Abstract
While organic Rankine cycles have been widely used for power generation using low grade thermal energy, Brayton cycles have not been considered feasible because the work required to compress the gas nearly compensates the turbine work output. However, if the low grade energy can be used for thermal compression of the working fluid, it may be possible to gainfully operate the Brayton cycle. With this in mind, a solid sorption based Brayton cycle is proposed in this paper. R134a, CO2, R507a, propane, R32 and R410a with activated carbon as sorbent, were considered in this proof-of-concept study due to the ready availability of adsorption data. Even though the thermal efficiency is low (<8%), the proposed scheme could add an option for distributed power generation using solar or waste heat. It is found that if irreversibilities in turbine and thermal compression are considered R32 gives a better performance than CO2 and R410a.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 171-175 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Applied Thermal Engineering |
| Volume | 62 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2014 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This paper is based on work done under the US–India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy-Research (PACE-R) for the Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the United States (SERIIUS), funded jointly by the U.S. Department of Energy under Subcontract DE-AC36-08GO28308 to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and the Government of India, through the Department of Science and Technology under Subcontract IUSSTF/JCERDC-SERIIUS/2012.
Keywords
- Activated carbon
- Organic Brayton Cycle (OBC)
- Solid sorption
- Thermal compression
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Energy Engineering and Power Technology
- Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering