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Sustainable Research of Power Cycles for Energy Conversion

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Engineering and Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 4448

Special Issue Editors

School of Energy and Power Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
Interests: low- and medium-grade energy efficient utilization technology; advanced supercritical carbon dioxide cycle; theory and technology of energy storage system
School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, China
Interests: efficient conversion and utilization of medium- and low-grade thermal energy; distributed system integration and simulation based on the supercritical CO2 cycle; design and optimization of thermal turbine and compressor

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Guest Editor
Department of Power Engineering, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710021, China
Interests: design; analysis and optimization of cchp systems using mid- and low-temperature energy resources

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Energy and environmental issues have always been one of the main challenges facing the development of all countries across the world. These problems can be solved by increasing the share of renewable energy and improving the current energy conversion process. The reasonable utilization of renewable energy, such as geothermal energy, solar energy, and various waste heat resources, is an effective approach for improving process efficiency and reducing fuel consumption. In this regard, many technologies were proposed to convert low- and medium-grade heat sources into electrical energy, such as the organic Rankine cycle, supercritical carbon dioxide power cycle, Kalina cycle, organic flash cycle, absorption power cycle, etc. Most of the literature analyzes indicators such as power cycle technology's power generation cost and product unit total cost from an economic perspective. A few papers evaluated the emission reduction potential of the power cycle from the perspective of carbon emissions. This Special Issue, entitled ‘Sustainable Research of Power Cycles for Energy Conversion’, can provide new ideas for system design.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

  1.  Exploring a new highly efficient power cycle layout of low- and medium-temperature heat sources.
  2.  Evaluating the sustainability of power cycle systems.
  3.  Sustainability evaluation and load optimal dispatch of the integrated energy system. 

Dr. Chuang Wu
Dr. Hang Li
Dr. Jianyong Wang
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • organic Rankine cycle
  • supercritical carbon dioxide power cycle
  • Kalina cycle
  • organic flash cycle
  • absorption power cycle
  • combined heating and power cycle
  • combined cooling and power cycle
  • energy conversion
  • power cycle
  • thermodynamic analysis
  • thermoeconomic analysis
  • off-design performance
  • sustainable evaluation

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 1833 KiB  
Article
Thermodynamic Analysis of a New Combined Cooling and Power System Coupled by the Kalina Cycle and Ammonia–Water Absorption Refrigeration Cycle
by Haojin Wang, Jianyong Wang, Zhuan Liu, Haifeng Chen and Xiaoqin Liu
Sustainability 2022, 14(20), 13260; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142013260 - 15 Oct 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1957
Abstract
In order to improve the utilization efficiency of low-temperature heat sources, a new combined cooling and power system using ammonia–water is proposed. The system combines Kalina cycle with absorption refrigeration cycle, in which the waste heat of the Kalina cycle serves as the [...] Read more.
In order to improve the utilization efficiency of low-temperature heat sources, a new combined cooling and power system using ammonia–water is proposed. The system combines Kalina cycle with absorption refrigeration cycle, in which the waste heat of the Kalina cycle serves as the heat source of the absorption refrigeration cycle. The steady-state mathematical model of system is established in detail first, and then the simulation results of design condition are obtained, which show that the thermal efficiency and exergy efficiency can reach 24.62% and 11.52%, respectively. Based on the system design condition, an exergy destruction analysis is conducted and shows that four heat exchangers and the turbine contribute most of the total exergy destruction. Finally, the effects of five key parameters on the system performance are examined, which reveal that within certain ranges, there is an optimal turbine inlet pressure that makes the exergy efficiency maximal. Increasing the ammonia–water temperature at the vapor generator outlet and the ammonia-weak solution temperature at the bottom outlet of the rectification column will reduce the thermal efficiency but raise the exergy efficiency. With the increase of rectification column pressure, both the thermal efficiency and exergy efficiency drop, while the evaporation pressure has an opposite effect on the system performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Research of Power Cycles for Energy Conversion)
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17 pages, 3907 KiB  
Article
An Engine Exhaust Utilization System by Combining CO2 Brayton Cycle and Transcritical Organic Rankine Cycle
by Haoyuan Ma and Zhan Liu
Sustainability 2022, 14(3), 1276; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031276 - 24 Jan 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1991
Abstract
For engine exhaust gas heat recovery, the organic Rankine cycle (ORC) cannot be directly used due to the thermal stability and safety of organic fluids. Thus, a creative power system is given by integrating the supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle and transcritical ORC. [...] Read more.
For engine exhaust gas heat recovery, the organic Rankine cycle (ORC) cannot be directly used due to the thermal stability and safety of organic fluids. Thus, a creative power system is given by integrating the supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle and transcritical ORC. This system can directly utilize the thermal energy of a high-temperature exhaust gas. The inefficiencies in the heat exchangers are highly reduced by using supercritical working fluid. The mathematical model of the system, covering both the thermodynamic and economic aspects, is built in detail. It is found that the highest irreversible loss takes place in the gas heater, taking 21.14% of the total exergy destruction. The ORC turbine and CO2 turbine have the priority for improvement, compared to the compressor and pump. The increase in CO2 turbine inlet pressure improves the system exergy efficiency and levelized cost of energy. Both the larger CO2 and ORC turbine inlet temperatures contribute to a decrease in levelized cost of energy and a rise in system exergy efficiency. There is a maximum value of system exergy efficiency and minimum value of levelized cost of energy by varying the ORC turbine inlet pressure. The determined exergy efficiency and levelized cost of energy in the proposed system are 54.63% and 36.95 USD/MWh after multi-objective optimization. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Research of Power Cycles for Energy Conversion)
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