Performance correlations for characterizing the optimal off-design operation of an ORC power system

The goal of this work is to develop a set of simple correlations in order to characterize the optimal off-design performance of an ORC power system. To this end, a 2kWe ORC test rig is investigated as case study and a validated off-design model is used to assess the highest net power generation achievable by the system over its complete range of operating conditions. The off-design model employed is charge-sensitive (i.e. it imposes the total mass of refrigerant in the system) which permits to predict the ORC state (i.e. its pressures, temperatures, mass flow rates, subcooling, etc.) based on the system boundary conditions only. Since such modelling approach and optimization process are time-consuming, a set of simple analytical equations is developed so as to easily predict the optimal performance of the ORC systems.