Numerical analysis-based performance assessment of the small-scale organic Rankine cycle turbine design for residential applications

Abstract

The organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is one of the most common ways to use energy resources to utilise waste heat. Integrating ORC with other systems, such as cooling or heating applications, is also helpful for residential uses. In the ORC system, the turbines are the most critical component determining the system's efficiency. This study conducted a computational fluid dynamics study on a regenerative flow turbine that can be used in small-scale organic Rankine cycle systems. For the higher temperature applications, the analyses were performed using n-pentane working fluid for 1500 and 3000 rpm turbine speeds, inlet temperature between 475–550 K, outlet pressure between 0.9–1.2 MPa, and mass flow rates between 0.5–1.0 kg/s. As a result of the analysis, the isentropic efficiency varies between 4.97 % and 12.52 %. It was concluded that the output power obtained from the turbine varies between 0.53 kW and 2.96 kW. The analyses were also performed for lower temperature (363 and 393 K), pressure (0.05 MPa and 0.3 MPa) and mass flows (0.1 to 0.25 kg/s) applications. In this case, the isentropic efficiency of the turbine varies between 6.23 % and 14.52 %, whereas the power generation varies between 0.068 and 0.521 kW.