Experimental Investigation on a Sliding-Vane Expander for Steam Applications

I Costanzo,S Murgia,G Valenti,F Fasani

doi:10.1088/1757-899x/1180/1/012031

I Costanzo, S Murgia + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/1180/1/012031

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Abstract

There are many industrial plants that use steam as an energy vector at different pressure levels, in which pressure reduction is commonly performed by a throttling valve, resulting a totally irreversible process. It is possible to recover this energy through an expander that generates mechanical or electric energy. This work is focused on the analysis of a highly innovative steam expander based on sliding-vane technology. The design principles of the sliding-vane expander and two experimental campaigns are presented. The first experimental campaign allows to assess the reliability of the system with steam as working fluid, the second campaign leads to assess the stability during long-run and the performance of the system. A maximum expander mechanical power of 28 kW is measured. The pressure-Volume diagram of the expansion process is also measured and presented.

Highlights

Steam is adopted widely in the industrial sector as an energy vector for direct and indirect thermal uses
There are many industrial plants that use steam as an energy vector at different pressure levels, in which pressure reduction is commonly performed by a throttling valve, resulting a totally irreversible process
The first experimental campaign allows to assess the reliability of the system with steam as working fluid, the second campaign leads to assess the stability during long-run and the performance of the system

Summary

Introduction

Steam is adopted widely in the industrial sector as an energy vector for direct and indirect thermal uses. Steam is generated in fired boilers at relatively high pressure, transported across the industrial plant and, throttled in valves to the desired pressure close to the point of use. Despite this approach is very effective from the control and the investment perspectives, pressure reduction by throttling is an irreversible process that, from a thermodynamic perspective, destroys exergy [1]. The authors investigated deeply sliding-vane expander technology in ORC based energy recovery systems in previous works [5, 6], studying in great detail different working fluids [7] and validating an automated control system [8].

Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd

Steam flow

RPM meter

Results and discussion

Oil flow rate

Conclusions and future works