Fluid Selection of Transcritical Rankine Cycle for Engine Waste Heat Recovery Based on Temperature Match Method

Zhijian Wang, Hua Tian, Lingfeng Shi, Gequn Shu, Xianghua Kong and Ligeng Li
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Zhijian Wang: State Key Laboratory of Engine Reliability, Weichai Power Co., Ltd., Weifang 261001, China
Hua Tian: State Key Laboratory of Engines, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Lingfeng Shi: Department of Thermal Science and Energy Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China
Gequn Shu: State Key Laboratory of Engines, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Xianghua Kong: State Key Laboratory of Engine Reliability, Weichai Power Co., Ltd., Weifang 261001, China
Ligeng Li: State Key Laboratory of Engines, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-19

Abstract: Engines waste a major part of their fuel energy in the jacket water and exhaust gas. Transcritical Rankine cycles are a promising technology to recover the waste heat efficiently. The working fluid selection seems to be a key factor that determines the system performances. However, most of the studies are mainly devoted to compare their thermodynamic performances of various fluids and to decide what kind of properties the best-working fluid shows. In this work, an active working fluid selection instruction is proposed to deal with the temperature match between the bottoming system and cold source. The characters of ideal working fluids are summarized firstly when the temperature match method of a pinch analysis is combined. Various selected fluids are compared in thermodynamic and economic performances to verify the fluid selection instruction. It is found that when the ratio of the average specific heat in the heat transfer zone of exhaust gas to the average specific heat in the heat transfer zone of jacket water becomes higher, the irreversibility loss between the working fluid and cold source is improved. The ethanol shows the highest net power output of 25.52 kW and lowest electricity production cost of $1.97/(kWh) among candidate working fluids.

Keywords: fluid selection; Rankine cycle; waste heat recovery; temperature match; pinch analysis; engines (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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