Entropea Labs - Model re-gen - ORC Engine
Rankine cycles have been used throughout the industrial history to convert thermal energy into kinetic energy and/or electricity. Rankine cycles work by evaporating a working fluid at a high pressure (cycle top pressure), energy is subsequently extracted from the working fluid by means of an expansion process (pressure reduction to bottom pressure), and finally the working fluid is condensed and re-pressurised thus resetting the thermodynamic cycle.
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ORCs employ an Organic Fluid undergoing the same thermal processes as the standard Rankine cycle, where water is used as the working fluid. Different organic fluids have different state and phase-change properties. For example, organic fluids may be used as refrigerants if they evaporate at very low temperatures; or they can be used in the context of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and or Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) from low-grade energy sources, such as geothermal applications. Organic fluids can therefore be chosen depending on the type of heat source and its duty cycle.
Entropea Labs has created models, which can optimise thermodynamic cycles performance based on power output and components costs. This includes optimization of a thermal cycle, fluid selection, component selection/sizing/rating, transient cycle analysis and optimization.