Abstract
Currently, most of the thermal and electrical energy for industrial processes is generated from fossil fuels. Solar thermal energy has unlimited potential to supply thermal and electrical energy for low-temperature industrial processes and has demonstrated the ability to replace the use of fossil fuels partially or totally. The implementation of solar thermal energy systems in industrial processes must be accompanied by a long-range economic analysis that allows evaluation of the benefit obtained during its useful life. The Life Cycle Cost method evaluates the costs associated with the solar thermal system during its operating period and allows for determining the system design that presents the best effective cost. This work presents the Life Cycle Cost analysis (LCCA) of a solar thermal system and an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) driven by solar energy for the supply of thermal and electrical energy to a cotton dyeing process. The LCCA considered the costs of installation, operation, maintenance, services, and basic components, based on the solar fraction supplied to the process by the solar thermal system and the ORC. The results obtained show that the solar fraction that maximizes the effective cost of the thermal system and the ORC powered by solar thermal energy is 1.0. The effective cost of thermal energy reaches 706,413 USD, and for electrical energy, this cost amounts to 1,125,386 USD. The levelized cost of thermal energy, when the best effective cost is presented, is 0.035 USD/kWhth, while electric energy presents a levelized cost of 0.103 USD/kWhe.
