Thermoeconomic Analysis of a Polygeneration System for Flare Gas Recovery with Crude Oil Preheating

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 University of Kashan

2 Member of Faculty/University of Kashan

Abstract

This study deals with the design and analysis of a polygeneration system for the utilization of flare gas to produce power, freshwater, hydrogen, and heat simultaneously. The proposed system, using local resources such as flare gas and Persian Gulf water in the Ahvaz region, consists of a supercritical carbon dioxide power cycle, a thermoelectric generator, crude oil preheating, a reverse osmosis desalination unit, and hydrogen production in a proton exchange membrane electrolyzer. The system modeling was carried out using Engineering Equation Solver software and evaluated based on energy, exergy, and exergoeconomic analyses. The novelty of this research lies in presenting an integrated system that, by using flare gas for the simultaneous production of multiple products, maximizes energy recovery and meets both industrial and domestic needs. The base design results show that the energy and exergy efficiencies of the system are 83.24% and 23.56%, respectively, with a net output power of 12.23 MW and a thermal load capacity of 13.39 MW. Hydrogen production amounts to 60.93 kg/day, and freshwater production equals 106.7 kg/s. Moreover, the total rates of exergy production cost, exergy destruction, and investment are calculated to be 2982.96, 347.58, and 645.84 $/h, respectively, with a payback period of 1.172 years. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was performed to investigate the effect of key variables on the system performance.

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Amirkabir Journal of Mechanical Engineering
Volume 57, Issue 5
August 2025
Pages 633-662

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