Experimental Study of Low-temperature Organic Rankine Cycle with Axial Flow Turbine☆

Abstract We build a low temperature heat recovery ORC experimental system, in which R245fa is used as working fluids, a single-stage axial flow turbine is used to generate work, and the brazed plate heat exchangers are used as evaporator and condenser. The hot water is used to simulate the low-temperature heat source with temperature in the range of 320-370K, and cooling water at ambient temperature used as heat sink. Overall performance of the low-temperature ORC system is investigated. The results show that the axial flow turbine's isentropic efficiency is near of 0.6 under different evaporating temperature, and the fluctuated characteristics of the turbine appears at evaporating temperature of near 350 K, and causes the stable overall performance of the ORC system at that temperature range. Moreover, overall net power output of the ORC system is over zero when evaporating temperature exceeds 350 K in this research.