Pure and Hydrocarbon Binary Mixtures as Possible Alternatives Working Fluids to the Usual Organic Rankine Cycles Biomass Conversion Systems

Abstract

This study investigates the use of pure and hydrocarbons binary mixtures as potential alternatives working fluids in a usual biomass powered organic Rankine cycle (ORC). A typical biomass combined heat and power plant installed in Cremona (Italy) is considered as the benchmark. Eight pure hydrocarbons (linear and cyclic) and four binary mixtures of linear hydrocarbons were selected. The critical points of the binary mixtures at different composition were calculated using an in-house code developed in MATLAB© (R2018b) environment. Based on the critical point of a working fluid, supercritical and subcritical cycle configurations of ORC were analysed. A detailed thermodynamic comparison with benchmark cycle was carried out in view of cycle efficiency, maximum operating pressure, size of the turbine and heat exchangers. The supercritical cycles showed 0.02 to 0.03 points lower efficiency, whereas, subcritical cycles showed comparable efficiencies than that of the benchmark cycle. The cycles operating with hydrocarbons (pure and mixtures) exhibited considerably lower volume flow ratios in turbine which indicates lower turbine size. Also, size parameter of regenerator is comparatively lower due to the lower molecular complexity of the hydrocarbons. A noticeable increase in turbine power output was observed with change in composition of the iso-octane/n-octane binary mixture at the same thermodynamic efficiency.