Performance analysis of cogeneration systems based on micro gas turbine (MGT), organic Rankine cycle and ejector refrigeration cycle

Abstract

In this paper, the operation performance of three novel kinds of cogeneration systems under design and off-design condition was investigated. The systems are MGT (micro gas turbine) + ORC (organic Rankine cycle) for electricity demand, MGT+ ERC (ejector refrigeration cycle) for electricity and cooling demand, and MGT+ ORC+ ERC for electricity and cooling demand. The effect of 5 different working fluids on cogeneration systems was studied. The results show that under the design condition, when using R600 in the bottoming cycle, the MGT+ ORC system has the lowest total output of 117.1 kW with a thermal efficiency of 0.334, and the MGT+ ERC system has the largest total output of 142.6 kW with a thermal efficiency of 0.408. For the MGT+ ORC+ ERC system, the total output is between the other two systems, which is 129.3 kW with a thermal efficiency of 0.370. For the effect of different working fluids, R123 is the most suitable working fluid for MGT+ ORC with the maximum electricity output power and R600 is the most suitable working fluid for MGT+ ERC with the maximum cooling capacity, while both R600 and R123 can make MGT+ ORC+ ERC achieve a good comprehensive performance of refrigeration and electricity. The thermal efficiency of three cogeneration systems can be effectively improved under off-design condition because the bottoming cycle can compensate for the power decrease of MGT. The results obtained in this paper can provide a reference for the design and operation of the cogeneration system for distributed energy systems (DES).

Keywords

cogeneration system / different working fluids / micro gas turbine (MGT) / organic Rankine cycle (ORC) / ejector refrigeration cycle (ERC)

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51376123) and the Aerospace Innovation Project (No. 0510).

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2018 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature