This is a national stage application of PCT application PCT/IB2020/053343 having an international filing date of Apr. 8, 2020. This application claims foreign priority based on application No. 102019000006817 filed with the Italian Patent Office on May 14, 2019.
The present and invention relates to an innovative cascade organic Rankine cycle plant which exploits a source of sensible heat at low or medium temperature, for example of geothermal or industrial heat recovery type.
As known, a finite sequence of thermodynamic transformations (for example isothermal, isochoric, isobaric or adiabatic transformations) is defined as a thermodynamic cycle, at the end of which the system returns to its initial state. In particular, an ideal Rankine cycle is a thermodynamic cycle consisting of two adiabatic and two isobaric transformations, with two phase changes, from liquid to vapor and from vapor to liquid. Its purpose is to transform heat into work. This cycle is generally adopted mainly in thermoelectric power plants for the production of electricity and uses water, both in liquid and vapor form, as driving fluid, and the corresponding expansion takes place in the so-called steam turbine.
In addition to Rankine cycles with water as a working fluid, organic Rankine cycles (ORC) have been conceived and created which use high molecular mass organic fluids for the most various applications, in particular also for the exploitation of low-medium temperature thermal sources temperature. As in other steam cycles, the plant for an ORC cycle includes one or more pumps for feeding the organic working fluid, one or more heat exchangers for carrying out the preheating, vaporization and possible overheating or heating phases in supercritical conditions of the same working fluid, a steam turbine for the expansion of the fluid, mechanically connected to an electric generator or an operating machine, a condenser which brings the organic fluid back to the liquid state and a possible regenerator for recovering the heat downstream of the turbine and upstream of the condenser.
In heat recovery and geothermal applications, the adoption of an organic Rankine cycle has proven to be a feasible, efficient and economic solution compared to the traditional steam cycle, in particular when the temperature of the heat source is from medium to low (i.e. less than 250° C.) and in particular in the sources is mainly present in liquid or mixed liquid+vapor phase.
In the case of a heat source mainly in liquid phase (as in the case of geothermal energy, the introduction of heat into the thermodynamic cycle from the hot source takes place at highly variable temperatures. On the contrary, the transfer of heat from the cold source to the cycle condenser is mainly made at a slightly variable temperature as the technical-economic optimization of the flow rate of the cooling fluid (both air and water) usually leads to the use of large flow rates and therefore to small temperature differences.
In
TH_in and TH_out indicate respectively the inlet and outlet temperature of the hot source, while TC_in and TC_out respectively indicate the inlet and outlet temperature of the cold source.
In the five cycles shown in
It is noted that for graphic needs, the dotted line representing the introduction of heat into the cycle, even in these two ideal cycles, is drawn slightly offset from the line representing the heat transfer curve. Furthermore, the heat transfer curves are represented with straight segments even if in reality in the Ts plane said lines should be slightly curved.
If the small temperature variation of the cold source is not considered, the ideal thermodynamic cycle which maximizes the conversion efficiency is a trapezoidal cycle (
With regard to the correct sizing of the machines, in order to avoid high pressures or in any case to take advantage of other favorable characteristics of the organic fluids, it is often preferred to resort to a diagram with multiple pressure levels such as the one shown in
A scheme widely adopted since the 1980s is a two-level plant scheme, such as the one described, for example, in document GB2162583A. The cycle described is called “cascade” as it uses different levels of temperature (and pressure) such as the one shown in
With reference to
The prior art documents reported above refer to a two-level cascade cycle, but the same principle can be applied to a greater number of “levels”.
As seen therefore, a technique to increase the power consists in extracting more heat from the source fluid by increasing the overall temperature drop at the end of the heat exchanges and at the same time by trying to keep as high as possible the temperature of generation of the steam that feeds the turbine, in order to keep high the efficiency of converting heat into mechanical energy. A cascade system still fulfills this task (compared to a single-level subcritical cycle such as the one shown in
There is however the need to further optimize the efficiency of an organic cascade Rankine cycle, in order to improve the economic yield in particular of geothermal plants, which are often heavily penalized by high costs for the realization of the working operations and for which therefore an increase in electrical production is significantly helpful.
The aim of the present invention is to further increase the efficiency of an organic Rankine cycle, by using an optimized cascade cycle.
In particular, the organic cascade Rankine cycle which is the object of the present invention includes a first high-temperature cycle, a second low-temperature cycle, wherein the first high-temperature cycle comprises a further vaporizer working at an intermediate pressure between the pressure of the vaporizer of the high temperature cycle and the pressure of the vaporizer of the low temperature cycle. Said further vaporizer is fed by a partial flow of the hot source extracted downstream of the first vaporizer and upstream of a preheater of the same high temperature cycle, according to independent claim 1.
Further preferred and/or particularly advantageous embodiments of the invention are described according to the characteristics set out in the annexed dependent claims.
The invention will now be described with reference to the annexed drawings, which illustrate some non-limiting examples of embodiments, in which:
FIGS. 1_a to 1_e represent thermodynamic cycles according to the prior art,
The invention relates to an optimized organic cascade Rankine cycle.
In more detail, the high temperature cycle 110 comprises a supply pump 3 for pressurizing the organic fluid, a first preheater 4 which causes a first increase in the temperature of the organic fluid and a second preheater 2 which further raises its temperature.
Then the organic fluid of the high temperature cycle passes through a vaporizer 1 in which the passage to the vapor state and its possible overheating take place.
The heat exchanger of the high temperature cycle has been divided into two separate containers: a preheater 2 and a vaporizer 1. Preheater 2 and vaporizer 1 perform the same thermodynamic function as the exchanger described, for example, in GB2162583A, here called ‘vaporizer’ with reference to the fact that it produces steam but being clearly indicated in the text which also performs the function of preheating the organic fluid. The organic fluid in the vapor phase passes through a turbine 5 into which it expands. The mechanical energy collected by the turbine 5 is used for supplying an electric generator G1 or another user. The organic fluid finally passes through a condenser 6 where it returns to the liquid state and starts the cycle again.
Similarly, the low temperature cycle 120 comprises a supply pump 13, a preheater 14, a vaporizer 11, a turbine 15 connected to a generator G2 and a condenser 16. All these components, evidently, operate on the organic fluid of this low temperature cycle in the same way as the homologous components of the high temperature cycle.
In an alternative configuration, according to the prior art, a single generator could be replaced with the generators G1 and G2, with the two turbines 5 and 15 connected to the two outlet shaft (on opposite sides) of the generator.
Obviously, the organic cascade cycle 100 according to the present invention may be provided with a number greater than two cycles, just as one or more cycles may provide for the use of further preheaters and/or recuperators (also called ‘regenerators’) installed downstream of the turbines with the function of further preheating the liquid at the expense of the sensitive heat of the steam discharged from the turbine itself) as well as all the accessory components typical of organic Rankine cycles.
According to the present invention, the thermodynamic cycle is provided with a further vaporizer 7, operating at an intermediate pressure between the pressure of the vaporizer 1 and the pressure of the vaporizer 11 of the low temperature cycle.
The hot source 10 feeds the heat exchangers illustrated so far in the following way: firstly it passes through the first vaporizer 1 of the high temperature cycle 110, then by means of a branch identified by point A in
Considering the working fluid of the high temperature cycle 110, the further vaporizer 7 is fed by a partial flow of liquid extracted at the outlet of the preheater 2 (point B in
The partial flow exits the vaporizer 7 and feeds the high pressure turbine 5. This intermediate pressure fluid may be used in the turbine 5 at high pressure for two alternative functions:
This configuration also represents a simple solution as it does not involve the addition of a further turbine (but only a modification thereof or the addition of a point of introduction of steam into the intermediate pressure turbine) and the addition of a single additional heat exchanger. It is also a technically different and simpler solution than the addition of a further cascade cycle according to the prior art of GB2162583A, as in addition to the evaporator, a further preheater, a further turbine and a further condenser are not added.
In geothermal applications in general, the heat exchangers used are of the tube bundle type with the hot geothermal source inside the pipes of the tube bundle and the organic fluid outside the tubes or inside the casing, in order to allow easy cleaning of the pipes (for example by brushing). This type of heat exchanger can also be adopted for the further vaporizer 7 and, in order to obtain an adequate control of the system, it is possible to control the liquid level within the vaporizer 7 with a valve V. Said valve V allows to control the level of organic liquid present in the casing of the vaporizer 3 by means of a ‘LC’ level meter. The ‘LC’ level meter actuates the valve V through, for example, a control with PID (Proportional Integral Derivative) logic.
The Figure shows the two high temperature 110 and low temperature 120 cycles and, in particular, the cooling curve of the hot source in the case of a liquid source with points:
A second embodiment of the present invention is shown in
A third embodiment of the present invention is shown in
In this embodiment, therefore, a double withdrawal of working fluid occurs downstream of each preheater, respectively downstream of the preheater 9 (point C) and downstream of the preheater 2 (point B) towards the vaporizer 8 and the vaporizer 7 respectively.
The outgoing flows respectively from the vaporizer 8 and from the vaporizer 7, at different pressure levels, reach the turbine 5 and can be used, as in previous cases, in order to neutralize a loss in two labyrinths in the turbine (which operate at different pressures) following either the teaching of patent application No EP3405653 of the writer or for feeding an intermediate pressure stage of the turbine, following for example the teaching of patent application No EP3455465 of the writer.
In the event that the cycle used is has three levels instead of two levels (as described for example in GB2162583A), the proposed solution can be applied both to the higher temperature level (first level) and to the intermediate one, by using in the intermediate cycle a pattern identical to the one of the upper cycle. In this case, the further vaporizer supplies the second turbine, that is the one at an intermediate level.
Both in the case of a two-level and a three-level cycle, for the section at the lower temperature level (last level) the scheme proposed in patent EP3455465 can also be used, in which the flow from the additional vaporizer supplies either a labyrinth (as said in EP3455465) or a suitable intermediate pressure section in the low level turbine itself.
In addition to the embodiments of the invention, as described above, it is to be understood that there are numerous further variants. It must also be understood that said embodiments are only examples and do not limit either the scope of the invention, or its applications, or its possible configurations. On the contrary, although the above description makes it possible for the skilled man to implement the present invention at least according to an exemplary configuration, it must be understood that numerous variants of the described components are conceivable, without thereby leaving the scope of the invention, as defined in the attached claims, interpreted literally and/or according to their legal equivalents.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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102019000006589 | May 2019 | IT | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/IB2020/054071 | 4/30/2020 | WO |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2020/225660 | 11/12/2020 | WO | A |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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20100263380 | Biederman | Oct 2010 | A1 |
20110314818 | Breen | Dec 2011 | A1 |
20140075937 | Batscha | Mar 2014 | A1 |
20150075164 | Batscha | Mar 2015 | A1 |
20150135709 | Batscha | May 2015 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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103195518 | Jul 2013 | CN |
Entry |
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English Translation CN-103195518-A (Year: 2013). |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20220205370 A1 | Jun 2022 | US |