Studies on the thermal cycle performance of solar thermal power generation under different heat sources

Abstract

Solar thermal power generation is an important way to solve the future power demand, and some countries have entered the commercial application stage. According to the heat source temperatures provided by different solar thermal collector systems, different thermodynamic cycle modes of power generation systems were proposed so that the appropriate thermal cycle modes and working mediums at different heat source temperatures were obtained. The results show that, under a low-temperature heat source, in an organic Rankine cycle with R600 as the working medium, the cycle efficiency is 13.40% when the temperature of the turbine inlet is 100°C and the pressure is 1.5 MPa; the cycle thermal efficiency is 12.00% when the temperature of turbine inlet is 90°C. Under the conditions of medium temperature heat source, in the Rankine cycle with regenerative heat and R141b as a working medium, the efficiency is about 26.59% when the temperature of the turbine inlet is 220°C and the pressure is 3.0 MPa. Under the conditions of a high-temperature heat source, in the reheat extraction steam Rankine cycle, the theoretical cycle efficiency can reach 34.32% when the temperature of the turbine inlet is 380°C, the pressure is 8 MPa, and the condensation temperature is 41.5°C. The studies can provide a fundamental basis for the design of solar thermal power generation systems with different heat source conditions.