Thermo-economic analysis of an oxygen production plant powered by an innovative energy recovery system

Oxy-fuel combustion is considered an attractive alternative to reduce pollutant emissions, which uses high-purity oxygen mixed instead of air for combustion processes. However, purchasing large amounts of high-purity oxygen may be unprofitable for certain industrial sectors, discouraging its implementation. Considering this, the potential of an oxygen production cycle for factories using oxy-fuel combustion is studied by performing a thermo-economic analysis where high-purity oxygen, electricity, and natural gas prices are considered. Oxygen is produced by membrane means, where mixed ionic-electronic conducting membranes are used, which require high temperatures and pressure gradients to work properly. A set of turbochargers is implemented, chosen by scaling an off-the-shelf model, what introduces an innovative way of waste energy recovering for improving the performance of the cycle. The whole cycle is powered by waste heat from high temperature flue gases, and it is sized for a ceramic manufacturing factory. In this work, two cases are analysed, differentiated by considering additional heating and the vacuum generation method in the oxygen line. The first case exhibits smaller production levels, although better profitability (31 (sic)t(-1)), whereas the second case displays higher production levels and production costs (33 (sic)t(-1)). Both cases are competitive concerning the average price of high-purity oxygen, supposing an average of 50 (sic)t(-1) in wholesale markets, proving the potential of the proposed alternative for oxygen production. (C) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.