Organic rankine cycle part-load characterization : validated models of an 11 kwe waste heat recovery organic rankine cycle

Abstract

The organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is a mature technology for converting low temperature heat to electricity. However before large scale adoption in waste heat recovery applications is attained companies need to be convinced of the benefits. Considering the appraisal of an ORC project is mainly motivated by the financial gain, an accurate prediction of the power output is essential. Yet, when considering waste heat valorisation, the majority of applications have time varying waste heat streams. As such detailed models are necessary to account for part-load operation. This work aims to develop robust and computationally effective part-load models for ORCs. Important is that these models are thoroughly validated based on experimental results from a scaled down 11 kWe waste heat recovery ORC. Special attention has been paid in detecting stable experimental steady state data points for validation. The validated model presented is able to accurately predict the net power output within ±2%.