Technical and Economic Analysis of a Multi-Source Organic Rankine Cycle Heat Recovery System

This paper presents a technical and economic analysis of a Multi-Source Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) Heat Recovery System (HRS) aimed at improving energy efficiency in industrial processes. The proposed system captures waste heat from multiple sources and converts it into electricity and/or district heating. A MATLAB-based analysis tool was developed to evaluate the system’s performance by modeling its thermodynamic behavior and estimating economic indicators such as Return on Investment (ROI) and Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE). The tool allows users to input system-specific parameters such as equipment type, multiple heat sources, and operational parameters. The analysis was applied to a Duke Energy combined heat and power (CHP) plant, identifying three different waste heat sources. Results show that integrating the ORC system could achieve an LCOE of 3.3 ¢/kWh and an ROI of 43% demonstrating the potential economic and energy efficiency benefits of deploying multi-source heat recovery systems in industrial applications.