Molecular property methods for assessing efficiency of organic Rankine cycles

Maciej Z. Lukawski, Ronald DiPippo and Jefferson W. Tester

Energy, 2018, vol. 142, issue C, 108-120

Abstract: This paper presents a robust method for assessing the efficiency of organic Rankine cycle (ORC) plants based on the molecular structures of the working fluids employed. The developed methodology uses molecular group contribution methods and does not require equations of state or extensive experimental data. The maximum utilization efficiency ɳu* of an ORC plant was correlated with two thermodynamic properties of the working fluid, namely, its critical temperature Tc and reduced ideal gas heat capacity Cp0/R. The developed correlations predict ɳu* with an average error of 0.9–1.5 percentage points. The optimum ORC heat source temperature Ths* can be predicted with an average error of 3.5 °C to 6.6 °C. The developed methodology was validated using a numerical model of an optimized ORC. It was then used to estimate ɳu* and Ths* of 92 working fluids with low global warming potentials (GWP100 < 150) and low flammability values (LFL > 0.1 kg/m3). Lastly, best candidate next-generation, low-GWP working fluids were selected for a more detailed examination.

Keywords: Organic Rankine cycle (ORC); Working fluid screening; Molecular structure; Low global warming potential (GWP); Molecular group contribution method; Computer aided molecular design (CAMD) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544217316614
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:142:y:2018:i:c:p:108-120

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2017.09.140

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().