Comprehensive 5E performance assessment of a biomass–hydrogen-integrated organic Rankine cycle with hydrogen production

Hybrid renewable power systems based on organic Rankine cycles offer a promising pathway for decentralized and low-carbon electricity generation; however, their autonomous operation is often constrained by fuel intermittency, incomplete sustainability assessment, and limited evaluation of component-level trade-offs. In particular, most existing studies rely on energy–exergy analyses and rarely integrate environmental and energoeconomic dimensions within a unified framework for biomass–hydrogen-based systems. To address these limitations, this study develops an autonomous biomass–hydrogen-integrated organic Rankine cycle and evaluates its performance using a comprehensive energy, exergy, exergoeconomic, exergoenvironmental, and energoeconomic methodology. The proposed system combines dispatchable biomass combustion with a produced-hydrogen burner operating as a stabilizing thermal source, enabling continuous power generation under variable operating conditions. A detailed component-level assessment is performed to quantify exergy destruction and its associated economic and environmental penalties, while system-level feasibility is examined through the levelized cost of electricity. Parametric optimization reveals that the optimal operating point occurs at a biomass mass flow rate of 0.20 k/g s, yielding a second-law efficiency of 18.9% and a minimum levelized cost of electricity of US$0.118/kWh. The biomass combustor is identified as the dominant contributor to exergy destruction, economic cost, and environmental impact, whereas hydrogen integration improves thermal stability and reduces the specific carbon intensity of electricity generation by 20% compared to the biomass-only configuration. The originality of this work lies in the integrated assessment of fuel hybridization effects within an autonomous organic Rankine cycle using a unified energy, exergy, exergoeconomic, exergoenvironmental, and energoeconomic framework, linking component-scale inefficiencies to system-level sustainability metrics. The presented results demonstrate that biomass–hydrogen hybridization provides a practical, fuel-flexible, and cost-competitive solution for decentralized and off-grid power generation, making the proposed methodology directly applicable to a wide range of renewable-based thermal energy systems.