Experimental investigation on the performance of ORC power system using zeotropic mixture R601a/R600a

Summary An experimental study on the practical performance of organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system using zeotropic mixture is performed by using a small scale ORC power generation experimental setup. R601a/R600a is selected as the working fluid. The effects of mixture composition, heat source temperature, and working fluid flow rate on the performance of ORC system are investigated. The experimental results indicate that the net power output first increases and then decreases as the R600a concentration increases. The optimal mixture composition with the maximum net power output is 0.6/0.4 (mass fraction) at the heat source temperature of 115°C. The net power output of R601a/R600a (0.6/0.4) is higher than that of R601a by 25%, indicating that the performance of ORC system can be clearly improved by using the zeotropic mixture. For a fixed working fluid flow rate, both net power output and thermal efficiency first decrease slowly and then drop sharply with the decrease of the heat source temperature. The appropriate superheat degree of R601a/R600a is in the range of 15 to 20°C when the heat source temperature has a small variation. In addition, the optimal working fluid volume flow rates yielding the maximum net power output are obtained for different compositions of R601a/R600a. The experimental results in the study can be of great significance for the design and operation of ORC power system using zeotropic mixture. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.