Empirical Correlation for Optimal Turbine Inlet Temperature

and Pressure for Geothermal Organic Rankine Cycles (ORC)

Yodha Y. Nusiaputra, Fitratul Qadri, Dietmar Kuhn, Halim Abdurrachim

Institute for Nuclear and Energy Engineering, Energy and Process Engineering Group

KIT University of the Baden-Wrttemberg State and

National Research Center in the Helmholtz Association

www.kit.edu

Introduction
Organic Rankine Cycles (ORCs) is well suited for renewable energy, low-grade heat
utilization (Quoilin, 2013)
Medium temperature geothermal resources
Combined (flash-binary) cycle for high-enthalpy geothermal reservoir
Mid-enthalpy geothermal reservoir

(Yari, 2010)

03/17/16

Yodha Y. Nusiaputra

(Gabbrielli, 2012)

Institute for Nuclear and Energy Engineering

ORC configuration
Simple Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) without recuperator
Sub- and Supercritical ORC

(Quoilin, 2013)

03/17/16

Yodha Y. Nusiaputra

Institute for Nuclear and Energy Engineering

Simulation results example

TIT : 104 C
TIP : 4.6 MPa

(Vetter, 2013)

03/17/16

Yodha Y. Nusiaputra

Institute for Nuclear and Energy Engineering

Simulation data collection

5 hydrocarbon working fluids as samples
Pentane
Isopentane
Butane
Isobutane
Propane

Two site-specific boundary constraints:

Geothermal (brine) temperature
Injection temperature due to mineral scaling / reservoir temperature-breakthrough

Simulation range: geothermal (brine) temperature of 120 180 with injection temperature
of 70 160 174 simulation data points
Correlate the optimal Turbine Inlet Temperature and Pressure (TITP) to geothermal
(brine) temperature and injection temperature
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Yodha Y. Nusiaputra

Institute for Nuclear and Energy Engineering

Simulation data collection

ORC - Process
Condensation temperature
Pump efficiency
Turbine efficiency
Pinch-point
Pressure drop in HEX

40C
0.75
0.8
5K
-

Geothermal brine
Mass flow
Pressure
Brine temperature Tgeo
Injection temperature Tinj
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Yodha Y. Nusiaputra

1 kg/s
1.4 MPa
120 - 180 C
70 - 160 C

Institute for Nuclear and Energy Engineering

2-D Empirical correlation

2

Tg

Tg
T
T
a3 g a4 g a5 Tinj , n a6 Tinj ,n 2 a7 Tinj , n 3
f
, Tinj a1 a2
Tcrit

Tcrit n
Tcrit n
Tcrit n
Tg
a8
Tcrit

Tg
Tcrit

Tinj ,n a9
n

Tg
Tcrit

Tinj , n a10
n

Tg

Tcrit

, with

9.263 10 2

Tinj ,n Tinj 372.1 22.01

Tinj ,n 2

g 1.006
Tcrit

Polynomial constants a110 refer to Nusiaputra et.,al. (2015)

TIT

TIP
2.5

1.3

1.1

p1,opt/pcrit

T1,opt/Tcrit

1.2
1
0.9
0.8

420

0
400
380

360

Tinj [K]

03/17/16

1
0.5

0.7

R-squared: 0.98

1.5

RSME: 0.017
Yodha Y. Nusiaputra

0.9

1
Tg/Tcrit

1.1

1.2

420

400
380

360

Tinj [K]

R-squared: 0.98

0.9

1.1

1.2

Tg/Tcrit

RSME: 0.076
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2-D Empirical correlation

Geothermal brine temperature has a strong influence to the optimal TITP
Correlation for TIT is better fitted the data
2
420

1.1

400

380

0.9

360

1.5
Tinj [K]

Tinj [K]

420

0.9

0.95

1
1.05
Tg/Tcrit

1.1

0.04

1.15

1.2

0
-0.01

1.1

1.15

1.2

TIP - residuals
TIP - validation residuals

0.05
0
-0.05

-0.15

-0.03

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1
1.05
Tg/Tcrit

-0.1

-0.02

0.95

0.1
p1,opt/pcrit

T1,opt/Tcrit

0.01

0.9

0.15

0.02

-0.04

0.5
0.85

TIT - residuals
TIT - validation residuals

0.03

380
360

0.8
0.85

400

-0.2
0.85

0.9

0.95

1.05
Tg/Tcrit

Yodha Y. Nusiaputra

1.1

1.15

1.2

0.85

0.9

0.95

1.05
Tg/Tcrit

1.1

1.15

1.2

Institute for Nuclear and Energy Engineering

Validation to simulation results

15 different working fluids (excluding 5 HCs from previous simulation) at randomly chosen
geothermal (brine) temperature injection temperature

+ 5%

+ 2%
- 5%

03/17/16

Yodha Y. Nusiaputra

- 2%

Institute for Nuclear and Energy Engineering

Study cases
20 different working fluids (15 + 5 WFs) at Tgeo-Tinj of 180-140 (combined-cycle) and 140
80 (mid-enthalpy)

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Yodha Y. Nusiaputra

Institute for Nuclear and Energy Engineering

Conclusions
A new empirical correlation for TITP has been devised for geothermal (brine) temperature
of 120 180 C and injection temperature of 70 160 C
It was obtained that all the optimum point spread around correlation line with relative
error for optimum TIT, TIP, and specific net power output within 2.5%, 26%, and 2%
Within typical value ranges, it is valid regardless of pinch-point, condensation
temperature, and recuperation effect.
However, multi-dimensional fitting which includes these parameters is foreseen to predict
optimal TITP more accurately

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Yodha Y. Nusiaputra

Institute for Nuclear and Energy Engineering

Thank you for your attention !

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Yodha Y. Nusiaputra

Institute for Nuclear and Energy Engineering