Thermoeconomic Optimization Design of the ORC System Installed on a Light-Duty Vehicle for Waste Heat Recovery from Exhaust Heat

Xialai Wu, Ning Zhang, Lei Xie, Wenyan Ci, Junghui Chen and Shan Lu
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Xialai Wu: School of Engineering, Huzhou University, Huzhou 313000, China
Ning Zhang: School of Engineering, Huzhou University, Huzhou 313000, China
Lei Xie: State Key Laboratory of Industrial Control Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Wenyan Ci: School of Engineering, Huzhou University, Huzhou 313000, China
Junghui Chen: Department of Chemical Engineering, Chung-Yuan Christian University, Chung-Li, Taoyuan 320, Taiwan
Shan Lu: Institute of Intelligence Science and Engineering, Shenzhen Polytechnic, Shenzhen 518055, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-24

Abstract: The organic Rankine cycle (ORC) has been widely studied to recover waste heat from internal combustion engines in commercial on-road vehicles. To achieve a cost-effective ORC, a trade-off between factors such as costs, power outputs, back pressure, and weight needs to be carefully worked out. However, the trade-off is still a huge challenge in engine waste heat recovery. In this study, a thermoeconomic optimization study of a vehicle-mounted ORC unit is proposed to recover waste heat from various exhaust gas conditions of a light-duty vehicle. The optimization is carried out for four organic working fluids with different critical temperatures, respectively. Under the investigated working fluids, the lower specific investment cost (SIC) and higher mean net output power (MEOP) of ORC can be achieved using the organic working fluid with higher critical temperature. The maximum mean net output power is obtained by taking RC490 as working fluid and the payback period (PB) is 3.01 years when the petrol is EUR 1.5 per liter. The proposed strategy is compared with a thermodynamic optimization method with MEOP as an optimized objective. It shows that the proposed strategy reached SIC results more economically. The importance of taking the ORC weight and the back pressure caused by ORC installation into consideration during the preliminary design phase is highlighted.

Keywords: ORC design; thermoeconomic optimization; vehicle exhaust heat recovery (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: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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