Organic Rankine cycle model for well-described and not-so-well-described working fluids

Riccardo Brignoli and J. Steven Brown

Energy, 2015, vol. 86, issue C, 93-104

Abstract: This paper presents an ORC (organic Rankine cycle) model consisting of turbine, condenser, pump, and boiler, with an optional IHX (internal heat exchanger). The model includes well-described (considerable experimental data) working fluids using the high accuracy EoS (equations of state) contained in REFPROP. Moreover, and more importantly, the model allows one to quickly and easily create from a few to many thousands of P-R (Peng-Robinson) EoS for not-so-well-described (little or no experimental data) working fluids. The latter is realized by parametrically varying critical temperature (Tc), critical pressure (Pc), acentric factor (ω), and ideal gas specific heat (cp,co). Simulation results for a low-temperature ORC application show that efficiency (η) increases with increasing heat source temperature (Tmax), and does so more strongly when an IHX is included; whereas, volumetric work output (V) decreases with increasing Tmax. The results further show that both η and V strongly decrease with increasing heat sink temperature (Tcond). Parametrically varying Tc, Pc, ω, and cp,co showed that: (1) Increasing Tc generally leads to higher η and lower V. (2) Increasing Pc monotonically increases V. (3) Variations in ω do not significantly impact η or V. (4) η and V both generally decrease with increasing values of cp,co.

Keywords: Equation of state; Organic Rankine cycle; Peng-Robinson; Simulation model; Working fluids (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544215004685
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:86:y:2015:i:c:p:93-104

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2015.03.119

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 ().