Development of an ORC For High Temperature Waste Heat Recovery Utilizing Scroll Expanders

Conference Year

2018

Authors

Alejandro Carlos Lavernia, Purdue University, United States of AmericaFollow
Davide Ziviani, School of Mechanical Engineering, Ray W. Herrick Laboratories, Purdue UniversityFollow
Kunal Bansal, Air Squared Inc, CO United States of AmericaFollow
Bryce Shaffer, Air Squared Inc, CO United States of AmericaFollow
Eckhard A. Groll, Purdue University - Main CampusFollow

Keywords

Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC), Waste Heat Recovery, Scroll Expander, R245fa

Abstract

An organic Rankine cycle (ORC) test setup has been constructed to investigate high-temperature waste heat recovery from a stationary internal combustion engine. In particular, an experimental study of a subcritical ORC architecture working with a high temperature heat source is performed to evaluate the feasibility of employing an ORC to recover west heat from small-scale internal combustion engines (~10 kW). The affordability of such a system for the given application has a significant impact on the cycle design. The ORC test setup consists of a diaphragm pump, a plate heat exchanger as regenerator, a novel micro-tube evaporator, an air-cooled condenser, a scroll-type expander, and R245fa as working fluid. Three expander prototypes, Oldham ring orbiting, idler shaft orbiting, and spinning scroll, have been considered and a comparison of their performance for this application is presented. Focus is given to constraining the high-side temperatures of R245fa to minimize oil breakdown while decreasing exergy destruction in the evaporator. The cycle performance is evaluated for varying thermal inputs, expander types, and refrigerant superheating values.