Solar Operated Organic Rankine Cycle Units For 0.2 to 10 MWe Systems (original) (raw)
Related papers
Design of Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) Power Plant Systems by Using Flat-Plate Solar Collector
International Journal of Marine Engineering Innovation and Research, 2019
⎯ electrical energy is the most used energy today in daily activities and industry is increasing. In rural areas that do not have electricity still exists in Indonesia. In this study, it can be used as an alternative power plant that can be used by the countryside. The system used in this study is the new types of power plants, namely the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) system. In connection with the problems stated above, through this research, an effort will be made to design an ORC power generation system. The ORC power plant system that will be designed utilizes solar energy sources and working fluids. Solar power is used to heat the heating fluid in the form of water. This heating water is used to vaporize the working fluid which can evaporate at low temperatures and high pressures. So that the working fluid gas can be used to rotate the turbine shaft and produce electrical energy through a generator. Simulation is done using energy system software. In addition to simulations, examples of manual calculations are also needed for validation. The simulation results of the ORC generating system design on the two working fluids produce the greatest power at the pump outlet pressure of 6 bar with Ẇnet of 13.61 kW and the smallest power is generated by the pump outlet pressure of 5.03kW. While the design simulation of the ORC generating system produces power close to 10 kW at the pump outlet pressure of 5 bars with 11.38 kW. The flat collector solar-plate system gets the energy that is useful for collectors of 191.92 W and an efficiency of 9.8%.
Energy Procedia, 2016
Solar thermal power plants have been widely studied in recent years as solar energy is clean, affordable and largely available. The possibility of converting solar thermal energy into electricity with small scale (lower than 10 kWe) Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) plants operating at low temperature (lower than 130 °C), seems today a viable option. In this paper, the design and development of a prototypal small scale ORC plant ( 2 . In the first part of the paper the experimental data collected during the lab tests are presented. Then, the data collected during the field test are presented and discussed. A gross electrical efficiency up to 8% has been achieved. The value of net efficiency is dependent on the power absorbed by the auxiliary components that have not been optimized yet.
SOLAR THERMAL ORGANIC RANKINE CYCLE AS A RENEWABLE ENERGY OPTION
2005
The objective of the paper is to study the feasibility of an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) driven by solar thermal energy as a renewable energy option for small and medium sized commercial usage, power generation of less than 10MW. ORC is principally a conventional Rankine Cycle that uses organic compound as the working fluid instead of water and it is particularly suitable for low temperature applications. Appropriate organic compound includes refrigerants and azeotropes. The ORC and the solar collector are sized according to the solar flux distribution in Malaysia. According to Malaysia Metrological Department, Kota Kinabalu has the highest yearly average of solar radiation in the country for year 2003, for this reason it is chosen for the location of study. The power generation system consists of two cycles, the solar thermal cycle that harness solar energy and the power cycle, which is the ORC that generates electricity. The solar thermal cycle circulates heat transfer fluid (HTF) in the cycle and harness thermal energy from the sun and transfers it to the organic compound in the ORC via a heat exchanger. Components in the power cycle or ORC include an ORC turbine for power generation, a condenser for heat rejection, a pump to increase the pressure and a heat exchanger. The HTF selected in this analysis is Therminol VP3, which is currently used for commercial solar thermal applications. For this research, 2 organic compounds were analyzed, R123 and isobutane. These two compounds are optimized for selection.
Comparative Analysis of Small-Scale Organic Rankine Cycle Systems for Solar Energy Utilisation
Energies, 2019
Small-scale organic Rankine cycle (ORC) systems driven by solar energy are compared in this paper, which aims to explore the potential of power generation for domestic utilisation. A solar thermal collector was used as the heat source for a hot water storage tank. Thermal performance was then evaluated in terms of both the conventional ORC and an ORC using thermal driven pump (TDP). It is established that the solar ORC using TDP has a superior performance to the conventional ORC under most working conditions. Results demonstrate that power output of the ORC using TDP ranges from 72 W to 82 W with the increase of evaporating temperature, which shows an improvement of up to 3.3% at a 100 °C evaporating temperature when compared with the power output of the conventional ORC. Energy and exergy efficiencies of the ORC using TDP increase from 11.3% to 12.6% and from 45.8% to 51.3% when the evaporating temperature increases from 75 °C to 100 °C. The efficiency of the ORC using TDP is impro...
International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies, 2015
Recently, distributed power systems especially with renewable sources have shown an increasing demand all over the world and have been a technical viable solution to demand growth for electricity. Among these, solar-thermal power plants show a trustworthy source for electricity generation especially for rural areas where small-scale plants are needed. Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is a suitable power cycle for electricity generation from low-grade heat and has shown a good compatibility with parabolic trough solar collectors (PTCs). In this study, a PTC integrated with an ORC is being studied thermodynamically and economically for small-scale electricity generation up to 100 kW electricity. Four schematics of the cycle including the recuperation and superheating are examined. Effect of superheating and recuperating was investigated on the thermal efficiency and costs of the system. A parametric study shows the effect of key parameters such as turbine inlet temperature and pressure on the characteristics of the system such as net work, thermal efficiency, oil temperature, overall heat transfer coefficient and heat transfer area of shell-and-tube heat exchangers and also on costs of the system. Results show the dependence of the system efficiency and system costs on the operating pressure of heat exchangers. Existence of the Recuperator seems quite effective on increasing the cycle efficiency and, in some cases, lowering the total costs due to lowering the condenser load. A comparison of different working fluids including benzene, butane, pentane, isopentane, R123 and R245fa have been done to cover a wide range of operating pressures and temperatures. Results show that benzene has the best thermodynamic performance among other fluids followed by pentane, isopentane, R123, R245fa and butane. Also, benzene has the highest total cost among other fluids followed by pentane, isopentane, butane, R123 and R245fa. This paper helps to evaluate a solar ORC power plant both thermodynamically and economically.
Performance Analysis of Organic Rankine Cycle Integrated with a Parabolic Through Solar Collector
Recently, distributed power generation systems especially with renewable sources have shown a promising result all over the world and have been a technical solution to demand growth for electricity. Among these, solar thermal power plants show a trustworthy source for electricity generation especially for rural areas where small scale solar plants are used. Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is a suitable means for electricity generation from low grade heat and has shown a good compatibility with parabolic trough solar collectors (PTC). Here, a PTC integrated with an ORC cycle is being investigated for small scale electricity generation near Tehran. The system includes a solar field, a storage tank, and a small scale ORC engine. Performance evaluation has been done by means of commercial software Thermoflex19. Analysis to find the optimal design point turbine pressure and evaporator temperature for obtaining the best performance shows the effect of turbine inlet pressure and evaporator temperature on various cycle characteristics such as net output work, efficiency, solar heat input, oil temperature, collector efficiency and characteristics of heat exchangers such as pinch point and current UA. A comparison of different working fluids is presented. Results show that Benzene has the best performance OPEN ACCESS 2 among fluids butane, n-pentane, Iso-pentane, R123 and R245fa for the system conditions described.
Energy Procedia, 2014
During the calendar year of 2012 the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in conjunction with CLECO Power LLC (CLECO) has constructed and commissioned a pilot scale parabolic trough solar thermal power plant for the first time in Louisiana. The large aperture trough (LAT) solar collectors were provided by Gossamer Space Frames and are coupled with an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) power block provided by ElectraTherm, Inc. for study of the feasibility of cost-effective commercial scale solar thermal power production in Louisiana. Supported by CLECO and providing power to the existing CLECO grid, the implementation of state-of-the-industry collector frames, mirrors, trackers, and ORC power block is studied under various local weather conditions which present varied operating regimes from existing solar thermal installations. The solar collectors provide a design output of 650 kWth and preliminary actual performance data from the system level is presented. The optimal size, configuration and location for such a plant in the given solar resource region are being studied in conjunction with CLECO's search for optimal renewable energy solutions for the region. The pilot scale size of the facility and implementation of the simpler ORC allows remote operation of the facility and flexibility in operating parameters for optimization studies. The construction of the facility was supported by the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Department of Energy, and CLECO. The continued operation of the plant is supported by CLECO Power LLC and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
A review of solar-driven organic Rankine cycles: Recent challenges and future outlook
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2021
The organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is an effective technology for power generation from temperatures of up to 400 o C and for capacities of up to 10 MWel. The use of solar irradiation for driving an ORC is a promising renewable energy technology due to the high compatibility between the operating temperatures of solar thermal collector technologies and the temperature needs of the cycle. The objective of this review paper is to present and discuss the operation principles of solar-ORC technology and the wide range of solar-ORC systems that have been studied in the literature. Various solar thermal technologies that can drive the ORC are investigated, such as the flat plate collector, evacuated tube collector, compound parabolic collector, parabolic trough collector, linear Fresnel reflectors, dish concentrators and solar towers. Both simulation studies and experimental investigations are included in the study. Hybrid systems and different thermal storage techniques are also examined in detail. Moreover, systems with ORC which produce many useful outputs such as cooling, heating and fresh water are studied because they present high sustainability indexes. The limitations of the technology are also highlighted, along with critical suggestions aimed at steering future research in this field. The final conclusions indicate that the development of trigeneration and polygeneration systems with ORC subsystems is a promising avenue, not only for the future development of solar-ORC technology but also for the development of renewable and sustainable energy systems in a broader context.
2017
This paper analyses the possibilities of incorporating the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology to a parabolic trough technology, reduces the cost of testing and optimisation by providing tools for the evaluation and optimisation of existing and proposed power plants. The thermodynamic potential for Solar-Thermal Organic Rankine Cycle (STORC) power plants was investigated by using Matlab Simulink ® and Thermolib library software. The methodology was implemented based on principles and specifications of some existing plant designs. The model basically considered four major elements: the solar resources model, the solar collector model, the fluid transfer and storage model and the ORC model. Based on the study outcome, the integrated model was created to analyse the variations in geographic, geometrical properties with thermo-physical properties for a specific period of the possible power output from the plant. Power output variation from the model results provided a tool for the case studies on the sensitivity and performance analysis and show that the plant will provide more power and higher efficiencies.
An Organic Rankine Cycle as Technology for Smaller Concentrated Solar Powered Systems
Proceedings of SWC2017/SHC2017, 2017
This paper analyses and simulates an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) specifically for smaller concentrated solar powered (CSP) systems to produce solar thermal electricity (STE) in the range from 500 kW to 5 MW. The plant efficiency is optimized with the evaporating and condensing temperatures as optimizing variables. A thorough process for selecting the working fluid is presented to help the designer with this monumental task. After considering various aspects n-Pentane is chosen as working fluid for the ORC. It is also the only organic working fluid that has been successfully used in conjunction with CSP on the scale from 500kW to 5MW. The power block is simulated by modelling each component and combining them to form a complete simulation model. The results of the simulation is document and a plant efficiency of about 14.2% is achieved across the power range. The output if the ORC simulation is then compared to a steam Rankine cycle under the same operating conditions and the ORC proved to be more efficient for a power output up to 3000kW.