Development of an Organic Rankine-Cycle Power Module for a Small Community Solar Thermal Power Experiment.

摘要

An organic Rankine-cycle (ORC) power module was designed and developed for use in a multi-module solar power plant to be built and operated in a small community. Although neither final design nor construction of the multi-module plant took place, many successful components and subsystems, including the receiver, power conversion subsystem, energy transport subsystem, and control subsystem, were developed and tested before the program was halted. In addition, tests were performed on a complete power module using a test bed concentrator in place of the proposed concentrator at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Parabolic Dish Test Site at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Test results with the complete module verified that all major single-module program functional objectives were met and that multi-module operation presented no apparent problems. The hermetically sealed, self-contained, ORC power conversion unit subsequently successfully completed a 300-h endurance run with no evidence of wear or operating problems. (ERA citation 10:036353)