Development of an Organic Rankine Cycle system for exhaust energy recovery in internal combustion engines

[摘要] Road transportation is currently one of the most influencing sectors for global energy consumptions and CO2emissions. Nevertheless, more than one third of the fuel energy supplied to internal combustion engines is still rejected to the environment as thermal waste at the exhaust. Therefore, a greater fuel economy might be achieved recovering the energy from exhaust gases and converting it into useful power on board. In the current research activity, an ORC-based energy recovery system was developed and coupled with a diesel engine. The innovative feature of the recovery power unit relies upon the usage of sliding vane rotary machines as pump and expander. After a preliminary exhaust gas mapping, which allowed to assess the magnitude of the thermal power to be recovered, a thermodynamic analysis was carried out to design the ORC system and the sliding vane machines using R236fa as working fluid. An experimental campaign was eventually performed at different operating regimes according to the ESC procedure and investigated the recovery potential of the power unit at design and off-design conditions. Mechanical power recovered ranged from 0.7 kW up to 1.9 kW, with an overall cycle efficiency from 3.8% up to 4.8% respectively. These results candidate sliding vane machines as efficient and reliable devices for waste heat recovery applications.

[发布机构] University of l'Aquila, via Giovanni Gronchi 18, L'Aquila; 67100, Italy^1

[效力级别] 力学 [学科分类] 力学，机械学

[关键词] Energy recovery system;Experimental campaign;Off design condition;Operating regimes;Organic Rankine cycles;Research activities;Road transportation;Thermo dynamic analysis