Comparative Thermodynamic Analysis of Kalina and Kalina Flash Cycles for Utilizing Low-Grade Heat Sources

Kyoung Hoon Kim, Chul Ho Han and Hyung Jong Ko
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Kyoung Hoon Kim: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kumoh National Institute of Technology, Gyeongbuk 39177, Korea
Chul Ho Han: Department of Mechanical System Engineering, Kumoh National Institute of Technology, Gyeongbuk 39177, Korea
Hyung Jong Ko: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kumoh National Institute of Technology, Gyeongbuk 39177, Korea

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 12, 1-14

Abstract: The Kalina flash cycle (KFC) is a novel, recently proposed modification of the Kalina cycle (KC) equipped with a flash vessel. This study performs a comparative analysis of the thermodynamic performance of KC and KFC utilizing low-grade heat sources. How separator pressure, flash pressure, and ammonia mass fraction affect the system performance is systematically and parametrically investigated. Dependences of net power and cycle efficiencies on these parameters as well as the mass flow rate, heat transfer rate and power production at the cycle components are analyzed. For a given set of separator pressure and ammonia mass fraction, there exists an optimum flash pressure making exergy efficiency locally maximal. For these pressures, which are higher for higher separator pressure and lower ammonia mass fraction, KFC shows better performance than KC both in net power and cycle efficiencies. At higher ammonia mass fraction, however, the difference is smaller. While the maximum power production increases with separator pressure, the dependence is quite weak for the maximum values of both efficiencies.

Keywords: exergy efficiency; Kalina flash cycle; low-grade heat source; optimal flash pressure; thermal efficiency (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: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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