Performance Evaluation of the Supercritical

Organic Rankine Cycle (SORC) Integrated with

Large Scale Solar Parabolic Trough Collector
(SPTC) System: An Exergy Energy Analysis
Harwinder Singh and R.S. Mishra
Department of Mechanical, Production and Industrial, Automobile engineering, Delhi Technological University, Bwana Road,
New Delhi, 110042, India; [email protected] (for correspondence)
Published online 00 Month 2017 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ep.12735

In this article, exergy and energy analysis of supercritical parabolic trough collector (SPTC) is the most prominent and
organic Rankine cycle integrated with solar parabolic trough promising way to meet the electricity demand because of its
collector (SPTC) is presented. Proposed working fluids are high commercial performance and reliability characteristics.
R600a, Toluene, R152a, isobutene, and cyclohexane for the In this study, SPTC system is used because it is highly effi-
supercritical ORC. Performance parameters including exergy cient and acceptable according to the Indian sunny climate,
efficiency, rate of exergy destruction, improvement potential, i.e., available solar energy potential in the country is 20 MW/
fuel depletion ratio, irreversibility ratio and expansion ratio km2 and the incoming solar intensity is 6 kwh/m2/day [1]. In
were also examined in this study. The results of the study addition, SPTC based electricity generation systems are well
demonstrate that exergy efficiency increases continuously as established and commercialized all over the earth in the past
both the solar irradiation intensity and inlet pressure of tur- twenty years [2]. Gao et al. [3] analyzed the performance of
bine increases, and R600a gives the maximum exergy effi- solar based organic Rankine cycle through the various work-
ciency among the others, i.e. around 96.09% at GB 5 0.95 ing conditions like inlet pressure and temperature of the tur-
kW/m2 and 94.37% at 17 MPa. In addition, the exergy bine. They concluded that with an increase in the inlet
destruction rate decreases continuously with the increase in temperature, the efficiency also increases and at above the
solar irradiation intensity as well as inlet pressure of the tur- critical temperature, thermal efficiency increases with the
bine, and it has been observed that the maximum exergy increase in inlet pressure. Finally, their findings demonstrate
destruction rate occurs in the solar collector, which is around that MM (hexamethyldisiloxane, C6H18OSi2) working fluid
80% of the total exergy destruction rate of combined SPTC- can retain its thermal stability at 3008C and on the basis of
SORC. Nonetheless, R600a has the minimum value of the thermal efficiency; MM working fluid is the optimal choice
exergy destruction rate, i.e., 1527 kW at GB 5 0.5 kW/m2. among the other working fluids. Bamgbopa and Uzgoren [4]
Alternatively, cyclohexane shows a maximum exergy destruc- developed a transient model for a simple ORC using R245fa
tion rate, which is around 3794 kW at GB 5 0.5 kW/m2. as the working fluid, and they analyze that the critical part of
Also, SORC turbine and recuperator have a countable value the model is a heat exchanger. In another study, Mazurek
of the exergy destruction rate. Finally, this study revealed et al. [5] analyzed the performance of R245fa based ORC
that exergetic parameters like improvement potential, fuel powered by solar energy, and they concluded that the maxi-
depletion ratio and irreversibility ratio are found to be
mum thermodynamic efficiency comes out to be 97% with
11,859 kW, 0.579, and 0.9296 for the parabolic trough col-
heat regenerator. Conversely, Gang Pei et al. [6] examined
lector in the combined R600a based SPTC-SORC system. V C
the performance of ORC incorporated with solar thermal
2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 00:
device, and they found that the overall electrical efficiency is
000–000, 2017
around 8.6% with solar irradiation of 750 W/m2.
Keywords: supercritical ORC, SPTC, exergy efficiency,
Furthermore, some studies in the area of cogeneration or
exergy destruction rate, organic fluids
trigeneration process with the help of solar integrated ORC
also introduced in the recent years. Delgado-Torres et al. [7]
INTRODUCTION
analyzed the performance of ORC connected with SPTC and
Utilization of renewable energy has become pivotal and it an RO unit for the production of both pure water and elec-
enhances significantly day by day. Consequently, the require-
tricity, and this study further extended to examine the effect
ment to improve the performance of renewable energy
of different organic fluids on an aperture area of the collec-
based power plants also increases. In this direction, among
tor. In another study, Al-Sulaiman et al. [8] conducted a ther-
the available other renewable power technologies, the solar
modynamic analysis of the SPTC integrated with ORC, in
which waste heat from the ORC was utilized for the cogene-
C 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers
V ration process. Finally, they found the improvement in

Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.00, No.00) DOI 10.1002/ep Month 2017 1
energy efficiency, i.e., increases from 15% to 94% during tri- After reviewing a lot of literature work related to the field
generation. In addition, Tunc et al. [9] performed an exer- of ORC, it was observed that there is no detailed exergetic
getic analysis of ORC driven by a single flash geothermal analysis has been conducted on the large scale solar para-
power plant. They selected four different working fluids like bolic trough collectors integrated with SORC. Therefore, the
isobutane, HCFC123, R134a, and R12 are used to compare current study is original and the objective of the current
the thermal efficiency of the ORC, and finally they conclude study is to examine the exergetic performance of the SORC
that isobutane gives the maximum thermal efficiency and driven by large-scale solar parabolic trough collectors
electric power, i.e., around 30% and 6626 kWe. (SPTCs) along with the exergetic performance parameters
Other applications of the ORC, Wang and Dai [10] utilized such as exergetic efficiency, rate of exergy destruction,
the waste heat recovered by organic Rankine cycle (ORC) improvement potential, fuel depletion ratio, irreversibility
integrated from recompression supercritical CO2 Brayton ratio as well as expansion ratio. The proposed working fluids
cycle to generate electric power, and they also performed an for the SORC are R600a, Toluene, R152a, isobutene, and
exergy-economic analysis by using R123, R245fa, Toluene, Cyclohexane, respectively.
isobutane, isopentane, and cyclohexane as a working fluid
for the ORC. Finally, they concluded that the total product SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
unit cost of the SCO2/ORC combined cycle is very less. Kalra Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) has an uncomplicated struc-
et al. [11] analyzed that the working fluid in SORC lies under ture with small cost, and also a promising technology for the
and above its critical pressure, and they mentioned that utilization of low-temperature heat sources including geother-
supercritical ORC (SORC) has many advantages over the sub- mal, solar thermal like CSP and waste heat. The benefit of such
critical ORC because in SORC, the cooling curve of heat expertise is that with the critical condition of organic working
source match with a heating curve of the working fluid. Fur- fluid, the system can be easily operated at the lower pressure
thermore, Chen et al. [12] formulated that the heating process and temperature. The supercritical organic Rankine cycle also
of a SORC does not pass through the different two-phase has many advantages like simple configuration, higher effi-
region like in subcritical ORC, which results in a better ther- ciency and excellent thermal match with a heating source, etc.
mal match in the evaporator and less irreversibilities occur in In SORC system, radial inward flow turbine is the prominence
the SORC. In different study, Pan et al. [13] found that super- option and lower flow ratio with large pressure ratio in the tur-
critical ORC (SORC) oftenly selected when critical tempera- bine makes them attractive [21]. The basic concept of the SORC
ture of the working fluid is extremely lower than the heat incorporated with solar parabolic trough collectors as shown
source temperature and Also, they mentioned that both in the Figure 1. Few hundred collector rows with each of ten
supercritical and subcritical ORC are feasible when critical modules are included in the field of solar parabolic trough col-
temperature of the working fluid is slightly lower than the lectors. The geometrical features of the selected solar collector
heat source temperature. Furthermore, Quan et al. [14] per- (LS-3) as described in Table 1. The maximum exit temperature
formed an exergetic performance analysis of the direct vapor of the solar collector is 663 K and the selected working fluid is
generation (DVG) SORC system, which is driven by a linear TherminolVP-1 due to its better thermo-physical properties
Fresnel reflector (LFR) concentrator and finally, their results [22,23]. Selected mass flow rate of the heat transfer fluid is
demonstrate that the integrated SORC and DVG technology 0.575 kg/s and the selected pinch point temperature of the
decreases both the irreversibility at evaporator and heat evaporator is 10 K [24].
losses along with the cost of system, and thus, enhances the
overall efficiency of SORC. Cheng Zhou [15] analyzed that MATHEMATICAL MODELLING FOR THE SYSTEM
the thermodynamic performance of a hybrid plant using a The modelling of the SPTC integrated SORC system pre-
SORC exceeds than the hybrid plant using a subcritical ORC sent in this section. First, the exergy modelling of SPTC and
in term of electricity production. Ya glı et al. [16] compared then the modelling of SORC system presented below. Exergy
the exergetic and thermal performance of a R245fa based analysis of the SPTC system along with important exergetic
subcritical and supercritical ORC for the recovery of exhaust parameter’s equations for exergy balance of component,
waste gas heat of the combined heat and power engine, physical exergy, exergy destruction rate, exergy efficiency,
which is fuelled by biogas. Their results revealed that super- fuel depletion ratio, irreversibility ratio and improvement
critical ORC has the best performance in the terms of exergy potential are derived from the previous research or literature
efficiency, thermal efficiency and net power, which is around [24–27]. For the analysis, exergy inlet is a crucial term and
27.76%, 15.93%, and 81.52 kW as compared to 27.20%, the calculated value for the total exergy inlet from the overall
15.51%, and 79.23 kW for the subcritical ORC. solar collector field is around 20,560 kW. Some assumptions
Additionally, few studies consider the different optimiza- in the study are also made that change in the pressure is
tion methods to enhance the performance of ORC. In this negligible except in the case of pump and turbine.
way, Rashidi et al. [17] performed a parametric study and Rate of useful energy gain by SPTC per unit time is
optimization of the ORC with two feed water heater by using described as below:
artificial neural network (ANN) and artificial bees colony
(ABC). Finally, they optimized the selected objective func- Q_u 5m_ r Cpr ðTro 2Tri Þ (1)
tions such as thermal efficiency, exergy efficiency, and spe-
cific work of R717 based ORC. In a different study, they Where m_ r is the mass flow rate of working fluid in the
optimized the same objective functions for the four different receiver tube, Cp is the specific heat, subscripts ro and ri
working fluids based transcritical power cycle with the help refers to the outlet and inlet of the receiver tube. Further
of ANN and genetic algorithms (GAs), and they found that another relation for useful heat gain is shown as below i.e.,
R125 has the best thermal efficiency and R32 shows the  
greatest net work output among the others [18]. In another Ar
study, they proposed a procedure based on ANN and parti- Q_u 5Aap FR S2 UlðTri 2To Þ (2)
Aap
cle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm for the reduction in
entropy generation value. Also, they utilized the optimal Aap 5ðW 2Dco Þ  L (3)
homotopy analysis method (HAM) and differential transform
method (DTM) to study the laminar viscous flow of a con-
ducting fluid in a semi porous channel [19,20]. S5qr agsKm GB (4)

2 Month 2017 Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.00, No.00) DOI 10.1002/ep
Figure 1. Schematic of the solar parabolic trough collectors integrated with SORC. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonli-
nelibrary.com]

Where Ar 5pDO L, FR is the collector heat removal factor, Ul is  

the overall heat loss coefficient, Aap is the area of aperture, S hrad;amc 5‹c r Tc2 1To2 Tco 1To Þ (11)
is total solar flux absorbed by receiver, To is the ambient  
temperature, W is width of collector, Dco is the outer diame- r Tc 1Tr;avg Tc2 1Tr;avg
2

ter of cover, L is the length of collector, qr is reflectance of hrad;cr 5  (12)

1 Ar 1
the mirrors, a is absorbance of tube, g is intercept factor, s is ‹r 1 Ac ‹c 21
transmittance of glass cover, K m is incident angle modifier,
and GB is the direct solar irradiation intensity. All the neces- Where subscripts “r”, “o”, “avg,” and “c” refers to the receiver,
sary data related to these parameters are listed in Table 1. ambient, average and cover, hcr;i is the heat loss coefficient
Further, heat removal factor and collector efficiency factor between receiver and glass cover, hcon;amc is the convective
are defined as under: heat loss coefficient between ambient and glass cover,
   hrad;amc is the radiation heat loss coefficient and hrad;cr is the
m_ r CPr F pDr;o Ul L radiation heat loss coefficient between receiver and glass
FR 5 12exp 2 (5) cover, Kair is thermal conductivity of air, Nu is nusselt num-
pDr;o LUl m_ r CPr
ber, r is Stefan–Boltzmann constant, ‹c is emittance of the
Uo glass cover, and ‹r is emittance of the receiver. Now, the tem-
F5 (6) perature of the glass cover and total amount of solar flux or
Ul
total heat available for the SORC system can be calculated by
Where Uo is the overall heat loss coefficient between ambi- using the equation as shown below:
ent and the fluid flowing through receiver and Ul is the heat  
loss coefficient of solar collector between ambient and hrad;cr Tr 1 AAcr hcon;amc 1hrad;amc To
receiver tube of the SPTC is defined as under: Tc 5   (13)
hrad;cr 1 AAcr hcon;amc 1hrad;amc
   21
1 Dr;o Dr;o Dr;o Q_ solar 5FR SCos Cop (14)
Uo 5 1 1 ln (7)
Ul hcr;i Dr;i 2Kr Dr;i
 
_
Qu
Nur kr hSPTC 5 (15)
hcr;i 5 (8) GB WL
Dr;i
" #21 Where Cos andCop is the total number of collectors per row
Ar 1 in series as well as in parallel combination, hSPTC is the effi-
U1 5   1 (9)
hcon;amc 1hrad;amc Ac h rad;cr ciency of solar collector, W is the width of mirror, and L is
the length of SPTC mirrors field.
In this article, the performance of SORC integrated with
Nu  Kair SPTC is studied and the configuration of a cycle as shown in
hcon;amc 5 (10)
Dc Figure 1. In the SORC, working fluid at high critical pressure

Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.00, No.00) DOI 10.1002/ep Month 2017 3
 X 
and critical temperature is expanded in the radial inward
To _ X X
flow turbine up to low temperature, and then stream goes to 12 Q R 2w_ c:v: 2 m_ i exi 2 m_ e exe 2Ex_d 50 (16)
the condenser, feed pump and heat exchanger (evaporator) R
TR i e
unit.
The term exergy is defined as the maximum theoretical Where subscripts “O” and “R” refers to the value of physical
useful works that can be obtained from the system as it inter- _ d is the rate
property at surrounding and particular state, Ex
acts to the surrounding. Therefore, the steady state exergy of exergy destruction, “ex” is the exergy per unit mass flow
balance of the control volume of each component in SORC rate, and subscripts “e” and “i” refers to the exit and inlet
is defined as under. state, respectively. Now, physical exergy per unit mass flow
rate (exph) after neglecting the change in both velocity and
datum head is mentioned as below.

exph 5ðh–ho Þ–To ðs–so Þ (17)

Table 1. Input data adapted for the system [24,33].
Where “h” and “s” is specific enthalpy and specific entropy,
Solar parabolic collectors Exergy at inlet to the system (Exinlet) is defined as the maxi-
mum useful work available from solar radiation, which is cal-
Collector row length 500 m culated by petela’s formula as defined below [28].
Collector type LS-3
Collector width 5.76 m "    #
Collector length (single) 12.27 m 1 To 4 4 To
Exinlet 5Aap Gb 11 2 (18)
Inner diameter of absorber tube 0.06 m 3 Ts 3 Ts
Outer diameter of absorber tube 0.07 m
Inner diameter of cover 0.115 m Where Ts 5 5800K is the temperature of an outer surface of
Outer diameter of cover 0.121 m the sun by assuming it as a black body. In addition, the
Emittance of the cover 0.86 overall exergy efficiency hex is defined as the ratio of net
Emittance of the absorber tube 0.15 work output to the input exergy for SORC is defined as
Reflectance of mirror 0.94 under:
Intercept factor 0.93
Transmittance of glass cover 0.96 W_ net;SORC
Absorbance of absorber tube 0.96 hex 5 (19)
Intensity of direct irradiation 0.5–0.9 kW/m2 Exinlet
Incidence angle modifier 1
The thermal efficiency and overall efficiency of the SORC
Maximum outlet temperature 663K
cycle can be expressed as:
Ambient conditions
Ambient temperature 298.15K
Wnet;SORC
Ambient pressure 101.3 kPa hthermal 5 (20)
SORC cycle configuration _
Qsolar
SORC pump efficiency 85%
SORC turbine efficiency 87% hoverall 5ðhthermal Þ  ðhSPTC Þ (21)
Mass flow rate of SORC cycle 0.1 Kg/s
Minimum pinch point temperature 50 C Now, performance parameters like fuel depletion ratio
SORC cycle high pressure 25 MPa (YDEP ), irreversibity ratio (YIR), improvement potential (IP)
Recuperator effectiveness 95% and expansion ratio for a definite state “R” is defined as
Min. Temperature of SORC 550 C below:
Heat exchanger effectiveness 95%
ExDES ðStateRÞ
YDEPðRÞ 5 (22)
Exinlet

Table 2. Physical, environmental properties and security data of the selected working fluids for SORC cycle adapted from
[30–32].

Physical properties data Security Environmental properties

Working substance Type* Tc** Pcc (K) (MPa) Group Lifetime (years) ODP† GWP††
R600a D 408.1 3.64 A3 0.019 0 20
Toluene D 591.7 4.12 n.a. n.a. n.a n.a
R152a W 386.4 4.52 A2 1.4 0 124
Isobutane W 407.8 3.64 A3 <1 0 3
Cyclohexane D 553.6 4.07 A1 n.a. n.a n.a

*W 5 Wet, D 5 Dry.
**Tc 5 critical temperature.
Pc 5 critical pressure.
†
ODP 5 potential of ozone depletion relative to R11.
††
GWP 5 potential of global warming relative to CO2.

4 Month 2017 Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.00, No.00) DOI 10.1002/ep
Figure 2. T-S diagram of supercritical organic rankine cycle (SORC). (b) Validation of the considered SPTC system. [Color fig-
ure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

ExDES ðStateRÞ
YIRðStateRÞ 5 (23)
ExDESTotal
 h
IPðStateRÞ 5 12 ex ExDES ðStateRÞ (24)
100
V6
u5 (25)
V5

Validation of Model
This model is validated against the theoretical study of Al-
Sulaiman et al. [24] as well as experimental study conducted
by the Dudley et al. [29]. In this current model, the change
in heat losses with the average temperature of the fluid
inside the absorber above the ambient was examined as
shown in Figure 2b. Results of the validation process
revealed that model is in good agreement with the experi-
mental, which means that there is a marginal difference in
the value of heat losses for all the value of temperature Figure 3. Variations in exergy efficiency and exergy destruc-
difference. tion rate of SORC with solar irradiation intensity (GB). [Color
figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
In this section, exergy and energy performance of the
SORC integrated by large SPTC was examined with respect
to the solar irradiation intensity and turbine inlet pressure.
Figure 3 demonstrated that exergy efficiency of R600a
Presently, this system assumed to be working on an average
based SORC increases from 92.55% at 0.5 kW/m2 to 96.09%
value of 0.85 kW/m2 solar irradiation intensity, in which
at 0.95 kW/m2. Also, the change in the rate of exergy
SORC thermal cycle is operating.
destruction of SORC with the intensity of solar irradiation as
illustrated in Figure 3. Figure 3 shows that rate of exergy
Variations in System Performance with the Solar destruction in SORC decreases continuously with the
Irradiation Intensity increase in solar irradiation intensity, and it shows an inverse
The intensity of solar irradiation directly affects to exergy behavior from the exergy efficiency graph. Therefore, Figure
performance of the SORC as demonstrated in Figure 3. From 3 clearly demonstrated that R600a has a minimum exergy
the results, it has been concluded that the exergy efficiency destruction rate among all the fluids, and its value decreasing
of SORC increases continuously with the increase in solar from 1527kW at 0.5 kW/m2 to 807 kW at 0.95 kW/m2. On
irradiation intensity. As observed that it gives better and the contrary side, cyclohexane having the highest value of
effective utilization of overall solar collector field with the exergy destruction rate, which is decreasing from 3794
respect to increasing solar irradiation intensity directed upon kW at 0.5 kW/m2 to 1990 kW at 0.95 kW/m2 with the
the solar collector rows. Among all the refrigerants selected increase in solar irradiation intensity from 0.5 kW/m2 to 0.95
for the supercritical organic Rankine cycle (SORC), R600a kW/m2 as illustrated in Figure 3. Furthermore, it has been
gives the maximum exergetic performance, which is fol- observed from the Figure 4 that the maximum value of the
lowed by the R152a, Toluene, Isobutane, and Cyclohexane, exergy destruction rate in the combined SPTC based SORC
respectively. occurred in the solar collector part, which is due to the great

Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.00, No.00) DOI 10.1002/ep Month 2017 5
Figure 4. Variations in exergy efficiency and exergy destruc-
Figure 6. Variations in exergy efficiency and exergy destruc-
tion rate of Solar 1 SORC with solar irradiation intensity (GB).
tion rate of Solar 1 SORC with inlet pressure of SORC tur-
[Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
bine. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.
com]

variations in exergy efficiency of the SORC as illustrated in

Figure 5. Figure 5 demonstrated that exergy efficiency of the
SORC continuously increases with increase in the inlet pres-
sure of SORC turbine. Results revealed that R600a has the
maximum incremental variations in the overall exergy effi-
ciency among the R152a and isobutane except for the tolu-
ene and cyclohexane due to abnormal behaviour of these
fluids in the selected pressure range. It has been noticed that
exergy efficiency of R600a based SORC increases from
87.95% at 8 MPa to 94.37% at 17 MPa. While, R152a based
SORC shows that the exergy efficiency increases from
90.56% at 8 MPa to 93.13% at 17 MPa as shown in Figure 5.
Therefore, it has been concluded that R152a shows better
exergy performance than R600a between the specific pres-
sure ranges of 8 MPa to 13 MPa. Conversely, both toluene
and cyclohexane gives an increasing value of exergy perfor-
mance up to 9 MPa pressure and beyond that both the fluids
shows the decreasing behavior of exergy efficiency. Figure 5
Figure 5. Variations in exergy efficiency and exergy destruc- also demonstrated the effect of inlet pressure of the SORC
tion rate of SORC with inlet pressure of SORC turbine. [Color turbine on the total exergy destruction rate of the cycle. It
figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] has been observed from the results that exergy destruction
rate has an inverse value of exergy efficiency. It implies that
with an increase in the inlet pressure of SORC turbine, the
total exergy destruction rate decreases. Figure 5 illustrates
loss of exergy value in the solar collector field. It is clearly
that R600a and R152a comparatively shows the minimum
understood from the Figure 4 that the total exergy destruc-
rate of total exergy destruction rate in the SORC in a certain
tion rate of solar combined SORC shows a decreasing trend
pressure range, which is diminished from 2470 kW at 8 MPa
with an increase in the solar irradiation intensity, which is
to 1155 kW at 17 MPa for R600a based SORC. Also, for
due to the efficient exploitation of the overall SPTC field and
R152a based SORC, the total exergy destruction rate declin-
also, the large amount of solar irradiation intensity available ing from approximately 1939 kW at 8 MPa to 1411 kW at 17
for the fewer number of solar collector rows, which are MPa. Conversely, isobutane based SORC possess the highest
arranged in the series and parallel arrangement can dimin- rate of total exergy destruction rate, i.e., decreases from 2962
ishes the total exergy destruction rate in the considered kW at 8 MPa to 2265 kW at 17 MPa. Moreover, results
SEGS plant. Finally, it has been concluded that R152a based revealed that maximum exergy destruction rate, which is
combined SPTC-SORC having the minimum value of total around 80% to 85% of the total exergy destruction rate
exergy destruction rate followed by toluene, R600a, cyclo- occurs in combined SPTC-SORC associated with only the
hexane, and isobutene having the highest value of exergy solar collector field and it is due to the greater amount of
destruction rate as illustrated in Figure 4. exergy losses found in the SPTC field as illustrated in Figure
6 Therefore, it is essential to find out the causes behind the
Variations in System Performance with Inlet Pressure exergy losses due to the solar collector field for the improve-
of SORC Turbine ment in design and working performance. Figure 6 demon-
To design and evaluate the performance of SORC, the strates that R152a shows the minimum rate of total exergy
inlet pressure is an important parameter to examine the destruction for SPTC combined SORC system, which is

6 Month 2017 Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.00, No.00) DOI 10.1002/ep
Table 3. Detailed exergetic parameters of SORC for all the selected working fluids.

Selected fluids for SORC cycles

Exergetic parameters System components R600a Toluene R152a Isobutane Cyclohexane
IP (kW) Solar collector 11,859 9582 7659 12,416 11,501
Evaporator 61.84 29.22 17.42 53.32 42.68
Solar pump 5.935 3.489 3.682 4.986 3.961
SORC turbine 763.9 1801 1121 2055 2112
SORC pump 6.223 3.364 2.801 4.947 3.799
Recuperator 52.36 39.46 35.75 51.2 45.21
Condenser 2.74 2.397 2.539 3.501 2.638
YDEP Solar collector 0.579 0.4681 0.3746 0.6056 0.5612
Evaporator 0.003046 0.001436 0.0008563 0.002624 0.002099
Solar pump 0.0002898 0.0001704 0.0001801 0.0002432 0.0001933
SORC turbine 0.03763 0.08852 0.05508 0.1011 0.1039
SORC pump 0.0003065 0.001794 0.0001377 0.0002434 0.0001868
Recuperator 0.002579 0.00194 0.03032 0.002519 0.002223
Condenser 0.0001349 0.0001178 0.0001248 0.001615 0.001196
YIR Solar collector 0.9296 0.8354 0.8658 0.8503 0.838
Evaporator 0.06971 0.01558 0.01477 0.0246 0.01935
Solar pump 0.0004652 0.0003042 0.0001801 0.0003414 0.0002886
SORC turbine 0.8612 0.9603 0.9504 0.9479 0.9572
SORC pump 0.007016 0.001794 0.002375 0.002282 0.001722
Recuperator 0.05902 0.02104 0.03032 0.02362 0.9572
Condenser 0.003088 0.001278 0.002153 0.001615 0.001196

Table 4. Thermodynamic properties at the various stations

for R600a based SORC.

P T h s
Selected stations (bar) (K) (kJ/kg) (kj/kg-K)
SORC turbine inlet (5) 250 663 1464 4.894
Recuperator inlet (6) 152.4 548.6 1118 4.366
Condenser inlet (7) 152.4 328 465.8 2.921
SORC pump inlet (10) 152.4 299.5 395.6 2.687
Recuperator inlet (11) 200 393.3 709.2 3.452
Heat exchanger inlet (4) 200 339.6 545.4 3.012
SPTC inlet (2) 100 359.6 570.1 3.166
SPTC outlet (3) 100 663 1538 5.103

in expansion ratio and thermal efficiency of the SORC based

on different working fluids as demonstrated in Figure 7. It
has also been observed from the study that expansion ratio
Figure 7. Variations in thermal efficiency and expansion increases with an increase in the evaporating temperature of
ratio for the selected fluids. [Color figure can be viewed at SORC. The Maximum value of expansion ratio and thermal
wileyonlinelibrary.com] efficiency is found to be 1.16 and 52.51% for R152a based
SORC as shown in Figure 7. Improvement potential (IP) is
an important exergy parameter to find out the possibility to
declining from 15,136 kW at 8 MPa to 7959 kW at 17 MPa. improve the SORC performance up to certain limits. Solar
On the other side, isobutane gives the highest rate of total collector shows the highest rate of exergy destruction; there-
exergy destruction for the SPTC combined SORC system, i.e., fore it requires a better design to enhance the performance
decreases from 24,915 kW at 8 MPa to 13,101 kW at 17 MPa, and to reduce the overall heat losses or exergy destruction
in which high amount of exergy destruction rate, i.e., around of the system. Apart from this, evaporator or heat exchanger
12,452 kW is due to solar collector only as observed in also has a major source of exergy destruction so that it needs
Figure 6. a bigger area for the heat exchange. Also, fuel depletion
ratio (YDEP) is an important parameter to enhance the perfor-
mance of the SORC system components, and it is defined as
Outcomes of Exergy Analysis of the System the ratio of the exergy destruction rate to the inlet exergy. It
Components has been analyzed that total exergy destruction rate in the
A detailed exergy analysis is conducted to find out the solar collector is around 57.89% of the inlet exergy value.
performance of the system components. Important parame- From the Table 3, it has been found that fuel depletion ratio
ters like fuel depletion ratio, improvement potential and irre- in case of R600a based SORC is approximately 0.579,
versibility ratio was examined in this study and the 0.03763, and 0.003046 for the solar collector, SORC turbine
calculated value of all these parameters are illustrated in and evaporator, respectively. Furthermore, there is also an
Table 3. Furthermore, this study also described the variations important exergetic parameter to examine the performance

Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.00, No.00) DOI 10.1002/ep Month 2017 7
of system components, i.e., irreversibility ratio, which is GB solar irradiation intensity, W/m2
defined as the ratio of exergy destructed in a specific compo- SORC supercritical organic rankine cycle
nent to the total rate of exergy destruction rate in a complete Q_u useful heat gain per unit time
system. As observed from the study, the highest value of the S entropy kJ/kg-K
irreversibility ratio (YIR) is found in the solar collector, i.e., Exinlet inlet exergy, kW
around 0.9296, and (YIR) for all other system components of Qinl total inlet heat, kJ
different working fluid based SORC as listed in Table 3. hcr;i heat loss coefficient b/w receiver and cover, kW/
Lastly, the thermodynamic properties for R600a based SPTC- m2K
SORC at the selected stations has been decribed in Table 4. hcon;amc convection heat loss coefficient b/w ambient and
cover, kW/m2K
CONCLUSION hrad;amc radiation heat loss coefficient b/w ambient and
In the current study, the exergy and energy analysis of cover, kW/m2K
SPTC driven supercritical organic Rankine cycle (SORC) was hrad;cr radiation heat loss coefficient b/w receiver and
conducted with the help of different refrigerants such as cover, kW/m2K
R600a, toluene, R152a, isobutene, and cyclohexane. Follow-
ing results conclude from this study: Greek Letters
1. It has been observed that with the increase in solar irradi- qr mirror reflectance
ation intensity, exergy efficiency of the SORC also a absorbance of receiver
increases. The results concluded that R600a based SORC g intercept factor
shows the maximum exergy efficiency, i.e., varies from s cover transmittance
92.55% at 0.5 kW/m2 to 96.09% at 0.95 kW/m2 followed Km incident angle modifier
by R152a, toluene, isobutene, and cyclohexane occupy h efficiency
the minimum value of exergy efficiency. In addition, the ‹ emittance
exergy destruction rate has an inverse behavior from the r Stefan–Boltzmann constant, kW/m2K4
exergy efficiency graph and cyclohexane has the highest u expansion ratio
exergy destruction rate, i.e., ranges from 3794 kW at 0.5 Subscripts
kW/m2 to 1990 kW at 0.95 kW/m2. u useful
2. Moreover, the effect of inlet pressure of the SORC turbine o outside
on the exergy performance has been observed in this e exit
study. Findings revealed that both R600a and R152a com- i inlet
paratively showed the highest value of exergy efficiency 0 environmental conditions
among the others, which is around 94.37% and 93.13% at r reciver
specified pressure of 17 MPa. Conversely, toluene and am ambient
cyclohexane demonstrate the least value of exergy effi- avg average
ciency and highest value of the exergy destruction rate. ex exergy per unit mass flow rate, kJ/kg
Also, it has been observed that the major source of
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