Towards CHP system: Preliminary investigation and integration of an ORC cycle on a simple gas boiler

摘要

In order to meet both the increasing demand of electricity and the drastic reduction of fossil oil, the Algerian government has implemented the national energy efficiency program. This program focuses mainly on improving the use of renewable energies, for the purpose of producing 22 GW of electricity by 2030. The program promotes also the energy efficiency in both residential and industrial sectors. In this context, the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) seems to be a suitable solution either for exploring renewable resources or to be integrated in industrial process to produce electricity from waste heat recovery. Thus, a possible integration of an ORC system within a simple boiler of the national polytechnic school is investigated. Such solutions allow converting the gas boiler into a Combined Heating and Power (CHP) system. Thus, the new system with a higher energy performance will produce simultaneously both heating and electricity. A thermodynamic analysis of a sub critical ORC cycle using the Cool Prop free tool is presented. The presented work is a case study applied to the gas boiler installed within the national polytechnic school of Constantine. The proposed ORC cycle is activated by the boiler's exhaust gas of about 400°C to produce mechanical work while condensing the working fluid is performed by air condenser.