Absolute environmental sustainability assessment of emerging working fluids in organic rankine cycles
New working fluids (WFs) have been recently proposed to enhance the environmental performance of Organic Rankine Cycles (ORCs) in waste heat recovery systems. However, a critical gap remains in the comprehensive evaluation of their environmental impacts, particularly those associated with the produc...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Ramon Llull (URL) |
| Repositorio: | DAU Arxiu Digital de la Universitat Ramon Llull |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:dau.url.edu:20.500.14342/5318 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14342/5318 https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.5c01290 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | ORC Fluorinated gases LCA Prospective LCA Planetary boundaries Sustainability assessment Cicle de Rankine orgànic Fluor Gasos Anàlisi del cicle de vida Sostenibilitat 502 54 |
| Sumario: | New working fluids (WFs) have been recently proposed to enhance the environmental performance of Organic Rankine Cycles (ORCs) in waste heat recovery systems. However, a critical gap remains in the comprehensive evaluation of their environmental impacts, particularly those associated with the production of these compounds and their use in ORC systems. This study performs a comprehensive absolute environmental sustainability assessment (AESA) to evaluate the environmental trade-offs of replacing traditional WFs, such as R245fa, with emerging alternatives in ORC systems. An innovative methodology, integrating process simulation, life cycle assessment (LCA), prospective analysis, and the planetary boundaries (PBs) framework, is employed to provide a holistic sustainability assessment. The results show that using emerging WFs reduces 85% of the carbon footprint of ORCs. Although this transition shifts environmental burdens to the ozone depletion impact category, the system remains within the PBs’ safe operating space. The burden of the other environmental impact categories studied is reduced by more than 15%. The prospective analysis highlights that the transition from current to alternative WFs for ORC systems could cut around 237 million tons of annual CO2 emissions by 2050. |
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