Experimental campaign and modeling of a low-capacity waste heat recovery system based on a single screw expander

This paper presents an experimental characterization of an 11 kWe single screw expander modified from a standard compressor and integrated into an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) test facility using Solkatherm as working fluid. A total of 62 steady-state points are collected over a wide range of operating conditions to evaluate the expander and the system performance by changing the expander rotational speed, the pump frequency and the cooling condenser flow rate. The maximum expander isentropic efficiency and generated power are respectively 64.78% and 7.8 kWe. A maximum cycle efficiency of 9.8% is reached for an evaporating temperature of 108 X C and a condensing temperature of 27.5 X C. A low order semi-empirical model of the expander is derived based on the experimental data. Performance curves for the ORC unit components are implemented and used to develop a steady-state model of the ORC unit. The steady-state model of the whole system is then validated against experimental data.

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