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COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus

GENERATION OF ELECTRICITY BY
USING ORGANIC RANKINE CYCLE

Supervisor: Dr. Moinuddin Ghauri/Dr. Rizwan Ahmed

GROUP MEMBERS
Usama Pervaiz FA16-CHE-114
Adil Ali FA16-CHE-124
Abrar Ahmed FA16-CHE-116
Saqib Shahzad FA16-CHE-088
M.Shaban FA16-CHE-074
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Contents
1. Abstract .................................................................................................... 3
2. Introduction .............................................................................................. 3
3. Literature Review .................................................................................... 4
4. Process Flow Diagram ............................................................................. 4
5. Material and Method:............................................................................... 5
6. Condenser: ............................................................................................... 8
7. Evaporator ................................................................................................ 9
8. Result and Discussion .............................................................................. 9
9. Reference: ................................................................................................ 9
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1. Abstract
Organic Rankine Cycle use organic fluid that is high molecular mass fluid at a lower
temperature than the water. Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) systems are used for power
production from low to medium temperature heat sources in the range of 80 to 350 °C
and for small-medium applications at any temperature level. This technology allows for
exploitation of low-grade heat that otherwise would be wasted. The organic working fluid
has a lower boiling point and a higher vapor pressure than water and is therefore able to
use low temperature heat sources to produce electricity. To recover low-grade heat, the fluid
generally has a lower boiling temperature than water. Refrigerants and hydrocarbons are two
commonly used components. The working fluid should be good quality, availability and low
cost. The fluid that is selected as a working fluid is R134a. The main
components of an Organic Rankine Cycle are pump, boiler, heat exchanger, condenser,
turbine, tank. our refrigerant is entered in the boiler with the help of the pump where it is
heated and where it is converted into superheated gas then it is entered in the turbine where
the electricity is produced by the generators that are connected to the turbine with shaft.
To control the flow rate of the steam there is valve at the inlet of the turbine after passing
into the turbine our refrigerant is entered in to the heat exchanger where it is cooled down
and then it is collected in the container or tank after then it again pump into the boiler with
the help of the pump and this cycle continues

2. Introduction
Organic Rankine cycle working is like the steam cycle but with some changes. In organic
Rankine cycle the steam is replaced by the refrigerants or hydrocarbons. As we know that
with the passage of time our energy consumption rate is increases with the time and
efficient use of the energy is become the major issue now-a-days. Almost 50% heat that
is generated in the industry is low graded heat that is released in the environment that
causes global warming and loss of energy as well. This low graded or temperature is
converted into the electricity by organic Rankine cycle power plant and this provided the
attractive solution for this problem because its environment friendly and low-cost power
plant.
The most important aspect is the choice of the working fluid that is used in organic
Rankine cycle. It is depending upon the temperature of the available heat source. The
refrigerant we use in R134a. it is the chemical compound tetrafluoroethene comprising
of two atoms of carbon, two atoms of hydrogen and four atoms of fluorine. Its chemical
formula is CF3CH2F. the reason to choose this refrigerant is it has zero potential to cause
the depletion of the ozone layer and very little greenhouse effect. R134a is the
nonflammable and non-explosive, has toxicity within limits and good chemical stability.
It has somewhat high affinity for the moisture and also it has low boiling point (-26.1℃).
The whole process described in process flow diagram that explain the procedure. Organic
fluid pump into the boiler. Where it hated through natural gas. Superheated gas is formed
which store in the reservoir. Then expel on the tesla turbine at high speed. Which rotate
the turbine and a shaft that is connected to the turbine also rotate and run the generator
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which produce the electricity. Now the gas is condensed in the condenser and store the
liquid in the tank.

3. Literature Review

Nowadays, renewable energy resources such as solar, geothermal and wind, as well as
heat losses from a wide range of industries, are increasingly being considered as energy
sources that can help to meet the world’s demand. Waste heat is often at relatively low
temperatures, making it very difficult to convert such heat to electrical energy via
conventional methods. Various cycles such as the organic Rankine, supercritical Rankine,
Kalina, Goswami, and trilateral flash cycles have been investigated for electrical power
production from low temperature heat resources. In the literature, there are many works
devoted to the issues on how the working fluid properties and the power plant type and
parameters affect the ORC power plant effectiveness. Evaporation temperature of 71.7 °C
and superheated vapor at 75.8°C expanding to 37.8 °C (condensation at 35 °C), with
R134a as working fluid.

4. Process Flow Diagram

Turbine
Coupling

Control Generator
Valve

Boiler

Condenser

Heating
Source

Hot Water
Storage

Valve

Pump

Fig 1.0 PFD of Organic Rankine Cycle.

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5. Material and Method:

We used following material for the organic Rankine cycle
 Pump
 Condenser
 Generator
 Turbine
 Evaporator
 Refrigerant

5.1 Refrigerant:
The refrigerant we used is R134a in the Organic Rankine Cycle.
There are many parameters for the identification or selectivity of the organic working
fluid
 Environmental characteristics:
Although high system efficiency is main goal when designing heat recovery systems,
we must take into account of the environmental characteristics for the safety and
practical considerations. For example, HCFCs still contain chlorine and have an
associated Ozone Depletion Potential, they will be phased out in the EU Community.
The two main environmental characteristics are the ODP (Ozone Depletion Potential)
and the GWP (Global Warming Potential). The standard of reference is set for
trichlorofluoromethane(R11) its value is 1 and it is maximum potential of Ozone
Depletion
The ODP(Ozone Depletion Potentail) of R134a is ‘0’ and GWP (global Warming
Potential) of R134a is ‘1300’
 Toxicity:
Refrigerants re divided into two groups according to toxicity:
Class A signifies refrigerants for which toxicity has not been identified at
concentration less than or equal to 400 ppm;
Class B signifies refrigerants for which there is evidence of toxicity at concentration
below 400 ppm;

Toxicity of the R134a is 238 ppm as it is less than 400 ppm, so it is in Class B
 Flammability:
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Refrigerants are divided into two groups according to flammability

 Class 1 indicates refrigerants that do not show flame propagation when tested in
air at 21℃ and 101 KPa;
 Class 2 indicates refrigerants having a lower flammability limit of more than
0.10kg/m3 at 21℃ and 101 kPa and a heat of combustion of less than 19 KJ/Kg
 Class 3 indicates refrigerants that are highly flammable as defined by a lower
flammability limit of less than or equal to 0.10 kg/m3 at 21℃ and 101 kPa

5.2 Pump
A condenser is used to convert the steam from the exit of the turbine to saturated
liquid. This is done so that we can use a pump to pressurize the liquid. As shown in
the figure that a low-pressure liquid enter the pump which increase the liquid
pressure. Pump forces the working fluid to circulate and raises its pressure from the value
at the condenser to that required in the evaporator.

Fig 5.0 Flow of fluid

Fig 5.10 working of pump

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5.3 Turbine:
Turbine that used in the ORC system have no difference from steam turbine.
However, because of the change in the thermal and physical properties of organic
fluid and steam, turbines used in the ORC system have some special characteristics.
Such as,
 Organic fluids which have high molecular weight should avoid being
supersonic at the turbine outlet.

 In low-grade energy recovery and for certain temperature difference, the

turbine used in ORC has higher expansion ration and small enthalpy drop.
 The turbine exhaust vapor will be superheated in almost all the cases due
to lesser specific volume and high density.

 Since the ORC systems are small and compact, there is a chance for over
speeding of the turbine which leads drop in load.

 The leakage of the working fluid in the system need to be avoided because
of the flammability issues of organic fluid.

the turbine we used for the Organic Rankine Cycle is Tesla Turbine because it is the most
efficient turbine used for the Organic Rankine Cycle for small level. It has the isentropic
efficiency from 78%-90% for R130a working fluid and there is no over speeding of tesla
turbine which cause the drop-in load and as a result our turbine efficiency decreased, and
it has higher expansion ration and low enthalpy drop. That is the reason for the selection
of the tesla turbine in Organic Rankine Cycle. It is a bladeless centripetal turbine also
known as boundary layer turbine because it uses the boundary layer concept and not
the fluid flow as in the case of other turbines. It has a wider application in geothermal
based waste heat recovery units. This turbine is well suited for condensing plants which
are operated in a vacuum. The turbine consists of a set of smooth disks where the nozzle is
attached, and the main limitation is to cover these disks without which there can be some
leakage and friction losses.
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5.4 Condenser:

In the ORC plants, the condenser occupies more available space than the
other components (expander and boiler). Since the aim is to create a system,
that can be installed “on board” the condenser design procedure has always to
consider this limitation as a design target. To maximize the heat exchange and
reduce the component size, copper elements for were used exchange surfaces,
which allows an excellent thermal performance, and presents compatibility
with the use of refrigerants. Furthermore, the counter flow configuration has
been chosen.
We are using tube-fin heat exchanger and we chose it due to following
reasons

 Heat Exchanger selection parameter:

To obtain a compact heat exchanger a configuration, characterized by a high ratio
between the heat exchange surface and the occupied volume has to be chosen. The
area density, β, is the ratio of heat transfer area to its volume. There are some
additional advantages for small volume as follows: low weight, easier transport,
better temperature control. That’s why exchanger tube and fins type has been
adopted. This exchanger is characterized by a high density of exchange surface,
reduction of load losses, and it avoids technological and fouling problems that are
present in the compact type ones (sometimes, improperly, used as condensers)
such as radiator and plate heat exchangers

 LMTD Method
The LMTD method has been used to find the required area of thermal exchange
through an iterative procedure
LMTD is defined as follows:

ΔT1 and ΔT2 are the temperature drops between two fluids at each end of a counter
flow exchanger. For a counter flow exchanger, in our case, ΔTh,i and ΔTh,o
indicate the inlet and outlet temperatures of condensing fluid, and the inlet and
outlet temperatures of cooling fluid, respectively. The heat transfer equation is
given by:
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𝑄̇=𝑈∙𝐴∙𝐹∙Δ𝑇𝑙𝑚
It means more the LMTD value more the heat transfer occurred. Tube-fin heat exchanger
have high LMTD value.

5.5 Evaporator

Direct evaporation simpler and less expensive to implement than indirect evaporation of
the working fluid.
Evaporator having plain horizontal carbon steel tubes having diameters of 25,4 mm, 31,8
mm and 38 mm, to be used in waste heat recovery via Organic Rankine cycle (ORC).
Inlet temperature of the working fluid is 40°C and the evaporation occurs at 125°C.

6 Result and Discussion

The required output power from the Organic Rankine Cycle is 100 Watt. As
this process is applied on lab scale. Therefore, the expected power is
obtained. Its efficiency and output power can be increased by increasing the
flow rate. With increasing the flow rate the required apparatus such that
turbine, pump, condenser and evaporator are modified.

7 Reference:
 Book:
T.D.EASTOP and A.McCONKEY , Applied Thermodynamics for Engineering Technologists.
6th. Ed. Longman group. 1993

Ennio Macchi Marco Astolfi , Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) Power Systems:
Technologies and Applications 1st .ed. Woodhead Publishing.2016
 Journal articles:
Preliminary Design of Compact Condenser in an Organic Rankine Cycle System for
the Low Grade Waste Heat Recovery, 2014: 8010-8035
Ranking of Working Fluids for Organic Rankine Cycle Applications, 2004: 2-7

 References from internet:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544206001812

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222552438_Working_fluids_for_low-
temperature_Organic_Rankine_Cycles