Novel multi-helical coil heat exchanger-based small-scale organic Rankine cycle: A detailed heat transfer analysis

Abstract

This paper discusses a prototype of the ORC, which is developed utilizing a novel multi-coil evaporator and condenser for the waste heat source with a temperature below 100 °C. R123 acts as a working fluid for the ORC. The thermal performance of a multi-helical coil is evaluated experimentally and compared to the single-helical coil heat exchanger available in the literature.The performance of a novel multi-coil heat exchanger depicts that when the Reynolds Number varies from 60000 to 120000, the heat transfer coefficient varies from 1560 W/(m2K) to 2900 W/(m2K) for a single coil heat exchanger and 3014 W/(m2K) to 4531 W/(m2K) for multi helical coil evaporator. The Nusselt Number varies from 300 to 570 for single-coil heat exchangers and 715 to 1076 for multi-helical coil heat exchangers. The results show that the expander's power output is around 2.14 kW and proportional to the evaporator temperature and pressure increase. The high condensing temperature decreases the expander power output. The main contribution of the present work is developing a small ORC system with novel multi-helical coil heat exchangers and testing them on a lab scale for the most probable application to fulfill the electricity requirement in remote areas in the future.