An Energy Investigation of An Organic Rankine Cycle Utilizing Three Organic Fluids

Abstract

This study presents an energy study of an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) by comparingthree organic fluids. The latter is considered as a promising cycle for the conversion ofheat into mechanical energy adapted to low-temperature heat sources; it uses more volatileorganic fluids than water, which generally has high molecular weights, thus allowing operating pressures at temperatures lower than those of the traditional Rankine cycle. This studydevoted to the energy analysis of the ORC cycle, taking into account the effect of the operating temperatures and the choice of the organic fluid on the cycle performance. The utilizedthree fluids were Toluene, R245fa and R123. The results obtained show that the Tolueneorganic fluid has the best energy efficiency of the cycle with 7.45%.