OPTIMAL DESIGN OF ORGANIC RANKINE CYCLE POWER PLANTS FOR EFFICIENT UTILIZATION of BIOMASS ENERGY IN NIGERIA

Authors : Joseph OYEKALE, Akpaduado JOHN

Pages : 99-124

Doi:10.59313/jsr-a.1200870

View : 28 | Download : 6

Publication Date : 2023-03-29

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This study investigated the optimal design choice among four organic Rankine cycle insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(ORC); configurations for efficient utilization of solid biomass energy in Nigeria. Although vast opportunities exist for large-scale biomass power plants in the country, there has been little or no practical implementation yet, due to the limitation of technical know-how regarding thermodynamic conversion technologies. To bridge this gap, a thermodynamic optimization technique was applied in this study to the ORC. Specifically, the subcritical ORC insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(SUBORC);, the regenerative subcritical ORC insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(SUBORC-REGEN);, the supercritical ORC insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(SUPERORC);, and the regenerative supercritical ORC insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(SUPERORC-REGEN); configurations were compared using established zero-dimensional optimization models implemented in MATLAB. Results showed that the SUPERORC-REGEN would be the most preferred choice amongst the options compared. Specifically, a palm kernel expeller insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(PKE); biomass fuel considered could yield about 1.98 MW of power at a thermal efficiency of about 28%. Additionally, it was obtained that the supercritical ORC would always outperform the subcritical types technically, with or without a regenerator. For the regenerative configurations, results showed that the supercritical ORC would generate 113 kW and 429 kW more net power than the subcritical ORC, respectively for n-pentane and n-butane working fluids. Similarly, the study reiterated that adopting a regenerative configuration would improve ORC performance. For instance, the SUPERORC-REGEN yielded 63% and 73% more power than the SUPERORC, respectively for n-pentane and n-butane working fluids. The practical economic implications of the different ORC configurations should be examined in future studies, alongside the investigation of exergy-based optimization potentials on component basis.
Keywords : Organic Rankine Cycle, Biomass Energy, Renewable Power Plant, Sustainable Energy System, ORC Thermodynamic Optimization

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