Exergy performance of a new ORC configuration of a solar cogeneration system using a gas ejector

Université de Tunis El Manar, Ecole Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Tunis, Unité de Recherche Energétique et Environnement, 1002, Tunis, Tunisie

^* Corresponding author: author@e-mail.org

Abstract

In the context of sustainable development and more particularly the conversion of heat into electricity, the present work proposes a new system of cogeneration operating at low energy value. It’s an organic Rankine cycle, associated with a gas ejector and operating with different organic fluids. It should be noted that the development of the ORC technology is partly a well-adapted response to problems of energy saving and ecosystem preservation. Accordingly, this paper presents a new configuration of a cogeneration system operating at low temperature and ensuring the simultaneous production of electricity and refrigeration. The proposed system is operating under transcritical and subcritical regime using solar energy as thermal source. On the other hand, an energy and exergy study has been developed by choosing the refrigerants R124, R236fa, R1234yf and R1234ze as working fluids according to their low environmental impact and thermodynamic properties. The results of the numerical simulation carried out as part of this study have also shown the importance of integrating the ejector into the proposed machine. Indeed, we investigated the effect of the thermodynamic parameters of the ejector on the coefficient of performance and the exergy efficiency of the cogeneration system.