scholarly journals Thermodynamic investigation of organic Rankine cycle energy recovery system and recent studies

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (6 Part A) ◽  
pp. 2679-2690 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ozlem Boydak ◽  
Ismail Ekmekci ◽  
Mustafa Yilmaz ◽  
Hasan Koten

Recently, new environment-friendly energy conversion technologies are required for using energy resources valid to power generation. Accordingly, low-grade heat sources as solar heat, geothermal energy, and waste heat, which have available temperatures ranging between 60 and 200?C, are supposed as applicants for recent new generation energy resources. As an alternative energy source, such low-grade heat sources usage generating electricity with the help of power turbine cycles was examined through this study. Such systems have existing technologies applicable at low temperatures and a compact structure at low cost, however, these systems have a low thermal efficiency of the Rankine cycles operated at low temperatures. An organic Rankine cycle is alike to a conventional steam power plant, except the working fluid, which is an organic, high molecular mass fluid with a liquid-vapor phase change, or boiling point, at a lower temperature than the water-steam phase change. The efficiency of an organic Rankine cycle is about between 10% and 20%, depending on temperature levels and availability of a valid fluid.

Author(s):  
M. Deligant ◽  
S. Braccio ◽  
T. Capurso ◽  
F. Fornarelli ◽  
M. Torresi ◽  
...  

Abstract The Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) allows the conversion of low-grade heat sources into electricity. Although this technology is not new, the increase in energy demand and the need to reduce CO2 emissions create new opportunities to harvest low grade heat sources such as waste heat. Radial turbines have a simple construction, they are robust and they are not very sensitive to geometry inaccuracies. Most of the radial inflow turbines used for ORC application feature a vaned nozzle ensuring the appropriate distribution angle at the rotor inlet. In this work, no nozzle is considered but only the vaneless gap (distributor). This configuration, without any vaned nozzle, is supposed to be more flexible under varying operating conditions with respect to fixed vanes and to maintain a good efficiency at off-design. This paper presents a performance analysis carried out by means of two approaches: a combination of meanline loss models enhanced with real gas fluid properties and 3D CFD computations, taking into account the entire turbomachine including the scroll housing, the vaneless gap, the turbine wheel and the axial discharge pipe. A detailed analysis of the flow field through the turbomachine is carried out, both under design and off design conditions, with a particular focus on the entropy field in order to evaluate the loss distribution between the scroll housing, the vaneless gap and the turbine wheel.


Impact ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (6) ◽  
pp. 76-78
Author(s):  
Tzu-Chen Hung ◽  
Yong-Qiang Feng

Thermodynamic cycles consist of a sequence of thermodynamic processes involving the transfer of heat and work into and then out of a system. Variables, such as pressure and temperature, eventually return the system to its initial state. During the process of passing through the system, the working fluid converts heat and disposes of any remaining heat, making the cycle act as a heat engine, where heat or thermal energy is converted into mechanical energy. Thermodynamic cycles are an efficient means of producing energy and one of the most well-known examples is a Rankine cycle. From there, scientists have developed the organic Rankine cycle (ORC), which uses fluid with a liquid to vapour phase change that occurs at a lower temperature than the water to steam phase change. Dr Tzu-Chen Hung and Dr Yong-Qiang Feng, who are based at both the Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taipei University in Taiwan, and the School of Energy and Power Engineering, Jiangsu University in China, are carrying out work that seeks to design and build improved ORC systems which can be used for low-grade heat to power conversion.


Author(s):  
Maoqing Li ◽  
Jiangfeng Wang ◽  
Lin Gao ◽  
Xiaoqiang Niu ◽  
Yiping Dai

Due to environmental constraints, the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is widely used to generate electricity from low grade heat sources. In ORC processes, the working fluid is an organic substance, which has a better thermodynamic performance than water for low grade heat recovery. The design of the turbine which is the key component in the ORC system strongly depends on the operating conditions and on the scale of the facility. This paper presents an experimental study on a prototype of an axial-flow turbine integrated into a regenerative ORC system with R123 as working fluid. The power output is 10kW scale, and the single-stage turbine is selected. The turbine is specially designed and manufactured, and a generator is connected to the turbine directly. In the experiment, the turbine is tested under different inlet pressure conditions (0.6–1.5MPa), different inlet temperature conditions (80–150°C) and different flow rate conditions. The experimental data such as the pressures, temperatures of the turbine inlet and outlet, flow rate, rotational speed, and electrical power generation are analyzed to find their inner relationships. During the test, the turbine rotational speed could reach more than 3010 r/min, while the design rotational speed is 3000 r/min. The isentropic efficiency of the turbine could reach 53%. The maximum electrical power generated by the turbine-generator is 6.57KW. From the test data the peak value of the temperature difference between the inlet and the outlet of the turbine is 53 °C, and the expansion ratio reaches about 11. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solvers is also used to analyze the performance of the turbine. The distributions of the pressure, Mach number, and static entropy in the turbine flow passage component are examined and the reasons are also obtained. This study reveals the relationships between the performance of the axial-flow turbine and its inlet and outlet vapor conditions. The experiment results and the CFD results lay a foundation for using this type turbine in the ORC systems which product electrical power from a few KW to MW.


Author(s):  
Zhixin Sun ◽  
Shujia Wang ◽  
Fuquan Xu ◽  
Tielong Wang

Natural gas is considered as a green fuel due to its low environmental impact. LNG contains a large amount of cold exergy and must be regasified before further utilization. ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) has been proven to be a promising solution for both low grade heat utilization and LNG cold exergy recovery. Due to the great temperature difference between the heat source and LNG, the efficiency of one-stage ORC is relatively small. Hence, some researchers move forward to a two-stage Rankine cycle. Working fluid plays a quite important role in the cycle performance. Working fluid selection of a two-stage ORC is much more challenging than that of a single-stage ORC. In this paper, a two-stage ORC is studied. Heat source temperatures of 100,150 and 200°C are investigated. 20 substances are selected as potential candidates for both the high and low Rankine cycles. The evaporating, condensing and turbine inlet temperatures of both Rankine cycles are optimized by PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization). The results show that the best combination for heat source temperature of 100°C is R161/R218 with the maximum exergy efficiency of 35.27%. The best combination for 150°C is R161/RC318 with the maximum efficiency of 37.84% and ammonia/ammonia with the maximum efficiency of 39.15% for 200°C. Fluids with intermediate critical temperature, lower triple point temperature and lower normal boiling temperature are good candidates.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1070-1072 ◽  
pp. 1808-1811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Han Lv ◽  
Wei Ting Jiang ◽  
Qun Zhi Zhu

Organic Rankine cycle is an effective way to recover low-grade heat energy. In order to improve system performance, for low-temperature waste heat of 120°C and R245fa,R600a,R227ea organic working fluid, using Aspen Plus software conducted simulation by changing the evaporation temperature. Results from these analyses show that decreasing the evaporation temperature, increasing thermal and exergy efficiencies, evaporating pressure, at the same time reduce steam consumption rate.


Author(s):  
H. Leibowitz ◽  
I. K. Smith ◽  
N. Stosic

The growing need to recover power from low grade heat sources, has led to a review of the possibilities for producing systems for cost effective power production at outputs as little as 20-50kWe. It is shown that by utilizing the full potential of screw expanders instead of turbines, it is possible to produce Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) systems at these outputs, which can be installed for a cost in the range of $1500 to $2000 /kWe of net output. This low capacity cost combined with the ORC's fuel-free specification results in a very favorable value proposition.


Energy ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 82 ◽  
pp. 269-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernardo Peris ◽  
Joaquín Navarro-Esbrí ◽  
Francisco Molés ◽  
Manuel González ◽  
Adrián Mota-Babiloni

2018 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 06004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iqbal Md Arbab ◽  
Rana Sohel ◽  
Ahmadi Mahdi ◽  
Close Thomas ◽  
Date Abhijit ◽  
...  

Despite the current energy crisis, a large amount of low grade heat (below 100oC) is being wasted for the lack of cost effective energy conversion technology. In the case of the conventional Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) based geothermal power stations, only about 20% of available heat can be utilised due to a technological limitation as there is a phase change in the working fluid involved during the addition of heat which decreases utilisation effectiveness of the system. Therefore, in this paper, a trilateral flash cycle (TFC) based system has been studied to find out its prospect for utilizing more power from the same heat resources as the ORC. The TFC is a thermodynamic cycle that heats the working fluid as a saturated liquid from which it starts its expansion stage. The flash expansion is achieved by feeding the saturated high-pressured liquid working fluid through a convergent-divergent nozzle at which point it undergoes a flash expansion in the low-pressure environment of the generator housing. The momentum of the working fluid is extracted via a Pelton wheel and the cycle is completed with working fluid condensation and pressurisation. The analytical comparative study between the ORC and TFC based system shows that the TFC has about 50% more power generation capability and almost zero contribution on global warming.


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