Analysis of low temperature solar thermal electric generation using regenerative Organic Rankine Cycle

The innovative configuration of low temperature solar thermal electric generation with regenerative Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is designed, mainly consisting of small concentration ratio compound parabolic concentrators (CPC) and the regenerative ORC. Advantages of the innovative configuration such as effectively reducing heat transfer irreversibility and permitting the use of thermal storage with phase change materials (PCMs) are outlined. The numerical simulation of the heat transfer and power conversion processes are carried out based on distributed parameters. The effects of regenerative cycle on the collector, ORC, and overall electricity efficiency are then analyzed. The results indicate that the regenerative cycle has positive effects on the ORC efficiency but negative ones on the collector efficiency due to increment of the average working temperature of the first-stage collectors. Thus, it is necessary to evaluate the overall electricity efficiency when regenerative cycle is adopted. Further investigation shows that there are maximum efficiencies for both the ORC and the system electric generation on conditions of constant irradiance, evaporation temperature, and environment temperature. And the regenerative temperature at which the system electricity efficiency reaches its maximum is smaller than that at which the ORC efficiency reaches its maximum by 12–21 °C. Thus, the regenerative cycle optimization of the solar thermal electric generation differs from that of a solo ORC. The system electricity efficiency with regenerative ORC is about 8.6% for irradiance 750 W/m² and is relatively higher than that without the regenerative cycle by 4.9%.