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Session: Poster session & Sponsor Exhibition
Session starts: Monday 07 October, 14:00

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Errol Yuksek (Access Energy, LLC)
Parsa Mirmobin (Access Energy, LLC)

Abstract:
EXTENDED ABSTRACT Surveying global heat sources available for generation of electric power both in industrial applications and from natural sources, it is clear that the vast majority of such sources are at the lower end of the temperature spectrum (180 F to 220 F). Access Energy has developed a high efficiency, low temperature organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system to specifically address the largely untapped heat sources available for power production. Access Energy has leveraged its existing ORC products and technologies to develop this extra low temperature (XLT) ORC system. At the heart of the new design is the integrated power module (IPM) - a hermetically sealed, high speed expander coupled to a permanent magnet (PM) generator supported by magnetic bearings. Power from the IPM is fed to an advanced power converter that converts variable frequency, variable voltage power to constant frequency constant voltage grid quality output power with efficiencies in excess of 94%. These key features combine to create a robust, high efficiency, maintenance free power generator. In order to maintain high system efficiency across the wide source temperature range, the turbine is designed to operate across a large range of pressure ratios (2:1 to 8:1). This significant goal has been realized through advanced real gas CFD analysis of the entire IPM assembly together with results from the successful fielded ThermapowerTM 125MT system. The design of the XLT ORC system is most heavily influenced by the heat source conditions, the cooling source and ambient conditions, heat exchanger design, working fluid selection, and turbo-generator design. Results of the turbine and CFD analysis were fed into a high fidelity ASPEN Plus plant model. The ASPEN model incorporates real fluid, pump, turbine and heat exchanger characteristics. Together with advanced solver algorithms, a highly accurate performance prediction for the entire ORC system has been achieved. LITERATURE [1] Hawkins, L., Zhu, L., Blumber, E., et al., 2012. Heat-to-Electricity with High-Speed Magnetic Bearing/Generator System. In: Geothermal Resources Council, Annual Meeting. Reno, NV, USA, 1-3 October 2012.