Economic, Energetic, and Environmental Performance of a Solar Powered Organic Rankine Cycle with Electric Energy Storage in Different Commercial Buildings

Abstract Solar-powered organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is considered a promising technology and has the potential to provide clean electric energy. Extensive studies on the design of ORC systems have been conducted and reported in the literature. However, few studies have presented the influence of climate zones on the performance of a solar-powered ORC, especially for an integrated ORC and energy storage system. This paper presents an analysis to determine the performance of solar-powered ORCs with electric energy storage (EES) systems to supply electricity to buildings in different climate zones in the United States. The building type evaluated in this paper is a large office, and the energy consumption of the facility in each climate location was determined using EnergyPlus. The ORC-EES operational strategy used in this investigation is described as follows: when solar irradiation is adequate to produce power, the ORC charges the EES. Then, when there is no solar energy available, the EES provides power to the building. The ORC-EES is evaluated based on the potential to reduce the operational cost, the primary energy consumption, and the carbon dioxide emission. Furthermore, the influence of the number of solar collectors and the EES size on the performance of the ORC-EES system is investigated.

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Performance Analysis of a Solar Powered Organic Rankine Cycle With Energy Storage in Different U.S. Climate Zones

ASME 2020 14th International Conference on Energy Sustainability ◽

10.1115/es2020-1646 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Hadis Hemmati ◽

Jian Zhang ◽

Emily Spayde ◽

Pedro J. Mago ◽

Heejin Cho

Keyword(s):

Energy Consumption ◽

Energy Storage ◽

Carbon Dioxide Emission ◽

Electric Energy ◽

Organic Rankine Cycle ◽

Rankine Cycle ◽

The United States ◽

Solar Irradiation ◽

Climate Zones ◽

Solar Powered

Abstract Solar-powered organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is a promising technology and has the potential to provide clean electric energy. Extensive studies on the design of ORC systems have been conducted and reported in the literature. However, very few studies have presented the influence of the climate zones on the performance of a solar-powered ORC, especially for an integrated ORC and energy storage system. This paper presents an analysis to determine the performance of a solar-powered ORC with electric energy storage (EES) to supply electricity to a building in different climate zones in the United States. The building type evaluated in this paper is a large office, and the energy consumption of the facility in each climate location was determined using EnergyPlus. The ORC-EES operational strategy used in this investigation consists of the ORC charging the EES when solar irradiation is sufficient to generate power. Then the EES provides power to the building when there is no solar energy available. The ORC-EES is evaluated based on the potential to reduce the operational cost, the primary energy consumption, and the carbon dioxide emission. Furthermore, the effect of the number of solar collectors and the EES size on the performance of the ORC-EES system is also studied.

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Effect of Electric Energy Storage on the Performance of a Power Generation Unit-Organic Rankine Cycle System

Volume 6B: Energy ◽

10.1115/imece2016-65388 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Harrison Warren ◽

Alta Knizley ◽

Pedro J. Mago

Keyword(s):

Power Generation ◽

Energy Storage ◽

Waste Heat ◽

Electric Energy ◽

Organic Rankine Cycle ◽

Rankine Cycle ◽

Operational Cost ◽

Electric Energy Storage ◽

Power Generation Unit ◽

Generation Unit

Combined heat and power (CHP) systems simultaneously generate on-site electricity and provide useful heat by utilizing waste heat from a power generation unit (PGU). CHP systems can enhance energy production efficiency and energy sustainability by reducing grid dependency, often yielding cost savings in the process. Furthermore, CHP systems can provide savings over conventional systems in terms of operational cost, primary energy consumption (PEC), and carbon dioxide emissions (CDE). Typical CHP systems generate onsite power using a PGU, and the waste heat from the PGU is used to provide heating or hot water to the facility. Another variation for this system is to incorporate an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) to allow for increased potential reductions in operational cost, PEC, and CDE when compared to separate heat and power. This paper evaluates the effect of using electric energy storage on the performance of a PGU-ORC system. In the proposed system, the waste heat from a PGU is used to generate and to store electricity using an ORC coupled with electric energy storage (ES) (battery). Then, the electricity that is stored in the batteries could be used during the system operation at different times of the day so the PGU does not have to operate all the time. The PGU-ORC-ES system (with battery storage) is compared with a conventional system in terms of operational cost, PEC, and CDE. A restaurant building located in Chicago, IL is used to evaluate the potential of the proposed PGU-ORC-ES system. Results indicate that the addition of electric energy storage is beneficial to the proposed PGU-ORC system in terms of operational cost, PEC, and CDE. Furthermore, the effect of the size of the electric energy storage on the system performance is analyzed in this paper.

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