Open Access

ARTICLE

Thermodynamic Performance Analysis of Geothermal Power Plant Based on Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) Using Mixture of Pure Working Fluids

by Abdul Sattar Laghari¹, Mohammad Waqas Chandio¹, Laveet Kumar^2,*, Mamdouh El Haj Assad³

1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, 76062, Pakistan
2 Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, Qatar University, Doha, 00000, Qatar
3 Sustainable & Renewable Energy Engineering Department, University of Sharjah, Sharjah , 00000, United Arab Emirates

* Corresponding Author: Laveet Kumar. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Advances in Geothermal Energy)

Energy Engineering 2024, 121(8), 2023-2038. https://doi.org/10.32604/ee.2024.051082

Received 27 February 2024; Accepted 22 May 2024; Issue published 19 July 2024

Abstract

The selection of working fluid significantly impacts the geothermal ORC’s Efficiency. Using a mixture as a working fluid is a strategy to improve the output of geothermal ORC. In the current study, modelling and thermodynamic analysis of ORC, using geothermal as a heat source, is carried out at fixed operating conditions. The model is simulated in the Engineering Equation Solver (EES). An environment-friendly mixture of fluids, i.e., R245fa/R600a, with a suitable mole fraction, is used as the operating fluid. The mixture provided the most convenient results compared to the pure working fluid under fixed operating conditions. The impact of varying the evaporator pressure on the performance parameters, including energy efficiency, exergy efficiency and net power output is investigated. The system provided the optimal performance once the evaporator pressure reached the maximum value. The efficiencies: Energy and Exergy, and Net Power output of the system are 16.62%, 64.08% and 2199 kW for the basic cycle and 20.72%, 67.76% and 2326 kW respectively for the regenerative cycle.

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Keywords

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