A supercritical Rankine cycle using zeotropic mixture working fluids for the conversion of low-grade heat into power

• Published in: Energy (Oxford) Vol. 36; no. 1; pp. 549 - 555
• Main Authors: Chen, Huijuan, Goswami, D. Yogi, Rahman, Muhammad M., Stefanakos, Elias K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 2011; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; condensation; Energy; Energy. Thermal use of fuels; Exact sciences and technology; exergy; heat; Low-grade heat; Organic Rankine cycle; power generation; Rational use of energy: conservation and recovery of energy; Refrigerants; Refrigerating engineering; Refrigerating engineering. Cryogenics. Food conservation; Supercritical Rankine cycle; temperature; Zeotropic mixture; Low-grade heat; Supercritical Rankine cycle; Zeotropic mixture; Organic Rankine cycle; Performance evaluation; Zeotropic fluid; Energy conversion; Rankine cycle; Exergetic efficiency; Thermal efficiency; Experimental study; Working fluid; Supercritical process; Refrigerant fluid; Thermoelectricity
• ISSN: 0360-5442
• DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2010.10.006

A supercritical Rankine cycle using zeotropic mixture working fluids for the conversion of low-grade heat into power is proposed and analyzed in this paper. Unlike a conventional organic Rankine cycle, a supercritical Rankine cycle does not go through the two-phase region during the heating process. By adopting zeotropic mixtures as the working fluids, the condensation process also happens non-isothermally. Both of these features create a potential for reducing the irreversibilities and improving the system efficiency. A comparative study between an organic Rankine cycle and the proposed supercritical Rankine cycle shows that the proposed cycle can achieve thermal efficiencies of 10.8–13.4% with the cycle high temperature of 393 K–473 K as compared to 9.7–10.1% for the organic Rankine cycle, which is an improvement of 10–30% over the organic Rankine cycle. When including the heating and condensation processes in the system, the system exergy efficiency is 38.6% for the proposed supercritical Rankine cycle as compared to 24.1% for the organic Rankine cycle.