The Organic Rankine Cycle, for its intrinsical characteristics – first of all, the low temperature required for operation – is optimally suited to be used as the basis for heat recovery systems, designed to turn uselessly wasted heat into a valuable resource.
Diesel engines typically convert no more than 33% of the energy contained in their fuel> in mechanical energy; about 25% of the energy input ends up in the cooling circuit and 33% in the exhaust gases (source: SAE ). So, it is evident how any intervention having the purpose of recovering at least a part of that large waste of energy is welcome.
Zuccato Energia ORC systems have found several applications in combination with a wide range of overheated water generation systems based on biomass combustion. These systems usually operate one or more ORC modules using overheated water coming from a fixed- or mobile-grate boiler burning automatically-fed wooden biomass chips derived from sawmills, woodworking industry or the pruning of state or municipal woods.
Zuccato Energia ORC systems can be easily used to realize thermodynamic solar plants, in particular hybrid solar plants, thanks to their excellent performances when operating under partial load – i.e. when the thermal input is lower than nominal, a situation that happens often in this type of application.
Geothermal heat is an inexhaustible, constant form of energy coming from the Earth’s own molten core, and its temperature grows in direct proportion to the depth one drills below the earth’s surface.