A recent review of waste heat recovery by Organic Rankine Cycle

• Published in: Applied thermal engineering Vol. 143; pp. 660 - 675
• Main Authors: Mahmoudi, A., Fazli, M., Morad, M.R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01-10-2018; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Configurations; Cycle efficiency; Effects; Energy consumption; Energy efficiency; Fossil fuels; Heat recovery systems; Heat sources; Organic Rankine cycle; Rankine cycle; Waste heat; Waste heat recovery; Working fluid; Working fluids; Waste heat; Working fluid; Cycle efficiency; Organic Rankine cycle
• ISSN: 1359-4311; 1873-5606
• DOI: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2018.07.136

•Studies on ORC for waste heat recovery during the last four years are reviewed.•Reviews are on cycle configuration, working fluids, and operating condition.•Mostly studied heat sources have been internal combustion engines and gas turbines.•Statistics on fluids and configurations are reported for mostly studied sources.
The increment of using fossil fuels has caused many perilous environmental problems such as acid precipitation, global climate change and air pollution. More than 50% of the energy that is used in the world is wasted as heat. Recovering the wasted heat could increase the system efficiency and lead to lower fuel consumption and CO2 production. Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) which is a reliable technology to efficiently convert low and medium temperature heat sources into electricity, has been known as a promising solution to recover the waste heat. There are numerous studies about ORC technology in a wide range of application and condition. The main objective of this paper is to presents a review of studies both theoretical and experimental on ORC usage for waste heat recovery and investigation on the effect of cycle configuration, working fluid selection and operating condition on the system performance, that have been developed during the last fouryears. Finally, the related statistics are reported and compared regarding the configuration and the employed working fluid with type of the heat source.