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Design and Experimental Study of Organic Rankine Cycle System

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "J1: Heat and Mass Transfer".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 August 2025 | Viewed by 477

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Thermodynamics and Renewable Energy Sources, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, 50-370 Wrocław, Poland
Interests: organic Rankine cycle (ORC) systems; thermodynamics; heat transfer; waste energy recovery; renewable energy; energy management; volumetric machines
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Guest Editor
Department of Thermodynamics and Renewable Energy Sources, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Wybrzeże Wyspiańskiego 27, 50-370 Wrocław, Poland
Interests: organic Rankine cycle (ORC) systems; thermodynamics; heat transfer; two-phase expansion system; artificial intelligence; phase equilibria; volumetric machines

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The global push for decarbonization has driven significant innovation across power generation systems and industrial and manufacturing processes. As the urgency of reducing greenhouse gas emissions rises, transitioning energy generation to cleaner and more sustainable practices becomes a necessity. This shift requires improving energy efficiency and integrating renewable energy sources into energy systems. Also, there has been growing research interest in the recovery and valorisation of waste heat. One promising technology in this area is the organic Rankine cycle (ORC), which thermodynamically converts low-grade heat sources (such as waste heat from industrial processes, geothermal energy, solar thermal energy, biomass, and so on) into electricity.  In addition, the ORC can harness cold energy from the regasification processes of liquefied natural gas (LNG), hydrogen, and other cryogenic substances. In recent years, various advanced ORC configurations have been developed to enhance the system’s performance, efficiency, and flexibility. These developments include the transcritical ORC, CO2 power cycles, ORC systems integrated with thermal energy storage (TES), the ORC with two-phase expansion systems (e.g., trilateral ORC or trilateral flash cycle/TFC, partially evaporated ORC/PE-ORC, wet-to-dry cycle, and organic flash cycle/OFC), and the ORC in Carnot batteries. Despite these advancements, there is a lack of design and experimental studies on these configurations and applications. Therefore, it is essential to conduct detailed experimental research and pilot projects that examine their performance under a wide range of operating conditions and with various environmentally friendly organic working fluids. The goal of this Special Issue is to highlight state-of-the-art designs and experimental research in the development of ORC systems and their components. 

The topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • The ORC with two-phase expansion systems (TFC, PE-ORC, and OFC);
  • Wet-to-dry cycles;
  • The ORC and polygeneration systems;
  • CO2 power cycles and the transcritical ORC;
  • The ORC directly and/or indirectly integrated with TES;
  • The use of the ORC using environmentally friendly organic working fluids (pure/mixtures);
  • Pilot project and laboratory-scale ORCs;
  • The ORC for industrial applications;
  • The ORC for cold energy utilization;
  • The ORC for Carnot batteries;
  • New integrations of the ORC with other processes and energy systems;
  • ORC components: turbine/volumetric expanders, heat exchangers, and pump designs;
  • Partial-evaporation heat exchangers for the ORC;
  • Two-phase expanders for the ORC;
  • All topics related to the design of and experimental studies on the ORC.

Prof. Dr. Piotr Kolasiński
Dr. Sindu Daniarta
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • organic Rankine cycle
  • polygeneration systems
  • power generation
  • two phases
  • phase equilibria
  • energy systems
  • waste heat recovery and valorisation
  • energy conversion
  • carnot battery
  • energy storage
  • clean and sustainable energy

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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35 pages, 5144 KiB  
Systematic Review
A Systematic Review of Two-Phase Expansion Losses: Challenges, Optimization Opportunities, and Future Research Directions
by Muhammad Syaukani, Szymon Lech, Sindu Daniarta and Piotr Kolasiński
Energies 2025, 18(13), 3504; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18133504 - 2 Jul 2025
Viewed by 262
Abstract
Two-phase expansion processes have emerged as a promising technology for enhancing energy efficiency in power generation, refrigeration, waste heat recovery systems (for example, partially evaporated organic Rankine cycle, organic flash cycle, and trilateral flash cycle), oil and gas, and other applications. However, despite [...] Read more.
Two-phase expansion processes have emerged as a promising technology for enhancing energy efficiency in power generation, refrigeration, waste heat recovery systems (for example, partially evaporated organic Rankine cycle, organic flash cycle, and trilateral flash cycle), oil and gas, and other applications. However, despite their potential, widespread adoption is hindered by inherent challenges, particularly energy losses that reduce operational efficiency. This review systematically evaluates the current state of two-phase expansion technologies, focusing on the root causes, impacts, and mitigation strategies for expansion losses. This work used Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). Using the PRISMA framework, 52 relevant publications were identified from Scopus and Web of Science to conduct the systematic review. A preliminary co-occurrence analysis of keywords was also conducted using VOSviewer version 1.6.20. Three clusters were observed in this co-occurrence analysis. However, the results may not be significant. Therefore, the extended work was done through a comprehensive analysis of experimental and simulation studies from the literature. This study identifies critical loss mechanisms in key components of two-phase expanders, such as the nozzle, diffuser, rotor, working chamber, and vaneless space. Also, losses arising from wetness, such as droplet formation, interfacial friction, and non-equilibrium phase transitions, are examined. These phenomena degrade performance by disrupting flow stability, increasing entropy generation, and causing mechanical erosion. Several losses in the turbine and volumetric expanders operating in two-phase conditions are reported. Ejectors, throttling valves, and flashing flow systems that exhibit similar challenges of losses are also discussed. This review discusses the mitigation and the strategy to minimize the two-phase expansion losses. The geometry of the inlet of the two-phase expanders plays an important role, which also needs improvement to minimize losses. The review highlights recent advancements in addressing these challenges and shows optimization opportunities for further research. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design and Experimental Study of Organic Rankine Cycle System)
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