The organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is commonly accepted as a viable technology to convert low temperature heat into electricity. Furthermore, ORCs are designed for unmanned operation with little maintenance. Because of these excellent characteristics, several ORC waste heat recovery plants are already in operation. Although the basic ORC is gradually adopted into industry, the need of increased cost-effectiveness persists. Therefore, a next logical step is the development of new ORC architectures. Even though there has been a strong renaissance towards ORC research in the last decade, ORC architectures have received relatively little attention. Several barriers can be listed. First, there is the difficulty in assessing the additional complexity of the system. While several advanced cycle designs appear promising from a thermodynamic viewpoint, it is not clear that these represent viable economic solutions. Secondly, there is a lack of experimental data from open literature. Additionally, there is the challenge of coping with various boundary conditions from literature, which makes an objective comparison difficult. In this article an overview is presented of ORC architectures. The performance evaluation criteria and boundary conditions are clearly stated. As well, an overview of the available experimental data is given.

Review of organic Rankine cycle (ORC) architectures for waste heat recovery

Industrial waste heat: Estimation of the technically available resource in the EU per industrial sector, temperature level and country

Binary ORC (Organic Rankine Cycles) power plants for the exploitation of medium–low temperature geothermal sources – Part B: Techno-economic optimization

Abstract This study reviews the current state of the art and the current research activities of high temperature heat pumps (HTHPs) with heat sink temperatures in the range of 90 to 160 °C. The focus is on the analysis of the heat pump cycles and the suitable refrigerants. More than 20 HTHPs from 13 manufacturers have been identified on the market that are able to provide heat sink temperatures of at least 90 °C. Large application potentials have been recognized particularly in the food, paper, metal and chemical industries. The heating capacities range from about 20 kW to 20 MW. Most cycles are single-stage and differ primarily in the refrigerant (e.g. R245fa, R717, R744, R134a or R1234ze(E)) and compressor type used. The COPs range from 2.4 to 5.8 at a temperature lift of 95 to 40 K. Several research projects push the limits of the achievable COPs and heat sink temperatures to higher levels. COPs of about 5.7 to 6.5 (at 30 K lift) and 2.2 and 2.8 (70 K) are achieved at a sink temperature of 120 °C. The refrigerants investigated are mainly R1336mzz(Z), R718, R245fa, R1234ze(Z), R600, and R601. R1336mzz(Z) enables to achieve exceptionally high heat sink temperatures of up to 160 °C.

High Temperature Heat Pumps: Market Overview, Stateof the Art, Research Status, Refrigerants, and Application Potentials

http://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/21899/2/FreemanHellgardtMarkides_APEN2015.pdf

An assessment of solar-powered organic Rankine cycle systems for combined heating and power in UK domestic applications

Part load based thermo-economic optimization of the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) applied to a combined heat and power (CHP) system

Exergy analysis of zeotropic mixtures as working fluids in organic rankine cycles

The growth of renewable energy requires flexible, low-cost and efficient electrical storage to balance the mismatch between energy supply and demand. The Carnot battery buffers electrical energy by storing thermal energy (charging cycle mode) from a resistive heater or a heat pump system when the electricity production is higher than the demand. When electricity demand is higher than the production, the Carnot battery generates power from the stored thermal energy (power cycle mode). This paper is a review of this emerging and innovative technology, including a market analysis. First, the different possible technologies and configurations of Carnot batteries are described. This includes charging cycles, power cycles and thermal energy storage systems. Furthermore, a state-of-the-art of the existing prototypes in the world is given. The performance indicators for this technology are unclear, and this paper tries to define objective performance indicators. Finally, all the described technologies are compared, and conclusions are drawn to help engineers select the optimal technology for a given case.

Steven Lecompte

Papers

Review of organic Rankine cycle (ORC) architectures for waste heat recovery

Part load based thermo-economic optimization of the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) applied to a combined heat and power (CHP) system

Exergy analysis of zeotropic mixtures as working fluids in organic rankine cycles

Carnot battery technology: A state-of-the-art review

Characterizing the performance of a single-screw expander in a small-scale organic Rankine cycle for waste heat recovery