Waste heat recovery from data centers using Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC), and Multi-objective energy and exergy optimization of the system in marine industries

In order to optimize the energy consumption in data centers, it is required to recover the heat generated in them. One of the best methods used for waste heat recovery at low temperatures is an Organic Rankine Cycle. In present study, the method is used for waste heat recovery in a data center and multi-objective optimization in the system. The results showed that after optimization the optimum first- and second-law efficiencies of the above system were 26.49% and 65.98%, respectively, which increased about 21.51% and 17.38%, in that order. In such a situation, the optimal power generation was 97.98 kW. The boiler had the highest exergy destruction of 29.97 kW in base mode and 26.44 kW in optimum mode, followed by the low-pressure turbine with the exergy destruction of 18.4 kW in base mode and 16.83 kW in optimum mode. In addition, the results indicated that the boiler and low-pressure turbine had the highest irreversibility, resulting in an increased contribution of the above components in total irreversibility. Accordingly, the boiler had the highest contribution of 35% (in base mode) and 38% (optimum mode) in the system’s irreversibility and was considered as the most effective component in the entire system, followed by the low-pressure turbine with the contribution of 21% in base mode and 25% in optimum mode.