• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.23 no.10
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• pp.662-669
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• 2011

A numerical study was performed for thermodynamic efficiencies of a basic ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle), ORC with a FLH (Feed Liquid Heater), and ORC with a regenerator. The efficiencies of the basic ORC were higher in the order of R113, R123, R245ca, and R245fa for its working fluids. It was confirmed that an optimal FLH pressure existed to maximize efficiency of the ORC with a FLH. A correlation was developed to predict the optimal FLH pressure as a function of evaporation and condensation pressure and its average absolute deviation was 0.505%. The efficiency enhancement of the basic ORC with a FLH was higher than that with a regenerator. It was presented that the basic ORC efficiency could be improved more than 10% by a FLH with $30^{\circ}C$ condensation and over $110^{\circ}C$ evaporation temperatures.

• Plant Journal
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2016

It is becoming increasingly important to make use of alternative energy source. because It is not able to rely on only fossil fuel for the recent increasing demand of energy consumption. With this situation, lots of studies for utilizing low grade energy such as industrial waste heat, solar energy, and geothermal energy have been conducted. The aim of this study is to predict the operation characteristics of working fluid by using performance analysis program (ThermoFlex) through the system analysis which is not mixing district return water but using ORC(Organic Rankine Cycle, hereinafter ORC) as a downstream cycle when accumulating district heating (hereinafter DH). In this study, We conducted the performance analysis for the case which has the district heating water temperature($120^{\circ}C$) and Flow rate of $163m^3/h$ (including District Heating return water flow), and examined several working fluid which is proper to this temperature. The case using R245fa (which is the best-case) showed 269.2kW power output, 6.37% efficiency. Additionally, Cut down on fuel was expected because of the boiler inlet temperature increase by being Formed $57.3{\sim}85^{\circ}C$ in a temperature of district heating return water, depending on a pressure change of a condenser in ORC system.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.53-60
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• 2011

In this study, an organic Rankine-cycle system using HFC-134a, which is a power cycle corresponding to a low-temperature heat source, such as that for geothermal power generation, was investigated from the view point of power optimization. In contrast to conventional approaches, the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of the working fluid within the heat exchangers were taken into account by using a discretized heat exchanger model. The inlet flow rates and temperatures of both the heat source and the heat sink were fixed. The total heat transfer area was fixed, whereas the heat-exchanger areas of the evaporator and the condenser were allocated to maximize the power output. The power was optimized on the basis of three design parameters. The optimal combination of parameters that can maximize power output was determined on the basis of the results of the study. The results also indicate that the evaporation process has to be optimized to increase the power output.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.590-599
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• 2015

In this paper a performance analysis is carried out based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics for heat exchanger in organic Rankine cycle (ORC) for the recovery of low-temperature finite thermal energy source. In the analysis, effects of the selection of working fluid and pinch temperature difference are investigated on the performance of the heat exchanger including the effectiveness of the heat exchanger, exergy destruction, second-law efficiency, number of transfer unit (NTU), and pinch point. The temperature distribution are shown depending on the working fluids and the pinch temperature difference. The results show that the performance of the heat exchanger depends on the pinch temperature difference sensitively. As the pinch temperature increases, the exergy destruction in the evaporator increases but the effectiveness, second law efficiency and NTU decreases.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.278-286
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• 2015

This paper presents the analytical results of the thermodynamic performance characteristics for a cogeneration system using regenerative organic Rankine cycle (ORC) driven by low-grade heat source. The combined heat and power cogeneration system consists of a regenerative superheated ORC and an additional process heater in a series circuit. Eight working fluids of R134a, R152a, propane, isobutane, butane, R245fa, R123, and isopentane are considered for the analysis. Special attention is paid to the effect of turbine inlet pressure on the system performance such as thermal input, net power and useful heat productions, electrical, thermal, and system efficiencies. The results show a significant effect of the turbine inlet pressure and selection of working fluid on the thermodynamic performance of the system.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.223-231
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• 2011

The thermal efficiency of energy-to-power conversion becomes uneconomically low when the temperature of heat source drops below $370^{\circ}C$. ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) has attracted much attention in last few years due to its potential in reducing consumption of fossil fuels and relaxing environmental problems, and its favorable characteristics to exploit low-temperature heat sources. In this work thermodynamic performance of ORC using nine working fluids is comparatively assessed. Special attention is paid to the effect of system parameters such as turbine inlet temperature and pressure on the characteristics of the system such as volumetric flow rate and quality at turbine exit, latent heat, net work as well as thermal efficiency. Results show that in selection of working fluid it is required to consider various criteria of performance characteristics as well as the thermal efficiency. Results also show that the system efficiencies become same irrespective of kind of working fluid when the temperature of heat source decreases to low range.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.64-70
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• 2015

Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is an useful cycle for power generation system with low temperature heat sources ($80{\sim}400^{\circ}C$). Since the boiling point of operating fluid is low, the system is used to recover the low temperature heat source of waste heat energy. In this study, a ORC with R134a is applied to recover the waste energy of condenser of coal fired power plant. A system model is developed via Thermolib$^{(R)}$ under Simulink/MATLAB environment. The model is composed of a refrigerant heat exchanger for heat recovery from coal fired condenser, a drum, turbine, heat exchanger for ORC heat rejection, storage tank, water recirculation pump and water drip pump. System analysis parameters were heat recovery capacity, type of refrigerants, and types of turbines. The simulation model is used to analyze the heat recovery capacity of ORC power system. As a result, increasing the overall heat transfer coefficient to become the largest of turbine power is the most economical.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.200-208
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• 2014

This paper presents thermodynamic performance analysis of organic Rankine cycle (ORC) using low temperature heat source in the form of sensible energy and using liquefied natural gas (LNG) as heat sink to recover the cryogenic energy of LNG. LNG is able to condense the working fluid at a very low condensing temperature in a heat exchanger, which leads to an increased power output. Based on the mathematical model, a parametric analysis is conducted to examine the effects of eight different working fluids, the turbine inlet pressure and the condensation temperature on the system performance. The results indicate that the thermodynamic performance of ORC such as net work production or thermal efficiency can be significantly improved by the LNG cold energy.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.49-56
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• 2011

In this study a novel cogeneration system driven by low-temperature sources at a temperature level below $190^{\circ}C$ is investigated by first and second laws of thermodynamics. The system consists of Organic Rankine Cycle(ORC) and an additional heat generation as a parallel circuit. Seven working fluids of R143a, R22, R134a, R152a, $iC_4H_{10}$(isobutane), $C_4H_{10}$(butane), and R123a are considered in this work. Maximum mass flow rate of a working fluid relative to that of the source fluid and optimum turbine inlet pressure are considered to extract maximum power from the source. Results show that due to a combined heat and power generation, both the efficiencies by first and second laws can be significantly increased in comparison to a power generation, however, the second law efficiency is more resonable in the investigation of cogeneration systems. Results also show that the working fluid for the maximum system efficiency depends on the source temperature.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.776-781
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• 2011

The rapid increases in global energy demand and global warming need renewable energy sources such as solar thermal energy, biomass energy and waste heat. A ORC-based micro-CHP system(< 10 kWe) is one of the effective means to use renewable energy and solve energy problems because of its compactness, flexibilities and lower cost compared to other systems. The most important core components of the ORC is the expander which has a strong effect on the cycle efficiency. In the range of power output from 1 to 10 kW, the scroll expander is a good choice due to its performance and reliability. In this study, we have carried out an experimental study on an ORC equipped with oil-free scroll expander working with refrigerant R134a. We have measured power output and thermal efficiencies of the ORC and analyzed correlation between volumetric efficiencies of the expander and thermal efficiencies of the ORC.