SMALL SCALE ORC DESIGN FOR A COGENERATION SOLAR BIOMASS SUPORTED APPLICATION

asme-orc2015 Tracking Number 93

Due to environmental constrains, Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems and bottoming power cycles for waste heat recovery have received considerable attention over the past decades. Among the several proposed power cycles, the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) has been attracting increasing attention. ORCs have been proved as a feasible technology for low temperature (< 250 ºC) and small scale (< 1 MWe) applications, as converting renewable energy into heat and power [1]. The aim of this work is to present the design process of a small scale ORC, suitable for a Combined Cold, Heat and Power (CCHP) application that use solar biomass supported renewable energy as heat source [2]. The ORC module has to be designed in order to work in cogeneration mode and power only generation mode. The first part of the paper deals with the preliminary design of the ORC module, including working fluid and configuration selection, from the technical requirements of the equipment imposed by the application. The operating conditions have been selected in order to maximize the efficiency of the system. In the second part of the paper, an expander has been proposed and characterized. The experimental results from the expander have been used in order to predict the expected behaviour of the ORC module. The performance of the cogeneration system, producing hot water at 70ºC, is summarized.