Abstract
Power generation with low temperature geothermal resources is not economically viable due to the poor thermal efficiency of organic Rankine cycles (ORC). A novel idea is proposed where a vapour absorption chiller (VAC) can be employed to lower the ORC condensing temperature, thus increasing its power output. This paper presents detailed analysis of a VAC that operates with water-lithium bromide to extract heat from the geothermal brine leaving the ORC vaporizer. The evaporator of the VAC serves as the ORC condenser. A computer program is coded to simulate the combined ORC-VAC performance and compare it with that of the conventional ORC. The results indicate that the ORC-VAC option would render power generation more economical. The organic fluid flow rate in the ORC per unit power output is cut by at least 50% in this case, thus reducing the ORC size and turbine cost. Moreover, even though the ORC-VAC includes more components, the total heat exchange area requirement per unit power output remains practically unchanged.
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