Experimentally economic analysis of ORC power plant with low-temperature waste heat recovery

Abstract

Due to the low boiling point of organic fluids, the organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is an effective way to improve the recovery efficiency of low-temperature waste heat. An ORC power plant was established with an actual generating capacity of 16.3 kW. As the ORC technology is in the initial stage of commercial application, a technical and economic analysis has been conducted in this paper. Through analysis of each part investment of the power generation plant, it is found that the ORC system part accounts for 61% of the total initial investment, and the larger the power generation scale, the larger the proportion. An economic model has been proposed to study the economic feasibility of low-temperature industrial waste heat conversion in this plant. The influences of the installation of cooling water system, preheater, superheater, loan ratio, interest rate on electricity production cost (EPC) and profit are analyzed. According to the analysis, the lowest EPC of the plant is 0.46 Yuan/(kW •h).