Coupling effect of evaporation and condensation processes of organic Rankine cycle for geothermal power generation improvement

Organic Rankine cycle(ORC)is widely used for the low grade geothermal power generation.However,a large amount of irreversible loss results in poor technical and economic performance due to its poor matching between the heat source/sink and the working medium in the condenser and the evaporator.The condensing temperature,cooling water temperature difference and pinch point temperature difference are often fixed according to engineering experience.In order to optimize the ORC system comprehensively,the coupling effect of evaporation and condensation process was proposed in this paper.Based on the laws of thermodynamics,the energy analysis,exergy analysis and entropy analysis were adopted to investigate the ORC performance including net output power,thermal efficiency,exergy efficiency,thermal conductivity,irreversible loss,etc.,using geothermal water at a temperature of 120℃as the heat source and isobutane as the working fluid.The results show that there exists a pair of optimal evaporating temperature and condensing temperatures to maximize the system performance.The net power output and the system comprehensive performance achieve their highest values at the same evaporating temperature,but the system comprehensive performance corresponds to a lower condensing temperature than the net power output.

Hydrodynamic Analysis of a Semi-submersible Wind-Tidal Combined Power Generation Device

Energy shortages and environmental pollution are becoming increasingly severe globally. The exploitation and utilization of renewable energy have become an effective way to alleviate these problems. To improve power production capacity, power output quality, and cost effectiveness, comprehensive marine energy utilization has become an inevitable trend in marine energy development. Based on a semi-submersible wind-tidal combined power generation device,a three-dimensional frequency domain potential flow theory is used to study the hydrodynamic performance of such a device. For this study, the RAOs and hydrodynamic coefficients of the floating carrier platform to the regular wave were obtained. The influence of the tidal turbine on the platform in terms of frequency domain was considered as added mass and damping. The direct load of the tidal turbine was obtained by CFX.FORTRAN software was used for the second development of adaptive query workload aware software, which can include the external force. The motion response of the platform to the irregular wave and the tension of the mooring line were calculated under the limiting condition(one mooring line breakage). The results showed that the motion response of the carrier to the surge and sway direction is more intense, but the swing amplitude is within the acceptable range. Even in the worst case scenario, the balance position of the platform was still in the positioning range, which met the requirements of the working sea area. The safety factor of the mooring line tension also complied with the requirements of the design specification. Therefore, it was found that the hydrodynamic performance and motion responses of a semi-submersible wind-tidal combined power generation device can meet the power generation requirements under all design conditions, and the device presents a reliable power generation system.

Diesel generator exhaust heat recovery fully-coupled with intake air heating for off-grid mining operations:An experimental,numerical,and analytical evaluation

The customarily discarded exhaust from the fossil fuel-based power plants of the off-grid mines holds the thermal potential to fulfill the heating requirement of the underground operation.This present research fills in an important research gap by investigating the coupling effect between a diesel exhaust heat recovery and an intake air heating system employed in a remote mine.An integrative approach comprising analytical,numerical,and experimental assessment has been adapted.The novel analytical model developed here establishes the reliability of the proposed mine heating system by providing comparative analysis between a coupled and a decoupled system.The effect of working fluid variation has been examined by the numerical analysis and the possible improvement has been identified.Experimental investigations present a demonstration of the successful lab-scale implementation of the concept and validate the numerical and analytical models developed.Successful deployment of the fully coupled mine heating system proposed here will assist the mining industry on its journey towards energy-efficient,and sustainable mining practices through nearly 70%reduction in fossil fuel consumption for heating intentions.

Study of Improved Load Sharing Methodologies for Distributed Generation Units Connected in a Microgrid

In this paper,an improved load sharing strategy is proposed for distributed generation units(DGs)connected in a microgrid.Conventional frequency and voltage droop control result in unacceptable active and reactive power sharing.The proposed method formulates a suitable algorithm for load sharing in the islanded microgrid.The feeder power loss and the line impedance voltage drops are minimized so as to regulate the voltage at the point of common coupling(PCC)at its nominal value.The desired DG output voltages are calculated and a linear relationship is obtained between the shared active and reactive powers and the DG output voltages.A master DG controller sets the frequency which is followed by other DG units.The reference powers for the DG units are adjusted so as to maintain the rated PCC voltage.The proposed strategy is verified taking into account the DG ratings,unequal line impedance drops,feeder losses,change in system impedance and effect of DG local loads and formulates an improved power sharing strategy that also facilitates PCC voltage regulation under variable loading conditions.Simulation and experimental results are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.