Thermodynamic Investigation and Economic Evaluation of a High-Temperature Triple Organic Rankine Cycle System

Pengcheng Li, Chengxing Shu, Jing Li (), Yandong Wang, Yanxin Chen, Xiao Ren, Desuan Jie and Xunfen Liu
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Pengcheng Li: School of Automotive and Transportation Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, 193 Tunxi Road, Hefei 230002, China
Chengxing Shu: School of Automotive and Transportation Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, 193 Tunxi Road, Hefei 230002, China
Jing Li: Research Center for Sustainable Energy Technologies, Energy and Environment Institute, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK
Yandong Wang: Hefei General Machinery Research Institute, 888 Changjiang Road, Hefei 230031, China
Yanxin Chen: School of Automotive and Transportation Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, 193 Tunxi Road, Hefei 230002, China
Xiao Ren: School of New Energy, China University of Petroleum, Qingdao 266580, China
Desuan Jie: School of Automotive and Transportation Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, 193 Tunxi Road, Hefei 230002, China
Xunfen Liu: School of Automotive and Transportation Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, 193 Tunxi Road, Hefei 230002, China

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 23, 1-25

Abstract: Triple organic Rankine cycle (TORC) is gradually gaining interest, but the maximum thermal efficiencies (around 30%) are restricted by low critical temperatures of common working fluids (<320 °C). This paper proposes a high-temperature (up to 400 °C) TORC system to ramp up efficiency. A near-azeotropic mixture biphenyl/diphenyl oxide (BDO), which has a stellar track record in the high-temperature ORC applications, is innovatively adopted as the top and middle ORC fluid simultaneously. Four conventional organic fluids are chosen for the bottom ORC. A mixing heat exchanger connects the top and middle ORCs to reduce irreversible loss. Thermodynamic analysis hints that the optimal performance is achieved on the use of benzene as the bottom fluid. The maximum thermal and exergy efficiencies are respectively 40.86% and 74.14%. The largest exergy destruction occurs inside the heat exchanger coupling the middle and bottom ORCs, accounting for above 30% of the total entropy generation. The levelized energy cost (LEC) is 0.0368 USD/kWh. Given the same heat source condition, the TORC system can boost the efficiency by 1.02% and drive down LEC by 0.0032 USD/kWh compared with a BDO mixture-based cascade ORC. The proposed system is promising in solar thermal power generation and Carnot battery applications using phase change materials for storage.

Keywords: triple organic rankine cycle; biphenyl/diphenyl oxide; thermal efficiency; exergy efficiency; levelized energy cost (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: 2023
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