A review and selection of engine waste heat recovery technologies using analytic hierarchy process and grey relational analysis

In this paper, a brief review and comparison of the engine waste heat recovery technologies have been made. These five technologies are electric turbocompounding systems (ETC), thermodynamic organic Rankine cycle (ORC), thermoelectric generators (TEG), hydrogen generation by using exhaust gas heat energy, and hybrid pneumatic power systems (HPPS). According to comparison results, the HPPS system can achieve the highest fuel economy improvement among the five technologies. Though there are their own benefits by utilizing these different technologies, their disadvantages prevent the application of these advanced technologies to different extent. Besides, a combined evaluation method consisting of grey relational analysis and analytic hierarchy process has been applied to assess the five new engine waste heat recovery technologies from the perspective of technical, economic, and environmental aspect. Based on the final results of the new evaluation method, the HPPS was found to be the most promising WHR technology for vehicle engines. But because of the emphasis on economic benefit, TEG was found to be more favorable for working conditions, like power plant and marine engine. What is more, as is shown in the sensibility analysis, the weighing of the environment relevant factors can prominently influence the comparison results between ETC and HPPS. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.