The net power output of ideal supercritical organic Rankine cycle with different flow arrangement evaporators

The theoretical models of net power output for ideal supercritical ORC (organic Rankine cycle) with the evaporator of counter flow, parallel flow, and cross flow are, respectively, proposed. The effects of the ratio of heat capacity rates of heat source and working fluid, the number of heat transfer unit, and the ratio of the cycle high and low temperatures on the net power output of ideal supercritical ORC are addressed. The numerical simulation results of ideal supercritical ORC elucidate that the larger rate difference between the heat capacity of working fluids and heat source will help to improve the net power output. The net power output will be kept constant when the number of heat transfer unit reaches a certain value. In addition, supercritical ORC with counter flow evaporator exhibits the largest net power output while one with parallel flow evaporator does the lowest. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.