ABSTRACT
Municipal solid waste-fueled plants are promising solutions towards the green transition pathway due to a considerable decline in the municipal solid waste volume and massive carbon dioxide emission reduction. In this chapter, an innovative municipal solid waste-fueled plant integrated with an organic Rankine cycle and thermoelectric generator (TEG) is introduced to obtain a higher power production and lower environmental contamination. Techno-economic-environmental metrics of the proposed novel system are assessed and compared against the conventional system equipped with a condenser through a detailed comparative parametric investigation. Furthermore, an advanced multi-criteria optimization is implemented to the best system. A three-dimensional Pareto frontier diagram is then extracted to illustrate the optimal points of conflicting objectives, prioritized based on decision-makers’ policies. Eventually, the scatter distribution is presented to assess the sensitivity of objectives on the decision variables. The outcomes show that the proposed innovative plant is superior from all aspects compared to the conventional plant because of higher performance efficiencies and sustainability index and lower levelized cost of power and carbon dioxide emission. According to the parametric study results, the characteristic of inlet waste and turbine inlet pressure significantly affects sustainability index and emission indicators. What stands out from the optimization is that the total cost rate and levelized carbon dioxide emission reduce 25.89 $/h and 0.11 t/MWh, and the exergy efficiency rises 0.66%.
