Numerical optimization of Combined Heat and Power Organic Rankine Cycles – Part A: Design optimization

This two-part paper proposes an approach based on state-of-the-art numerical optimization methods for simultaneously determining the most profitable design and part-load operation of Combined Heat and Power Organic Rankine Cycles. Compared to the usual design practice, the important advantages of the proposed approach are (i) to consider the part-load performance of the ORC at the design stage, (ii) to optimize not only the cycle variables, but also the main turbine design variables (number of stages, stage loads, rotational speed). In this first part (Part A), the design model and the optimization algorithm are presented and tested on a real-world test case. PGS-COM, a recently proposed hybrid derivative-free algorithm, allows to efficiently tackle the challenging non-smooth black-box problem. - Highlights: • Algorithm for the simultaneous optimization Organic Rakine Cycle and turbine. • Thermodynamic and economic models of boiler, cycle, turbine are developed. • Non-smooth black-box optimization problem is successfully tackled with PGS-COM. • Test cases show that the algorithm returns optimal solutions within 4 min. • Toluene outperforms MDM (a siloxane) in terms of efficiency and costs.