SBIR Phase I: Compact Torus-Shaped Organic Ranking Cycle for Distributed Solar Thermal Power Generation

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目解决了目前需要开发一个小规模的有机朗肯循环（ORC）。虽然ORC已广泛用于大型系统（10千瓦及以上）的废热回收，但在私营部门用于分布式太阳能，生物质或柴油废热回收的小型ORC在小型便携式/紧凑型应用中的进展甚微。虽然已知较小的系统可以在研究机构进行各种演示，但尚未证明它们是否可以以具有竞争力的成本制造和销售，以取代目前用于远程应用的分布式电源系统。所提出的设计以优化系统效率、降低复杂性和提高可制造性的方式封装所有组件。研究工作将包括评估设计一种工作紧凑型ORC的可行性，这种ORC在生命周期成本、可靠性、效率和性能方面具有竞争力。这将通过设计、制造和测试系统的一部分来实现。该项目将寻求开发一种实用且具有高度竞争力的小型和新颖的商业用途有机排名循环系统。该项目的广泛影响/商业潜力可以缩小到两个主要市场。第一个包括用于分布式太阳能发电。ORC为分布式太阳能发电提供了太阳能光伏（PV）的更便宜的替代方案，因为热能可以很容易地存储在现场，而不需要像太阳能光伏那样使用大型昂贵的电池。随着发电和存储成本的降低，ORC太阳能发电可能会进入那些无法选择昂贵的PV的市场。这包括太阳能充足的欠发达国家的市场，但支持电网储能的基础设施却不充足。不存在;以及电网不存在的偏远市场？不存在，需要能量存储。另一个市场包括用于小型独立农场的分布式生物质发电，目前昂贵的厌氧消化器或大型蒸汽驱动生物质工厂用于从农场废物生产生物质能源。农场废物的低功率密度使得长距离运输到这些设施是不切实际的。通过使用经济实惠的紧凑型ORC，可以以经济实惠的成本在现场产生生物质能源。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project addresses the current need to develop a small scale organic rankine cycle (ORC). While ORCs have been used extensively in industry for waste heat recovery for larger systems (10kW and above), there has been little advancement in the private sector for smaller ORCs used for distributed solar power, biomass or diesel waste heat recovery for smaller portable/compact applications. While smaller systems are known to work through various demonstrations at research institutions, it has yet been proven whether they can be manufactured and sold at a competitive cost to replace current distributed power systems for remote applications. The proposed design packages all components in a way to optimize system efficiency, reduce complexity and increase manufacturability. The research effort will consist of assessing the feasibility of designing a working compact ORC that can be competitive in the areas of life cycle cost, reliability, efficiency and performance. This will be accomplished through design, fabrication and testing of a portion of the system. This project will seek to develop a smaller and novel organic ranking cycle system for commercial use that is practical and highly competitive.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project can be narrowed down to two main markets. The first includes use for distributed solar power generation. ORCs offer a cheaper alternative to solar photovoltaic (PV) for distributed solar power generation in that thermal energy can be easily stored on site without the use of large expensive batteries as in solar PV. With reduction in cost in both generation and storage, ORC solar power generation can potentially be available to markets where the costly PV is not an option. This includes markets in underdeveloped countries where solar energy is plentiful, yet the infrastructure to support grid energy storage doesn?t exist; as well as remote markets where an electrical grid doesn?t exist and energy storage is required. An additional market includes distributed biomass power generation for small independent farms, currently expensive anaerobic digesters or large steam driven biomass plants are used for biomass energy production from farm waste. The low power density of farm waste makes it impractical to transport long distances to these facilities. With the use of a affordable compact ORC, energy from biomass can be generated on-site at an affordable cost.