Assessment of cost sources and improvement potentials of a ground-source heat pump food drying system through advanced exergoeconomic analysis method

Advanced exergoeconomic analysis, the so-called new exergetic approach combined with the economic analysis, is applied to a ground-source heap pump (GSHP) drying system in this study. The thermodynamic inefficiencies and cost performance of the system components are evaluated in parts. Moreover, the results of the advanced exergoeconomic analysis are compared to those of the conventional exergoeconomic analysis. The results show that total costs in the overall system are 4.008 $/h whereas 2.569 $/h of the total costs are avoidable. The avoidable investment costs are significantly lower than avoidable destruction costs. Advanced exergoeconomic analysis indicates that the most important system components are the drying duct and the condenser with respect to reducing the costs. It is possible to reduce 34.6% of the total costs by developing improvement strategies focused on the drying duct and the condenser. It may be concluded that the conventional exergoeconomic analysis is an effective approach to specify the components, in which costs are accumulated while the advanced exergoeconomic approach is essential to determine the cost sources and to develop cost effective improving strategies. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.