Environmental evaluation of a power plant using conventional and advanced exergy-based methods

An advanced exergoenvironmental analysis combines an advanced exergetic analysis with a life cycle assessment. This allows the environmental impacts of an energy conversion system to be split into avoidable/unavoidable and endogenous/exogenous parts, revealing improvement potential and component interactions. This paper presents the application of an advanced exergoenvironmental analysis to a combined-cycle power plant based on results obtained by a life cycle assessment and a conventional exergoenvironmental analysis. The results are discussed, while possible improvements for reducing the environmental impacts are noted.