Applied Thermal Engineering 56 (2013) 126e133

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Experimental investigation of R227ea applied as working uid in the

ORC power plant with hermetic turbogenerator
Aleksandra Borsukiewicz-Gozdur*
West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin ORC Power Plants Research and Development Centre, al. Piastw 17, 70-310 Szczecin, Poland

h i g h l i g h t s

Experimental investigations of the ORC power plant operating with R227ea are presented.

The power plant was fuelled with hot water (from 66  C up to 111  C).

The ORC installation was provided with a hermetic turbogenerator.

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 15 September 2012
Accepted 23 March 2013
Available online 2 April 2013

Results of experimental investigations of the ORC power plant operating with R227ea as the cycle
working uid are presented. The ORC power plant was fuelled with hot water of the temperature ranging
from 66  C up to 111  C, at the maximum volume ow of 106 L/min. The ORC research installation was
provided with a hermetic turbogenerator of special design to run at 3000 rpm in the nominal operating
point. Detailed scheme of the research installation together with the measurement points locations are
presented in the paper. The experimental results are supported by relevant calculation results that
include an analysis and discussion of the quantities affecting the ORC power plant operation.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
ORC
Low-temperature source
Hermetic turbogenerator

1. Introduction
The Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) power plants enable generation by using heat sources with the temperatures even lower than
100  C. Their installations, Fig. 1, work on principle that is analogous
to that of the conventional steam power plant, except that working
cycle uids other than water are used.
Application of other working cycle uids, usually of the organic
nature, results here due to the appropriately low boiling points and
proper working pressure range of such uids. This means that, in
contrast to water used as the cycle working uid, evaporation of
such uids occurs below 100  C without necessity to keep pressure
in the evaporator below atmospheric pressure. Moreover, the
working uid evaporation pressure can be high enough to result
that the working uid vapour, after expansion in the turbine, will
condensate also above atmospheric pressure. By selection of a
proper working uid the above process characteristics can be
achieved to conveniently t the temperature of the heat source
driving the power plant cycle.

* Tel.: 48 91 4494136; fax: 48 91 449 4591.

E-mail address: aborsukiewicz@zut.edu.pl.
1359-4311/$ e see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2013.03.039

Now, a consistency in implementation of the 3  20% policy and

a continuously growing price of conventional fuels are all supporting the application of the ORC technology both in the power
generation sector as well as in numerous other industry branches.
Heat resulting of the biomass combustion, solar energy, geothermal
energy or residual heat of various industrial processes can all be
treated as heat sources capable to drive the ORC power plants. Such
power plants are today at an intensive development stage in
respect to optimization of the subcritical cycle parameters [1],
proper selection of the working uids [2,3], or increase in effectiveness by application of the supercritical cycles [4,5]. Numerous
works devoted to those problems can be examined in the literature,
and their review for the ORC power plants driven by the low
temperature heat sources is presented in Refs. [6,7]. The ORC power
plants are characterised by many advantages as mentioned above,
but are also burdened with certain disadvantages of which the
necessity to secure the absolute sealing of the working cycle appears as the main one. This is due to harmful environmental effects
of the working uids and due to cost of the latter. Traditional
connection of the turbine and electric generator, when applied in
the ORC power plant installation, appears as a critical point in such
system. This is because of difculties to seal the turbine rotor shaft
that transfers torque to a separate electric generator. Types of the

A. Borsukiewicz-Gozdur / Applied Thermal Engineering 56 (2013) 126e133

127

the design of the hermetic generator can be found in Ref. [20].

Results of experimental investigations of the ORC power plant
referred to above are the subject of the present publication.
Scheme of the research installation is presented in Fig. 2,
whereas a photograph of the main part of the ORC power plant is
shown in Fig. 3. The latter picture does not show the two important
components of the ORC power plant: the main working cycle pump
is located on the 1 level of the laboratory building and the fan
cooler of the condenser cooling water is placed outside of the
laboratory building.
The principle of the ORC power plant operation is as follows:
Fig. 1. Schematic installation of the simple Organic Rankine Cycle (TG e turbogenerator, HE e evaporator preheater, P e cycle pump, C e condenser).

expansion machines being used in the ORC systems throughout

recent years, with respect to varying driving energy sources and to
applied working uids, are given in Table 1. Turbines of various
types and scroll expanders should be noted.
In the present work, the ORC power plant installation with
hermetic turbogenerator is presented and discussed. In that solution, the electric generator is placed together with the turbine in a
common hermetic casing and, as result, there is no need to seal the
rotating elements against the leakage of the working uid to the
environment. Safety and economy of the ORC power plant is
thereby essentially improved. A similar approach to increase safety
of the power plant operation, for the case of scroll expanders, has
been applied by Lemort, V. et al. [13,18].
2. The research installation
Late in 2008, on the order of the West Pomeranian University of
Technology in Szczecin, the Polish company Turboservice Sp. z o.o.
completed a research installation that simulated operation of the
geothermal ORC power plant (R&D Project No. R06 015 01, nanced
by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education). The
research system included a specially designed high speed axial
turbine, whereas its thermodynamic cycle was designed to work
with R227ea and to be driven by hot water with the temperature of
105  C. A series of experimental investigations on that installation
was completed in 2009 [14]. However, problems were encountered
to effectively seal the working cycle at the turbine shaft exit from
the turbine casing, and conceptual works were undertaken to nd a
better, more reliable solution in that respect. In 2011, the high speed
turbine was replaced with a new hermetic turbogenerator incorporating the standard electric generator and the appropriate axial
turbine with partial arc admission. More detailed information on

Hot water from the district heating network is supplied to the

heat exchanger where it preheats and evaporates the pressurized cycle working uid, R227ea, and is returned to the
district heating network;

Preheated and evaporated working uid is supplied to the
hermetic turbogenerator. The working uid vapour is
expanded in the turbine (that drives the electric generator), is
next directed to the condenser and is, as liquid, transferred to
the buffer container. The main cycle pump pressurizes the
working uid that is supplied to the preheater/evaporator and
the working uid cycle is thereby closed;

Condenser of the working uid is cooled with water supplied
from the fan cooler.

3. Selection of the working uid and nominal parameters of

the ORC power plant
The research installation was assumed to simulate the operation
of a geothermal power plant designed for conditions that are
typical for Poland, i.e. for geothermal water with the temperature in
the range of 85  Ce100  C. As result of the earlier works [21,22],
HFC 227ea (known also as R227ea) was selected as one of the most
effective working uids for the above supply conditions. Moreover,
that uid is characterized by the favourable working pressure range
(no single point in the thermodynamic cycle encounters pressure
below atmospheric pressure) and appears to have other positive
features for the power plant operation and maintenance, which has
been conrmed during subsequent experimental investigations of
the power plant operation. Selected data for R227ea are given in
Table 2.
The geothermal heat source appears as a specic type of the
upper heat source in the ORC system. Here, the primary design
parameters for the planned ORC system are not dened by the
thermal power that can be used to drive that system but are
determined by the available ow rate and initial temperature of the

Table 1
Listing of selected parameters of the experimentally investigated ORC power plants.
Author(s)

Heat resource/inlet temperature to the turbine

Working uid

Type of expander

Larjola J. 1995 [8]

Biernacki S. 1996 [9]
Yamamoto T. et al., 2001 [10]
Nguyen VM. et al., 2001 [11]
Manolakos D. et al., 2009[12]
Lemort V. et al., 2009 [13]
Nowak et al., 2010 [14]

R114, toluene
R11
HCFC-123
n-pentane
R134a
HCFC-123
R227ea

High-speed turbogenerator-feed pump

Scroll expander
Micro-turbine
Turbine with high-speed alternator.
Scroll compressor in reverse operation
Scroll expander
High-speed turbine (power has been estimated)

Wang JL. et al., 2010 [15]

Medium and high temperature waste heat

Low temperature (hot water, parafn oil)/127  C
Electric heater/40e75  C
Low temperature heat, gas red boiler/81  C
Low-temperature solar energy (w81  C)
Two hot air sources
Low temperature (hot water from district
heating)/50e73  C
Low-temperature solar energy (max 105.9  C)

Throttling valve (power has been

estimated)

Qiu G. et al., 2011 [16], 2012 [17]

Lemort V. et al. [18] 2012
Kang SH. 2012 [19]

Biomass/116.2e126.6  C
Integrated with gas cycle/110  C
Low temperature/77e80  C

R245fa, zeotropic mixtures:

R245fa/R152a 0.9/0.1 and
R245fa/R152a 0.7/0.3
HFE7000
R245fa
R245fa

Modied air motor with alternator

Hermetic scroll expander
Radial turbine with high-speed generator

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A. Borsukiewicz-Gozdur / Applied Thermal Engineering 56 (2013) 126e133

ZB

HERMETIC
TURBOGENERATOR
A

Z3

GR

P/R

V
ZN

pn1 Tn1

n
Z4

mw

Z8

Tn2

CONDENSER

COOLING TOWER

Tc2
Tw1

PREHEATER +
EVAPORATOR

DISTRICT
HEATING

R1

pn2

hot water (subscripts w)

working fluid R227ea
(subscripts n)
cooling water (subscripts c)

R3
Tw2
mc

mn
R2

pn3

BUFFER CONTAINER AT
CONDENSATION PRESSURE

ZN

Tn3

ZZ
Z1

ZN

measurement points:
T

temperature

pressure

0/1

pn4

Tc1

Z2

flow rate

rpm of turbine

current intensity

voltage

ZM

WORKING FLUID PUMP

Fig. 2. Diagram of the ORC power plant measurement points locations (GR e receivers of electrical power 2.5; 5; 10 kW, P/R e electricity load switch, R1, R2, R3 e ow rate control
valves, ZB e safety valve, ZM e self-acting pump ow rate limiting valve, ZN e R227ea lling valve, ZZ e non-return valve, Z1, Z2 e pump disassembly valves, Z3, Z4 e turbogenerator
disassembly valves).

geothermal water. The evaporation temperature of the working

uid and the turbine inlet parameters can be determined only after
analysis of the optimum power plant effectiveness has indicated
conditions for the maximum power plant output. And only then the
geothermal water temperature at the power plant exit can be
determined, which leads to the resulting value of the thermal power that is utilized by the geothermal ORC power plant. As result of
an initial data set and of theoretical calculations the nominal parameters of the ORC power plant operation have been established
and presented in Table 3.

Table 2
Basic data of the R227ea working uid.
R227ea CF3CHFCF3 1,1,1,2,3,3,3-heptauoropropane
Molar
mass

Triple point
temperature

Normal
boiling
point

Critical parameters
Temperature

Pressure

Density

kg/kmol

MPa

kg/m3

170.3

126.8

2.999

579.8

16.42

102.8

The HFC 227ea saturation curves and selected isobars are presented in Fig. 4. This uid belongs to the dry uids group, i.e. to
such with their saturation curves having positive derivatives
ds/dT > 0 (Fig. 4). That implies in praxis that there is no need to
superheat the working uid vapour before it is supplied to the
turbine and, in spite of that, the expansion process occurs entirely
within the superheated vapour range. Some minimum superheating (2e4  C) is recommended to avoid working uid liquid

Table 3
Nominal (design) parameters of the ORC power plant operation for HFC 227ea.

Fig. 3. Photograph of the main part of the ORC power plant (left e control system of
the hot water supply from district heating network, right e hermetic turbogenerator to
be seen in the upper section).

Parameter

Value

Unit

Hot water inlet temperature

Hot water ow rate
Working uid temperature at the turbine inlet
Working uid pressure at the turbine inlet
Working uid pressure at the turbine outlet
Turbine shaft speed
Turbogenerator output power

95
100
58
10.9
4.5
3000
9

C
L/min

C
bar
bar
rpm
kWel

A. Borsukiewicz-Gozdur / Applied Thermal Engineering 56 (2013) 126e133

129

droplets to be blown by the vapour stream into the turbine; any

stronger superheating is, however, thermodynamically unjustied.
4. Hermetic turbogenerator
Increase of the ORC system application safety by limiting the
risk of the working uid leakage to the environment as well as
simplication of the turbine torque transfer system are the main
reasons for application of the hermetic turbogenerator.
In the conventional system of the turbine torque transmission
the electric generator is preferably connected with the turbine by a
common shaft, whereby the turbine and generator casings are
separate units, comp. Fig. 5. This results in the need to seal the
rotating shaft at the turbine casing exit as the pressure inside the
turbine is much higher than the ambient pressure. For traditional
steam turbines the problem of the turbine shaft sealing is of less
importance as leakage of steam does not harm the environment
and is also not destructive for the power plant cycle. In case of the
ORC installation the turbine shaft sealing system can be a source of
the leakage of the working uid that is harmful for the environment, and can be also, in various ways, damaging for the operation
of the power plant thermodynamic cycle. The respective sealing
systems are thus complicated, expensive and still not reliable.
Hermetic turbogenerator with the turbine and electric generator being placed in a common casing, comp. Fig. 6, has been used
in the ORC power plant presented in the present work. No need for
absolute sealing of the rotating shaft is thus required. The turbine is
designed to run at the speed that is typical for standard electric
generators (3000 rpm).

Fig. 4. Theoretical thermodynamic cycle on Tes diagram with the shape of saturation
curves for the R227ea working uid.

5. Results of the experimental investigations

Several runs of the experimental investigations have been
completed and their results from measurements taken on 10/02/
2012 (start-up test run), 23/02/2012 and 22/06/2012 are here presented. The date of the experimental measurements series is
important in respect to the achievable parameters of the power
plant. This is due to the supplying hot water parameters as well as
due to the temperature of the condenser cooling water. The hot
water driving the ORC power plant, comp. Fig. 2, is delivered by the
provider of heat from the district heating network. The lower the
ambient temperature the higher is the water temperature in the
district heating network. On the other hand, the lower the ambient
temperature the smaller hot water stream is available for supplying
the research ORC power plant as more water is needed to heat the
ZUT Szczecin campus (priority assignment). In such case only e.g.
75 L/min of hot water was available for the research installation,
whereas at higher ambient temperatures, at hot water temperature

Fig. 5. Conventional connection of the turbine and electric generator.

Fig. 6. Scheme of the hermetic turbogenerator used in the present work.

Table 4
Measurement results of 10/02/2012 (pambient 1.038 bar, tambient 6.5  C).
Measurement
track no.

Measurement
track hour

1
2
3
4

13:58
15:12
15:39
15:55

Measurement
track no.
1
2
3
4

Tw1

Tw2

V_ w

Tc1

Tc2

V_ c

L/min

L/min

65.1
68.5
61.8
66.1

56.7
73.2
95.1
103.7

0.6
1.4
1.2
1.6

8.4
8.9
7.6
9.6

145.0
339.9
336.0
279.1

355
407
361
390

12.5
14.0
12.6
13.5

108.3
111.0
90.4
92.4

V_ n

Tn1

pn1

Tn2

pn2

Tn3

pn3

pn4

L/min

bar abs

bar abs

bar abs

47.5
57.3
49.3
56.7

49.2
53.6
48.2
52.8

8.21
9.54
8.32
9.17

38.5
36.8
35.1
38.5

3.21
3.33
3.16
3.43

9.9
11.6
9.2
13.8

3.18
3.30
3.14
3.36

8.45
9.90
8.50
9.57

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A. Borsukiewicz-Gozdur / Applied Thermal Engineering 56 (2013) 126e133

Table 5
Power plant parameters calculated from measurement results of 10/02/2012.
Measurement
track no.

Measurement
track hour

PG kWel

_ w kg/s
m

Q_ in kWth

hel %

1
2
3
4

13:58
15:12
15:39
15:55

7.69
9.87
7.89
9.12

0.93
1.19
1.56
1.69

168.3
213.5
186.8
187.0

4.57
4.62
4.22
4.88

Table 6
Values of selected parameters of the ORC installation at measurements no. 11 and 29.

Temperature of hot water (inlet), Tw1

Temperature of hot water (outlet), Tw2
Hot water ow rate, Vw
Working uid ow rate, Vn
Working uid temperature at the
turbine inlet, Tn1
Working uid pressure at the turbine
inlet, pn1
Working uid condensation pressure,
pn3
Electric power of turbogenerator, PG
Efciency of real cycle, hel
Efciency of theoretical cycle, htheo

Measurement
No. 11

Measurement
No. 29

88.5  C
64.1  C
104.1 L/min
57.6 L/min
51.7  C

88.5  C
68.5  C
105.1 L/min
40.1 L/min
65.8  C

9.17 bar

6.77 bar

4.11 bar

3.80 bar

6.91 kWel
3.96%
7.86%

3.96 kWel
2.67%
5.54%

Fig. 8. Actual thermodynamic cycles resulting from measurements No. 11 (cycle n1e
n2en3en4en5) and 29 (cycle n10 en20 en30 en40 en50 ).

Values of the electric generator power output given in Table 5

were calculated from:

PG
C

of approx. 60
only, more than 100 L/min of hot water was
available to supply the research installation. The results of measurements taken on 10/02/2012 are presented in Table 4. In that
case, the measurements No. 3 and 4 were taken by using the supplying hot water by-pass system that enabled to mix the evaporator
outlet water with the district heating system incoming hot water,
thus decreasing the evaporator inlet water temperature and
increasing the water ow rate at the evaporator inlet. General parameters of the ORC power plant calculated on the basis of the
measurements are given in Table 5. Denotation of the measured
parameters being shown in the tables is in line with their
description in Fig. 2.

Vn

Vw1

Tw1

p
3$U$I=1000

(1)

and the value of heat ow Q_ in supplied to the power plant was

calculated from:

_ w hw1  hw2
Q_ in m

(2)

Values of the hot water enthalpy hw1 and hw2 were determined
from Tw1 and Tw2 by using the Refprop 9.0 [23].
Electric efciency of the power plant was calculated from:

he l _ G
Qin

(3)

and efciency of theoretical cycle (given in Table 6)

Tw2

Tn1

Tn3

Tc1

Tc2

PG

120

9
8

100
7
Vn [L/min]
Vw1 [L/min]
Tw1 [C]
Tw2 [C]
Tn1 [C]
Tn3 [C]
Tc1 [C]
Tc2 [C]

80

5
60
4

PG [kW]
[%]

40

2
20
1
0
10:52

10:50

10:47

10:45

10:41

10:39

10:35
10:37

10:33

10:31

10:29

10:27

10:25

10:14

10:12

10:08
10:10

10:06

09:58

10:04

09:56

10:02

09:52
09:54

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

10:00

09:50

Measurement track hour

Measurement track No.
Fig. 7. Measurement results and calculated parameters of 23/02/2012 (pambient 1.038 bar, tambient 6.5  C).

A. Borsukiewicz-Gozdur / Applied Thermal Engineering 56 (2013) 126e133

131

Fig. 9. Degree of superheating of the turbine inlet vapour for all measurement points.
Table 7
Measurement results of 22/06/2012 (pambient 1.01 bar, tambient 15.6  C, Tw1 66.8  C).
Measurement track no.

Measurement track hour

V_ n L/min

Tw2  C

V_ w L/min

Tn1  C

pn1 bar abs

pn2 bar abs

Tn3  C

Tc1  C

Tc2  C

UV

IA

31
32
33
34
35

11:22
11:30
11:37
11:45
11:51

39.9
39.8
39.9
43.1
45.2

52.6
52.7
52.7
52.5
52.5

106.2
106.0
106.2
105.8
105.6

50.5
51.2
51.3
50.1
45.7

6.53
6.56
6.61
7.01
7.28

5.04
5.10
5.19
5.40
5.62

26.8
26.8
27.6
29.0
30.5

20.6
21.0
21.6
22.6
23.8

24.8
25.1
25.8
26.8
28.0

160
155
150
160
165

5.7
5.6
5.5
5.9
6.0

Table 8
Power plant parameters calculated from measurement results of 22/06/2012.
Measurement track no.

PG kWel

_ w kg/s
m

Q_ in kWth

hel %

31
32
33
34
35

1.58
1.50
1.43
1.63
1.71

1.75
1.74
1.75
1.74
1.74

103.8
102.9
102.4
104.2
106.9

1.52
1.46
1.40
1.57
1.60

hn1  hn2s
Q_

(4)

in

Next series of measurements was accomplished on 23/02/2012.

The selected measurement results and the parameters calculated
from measurement shown in Fig. 7 were received for xed values of
10.50
9.50
8.50
7.50

p [bar]

pn1

pn2

pn3

10:02

6.50

pn4

5.50
4.50

Measurement track hour

Measurement track No.
Fig. 10. Pressure values at selected points of the cycle, comp. Fig. 2.

10:52

10:50

10:47

10:45

10:41

10:39

10:37

10:35

10:33

10:31

10:29

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

10:27

10:25

10:14

10:10

09:58

10:08

09:56

10:06

09:54

10:04

09:52

10:00

09:50

3.50

10:12

htheo

the supplying hot water temperature and ow rate, whereby the

measurement tracks No. 5e17 were made at larger value of the
working uid ow rate than those with No. 18e30. By using the
temperature and pressure measurement data the actual thermodynamic cycles for the measurements No. 11 and 29 are presented
in Fig. 8, whereby values of selected parameters of those cycles are
given in Table 6.
It should be noted with emphasis that, at fairly constant supplying water temperature and ow rate, higher values of the power
plant efciency and output power were achieved for the lower
values of the working uid temperature at the turbine inlet, at
measurement No. 11, than those for the higher values of that
temperature, at measurement No. 29. Measurement No. 29 reveals
an example of the inefcient Organic Rankine Cycle at which the
working uid is evaporated at too low temperature and is too

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A. Borsukiewicz-Gozdur / Applied Thermal Engineering 56 (2013) 126e133

excessively superheated. Degree of superheating of the turbine

inlet vapour for all measurement points is shown in Fig. 9, whereby
its superheating by 4  C, for the entire pressure range under
consideration, is marked with broken line. The highest values of the
ORC power plant output power, for the respective parameters of the
driving heat source, are achieved in situations when the working
uid vapour temperature at the turbine inlet is kept to be within a
narrow zone that is limited by the indicated broken line and the
vapour saturation line x 1. It is evident from Fig. 9 that the entire
measurement series numbered 18 to 30, as well as that numbered
31 to 35 were taken at for the relatively highly superheated
working uid vapour.
Additional comment should be given in respect to the measurement results No. 31e35 obtained on 22/06/2012 and presented
in Table 7. Measurements on that day were taken for the supplying
water temperature of 66.8  C and at the ambient temperature of
15.6  C. It is worth to notice that the power plant operation strongly
deviated from the nominal operation point, thereby yielding low
efciency; the output power was, however, still obtainable, comp.
Table 8.
Last measurement results to be presented concern the working
uid pressure at the characteristic points of the power plant cycle,
i.e. at the turbine inlet, turbine outlet ( at the condenser inlet), at
the condenser outlet and at the cycle pump outlet, comp. Fig. 10.
It results from the diagram presented in Fig. 10 that each
component of the ORC power plant installation, i.e. plate heat exchangers, piping sections with control devices etc., has induced just
a small pressure drop in the power plant cycle. The average working
uid pressure drop in the condenser has not exceeded 0.04 bar(g),
and the entire pressure drop in the piping between the cycle pump
and the turbine has been less than 0.38 bar(g).
6. Summary and conclusions
Results of the experimental investigations of the ORC power
plant operation with R227ea as working uid have been presented.
The main goal of those investigations was to test the operation of
the prototype hermetic turbogenerator. The research installation
allowed tests to be carried out at relatively large range of the
supplying hot water temperature and the experimental results
were obtained for the supplying water temperatures from 66.8  C
up to 111  C, at varying values of the condenser cooling water
temperatures. The electric efciency of the ORC power plant as
received during all the test runs appeared to be 4.88%.
The following conclusions can be drawn from the above
experimental investigations:

The design and assembly of the research ORC power plant
installation, and of the hermetic turbogenerator in particular,
enabled the effective leak-proof construction of the power
plant, providing thereby its safe and reliable operation.

R227ea applied as the ORC working uid has favourable practical performance/maintenance features. That uid is neither
explosive nor poisonous, has limited penetration properties,
and enables the whole power plant cycle to operate at above
atmospheric pressure to prevent ambient air to leak into the
cycle.

Running the research installation by providing hot water from
the district heating network has positive effect in respect to the
easy control of the power plant supply heat (no problems with
quick power plant start/stop procedures). Some disadvantage
of that solution relates to the strongly varying supply water
temperature depending on the year season (winter/summer),
which enforces the schedule of the experiments to be adjusted
accordingly.

The accomplished series of the experimental investigations

veries earlier theoretical works and design assumptions adopted
for construction of the ORC power plant research installation.
Strong and weak points of the power plant installation have been
experienced and directions for further works have been concluded.

Acknowledgements
The Author wishes to express thanks to Dr. Wojciech Klonowicz
and Dr. Pawel Hanausek of Turboservice Sp. z.o.o., Lodz, Poland,
that designed and assembled the ORC power plant research
installation.
The experimental work presented in the present paper was
nanced by the Polish National Science Centre in frame of the
Research Project No. N N513360637

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Nomenclature
h: specic enthalpy [kJ/kg]
I: electric current intensity [A],
_ mass ow rate [kg/s],
m:
p: pressure [bar],
PG: electric power of turbogenerator [kW],

133

PP: electric power of pump [kW],

Q_ in : driving heat ow at inlet, [kW]
Q_
: driving heat ow at outlet, [kW]
out

T: temperature [ C],
U: voltage at the electric generator terminals [V],
_ volume ow rate [L/min],
V:

h: efciency [%],

Subscripts
c: condenser cooling medium
el: electric
n1, n2, n2s, n3, n4, n5: characteristic points of the working uid in the cycle (s
emphasises the isentropic process)
theo: theoretical
w: water (heat carrier)