A Preliminary Turbine Design for an Organic Rankine Cycle

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Efstathiadis ◽  
M. Rivarolo ◽  
A. I. Kalfas ◽  
A. Traverso ◽  
P. Seferlis
Keyword(s):  
Organic Rankine Cycle ◽  
Rankine Cycle ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Choked Flow ◽  
Turbine Speed ◽  
Turbine Design

An increasing trend in exploiting low enthalpy content energy sources, has led to a renewed interest in small-scale turbines for Organic Rankine Cycle applications. The design concept for such turbines can be quite different from either standard gas or steam turbine designs. The limited enthalpic content of many energy sources enforces the use of organic working media, with unusual properties for the turbine. A versatile cycle design and optimization requires the parameterization of the prime turbine design. In order to address the major challenges involved in this process, the present study discusses the preliminary design of an electricity-producing turbine, in the range of 100 kWel, for a low enthalpy organic Rankine cycle. There are many potential applications of this power generating turbine including geothermal and solar thermal fields or waste heat of PEM type fuel cells. An integrated model of equations has been developed, accordingly. The model aims to assess the performance of an organic cycle for various working fluids, including NH3, R600a and R-134a. The most appropriate working fluid has been chosen, taking into consideration its influence on both cycle efficiency and the specific volume ratio. The influence of this choice is of particular importance at turbine extreme operating conditions, which are strongly related to the turbine size. In order to assess the influence of various design parameters, a turbine design tool has been developed and applied to preliminarily define the blading geometry. Finally, a couple of competitive turbine designs have been developed. In one approach, the turbine speed is restricted to subsonic domain, while in the other approach the turbine speed is transonic, resulting to choked flow at the turbine throat. The two approaches have been evaluated in terms of turbine compactness and machine modularity. Results show that keeping the crucial parameters of the geometrical formation of the blade constant, turbine size could become significantly smaller decreasing up to 90% compared its original value.

Assessment of Tesla Turbine Performance for Small Scale Rankine Combined Heat and Power Systems

2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Van P. Carey
Keyword(s):  
Power Systems ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Rankine Cycle ◽  
Combined Heat And Power ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Manufacturing Cost ◽  
Turbine Design ◽  
The Impact

For solar Rankine cycle combined heat and power systems for residential buildings and other small-scale applications (producing 1–10 kWe), a low manufacturing cost, robust, and durable expander is especially attractive. The Tesla-type turbine design has these desired features. This paper summarizes a theoretical exploration of the performance of a Tesla turbine as the expander in a small-scale Rankine cycle combined heat and power system. A one-dimensional idealized model of momentum transfer in the turbine rotor is presented, which can be used to predict the efficiency of the turbine for typical conditions in these systems. The model adopts a nondimensional formulation that identifies the dimensionless parameters that dictate performance features of the turbine. The model is shown to agree well with experimental performance data obtained in earlier tests of prototype Tesla turbine units. The model is used to explore the performance of this type of turbine for Rankine cycle applications using water as a working fluid. The model indicates that isentropic efficiencies above 0.75 can be achieved if the operating conditions are tailored in an optimal way. The scalability of the turbine design, and the impact of the theoretical model predictions on the development of solar combined heat and power systems are also discussed.

scholarly journals Assessment of a District Trigeneration Biomass Powered Double Organic Rankine Cycle as Primed Mover and Supported Cooling

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 1030
Author(s):  
Muhammad Tauseef Nasir ◽  
Michael Chukwuemeka Ekwonu ◽  
Yoonseong Park ◽  
Javad Abolfazli Esfahani ◽  
Kyung Chun Kim
Keyword(s):  
Organic Rankine Cycle ◽  
Rankine Cycle ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Vapor Compression ◽  
Medium Temperature ◽  
Exergetic Analysis ◽  
The Impact

This study presents a combined cooling, heating, and power system powered by biogas, suitable for small scale communities in remote locations. To run such a system, in order to obtain the daily life essentials of electricity, hot water, and cooling, municipal waste can be considered as an option. Furthermore, the organic Rankine cycle part of the organic Rankine cycle powered vapor compression chiller can be used in times of need for additional electric production. The system comprises a medium temperature organic Rankine cycle utilizing M-xylene as its working fluid, and the cooling was covered by an Isobutane vapor compression cycle powered by an R245fa employing organic Rankine cycle. The system analyzed was designated to provide 250 kW of electricity. The energetic and exergetic analysis was performed, considering several system design parameters. The impact of the design parameters in the prime mover has a much greater effect on the whole system. The system proposed can deliver cooling values at the rate between 9.19 and 22 kW and heating values ranging from 879 up to 1255 kW, depending on the design parameter. Furthermore, the second law efficiency of the system was found to be approximately 56% at the baseline conditions and can be increased to 64.5%.

Investigating the Effect of Changing the Working Fluid on the Three-Dimensional Flow Within Organic Rankine Cycle Turbines

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. White ◽  
A. I. Sayma
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Organic Rankine Cycle ◽  
Rankine Cycle ◽  
High Volume ◽  
Detailed Comparison ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Working Fluids ◽  
Turbine Design ◽  
Similitude Theory

For small and micro scale (< 50 kWe) organic Rankine cycle (ORC) systems to be commercially viable, systems are required that can operate efficiently over a range of operating conditions. This will lead to the high volume, low cost production that is critical to improve the current economy of scale, and reduce system costs. This requirement will inevitably mean utilising the same system within a range of different applications and may also require the same turbine to operate in different systems where the working fluid may change. Under these circumstances it is therefore important to develop suitable models that can determine the off design performance of these turbines. This will help to understand how the performance of existing ORC turbines responds to such changes. This topic is also of interest when considering retrofitting existing systems with more modern working fluids, which meet current environmental regulations. Recent work by the authors has developed a turbine design model and produced a candidate radial turbine design. Furthermore a modified similitude theory has been developed and validated, which can be used to predict turbine performance following a change in working fluid. This paper extends this analysis to a wider array of working fluids, and in addition to comparing the important performance parameters such as mass flow rate and turbine efficiency, a detailed comparison of the resulting flow field, blade loading distributions and velocity triangles is also presented. Predictions made using the modified similitude theory are compared to steady and unsteady 3D RANS CFD simulations completed using the commercial solver ANSYS CFX. Real fluid properties are accounted for by generating property tables using REFPROP. By comparing these important flow features the validity of the modified similitude model can be examined to a much greater extent.

scholarly journals Experimental Investigation of a 560 Watt Organic Rankine Cycle System using R134a as Working Fluid and Plat Solar Collector as Heat Source

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 169-172
Author(s):  
Awaludin Martin ◽  
Muhammad Nur
Keyword(s):  
Energy Source ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Heat Source ◽  
Organic Rankine Cycle ◽  
Rankine Cycle ◽  
Maximum Efficiency ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Cycle System

New and renewable energy sources such as solar, geothermal, and waste heat  are energy sources that can be used as a source of energy for Organic Rankine cycle system because the organic Rankine cycle (ORC) requires heat at low temperatures to be used as energy source. The experimental of Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) systems with solar energy as a heat source was conduct to investigate a small-scale ORC system with R134a as a working fluid by varying the heat source at temperature 75⁰C-95⁰C. The experiment resulted a maximum efficiency, power of system is 4.30%, and 185.9 Watt, where the temperature of heat source is 95⁰C, the pressure and temperature of steam inlet turbine is 1.38 MPa and 67.9oC respectively. Solar energy as the main energy source in the ORC system can reduce energy use up to 49.9% or 4080.8 kJ where the temperature of the water as the heat source in the evaporator is 51°C.

Toward the Integrated Design of Organic Rankine Cycle Power Plants: A Method for the Simultaneous Optimization of Working Fluid, Thermodynamic Cycle, and Turbine

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Lampe ◽  
Carlo De Servi ◽  
Johannes Schilling ◽  
André Bardow ◽  
Piero Colonna
Keyword(s):  
Integrated Design ◽  
Organic Rankine Cycle ◽  
Design Procedure ◽  
Thermodynamic Cycle ◽  
Rankine Cycle ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Iterative Design ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract The conventional design of organic Rankine cycle (ORC) power systems starts with the selection of the working fluid and the subsequent optimization of the corresponding thermodynamic cycle. More recently, systematic methods have been proposed integrating the selection of the working fluid into the optimization of the thermodynamic cycle. However, in both cases, the turbine is designed subsequently. This procedure can lead to a suboptimal design, especially in the case of mini- and small-scale ORC systems, since the preselected combination of working fluid and operating conditions may lead to infeasible turbine designs. The resulting iterative design procedure may end in conservative solutions after multiple trial-and-error attempts due to the strong interdependence of the many design variables and constraints involved. In this work, we therefore present a new design and optimization method integrating working fluid selection, thermodynamic cycle design, and preliminary turbine design. To this purpose, our recent 1-stage continuous-molecular targeting (CoMT)-computer-aided molecular design (CAMD) method for the integrated design of the ORC process and working fluid is expanded by a turbine meanline design procedure. Thereby, the search space of the optimization is bounded to regions where the design of the turbine is feasible. The resulting method has been tested for the design of a small-scale high-temperature ORC unit adopting a radial-inflow turbo-expander. The results confirm the potential of the proposed method over the conventional iterative design practice for the design of small-scale ORC turbogenerators.

scholarly journals Design and CFD Analysis of a Radial-Inflow Turbine for Small Scale ORC Applications

2020 ◽  
Vol 197 ◽  
pp. 11005
Author(s):  
Alessandro Cappiello ◽  
Raffaele Tuccillo
Keyword(s):  
Waste Heat ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Organic Rankine Cycle ◽  
Industrial Process ◽  
Rankine Cycle ◽  
Energy Conversion Efficiency ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Line Design

In recent years, Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology has received growing interests, thanks to its high flexibility and to the capability to exploit energy sources at temperature levels difficult to be approached with conventional power cycles. These features allow exploiting renewable and renewable-equivalent energy sources, by either improving the energy conversion efficiency of existing plants or using waste heat from industrial process. As far as the expander is concerned, a high potential solution is represented by turbo-expanders, which allow reduction of plant clutter and complexity, so enhancing the potential impact on the diffusion of small power ORC-based plants. The present work concerns the design of a RadialInflow Turbine for a bottoming Organic Rankine Cycle in the tens of kW scale. Design boundary conditions are retrieved by a zero-dimensional model of a solar-assisted micro gas turbine in cogenerating mode. The design process is started by means of an in-house mean-line design code accounting for real gas properties. The code is used to carry out parametric analyses to investigate the design space for several working fluids encompassing different classes, namely refrigerants and siloxanes. The program is used to assess the effect of design variables and working fluid on the turbine performance and turbine design characteristics. Subsequently, the most promising design candidates are selected and three-dimensional first guess stator and rotor geometries are built on these preliminary designs. Stationary and rotating passages are then meshed and analyzed by means of RANS CFD based solution of the stator – rotor interaction.

scholarly journals A Quasi-dimensional Numerical Investigation of the Scroll Expander of an Organic Rankine Cycle Unit

2020 ◽  
Vol 197 ◽  
pp. 11001
Author(s):  
Antonio Cantiani ◽  
Annarita Viggiano ◽  
Emanuele Fanelli ◽  
Vinicio Magi
Keyword(s):  
Strong Dependence ◽  
Organic Rankine Cycle ◽  
Rankine Cycle ◽  
Low Noise ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Geometrical Parameters ◽  
Specific Work ◽  
Scroll Expander

Scroll compressors are often used in air conditioning and refrigeration systems thanks to their high efficiency, low noise and vibrations, light weight and high reliability. Scrolls are also widely used as positive displacement expanders in small-scale power generation systems, such as Organic Rankine Cycles (ORCs). In recent years, the research has focused on the development of mathematical models that help to predict the scroll expander performances under different operating conditions. In this work, a quasi-dimensional model of a scroll expander of an Organic Rankine Cycle unit is presented. Such an expander consists of two identical circle involute spirals, with appropriate starting segments. Specifically, the model is able to design the scroll expander geometry with either a “circular cutter” or a “perfect mesh profile” (PMP) approach, which are two of the most common scroll geometry starting segments. As regards the thermo-fluid dynamic aspects, specific sub-models have been used to account for radial and axial leakage, wall heat transfer, intake and exhaust of the working fluid. The model has been validated with available experimental data in order to assess its accuracy and, at the same time, to calibrate the implemented sub-models. The influence of some geometrical parameters on the expander performances has been assessed. In particular, a study of the influence of the wrap geometry is presented. The results show that the circular cutter approach returns better performances at the expenses of a higher mass consumption. Nevertheless, the circular cutter modification returns a higher specific work. Lastly, the influence of one of the PMP parameters on performances has been assessed. The results show a fairly strong dependence of both mechanical power and specific work, suggesting that the global optimization of all geometric parameters of the scroll expander may radically improve its performances.

Assessment of Tesla Turbine Performance for Small Scale Solar Rankine Combined Heat and Power Systems

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Van P. Carey
Keyword(s):  
Power Systems ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Rankine Cycle ◽  
Combined Heat And Power ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Manufacturing Cost ◽  
Turbine Design ◽  
The Impact

For solar Rankine cycle combined heat and power systems for residential buildings and other small-scale applications (producing 1–10 kWe), a low manufacturing cost, robust and durable expander is especially attractive. The Tesla turbine design has these desired features. This paper summarizes a theoretical exploration of the performance of a Tesla Turbine as the expander in a small-scale Rankine cycle combine heat and power system. A one-dimensional idealized model of momentum transfer in the turbine rotor is presented which can be used to predict the efficiency of the turbine for typical conditions in these systems. The model adopts a non-dimensional formulation that identifies the dimensionless parameters that dictate performance features of the turbine. The model is shown to agree well with experimental performance data obtained in earlier tests of prototype Tesla turbine units. The model is used to explore the performance of this type of turbine for Rankine cycle applications using water as a working fluid. The model indicates that isentropic efficiencies above 0.70 can be achieved if the operating conditions are tailored in an optimal way. The scalability of the turbine design, and the impact of the theoretical model predictions on development of solar combined heat and power systems are also discussed.

Development and Characterization of Small-Scale ORC System Using Scroll Expander

2013 ◽  
Vol 291-294 ◽  
pp. 1627-1630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eunkoo Yun ◽  
Hyun Dong Kim ◽  
Sang Youl Yoon ◽  
Kyung Chun Kim
Keyword(s):  
High Speed ◽  
Organic Rankine Cycle ◽  
Synchronous Generator ◽  
Rankine Cycle ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Operating Characteristics ◽  
Scroll Expander

In order to determine the operating characteristics of a small-scale ORC (organic Rankine cycle) system for various low temperature heat sources, experiments were carried out. A small-scale ORC power generation system adopting R-245fa as a working fluid was designed and manufactured. Hot water was used for the heat source and the temperature was controlled by the 110 kW electric resistance heaters which provided up to 150 °C. Cooling temperature was controlled by a circulating water chiller to simulate various heat sink environments. An open-drive oil-free scroll expander directly connected to a high-speed synchronous generator was installed in the ORC unit. The efficiencies of the cycle and the expander, electric power of the developed ORC system with respect to the operating conditions were investigated by experiments. The factors which influence the performance of the oil-free scroll expander were analyzed and discussed.

scholarly journals Component-Oriented Modeling of a Micro-Scale Organic Rankine Cycle System for Waste Heat Recovery Applications

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1984
Author(s):  
Ramin Moradi ◽  
Emanuele Habib ◽  
Enrico Bocci ◽  
Luca Cioccolanti
Keyword(s):  
Electric Power ◽  
Heat Recovery ◽  
Waste Heat Recovery ◽  
Waste Heat ◽  
Organic Rankine Cycle ◽  
Rankine Cycle ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Pump Efficiency ◽  
Micro Scale

Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) systems are some of the most suitable technologies to produce electricity from low-temperature waste heat. In this study, a non-regenerative, micro-scale ORC system was tested in off-design conditions using R134a as the working fluid. The experimental data were then used to tune the semi-empirical models of the main components of the system. Eventually, the models were used in a component-oriented system solver to map the system electric performance at varying operating conditions. The analysis highlighted the non-negligible impact of the plunger pump on the system performance Indeed, the experimental results showed that the low pump efficiency in the investigated operating range can lead to negative net electric power in some working conditions. For most data points, the expander and the pump isentropic efficiencies are found in the approximate ranges of 35% to 55% and 17% to 34%, respectively. Furthermore, the maximum net electric power was about 200 W with a net electric efficiency of about 1.2%, thus also stressing the importance of a proper selection of the pump for waste heat recovery applications.

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