion systems can be observed According to the obtained results from three cases, it is possible
by using LCiTA solution matrix while conventional thermoeco- to say that the performance trends significantly depend on the
nomic solution matrix cannot achieve to observe these trends. levelized carbon dioxide pricing although the cases have different
Three different levelized carbon dioxide prices are studied, and ambient air temperature and relative humidity values. The r B and
the details can be found in Section 3.5. Fig. 12 illustrates the impact f B trends increase by rising of the levelized carbon dioxide prices
of levelized carbon dioxide prices on the thermoeconomic perfor- like in the cases of Singapore and India, but apart from others,
mance of the micro cogeneration system between 2020 and the difference between the rB and f B trends decreases from the
2050. Bp trends of the overall system is shown in Fig. 12a whereas low case forecast to the high case forecast. The results infer that
rB and f B trends are presented in Fig. 12b for Singapore. Bp the climate conditions lose their affect by rising of the levelized
increases by rising of the forecasted carbon dioxide prices year carbon dioxide prices for the future forecasts in the case of Brazil.
by year, but the increment trends are different for each case which When all the cases are investigated, it can be generalized that the
means the high price forecast has significantly higher Bp trends levelized carbon dioxide costs have important impacts on the
than the middle and low cases. The high case is only 0.027% greater LCiTA assessments so that the accurate decisions or predictions
than the low case in 2020, but the trends show different increment on the carbon dioxide pricing bring better performance
so that the high case has 0.26% higher carbon dioxide price than assessments.
the low case in 2050 that means the difference between the high The improved sustainability indices of the case countries are
and low cases in 2050 is 7.04 times higher than the difference carried out for the reliable comparison. Although the cases have
between high and low cases in 2020. The r B and f B trends also have similar increment behaviors from the points of Bp ; r B and f B , the
increasing trends between 2020 and 2050, but the f B trends are ISI studies show that the levelized carbon dioxide pricing forecasts
more linear than the r B trends. Like the Bp trends, both r B and f B do not have significant impact on the calculation of improved sus-
have very close values for high, medium and low cases in 2020. tainability indices. All the forecast types have the same ISI value for
However, the difference between the cases increase year by year. the cases as shown in Fig. 13. Furthermore, the year by year incre-
It is also seen that the rB trends has less dramatic increments than ments in the levelized carbon dioxide costs also do not affect the ISI
the f B trends, especially for the low case. The case of India shows Bp trends which mean the ISI values are the same between 2020 and
has higher values than the case of Singapore in Fig. 12c, but the 2050 for all the case countries. The ISI study infers that the case of
behaviors of trends are similar to each other. The highest incre- India has the highest value while the cases of Brazil and Singapore
ment belongs to the high case while the lowest increment is have similar trends. When all the parameters are considered
observed for the low case which mean the medium and high cases together, the different LCiTA parameters have different trends so
have 2.26 and 3.16 times higher Bp values than the low case. The r B that the decision process of the best operation parameters needs
and f B results are presented in Fig. 12d, and it is seen that the case additional approaches such as multiobjective optimization
of India has higher r B and f B values than the case of Singapore. The strategies.
behaviors of rB and f B trends are very similar to each other for the The case studies are presented for the climate conditions of var-
case of India for all the carbon dioxide pricing cases. The similarity ious gas consumer countries that have tropical climate conditions
between the r B and f B trends can provide easier assessments for which mean the annual average temperature slightly changes for
(a)
(a) (a) (h)
(a) (a) (h) (h) (h)
(a) (a) (h) (a) (a)
(h) (h) (a) (a)
(a)
(a) (a)
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
(g)
(h)
Fig. 13. Improved sustainability indices of the case countries.
all the cases. The other case studies can focus on the other climate The life cycle integrated unit cost of the fuel stream was found
conditions to see the impact of carbon dioxide prices under differ- 3.8 times higher than the conventional unit cost of fuel.
ent conditions as future case studies. The comparative case studies The LCiTA method claimed that the various fuel production pro-
from all the climate regions may be more beneficial to understand cesses would have different enviroeconomic parameters in the
the carbon dioxide price trends in the LCiTA thermoeconomic solu- fuel production process.
tion matrix. Furthermore, different carbon dioxide or other GHGs The thermodynamic parameters were the most dominant
pricing approaches can be combined with the LCiTA methodology parameters in the investigation of the streams with the conven-
to see the impact of the different pricing methods on the thermoe- tional and LCiTA methods, but the economic and environmental
conomic performance calculations of the energy conversion parameters might have higher importance for the other energy
systems. conversion systems such as gasification plants and fuel cells.
According to these results, it can be inferred that the LCiTA The previously existed sustainability index and depletion ratio
method has the similar limitations with the conventional thermoe- factors were developed by using the new obtained LCiTA-
conomic assessment from the point of exergetic and economic related terms.
aspects. However, the innovative part of the model includes the The ISI value was found roundly 67.1% higher than the conven-
LCA-based parameters, and there are some limitations for the tional SI definition, and the impact of the exergy related
LCiTA calculations when the LCA-based parameters are considered. destruction was decreased by considering the enviroeconomic
The present paper overcomes these limitations thanks to the pre- and thermoeconomic parameters on the definition of ISI.
sented data of the previous studies. However, the real engineering The assessment parameters showed opposite trends during the
data will be required for the real applications, and the related lim- application of LCiTA method; hence the importance of the mul-
itations which are generally related to the enviroeconomic part tiobjective optimization strategies was realized to find the best
should be considered carefully. The fuel production process, mate- operation parameters.
rial production process and the emission measurement process are The case studies deduced that the levelized carbon dioxide
three main processes for the limitations. To overcome these chal- prices have important impacts on the LCiTA evaluation for dif-
lenges, a strong engineering study is required. Moreover, the leve- ferent countries with different climate conditions. Furthermore,
lized carbon dioxide pricing studies should be accurate and reliable the impact of the levelized carbon dioxide pricing can easily
to prevent the real engineering related limitations. It is also impor- change according to the prediction cases such as low, medium
tant to remind that the energy conversion systems can show differ- and high cases.
ent trends in different conditions so that each conversion system
has unique features for the real-time operation. Thus, the required In future studies, different theoretical studies can be applied to
enviroeconomic parameters can be detected in a reliable way. combine all the investigated parameters in an evaluation equation.
When all the points are considered for the evaluation, the pre- Furthermore, the different carbon dioxide or the other GHGs pric-
sented LCiTA method does not have significant limitations for the ing equations, models, strategies, etc. can be used in the LCiTA
real-time operations. method. Another future perspective of the LCiTA method can be
application of the energy conversion systems with the carbon cap-
ture systems thanks to fact that the proposed LCiTA method
includes the enviroeconomic parameters of the carbon dioxide
5. Conclusions rates from different perspectives. The LCiTA method is open to be
developed by using different LCA-based factors such as human fac-
The study proposed a new thermoeconomic model which has tors during the manufacturing and fuel processing, and geograph-
extended the conventional thermoeconomic model approach by ical factors for the fuel prices when the reliable data sources are
using the LCA-based enviroeconomic and environmental parame- found. All the mentioned suggestions can be modified and inte-
ters. To better understand the model, a micro-cogeneration plant grated into the LCiTA solution matrix. By this way, the investiga-
was studied from the viewpoint of conventional thermoeconomic tion of the energy conversion system can be more general and
and LCiTA approaches. Main conclusions are given as follows: realistic.
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Energy Conversion and Management 148 (2017) 1409–1425

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy Conversion and Management

Life cycle integrated thermoeconomic assessment method for energy

1. Introduction Cost (AVCO) technique by Gaggioli and El-Sayed [4], Exergoeco-

b life cycle integrated unit cost, $/kJ Greek letters

Flue gas from CHP

CO2 Capture Technologies

the hot water production. The micro-cogeneration system is

co es fuelled by natural gas, and the natural gas is assumed 100%

Table 1 3.1. Thermodynamic model

gas turbine and recuperator) is roundly 475 kg [62]. The approxi-

tems are determined proportionally while the approximate weight

unavailable exergy rates in the system components. E_ D occurs Combustion H_ 10 þ H_ 3 ¼ H_ 4 þ Q_ comb L E_ 10 E_ 4 E_ 3

where u; v ; z; t and k are the unknowns for the thermoeconomic

System components Thermoeconomic model LCiTA model

Year CO2 Price ($/kgCO2 )

4.2. Comparative assessments between the conventional

In the conventional thermoeconomic analyses, Fig. 5 presents

4.3. LCiTA assessments

tem components and the overall system. For the combustion

combustion chamber, if the combustion chamber has an important

trends. Relative humidity has different impacts on both parameters

the relative humidity value. However, the impact of the relative

humidity is very small and both parameters have decrement

ing to relative humidity increment as presented in Fig. 6c. How-

ever, the ambient air temperature has significant impact,

especially on r B;C . With 40 K temperature increment, rB;C decreases

by 12.3%. f B;C also drops by rising of the ambient air temperature,

found that both parameters have decrement trends by rising of

the relative humidity with a small proportion. However, they have

opposite trends according to the ambient air temperature incre-

ment which make the LCiTA assessment of recuperator is further

optimization required study. That is to say, to determine the best

operation parameters in the recuperator from the points of life

grated exergoeconomic factors, more complex assessment strate-

gies or optimization procedures can be applied. Fig. 6e gives the

production. Like the recuperator and combustion chamber, the

compared. The relative humidity does not have significant impor-

mance trends of parameters, especially for rB;HE . It must be

highlighted that the thermodynamic and thermoeconomic perfor-

mance data of the heat exchanger can be changes according to con-

sumer preferences easily, while the other components

(compressor, combustion chamber, recuperator, gas turbine) are

not feasible to external consumer responses due to their complex

structures. However, the different configurations may be added

or extracted for the thermal energy production instead of the heat

under various operating conditions. When the overall system sche-

matic is investigated, the trends of rB;TOT and f B;TOT can be observed

temperature while the relative humidity does not show significant

differences though it has opposite trends in both parameters. How-

ambient air temperature increases from 288.15 K to 313.15 K. As

an overall output, Fig. 6 shows that the system components have

ative cost difference and the life cycle integrated exergoeconomic

factor. Thus, detail assessment strategies or the optimization

methods can be applied for the better assessment of the system

components or the overall system. The presented study focuses

on the detail assessment strategies to find the feasible operation

points from the point of LCiTA method as presented in Fig. 9.

detect the optimal points. The ambient air temperature of 303.15 K

points of these parameters due to fact that the minimum points of

it can be said that the more complex assessment/optimization strate-

Fig. 13. Improved sustainability indices of the case countries.

Acknowledgments [28] Caliskan H. Energy, exergy, environmental, enviroeconomic,