Abstract
Organic Rankine cycle can be used to harness waste heat to generate electricity. The cycle performance is dependent on expander behavior, where the design of lubricant oil loop is significant. The effects of oil on expansion machine rely on the prevention of leakages and friction losses. However, the lubricant oil is inevitably mixed with refrigerant, which may in turn affect system performance. This paper is targeted to investigate the impact of lubricant oil ratios on a 2 kW ORC prototype using R245fa as working fluid. The heat source temperature is fixed at 125 °C. Two degrees of freedom including the mass flow rate and expander rotational speed are adjusted to explore the system performance. Cycle thermal efficiency, expander isentropic efficiency, filling factor and heat transfer performance are analyzed. The results show that injection of lubricant oil has significant influence on the organic Rankine cycle system. The optimum cycle thermal efficiency is 4.7%, which is obtained under high oil ratio. The system efficiency is more sensitive under lower lubricant oil charges, as 10.25% increase in cycle thermal efficiency is observed when oil-concentration varies from 0.12% to 1%. The hermetic scroll expander is more sensitive to various oil-concentration than the plate heat exchanger.
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