IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v17y2024i21p5381-d1509310.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Multi-Objective Optimization of a Small-Scale ORC-VCC System Using Low-GWP Refrigerants

Author

Listed:
  • Łukasz Witanowski

    (Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery, Polish Academy of Sciences, 80-231 Gdańsk, Poland)

Abstract

The increasing global demand for energy-efficient cooling systems, combined with the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has led to growing interest in using low-GWP (global warming potential) refrigerants. This study conducts a multi-objective optimization of a small-scale organic Rankine cycle–vapor compression cycle (ORC-VCC) system, utilizing refrigerants R1233zd, R1244yd, and R1336mzz, both individually and in combination within ORC and VCC systems. The optimization was performed for nine distinct cases, with the goals of maximizing the coefficient of performance (COP), maximizing cooling power, and minimizing the pressure ratio in the compressor to enhance efficiency, cooling capacity, and mechanical reliability. The optimization employed the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm III (NSGA-III), a robust multi-objective optimization technique that is well-suited for exploring complex, non-linear solution spaces. This approach effectively navigated trade-offs between competing objectives and identified optimal system configurations. Using this multi-objective approach, the system achieved a COP of 0.57, a pressure ratio around 3, and a cooling capacity exceeding 33 kW under the specified boundary conditions, leading to improved mechanical reliability, system simplicity, and longevity. Additionally, the system was optimized for operation with a cooling water temperature of 25 °C, reflecting realistic conditions for contemporary cooling applications.

Suggested Citation

  • Łukasz Witanowski, 2024. "Multi-Objective Optimization of a Small-Scale ORC-VCC System Using Low-GWP Refrigerants," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-18, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:21:p:5381-:d:1509310
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/21/5381/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/21/5381/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Da Lio, Luca & Manente, Giovanni & Lazzaretto, Andrea, 2014. "New efficiency charts for the optimum design of axial flow turbines for organic Rankine cycles," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 447-459.
    2. Koorosh Aieneh & Sadegh Mehranfar & Mohammad Yazdi Sotoude & Shayan Sadeghi & Amin Mahmoudzadeh Andwari, 2024. "Solar-Powered Combined Cooling, Heating, and Power Energy System with Phase-Change Material and Water Electrolysis: Thermo-Economic Assessment and Optimization," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-26, July.
    3. Agarwal, Sumit & Rengarajan, Satyanarain & Sing, Tien Foo & Yang, Yang, 2017. "Nudges from school children and electricity conservation: Evidence from the “Project Carbon Zero” campaign in Singapore," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 29-41.
    4. Waite, Michael & Cohen, Elliot & Torbey, Henri & Piccirilli, Michael & Tian, Yu & Modi, Vijay, 2017. "Global trends in urban electricity demands for cooling and heating," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 786-802.
    5. Gao, Sheng & Zhang, Yanhui & Zhang, Zhiqing & Tan, Dongli & Li, Junming & Yin, Zibin & Hu, Jingyi & Zhao, Ziheng, 2023. "Multi-objective optimization of the combustion chamber geometry for a highland diesel engine fueled with diesel/n-butanol/PODEn by ANN-NSGA III," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    6. Muhammad Zahid Saeed & Luca Contiero & Stefanie Blust & Yosr Allouche & Armin Hafner & Trygve Magne Eikevik, 2023. "Ultra-Low-Temperature Refrigeration Systems: A Review and Performance Comparison of Refrigerants and Configurations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-31, October.
    7. Kimiya Aram & Roohollah Taherkhani & Agnė Šimelytė, 2022. "Multistage Optimization toward a Nearly Net Zero Energy Building Due to Climate Change," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-21, January.
    8. Wang, Hailei & Peterson, Richard & Herron, Tom, 2011. "Design study of configurations on system COP for a combined ORC (organic Rankine cycle) and VCC (vapor compression cycle)," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 4809-4820.
    9. Uusitalo, Antti & Turunen-Saaresti, Teemu & Honkatukia, Juha & Tiainen, Jonna & Jaatinen-Värri, Ahti, 2020. "Numerical analysis of working fluids for large scale centrifugal compressor driven cascade heat pumps upgrading waste heat," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    10. Lina Wang & Jun Yang & Bing Qu & Chang Pang, 2024. "Multi-Objective Optimization of an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) for a Hybrid Solar–Waste Energy Plant," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-15, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Łukasz Witanowski, 2024. "Optimization of an Organic Rankine Cycle–Vapor Compression Cycle System for Electricity and Cooling Production from Low-Grade Waste Heat," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-19, November.
    2. Zhang, Yuyang & Ma, Wenke & Du, Pengcheng & Li, Shaoting & Gao, Ke & Wang, Yuxuan & Liu, Yifei & Zhang, Bo & Yu, Dingyi & Zhang, Jingyi & Li, Yan, 2024. "Powering the future: Unraveling residential building characteristics for accurate prediction of total electricity consumption during summer heat," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 376(PA).
    3. Phu Nguyen-Van & Anne Stenger & Tuyen Tiet, 2021. "Social incentive factors in interventions promoting sustainable behaviors: A meta-analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(12), pages 1-27, December.
    4. Wang, Manyu & Wei, Chu, 2024. "Toward sustainable heating: Assessment of the carbon mitigation potential from residential heating in northern rural China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    5. Li, Jiaojiao & Zoghi, Mohammad & Zhao, Linfeng, 2022. "Thermo-economic assessment and optimization of a geothermal-driven tri-generation system for power, cooling, and hydrogen production," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 244(PB).
    6. Zhai, Chong & Wu, Wei, 2023. "Experimental parameter study and correlation development of microchannel membrane-based absorption process for efficient thermal cooling with high compactness," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 279(C).
    7. Ziming Wang & Yanlin Chen & Chao He & Dongge Wang & Yan Nie & Jiaqiang Li, 2025. "Effect of Improved Combustion Chamber Design and Biodiesel Blending on the Performance and Emissions of a Diesel Engine," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-26, June.
    8. Dieneke Van de Sompel & Liselot Hudders & Lore Vandenberghe, 2020. "Cycling for a Sustainable Future. Stimulating Children to Cycle to School via a Synergetic Combination of Informational and Behavioral Interventions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-18, April.
    9. Li, You-Rong & Du, Mei-Tang & Wu, Shuang-Ying & Peng, Lan & Liu, Chao, 2012. "Exergoeconomic analysis and optimization of a condenser for a binary mixture of vapors in organic Rankine cycle," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 341-347.
    10. Oh, Seung Jin & Shahzad, Muhammad Wakil & Burhan, Muhammad & Chun, Wongee & Kian Jon, Chua & KumJa, M. & Ng, Kim Choon, 2019. "Approaches to energy efficiency in air conditioning: A comparative study on purge configurations for indirect evaporative cooling," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 505-515.
    11. Andrés Villarruel-Jaramillo & Manuel Pérez-García & José M. Cardemil & Rodrigo A. Escobar, 2021. "Review of Polygeneration Schemes with Solar Cooling Technologies and Potential Industrial Applications," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-30, October.
    12. Wang, E.H. & Zhang, H.G. & Zhao, Y. & Fan, B.Y. & Wu, Y.T. & Mu, Q.H., 2012. "Performance analysis of a novel system combining a dual loop organic Rankine cycle (ORC) with a gasoline engine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 385-395.
    13. Aunedi, Marko & Olympios, Andreas V. & Pantaleo, Antonio M. & Mersch, Matthias & Markides, Christos N., 2025. "System-level techno-economic comparison of residential low-carbon heating and cooling solutions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).
    14. Xiong, Chengyan & Meng, Qinglong & Wei, Ying'an & Luo, Huilong & Lei, Yu & Liu, Jiao & Yan, Xiuying, 2023. "A demand response method for an active thermal energy storage air-conditioning system using improved transactive control: On-site experiments," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 339(C).
    15. Kutlu, Cagri & Erdinc, Mehmet Tahir & Li, Jing & Wang, Yubo & Su, Yuehong, 2019. "A study on heat storage sizing and flow control for a domestic scale solar-powered organic Rankine cycle-vapour compression refrigeration system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 301-312.
    16. D'Amico, F. & Pallis, P. & Leontaritis, A.D. & Karellas, S. & Kakalis, N.M. & Rech, S. & Lazzaretto, A., 2018. "Semi-empirical model of a multi-diaphragm pump in an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) experimental unit," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 1056-1071.
    17. Hoda Ramezani & Ehsan Reza, 2022. "The Consequence of Combining Indigenous Techniques with a Flexible Design to Reduce Energy Consumption in Residential Buildings for Future Architecture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-15, October.
    18. Wu, Dan & Aye, Lu & Ngo, Tuan & Mendis, Priyan, 2017. "Optimisation and financial analysis of an organic Rankine cycle cooling system driven by facade integrated solar collectors," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(P1), pages 172-182.
    19. Da Lio, Luca & Manente, Giovanni & Lazzaretto, Andrea, 2017. "A mean-line model to predict the design efficiency of radial inflow turbines in organic Rankine cycle (ORC) systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 187-209.
    20. Esra Özdemir Küçük & Muhsin Kılıç, 2023. "Exergoeconomic and Exergetic Sustainability Analysis of a Combined Dual-Pressure Organic Rankine Cycle and Vapor Compression Refrigeration Cycle," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-28, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:21:p:5381-:d:1509310. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.