Energetic analysis of the subcritical low-temperature ORC by imposing the hot source outlet temperature

The organic Rankine cycle (ORC) with subcritical pressures using the waste heat recovered from a low-temperature source was analyzed using an original assumption: to impose the hot source temperature at the outlet of the heat exchanger. This hypothesis leads to a variation of the pinch-point, when the working fluid pressure varies. For the numerical computation, a waste heat source with an inlet temperature of 150 °C and an outlet temperature of 60 °C was considered. The energetic performances of ORC were analyzed for three organic fluid types: R123, R124, and R134a.