Experimental study of the effect of load and rotational speed on the electrical power of a high-speed ORC microturbogenerator

Abstract

The article presents the results of the study conducted on a microturbogenerator with a nominal power of 1 kWe. One of the primary objectives of the study was to determine the maximum power of the microturbogenerator for several preset and constant flow rates of the HFE-7100 working medium. During the tests, the variable parameters were the power of the heat source and the electrical load of the microturbine generator. Such a methodological approach made it possible to determine the experimental mechanical and electrical characteristics of the high-speed microturbogenerator, which are practically absent in the subject literature at present.The study shows that, at a preset working medium flow rate, there exists an optimum heat source power level at which the microturbogenerator's power output is maximum. It was determined that the maximum electrical power also depends on the load value of the microturbine generator. At the minimum tested working medium flow rate value of 30 g/s, a maximum power of approx. 210 We was obtained with a heat source power of 12 kWt and a resistive load of approx. 6.4 Ω. On the other hand, at the same flow rate value of the HFE-7100 and a heat source power of 14 kWt, the maximum electrical power of the microturbogenerator was approximately 205 W. On the other hand, for an HFE-7100 flow rate of 60 g/s, the maximum electrical power of approximately 625 W was achieved with a heat source power of 18 kWt. It was found that the load current of the generator had a major influence on the maximum electrical power of the microturbogenerator.