Thermoeconomic optimization of a transcritical CO2 combined cooling and power system

The proposed system is a Combined Cooling and Power (CCP) system, comprising both the transcritical CO2 Rankine cycle and the transcritical CO2 cooling cycle. In order to analyze the cycle’s performance from energy, exergy, and exergoeconomic perspectives, a comprehensive thermodynamic and thermoeconomic model of the cycle was developed. The findings revealed that a significant portion of exergy destruction occurs within the power cycle, particularly in the gas heater. Moreover, the average exergy cost in the refrigeration cycle was observed to be higher than that in the power cycle. To optimize the system’s performance, a Multi-Objective Optimization method using a genetic algorithm in MATLAB software was employed, considering 11 decision variables and using the objective functions of exergy efficiency and average cost per unit of exergy of products. The results demonstrated noteworthy improvements, with the exergy efficiency increasing from 32.08% in the base case to 44.15% in the optimal case, and the average cost per unit of exergy of products decreasing from 0.1544 $/MJ in the base case to 0.111 $/MJ in the optimal case. These optimizations signify the potential for enhancing the overall efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the proposed CCP system.