Combined ORC+VAM
Combined ORC+VAM
1
UNIVERSITY „POLITEHNICA“ OF BUCHAREST,
2
UNIVERSITY OF PARIS WEST, LEME, FRANCE
Abstract. In this paper, exergy analysis is used to assess the exergetic performance of a solar powered Organic
Rankine Cycle (ORC) and a LiBr Absorption Refrigeration System. The exergy efficiency and the exergy
destruction rates are calculated for the whole combined system. The goal of this research is to highlight that this
kind of systems is able to satisfy air-cooling and electrical power need for an existing building. Thus,
cogeneration system using solar energy for combined cooling and electrical power in buildings is studied. The
simulations for the ORC are performed for different working fluids and show that using R245fa as working fluid
in the low-temperature solar Rankine cycle is suitable. For the LiBr absorption refrigeration system the
coefficient of performance is calculated, as well as the influence of the inlet temperature in the Generator.
Keywords: Organic Rankine Cycle, Absoption Refrigeration System, solar system, combined cycles, exergy
analysis.
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Andreea MARIN, Adrian UNTEA , Lavinia GROSU, Alexandru DOBROVICESCU, Diogo QUEIROS-CONDE
– it has a large latent heat of vaporization; The working fluid from ORC is pumped to a
– the agent is non-toxic, non-flammable and non- high pressure by the feed pump through the heat
explosive, so the installation does not require exchanger. The superheated vapour obtained at the
special supervision; outlet of the heat exchanger sets in motion the
– system pressure is reduced, leading to a lower ORC turbine then the mechanical work is
metal consumption, so the unit is compact converted on electricity. The exhausted vapour
This reasons presented above makes LiBr/H2O from the turbine is directed to the condenser where
solution more suitable for domestic cooling. is cooled by cooling water. A part of the heat
In this paper, the effect of varying the tempe- received on the solar collector is used on the
rature of the generator over the system and over the generator of the absorption cooling system and
components is studied. Also the computer simulation heats the solution LiBr/H2O.
performed in EES showed in which components
occur the highest exergy losses, with important 3. MATHEMATICAL METHOD
influence over the performance of the whole system.
3.1. Organic Rankine Cycle
The simulation was run for different values of
the generator temperatures, with a variation in the 3.1.1. Energy analysis of the Organic
interval 70 – 100ºC, considering an increase step of Rankine Cycle
5ºC. The energy and exergy analysis were performed
taking into account the parameters from the table
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE SYSTEM 1. Three principal assumptions are considered: the
The system is composed by three sub-systems: system reaches a steady state, and pipe pressure
solar collector, Organic Rankine Cycle system and drop and heat losses to the environment in
Absorption Cooling System. components of the ORC are neglected.
82 TERMOTEHNICA 1/2013
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A COMBINED ORGANIC RANKINE CYCLE
Table 2 Irreversibility:
Installation performances for tH = 140 °C IT _ ORC CbT _ ORC PT _ ORC (14)
tH p1ORC m
ORC WORC Q HE _ ORC ORC PT _ ORC
exT _ ORC (15)
[°C] [bar] [kg/s] [kW] [kW] [%] CbT _ ORC
140 19.2015 0.103 2.78 23.779 11.69 I T _ ORC
IrT _ ORC 100 (16)
3.1.2. Exergy analysis of the Organic E x TmH
QHE _ ORC
Rankine Cycle
Pump:
Method using exergy analysis is employed to
evaluate the performance of the system as Fuel : CbP _ ORC W P _ ORC (17)
irreversibility is occuring in every component of
the ORC system. Exergy is the maximum amount Product: PT _ ORC m ORC (ex4 ORC ex3ORC ) (18)
of work that can be done by a subsystem as it Irreversibility:
approaches thermodynamic equilibrium with its
surrounding by a sequence of revesible processes. I P _ ORC CbP _ ORC PP _ ORC (19)
The exergy of a subsystem is a measure of its
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Andreea MARIN, Adrian UNTEA , Lavinia GROSU, Alexandru DOBROVICESCU, Diogo QUEIROS-CONDE
PP _ ORC Table 3
exP _ ORC (20) Input parameters for ACS
Cb P _ ORC
I P _ ORC Q Ev _ ACS [kW] 45.6
IrP _ ORC 100 (21)
E x TmH
QHE _ ORC
tEviACS [°C] 12
tEveACS [°C] 7
Condenser: tAbiACS=tCdiACS[°C] 25
tAbeACS=tCdeACS[°C] 29
Fuel :
CbCd _ ORC m ORC (ex2ORC ex3ORC ) (22) The temperatures of the working fluid in the
T key heat exchangers of the absorption refrigeration
Product: PCd _ ORC Q Cd _ ORC 1 0 (23) system are calculated such that:
Tmw
Irreversibility: t EvACS t EviACS t EvACS 4 C (30)
I Cd _ ORC CbCd _ ORC PCd _ ORC (24) tCdACS tCdeACS tCdACS 33 C (31)
PCd _ ORC t AbACS t CdACS 33 C (32)
exCd _ ORC (25)
CbCd _ ORC tGACS tGiACS tGACS tGiACS 8 C
(33)
I Cd _ ORC The parameter tGi was varying during the simu-
IrCd _ ORC 100 (26)
E x TmH
QHE _ ORC
lation in the range 70-100°C.
The saturation pressures corresponding to the
T
T
with E xQmH Q HE _ ORC (1 0 ) (27) temperatures TEv and TCd, are pEvACS
HE _ ORC
TmH
0.00813 bar and pCdACS 0.05033 bar .
The exergy efficency of ORC system is calcu-
lated using the equation here below: In order to simulate the absorption chiller, the
mathematical model of the machine was built of a
W T _ ORC W P _ ORC set of energy and mass balance equations with EES
exORC (28)
E x QTmH (Engineering Equation Solver). The equations that
HE _ ORC
describe the heat capacities, the mass and energy
3.2. Absorption Cooling System balance for the various components of the
absorption system are presented below [19]:
3.2.1. Energy analysis of the Absorption
Cooling System Evaporator:
In the past recent years, several experimental qEv _ ACS h6 ACS h5 ACS (34)
studies and simulations have been done in order to
establish the performance of solar absorption cooling Q Ev _ ACS
m ef _ ACS (35)
systems. Different scientist people studied the q Ev _ ACS
absorption system and components performance with
the variation of different parameters: Kilic and Condenser:
Kaynakli, Kaushik and Arora and González-Gil et al.
[7, 8, 9]. qCd _ ACS h2 ACS h4 ACS (36)
The simulation in EES (Engineering Equation Q Cd _ ACS m ef _ ACS qCd _ ACS (37)
Solver) starts from the parameters presented in
Table 2. Generator:
Considering the input parameters, a first set of
data is necessary to develop the simulation of the Q G _ ACS m
ef _ ACS(h2ACS h3ACS)
absorption chiller, and to calculate. (38)
m
p _ ACS(h3ACS h1aACS)
The mass flow rate of the chilled water in the
evaporator is: Q G _ ACS
q G _ ACS (39)
Q Ev _ ACS m r _ ACS
m wACS 2.175 kg/s (29)
c p (t EviACS t EveACS ) m r _ ACS m p _ ACS m ef _ ACS (40)
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PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A COMBINED ORGANIC RANKINE CYCLE
Absorber: T
E xQG _ ACS Q G _ ACS 1 0 (49)
q Ab _ ACS (h6 ACS h3aACS ) TmG
(41)
f (h3aACS h1ACS ) tGiACS tGeACS
with TmG (50)
Q Ab _ ACS m p _ ACS q Ab _ ACS (42) T
ln GiACS
The solution flow ratio, ( f ) can be defined as TGeACS
the ratio of the mass flow rate of the solution PG _ ACS
through the pump to the mass flow rate of the exG _ ACS (51)
working fluid. The flow ratio should be noted as it CbG _ ACS
represents the required pumping energy. [10] I G _ ACS CbG _ ACS PG _ ACS (52)
Coefficient of performance (COP) represents
I G _ ACS
the measure of performance of a cooling machine IrG _ ACS 100 (53)
and it is defined as:
E x QG _ ACS
Q Ev _ ACS
COPACS (43) We introduced the Ir parameter to indicate the
Q G _ ACS W
P _ ACS irreversibility of each component, relative to the
starting potential, meaning the exergy of the heat
3.2.2. Exergy analysis of the Absorption provided by solar panels to the generator.
Cooling System
E xQTev
The exergy analysis was performed over the exACS EvACS
(54)
absorption cooling system to point out the exergy E xQTmG W P _ ACS
G _ ACS
TERMOTEHNICA 1/2013 85
Andreea MARIN, Adrian UNTEA , Lavinia GROSU, Alexandru DOBROVICESCU, Diogo QUEIROS-CONDE
Table 4
The calculation of the exergy destructions for each component
tH tGACS IAbACS ICdACS IGACS IScACS IEvACS ICd_ORC IT_ORC IHE_ORC
[°C] [°C] [kW] [kW] [kW] [kW] [kW] [kW] [kW] [kW]
110 70 2.9 1.34 1.54 1.08 0.95 1.076 0.316 0.46
115 75 2.63 1.35 1.55 0.59 0.95 1.079 0.373 0.5418
120 80 2.83 1.36 1.8 0.45 0.95 1.077 0.353 0.629
125 85 3.1 1.38 2.11 0.38 0.95 1.082 0.412 0.725
130 90 3.4 1.39 2.45 0.35 0.95 1.079 0.396 0.829
135 95 3.71 1.4 2.78 0.33 0.95 1.087 0.456 0.932
140 100 4.04 1.42 3.12 0.31 0.95 1.09 0.462 1.032
Table 5
Irreversibility relative versus the variation of the high temperature for every component
tH tGACS IrAbACS IrCdACS IrGACS IrScACS IrEvACS IrCd_ORC IrT_ORC IrHE_ORC
[°C] [°C] [-] [-] [-] [-] [-] [-] [-] [-]
110 70 28.60 13.23 15.18 10.70 9.40 25.64 7.53 10.96
115 75 27.35 14.09 16.12 6.11 9.92 24.16 8.35 12.13
120 80 28.38 13.67 18.07 4.50 9.54 22.77 7.46 13.30
125 85 29.44 13.06 20.06 3.65 9.04 21.70 8.26 14.54
130 90 30.43 12.45 21.91 3.12 8.53 20.59 7.56 15.83
135 95 31.42 11.89 23.59 2.76 8.07 19.81 8.31 16.99
140 100 32.53 11.4 25.09 2.53 7.66 19.02 8.06 18
Table 6
Exergy efficiency for each component
tH P1ORC ηexAbACS ηexCdACS ηexGACS ηexScACS ηexEvACS ηexCdORC ηexTORC ηexHEORC
[°C] [bar] [-] [-] [-] [-] [-] [-] [-] [-]
110 10.044 0.830 0.255 0.940 0.573 0.722 0.247 0.866 0.89
115 11.274 0.714 0.254 0.909 0.589 0.722 0.246 0.854 0.878
120 12.614 0.609 0.252 0.880 0.600 0.722 0.245 0.871 0.866
125 14.069 0.523 0.250 0.855 0.607 0.722 0.244 0.858 0.854
130 15.648 0.452 0.248 0.831 0.611 0.722 0.243 0.871 0.842
135 17.357 0.394 0.246 0.811 0.613 0.722 0.241 0.858 0.83
140 19.2015 0.346 0.244 0.793 0.613 0.722 0.24 0.863 0.819
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Andreea MARIN, Adrian UNTEA , Lavinia GROSU, Alexandru DOBROVICESCU, Diogo QUEIROS-CONDE
The increase of tGACS has as result the decrease efficiency is decreasing because the Product of this
of the exergy efficiency of the Absorption Cooling component is constant as its Fuel has a small
System (ηex_ACS) because of the increasing of the increasing (figures 2 and 5). Or, it is interesting to
exergy destruction rate in every component. remark that, as it is shown on figure 3, reduced
Considering a constant cooling power, the value of irreversibility on condenser IrCd_ORC is decreasing
the COPACS is increasing with the increasing of the even if the exergy efficiency and local irreversibility
generator temperature until an optimal value around are increasing. This means that the increasing of
0.78. Further increasing the temperature over 88°C, the exergy flow rate on the ORC heat exchanger is
the COPACS does not increase, but the irreversibility more important than the increasing of irreversibility
in each component as the heat losses is increasing. in condenser and finally it is interesting to increase
The difference between the generator temperature the high temperature of the system from this point
and the inlet temperature of the solution LiBr from of view.
the vapour generator is increasing and implies an Variation on heat exchanger irreversibility is
increase in the irreversibility for ACS sub-system significant; the exergy efficiency is decreasing having
(Table 4). as consequence a growth of relative irreversibility
Reduced irreversibility, Ir, was introduced on in a range 10 and 18% (figures 3 and 4). Figure 6
table 5, parameter that indicates the irreversibility indicates that ηexGlobal has an optimal value for tH
of each component of the system, relative to the value between 115 and 120°C
starting potential exergy at the beginning of the
process, that means the exergy of the heat provided 5. CONCLUSION
by the generator of the Absorption Cooling System A low-temperature solar Organic Rankine
and by the heat exchanger of the ORC). Cycle using R245fa as working fluid coupled with
The energy and exergy losses in the ORC pump a LiBr/H2O absorption refrigeration system is
are insignificant compared to those on the other studied. In this paper the exergy analysis was
components from ORC system. Only the components applied by using the first and the second law of
with high exergy destruction rates are presented in thermodynamics in order to indicate an optimum
table 4, 5 and 6. design and operation of this installation.
Table 6 shows that the exergy efficiency for The ORC efficiency could be improved by
every component is decreasing with the increasing increasing the maximum temperature in the cycle, but
of the temperature because of the increasing of the in the same time it is shown that irreversibilities
irreversibilities. The exergy efficiency of the ORC occurring in each component are increasing.
turbine seems to be constant, about 86 %. For improving the performances of the ORC
The increasing irreversibility in the condenser system, it is necessary to recover the condensation
does not an important impact therefore the exergy heat in the system because the most destruction
88 TERMOTEHNICA 1/2013
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A COMBINED ORGANIC RANKINE CYCLE
rates are occurring in the condenser, table 4. It can Cdi cooling water inlet to condenser
be improved the Organic Rankine Cycle. Ev evaporator
The global exergy efficiency decrease is due Eve evaporator exit of the cooled water
also to the increase of the irreversibilites at higher Evi evaporator inlet of the cooled water
temperatures of the generator (Absorption Cooling Eg cooled water
System). Irreversibilites of absorber, generator and ef water as refrigerant
the ORC condenser represent a large share of total ex exergy
exergy loss. G Generator
The simulation model of this installation shows Ge water inlet for solar collector
that performance of an ORC system using R245fa Gi water exit from solar collector
as working fluid is correct and can be improved by H high temperature/pressure
introducing internal heat exchangers and by a HE heat exchanger
better heat transfer between hot and cold fluids of m log mean temperature
the system, which is the aim of a further work ORC Organic Rankine Cycle
using the pinch analysis. P weak solution in refrigerant
P pump
Nomenclature R strong solution in refrigerant
A heat exchanger area,[ m2] sol solar fluid
a1, a2 thermal loss coefficient,[W/m2K] t turbine
COP coefficient of performance, [ - ] T.V. throttling valve
Cb fuel (resource), [kW] w water
cp specific heat at constant pressure, [J kg-1K-1] 0 environmental state
ex specific exergy, [kJkg-1] 1-6 state points
E x exergy flow rate, [kW] TOT total
f solution flow ratio, [-]
h specific enthalpy, [kJkg-1]
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I exergy destruction, [kW]
Ir reduced exergy destruction, [-] The work has been funded by the Sectoral
L heat exchanger length Operational Programme Human Resources
m mass flow rate, [kg s-1] Development 2007-2013 of the Romanian Ministry
p pressure, [bar] of Labour, Family and Social Protection through the
P product, [kW] Financial Agreement POSDRU/107/1.5/S/76903.
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