Design of an Experimental Micro-Scale ORC Plant for Residential Concentrated Solar Thermal Application

ORCs power plants are the most suitable systems for low-grade thermal energy recovery and power conversion. Coupling a micro-scale ORC plant with Parabolic Trough Collectors as thermal source can satisfy the demand of a... [ view full abstract ]

ORCs power plants are the most suitable systems for low-grade thermal energy recovery and power conversion. Coupling a micro-scale ORC plant with Parabolic Trough Collectors as thermal source can satisfy the demand of a domestic user in terms of electrical and thermal power. The aim of this work is the development of an experimental micro-scale ORC plant to evaluate the application and detect the  improvements perspectives. A numerical analysis has been developed with the purpose of designing the experimental test bench and predict the operation of the plant in different working conditions. Within the plant design, special attention has been reserved to sensor and instrumentation setting with the purpose of characterize each component in terms of pressure, temperature, power and energy. A software specifically developed in National Instrument Labview® environment, allowing a direct connection to the NIST REFPROP® thermodynamic properties libraries, manages the instruments. This paper carries out the development process of the ORC experimental plant, outline numerical results of the designing model, describes the test prototype and present the investigation of some experimental working condition points.