In the last years, increasing interest has been addressed towards Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) power plants as a consequence of their potential integration with low¬grade heat sources. Available thermal heat sources are solar energy, geothermal energy, biomass, and waste heat from various thermal processes such as heat from exhaust gases of internal combustion engines. In this work, a low-temperature geothermal source (below 100 °C) has been considered, and an accurate thermodynamic analysis has been performed in order to assess the capability of this source in the heat recovery process, by considering several power plant configurations and different working fluids. In addition, the integration of this low¬grade heat source with a higher temperature thermal source (i.e. solar thermal and biomass combustion) has been investigated to improve the thermal efficiency. Very promising results are obtained by this integration. Specifically, a noticeable reduction of solar collector surfaces in one case and of biomass consumption in the other case has been observed respect to the configurations wherein only solar thermal source and biomass combustion were considered, respectively.
A Thermodynamic Analysis of Low-temperature Heat Recovery for ORC Power Plants
VIGGIANO, ANNARITA;MAGI, Vinicio
2012-01-01
Abstract
In the last years, increasing interest has been addressed towards Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) power plants as a consequence of their potential integration with low¬grade heat sources. Available thermal heat sources are solar energy, geothermal energy, biomass, and waste heat from various thermal processes such as heat from exhaust gases of internal combustion engines. In this work, a low-temperature geothermal source (below 100 °C) has been considered, and an accurate thermodynamic analysis has been performed in order to assess the capability of this source in the heat recovery process, by considering several power plant configurations and different working fluids. In addition, the integration of this low¬grade heat source with a higher temperature thermal source (i.e. solar thermal and biomass combustion) has been investigated to improve the thermal efficiency. Very promising results are obtained by this integration. Specifically, a noticeable reduction of solar collector surfaces in one case and of biomass consumption in the other case has been observed respect to the configurations wherein only solar thermal source and biomass combustion were considered, respectively.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
