Industrial Consultancy & Sponsored Research (IC&SR) , IIT Madras

Two Stage Regenerative Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) Heat Recovery Based Power Generation System

Technology Category/Market

Category – Energy infrastructure/ Automotive

Applications –Clean energy , energy conservation, power generation, engines , turbines

Industry – Power generation , Automobiles

Market –The Global Power Generation Market size was valued at around USD 1,593.84 Billion in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 2,111.80 Billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 3.59% from 2024 to 2030.

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Problem Statement

  • Conventional two-stage cascaded systems offer simplicity with a single organic fluid and improved heat extraction from multiple heat sources and are only effective under specific heat source conditions.
  • Existing ORC architectures are either complex with extensive heat exchangers, making them less economical, or they have low thermal efficiency and performance.

Technology

The main components include:

  • Fluid Tank: Holds the organic fluid at both high pressure (HP) and low pressure (LP)

  • LP Pump : Circulates the organic fluid throughout the system

  • First Loop: Performs supercritical evaporation of the organic fluid to produce supercritical vapor

  • Second Loop: Performs sub-critical evaporation of the organic fluid to obtain subcritical vapor.

  • Two-stage Expander: Converts the mechanical energy from the trans-critical expansion of the organic fluid into electrical energy for power generation.

  • Regenerator: Recovers energy from the superheated vapor resulting from the trans-critical expansion of the organic fluid.

  • Condenser: Condenses the superheated vapor of the organic fluid into a saturated fluid after power generation.

Key Features/Value Proposition

Technical Perspective:

  • Two Stage Regenerative Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) with improved power outputs using trans-critical evaporation and regeneration stages
  • The combination of supercritical heating in the HP stage and partial evapouration and regeneration in the LP stage can improve thermal match and also achieve increased heat source utilization
  • Further, the regenerator can take various forms, including a direct mixing vapor generator, an ejector, or a recuperator, and is used for energy recovery from the superheated vapor and two-phase organic fluid

User Perspective:

  • Improved thermal efficiency, improved regeneration without using additional heat exchanger, reduced superheat in the condenser inlet.
Questions about this Technology?

Contact for Licensing

Research Lab

Prof. Satyanarayanan Seshadri

Department of Applied Mechanics

Intellectual Property

  • IITM IDF Ref. 1974
  • IN202041008106
  • PCT/IN2021/050178

Technology Readiness Level

TRL-2

 Technology Concept formulated 

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