Session: 10-01: Alternative Energy Conversion Technology (including Wind, Geothermal, Hydro, and Ocean)

Paper Number: 131901

131901 - Design and Operation Optimization of an Integrated Solar-Powered Organic Rankine Cycle System With Energy Storage 

Abstract: 

Nowadays, the concept of energy sustainability is being emphasized by many governments and researchers worldwide. People have started to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and pursue alternative energy sources that are clean, sustainable, reliable, and affordable. The organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system can utilize thermal energy from low-temperature sources to produce electrical energy. It is considered a feasible and promising method to reduce the cost and emission of power generation, especially when it is driven by sustainable and renewable energy sources like solar energy. These features make ORC attractive to researchers all around the world. Extensive research on the performance analysis of organic Rankine cycle systems has been conducted and presented in the literature. However, there are not many studies on the design and operation optimization of ORC systems, especially for an integrated solar-powered ORC and energy storage system. In this paper, an integrated solar-powered ORC with battery energy storage (ORC-BES) system is proposed, and its performance is optimized with the objectives of reducing operational cost, capital cost, and carbon dioxide emission (CDE) for different building types and locations. First, the hourly energy consumption profile of each building is obtained by EnergyPlus simulations. Then the proposed system, which includes ORC, flat plate solar thermal collector, and battery energy storage, is configured in such a manner that the solar-powered ORC generates electricity for the building during daytime while the BES stores excess electricity for later use. A multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) is adopted to determine the optimal organic working fluid, battery size, solar thermal collector size, and the operation parameters (i.e., evaporating temperature, condensing temperature, and so on) for the proposed ORC-BES system. Several different dry organic fluids are selected to evaluate the performance of the system. The building types under investigation in this paper include hospitals, large offices, and large hotels, which are the commercial reference building models developed by the Department of Energy (DOE). Several locations separated in different climate zones in the United States, including California, New Mexico, Texas, Florida, Georgia, and Illinois, are chosen as case studies to present the optimization results. The weather data for each location is used to determine the available heat from the solar thermal collector that could be utilized by the ORC-BES system. Results show that the proposed optimization method can be effectively applied to ORC-BES system to obtain an optimal design and operation, which reaches a trade-off between the economic, energy, and environmental performance of different buildings and locations.

Presenting Author: Krisha Maharjan University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Presenting Author Biography: Krisha Maharjan is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

Authors:

Krisha Maharjan University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Heejin Cho University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Pedro Mago West Virginia University
Wahiba Yaïci Natural Resources Canada
Qinrong Cui Northeastern University
Jian Zhang University of Wisconsin Green Bay