Exergoeconomic analysis of a fluidized-bed coal combustor (FBCC) steam power plant

Exergoeconomic analysis has been used as a powerful tool to study and optimize various types of energy-related systems. This study deals with an exergoeconomic analysis of an FBCC steam power plant, located in the city of Izmir, Turkey using actual operational data. This plant consists of a ventilation fan (VF), an FBCC, a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG), a cyclone (CY), an economizer (ECO), an aspiration fan (AF), a pump (P) and a chimney (CH) as sub-systems. Quantitative exergy cost balance for each component and the whole FBCC plant is considered. The exergetic efficiency of this plant is calculated to be 20.28% at a steam mass flow rate of 1.861 kg/s. The highest exergy destruction rate occurs in the FBCC with an irreversibility rate of 89.2%, followed by HRSG, VF, ECO, AF, CH and P. The unit exergy cost and exergy cost of steam produced by the FBCC steam plant amount to 17.88 US$/GJ and 93.57 US$/h, respectively. This study demonstrates that exergoeconomic analysis can provide extra information than exergy analysis, while the results obtained from this analysis present cost-based information.