Application of the thermoeconomic functional approach to the CGAM problem

A gas-turbine cogeneration system with a regenerative air preheater and a single-pressure exhaust gas boiler serves as an example for application of three different analysis and optimization procedures: 1.(i) direct use of a nonlinear programming algorithm,2.(ii) thermoeconomic functional approach, and3.(iii) modular simulation and optimization of the system. The results obtained with the three methods are compared with each other. The sensitivity of the optimal solution to certain parameters and of the objective function to the independent variables is studied. Conclusions are drawn regarding the applicability of each procedure to more complicated optimization problems.