Thermoeconomic Analysis and Assessment of Gaziantep Municipal Solid Waste Power Plant

This paper presents a thermoeconomic analysis and assessment of a municipal solid waste power plant system in Gaziantep. The operation of an existing municipal solid waste power plant is described in detail and a thermoeconomical methodology based on exergoeconomic relations and specific exergy costing (SPECO) method is provided to allocate cost flows through subcomponents of the plant. SPECO method is based on a step by step procedure which begins from identification of energy and exergy values of all states defined in the present system through fuel (F) and product (P) approach and ends at the point of establishing related exergy based cost balance equations together with auxiliary equations. The actual exergy efficiency of the solid waste power plant is determined to be 47.84% which shows that 52.16% of the total exergy input to the plant is destroyed. The net electrical power output of the Gaziantep municipal solid waste power plant is 5.655 MW. The total cost rate of the power plant is evaluated as 18.44$/h as a result of thermoeconomic analyses.