Technical-economic analysis of the combined system power generation, production of fresh water and cooling production

In gas power plants, a lot of energy is lost in the form of heat more than the electricity produced. In the present research, techno-economic evaluation of combined power, desalination and cooling systems running by the exhaust flue gases of a gas turbine in Iran is performed. In addition to using power generated by the gas turbine, attempts were made to use Organic Rankine Cycle to recover the heat dissipated from gas turbine in order to reproduce power. In fact, choosing the appropriate technology for the combined system of simultaneous production of power, fresh water and cooling based on energy and economic analysis is investigated. Results showed that multiple-effect distillation system with fresh water price of 1 $ per m3 should be used in order to produce high tonnage fresh water, and to achieve the proper price of fresh water, Reverse Osmosis by giving priority to ORC power, and then, GT application is suggested. According to the calculated price of power sale, the sale of gas turbine power is approximately 0.1 $ per kW/h. Regarding cooling systems, the results showed that the absorption system has a lower initial cost and produces a greater cooling load than the compression system, and if necessary, the compression cooling system can be used only to achieve very low temperatures.