Sizing the thermal energy storage (TES) device for organic Rankine cycle (ORC) power systems

¹ Department of Thermodynamics and Renewable Energy Sources, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Wybrzeże Wyspiańskiego 27, 50-370 Wrocław, Poland
² Department of Energy Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Műegyetem rkp. 3, H-1111 Budapest, Hungary

^* Corresponding author: piotr.kolasinski@pwr.edu.pl

Abstract

Thermal energy storage (TES) became one of the main research topics in modern power engineering. The design of TES devices and systems depend on their application. Different thermal energy storage materials (e.g., solids, liquids, or phase change materials) can be applied in TES devices. The selection of the thermal energy storage material depends mainly on the thermal power and operating temperature range of the TES device. These devices and systems are applied in different energy conversion systems, including solar power plants or combined heat and power (CHP) stations. The application of TES devices is also considered in the case of other industries, such as metallurgy. The possible application of TES devices is particularly promising in the case of organic Rankine cycle (ORC) systems. These systems are often utilizing floating heat sources such as solar energy, waste heat, etc. TES device can be therefore applied as the evaporator of the ORC system in order to stabilize these fluctuations. In this paper, the possible thermal energy storage materials used in TES devices applied in ORCs are discussed. Moreover, the modelling results are reported related to assessment parameters which can be applied to size the TES device for ORC system utilizing different low-boiling working fluids. The thermal properties of working fluids are taken from CoolProp. The function of heat capacity of different TES materials is also provided and the calculation is computed by employing MATLAB. The result shows that based on the simulation, the gradient of the natural characteristic of TES with working fluids (ζ(T_b)) tends to decrease. The presented result in this paper gives a new point of view which can be used by scientists and engineers during the design and implementation of TES evaporators dedicated to ORC power systems.