Potential assessment and techno-economic optimization of conversion of combined cycle power plant into a water and power co-generation system

Iran is located in the warm and dry region of the Middle East, where summer temperature ranges from 35 to 50 0C in the majority of the regions. Some critical factors including hot weather, population growth, and reduction in water resources as a highly impressive factor in the recent decades, all have underlined more efficient use of power plant in Iran, such that the existing power plants must function properly in simultaneous generation. Thus, the current research presents a techno-economic analysis of the function of a combined cycle unit under the condition of conversion into a water and power co-generation system. In the system, both membrane and thermal water sweetener mechanisms are used in parallel. The performance of the system in different conditions of water and power demand has been investigated. The results show that when the Thermal and Revers Osmosi are in the system alone, they can produce about 7,000 and 1,400,000 cubic meters of fresh water per day.Following the modelling of the system, the economic analysis was also performed, and Changes in the price of water sales are shown in each of the water desalination units with increased capacity. Finally, considering the average water sale price as a objective function and combined cycle efficiency as another function, two-objective optimization was performed, and the results are presented in the form of Pareto Graph, which the highest efficiency and lowest sale price are 0.454 and 1.511, respectively