scholarly journals Evaluation of the Energy Performance of an Organic Rankine Cycle-Based Micro Combined Heat and Power System Involving a Hermetic Scroll Expander

Author(s):  
Jean-François Oudkerk ◽  
Sylvain Quoilin ◽  
Sébastien Declaye ◽  
Ludovic Guillaume ◽  
Eric Winandy ◽  
...  

This paper evaluates the performance of an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) based micro- combined heat and power (CHP) unit using a scroll expander. The considered system consists of a fuel boiler coupled with an ORC engine. As a preliminary step, the results of an experimental campaign and the modeling of a hermetic, lubricated scroll compressor used as an expander are presented. Then, a fluid comparison based on several criteria is conducted, leading to the selection of R245fa as working fluid for the ORC. A simulation model is then built to evaluate the performance of the system. The model associates an ORC model and a boiler model, both experimentally validated. This model is used to optimize and size the system. The optimization is performed considering two degrees of freedom: the evaporating temperature and the heat transfer fluid (HTF) mass flow rate. Seasonal simulation is finally performed with a bin method according to the standard PrEN14825 for an average European climate and for four heat emitter heating curves. Simulation results show that the electrical efficiency of the system varies from 6.35% for hot water at 65 °C (high temperature application) to 8.6% for a hot water temperature of 22 °C (low temperature application). Over one entire year, the system exhibits an overall electrical efficiency of about 8% and an overall thermal efficiency around 87% without significant difference between the four heat emitter heating curves. Finally, some improvements of the scroll expander are evaluated. It is shown that by increasing the maximum inlet temperature (limited to 140 °C due to technical reasons) and using two scroll expanders in series, the overall electrical efficiency reaches 12.5%.

Author(s):  
Amrita Sengupta ◽  
Prashant Kumar ◽  
Pardeep Garg ◽  
Nirmal Hui ◽  
Matthew S. Orosz ◽  
...  

Recent studies on small-scale power generation with the organic Rankine cycle suggest superior performance of positive displacement type of expanders compared to turbines. Scroll expanders in particular achieve high isentropic efficiencies due to lower leakage and frictional losses. Performance of scroll machines may be enhanced by the use of non-circular involute curves in place of the circular involutes resulting non-uniform wall thickness. In this paper, a detailed moment analysis is performed for such an expander having volumetric expansion ratio of 5 using thermodynamic models proposed earlier by one of the present authors. The working fluid considered in the power cycle is R-245fa with scroll inlet temperature of 125 °C for a gross power output of ∼3.5 kW. The model developed in this paper is verified with an air scroll compressor available in the literature and then applied to an expander. Prediction of small variation of moment with scroll motion recommends use of scroll expander without a flywheel over other positive displacement type of expanders, e.g. reciprocating, where a flywheel is an essential component.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-30
Author(s):  
Aya H.A .Kareem Kareem ◽  
Ali A. F. Al-Hamadan

Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is one of the renewable energy to generate power at low temperatures; however, the thermal and physical properties data of the working fluid in this system are limited. In this regards, the experimental study by using R-141b as the working fluid and hot water (i.e. 50°C and 90°C) on the ORC system was conducted in order to evaluate the ORC performance via changing temperatures. Further, the air compressor was modified to act as a multi-vane expander in the ORC system. Energy and exergy analysis of ORC system was done by using Engineering Equation Solver (EES) program. It was found that the performance of the expander is acceptable and suitable for operating conditions. In addition, the heat source temperature has a direct effect on expander performance. The higher temperatures of the heat source led to an increase the expander inlet temperature. This system satisfied maximum thermal and exergy efficiency and they found equal to 1.8 % and 21%, respectively. Moreover, the rotation speed and power of expander are equal to 1200 RPM and 2.331 kW respectively. It was concluded that the working fluid R-141b is suitable for ORC system due to consider the working fluid that do not need high temperatures to evaporate.


2013 ◽  
Vol 291-294 ◽  
pp. 1627-1630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eunkoo Yun ◽  
Hyun Dong Kim ◽  
Sang Youl Yoon ◽  
Kyung Chun Kim

In order to determine the operating characteristics of a small-scale ORC (organic Rankine cycle) system for various low temperature heat sources, experiments were carried out. A small-scale ORC power generation system adopting R-245fa as a working fluid was designed and manufactured. Hot water was used for the heat source and the temperature was controlled by the 110 kW electric resistance heaters which provided up to 150 °C. Cooling temperature was controlled by a circulating water chiller to simulate various heat sink environments. An open-drive oil-free scroll expander directly connected to a high-speed synchronous generator was installed in the ORC unit. The efficiencies of the cycle and the expander, electric power of the developed ORC system with respect to the operating conditions were investigated by experiments. The factors which influence the performance of the oil-free scroll expander were analyzed and discussed.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 3345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiqi Wang ◽  
Zhongyuan Yuan

The organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is widely used to recover industrial waste heat. For an ORC system using industrial waste hot water as a heat source, a novel hot water split-flow dual-pressure organic Rankine cycle (SFD-ORC) system is developed to improve the performance of the ORC. The maximum net power output was selected to compare three ORC systems, including basic ORC (B-ORC), conventional dual-pressure ORC (CD-ORC) and SFD-ORC. A genetic algorithm (GA) was used to optimize the parameters to search the maximum net power output of ORCs. The maximum net output power was taken as the standard of performance evaluation. The results show that, under the same hot water inlet temperature condition, the optimal hot water outlet temperature of B-ORC is much higher than that of CD-ORC and SFD-ORC, which indicates that less thermal energy could be utilized to convert to power in B-ORC. The optimal hot water temperature at the outlet of evaporator 1 in SFD-ORC is higher than that in CD-ORC, which means SFD-ORC could make more efficient use of the high-grade thermal energy of hot water. The SFD-ORC could obtain the highest net output power under the optimal parameter conditions, followed by the CD-ORC system, while the B-ORC has the lowest net output power. Moreover, with the increase in the hot water inlet temperature, the advantage of SFD-ORC becomes increasingly obvious. When the hot water inlet temperature is 90 °C, the net output power of SFD-ORC at is 6.22% higher than that of CD-ORC. The net output power of SFD-ORC at 130 °C increases to 9.7% higher than that of CD-ORC. The SFD-ORC presents better system performance and has great engineering application potential.


Author(s):  
C M Invernizzi ◽  
P Iora ◽  
R Sandrini

This article investigates the possibility to enhance the performance of a biomass organic Rankine cycle (ORC) plant by adding an externally fired gas turbine (EFGT), yielding a combined EFGT + ORC system. A typical ORC configuration is first modelled and validated on data available from an existing unit 1.5 MW reference plant. Then, different working fluids belonging to the methyl-substituted benzene series and linear methylpolysiloxanes have been evaluated for the ORC section on the basis of both thermodynamics considerations and design issues of the regenerator and the turbine. Results of the simulations of the combined cycle (CC) referred to a furnace size of about unit 9 MW, assuming a maximum GT inlet temperature of 800 °C, show a maximum efficiency of 23 per cent, obtained in the case where toluene is adopted as a working fluid for the bottoming section. This value is about 4 points per cent higher than the efficiency of the corresponding simple ORC. Finally, to conclude, some preliminary considerations are given regarding the techno-economic feasibility of the combined configuration, suggesting the need of a further investigation on the possible technological solution for the furnace which represents the main uncertainty in the resulting costs of the CC.


Author(s):  
Musbaudeen O. Bamgbopa ◽  
Eray Uzgoren

This paper presents a solar Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) for electricity generation; where a regression based approach is used for the working fluid. Models of the unit’s sub-components (pump, evaporator, expander and condenser) are also presented. Heat supplied by the solar field can heat the water up to 80–95 °C at mass flow rates of 2–12 kg/s and deliver energy to the ORC’s heat exchanger unit. Simulation results of steady state operation using the developed model shows a maximum power output of around 40 kWe. Both refrigerant and hot water mass flow rates in the system are identified as critical parameters to optimize the power production and the cycle efficiency.


Author(s):  
Eunkoo Yoon ◽  
Hyun Jun Park ◽  
Hyun Dong Kim ◽  
Kyung Chun Kim ◽  
Sang Youl Yoon

This study aims to evaluate the performance of an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) power system adopting dual expanders in parallel by experiment. A dual-expander ORC system was designed to provide competitive advantages over a general single expander ORC system in typical applications with large thermal fluctuation of heat sources such as solar heat, marine waste heat, and etc. The ORC system consists of two scroll expanders installed in parallel, a hydraulic diaphragm type pump to feed and pressurize the working fluid, R-245fa, two plate heat exchangers for the evaporator and the condenser, and two generators with shaft power torque meters. The two scroll expanders were modified from two oil-free air scroll compressors, and were tested in the ORC loop with R245fa. The maximum isentropic efficiency of each expander was measured about 53%, and the shaft power was reached to about 2kW. The hot water was used as heat source, and the water temperature was controlled up to 150 °C by the 100 kW-class electric heater. A circulating air-cooled chiller was utilized for the control of the cooling water temperature. In order to determine the static performance of the system, efficiencies and shaft powers were measured with 130 °C heat source temperature. In addition, performance tests were conducted with various working fluid mass flow rates to control pressure ratios. The characteristics and total thermal efficiency of the dual parallel expander ORC system and optimal operating modes are addressed.


Author(s):  
P. Kohlenbach ◽  
S. McEvoy ◽  
W. Stein ◽  
A. Burton ◽  
K. Wong ◽  
...  

This paper presents component performance results of a new parabolic trough collector array driving an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) power generation system. The system has been installed in the National Solar Energy Centre at CSIRO Energy Technology in Newcastle, NSW, Australia. It consists of four rows of 18 parabolic mirrors each in a 2×2 matrix with a total aperture area of approximately 132m2. The absorber tube is a laterally aligned, 40mm copper tube coated with a semi-selective paint and enclosed in a 50mm non-evacuated glass tube to reduce convection losses. The mirror modules, which are light-weight and robust, are made from thin low iron back silvered glass bonded to a sheet steel substrate. They are supported by a box truss on semi circular hoops running on rollers for single axis tracking. The mirror design has been chosen to allow low-cost manufacturing as well as simple commissioning and operation. The ORC unit is a FP6 unit sourced from Freepower Ltd. with a net power output of 6kWel at 180°C inlet temperature and a total heat input of 70 kWth. It uses a two-stage expansion process with hydrofluoroether as the working fluid. A wet cooling tower is used to dissipate the reject heat from the ORC. The two key components of the envisioned system are the trough reflector/receiver and the ORC unit. The optical performance of the mirror elements was investigated with regard to the flux mapping onto the receiver tube. The ORC unit has been tested separately using an electrical oil heater as the heat source. This paper presents results for irradiation capture and intensity over the receiver width of a single trough mirror module. The complete system including trough collectors and ORC has not been in transient operation yet, thus experimental steady-state results of the ORC unit are presented.


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