Analysis of Modified Reverse Brayton Cycle-Based Systems for Cold Generation at Low Temperature Using Exergoeconomics

Abstract

Abstract High-temperature superconductor (HTS)-based technology is getting increased attention as the most appropriate technology for electric power transmission towards reduction in CO2 emissions and augmentation of the energy supply. However, this cryogenic technology demands highly efficient and economically reliable cooling systems, having a cooling capacity of 2–10 kW at a temperature range of 65–80 K. The refrigeration cost is one of the critical issues for such superconducting technologies to penetrate the marketplace. Thus, cryocoolers with modification based on reverse Brayton cycle (RBC) comprising different turbine arrangements are analyzed to meet the demand of cryogenic technologies. The exergoeconomic analysis which combines the exergy and economic analysis is performed to identify the source of exergy destruction that affects the economy and performance of the systems based on RBC. The optimized RBC configurations using the exergoeconomic tool are evaluated and compared to find a thermodynamically enhanced configuration with reduced refrigeration cost. These configurations are compared using exergy, economic, exergoeconomic, design evaluation parameters, and environmental footprint. The results indicate that the cost of exergy destruction reduces around 30% while optimizing these novel RBC configurations. The saving with successful running for ten years is around 6% of the total investment using parallel expansion with different pressure ratio (PED) RBC configuration, which is one of the best performances with 41.1% exergy efficiency. Based on the study, recommendations based on exergoeconomic parameters are also provided for further improvement in the cycles.