Industrial Waste Heat Recovery System Research Articles

The effects of non-condensable gases on the performance of loop thermosyphon heat exchangers

The effects of `Non-Condensable Gases' (NCG) on the performance of `Loop Thermosyphon Heat Exchangers' (LTHE) used in industrial waste heat recovery systems are investigated experimentally and theoretically. The optimum location for installing a reservoir to trap NCG and minimise their adverse effect on effectiveness is identified. A procedure to calculate the size of a reservoir such that all the NCG present in the LTHE system can be trapped in it at a predetermined working fluid temperature is presented. For an NCG-loaded LTHE the temperature determining the onset of heat recovery, the optimum operating temperature, and the maximum operating temperature are determined.

Performance of power plants with organic Rankine cycles under part-load and off-design conditions

Low-grade heat can be converted to electricity using power plants based on conventional Rankine cycles but with an organic Rankine fluid. Design and construction of such plants have been known for a long time and they are now a commericial reality. Applications include industrial waste heat recovery systems, solar thermal systems, low-temperature geothermal power plants, stand-alone electricity generators like those used for cathodic protection of pipelines, etc. In the past, simulation studies of such systems have usually suffered from the lack of an efficient, reliable and fast algorithm to predict system performance under part-load and off-design conditions. In this study, an efficient algorithm is introduced to simulate ORC Plant performance and the part-load and off-design efficiencies of ORC Plants.