The aim of this study is to investigate the economic performance of a novel compact waste heat recovering system for the marine diesel engine. The transcritical Rankine cycle is employed to convert the waste heat resources to useful work with R1234yf. To evaluate the utilizing efficiency and economic performance of waste heat resources, which are exhaust gas, cylinder cooling water and scavenge air cooling water, three operating models of the system are investigated and compared. The levelized energy cost, which represents the total cost per kilo-watt power, is employed to evaluate the economic performance of the system. The economic optimization and its corresponding optimal parameters of each operating model in the compact waste heat recovering system are obtained theoretically. The results show that the minimal levelized energy cost of the proposed system operated in Model I is the lowest of the three models, and then are Model II and Model III, which are 2.96% and 936% lower for, respectively. Similarly, the CO2 emission reduction is the highest for Model I of the three models, and 21.6% and 30.1% lower are obtained for Model II and Model III, respectively. The compact waste heat recovering system operated in Model I has superiority on the payback periods and heavy diesel oil saving over the others. Finally, the correlations using specific work of working fluid and condensation temperature as parameters are proposed to assess the optimal conditions in economic performance analysis of the system. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.