Waste Heat Energy Recovery By an Innovative Organic Rankine Cycle Engine

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Across the industrialized world, waste heat is created in a multitude of manufacturing and production processes. From steel manufacturing, to casting, to injection molding, to large-scale boilers, heat not directly used in the primary process is "lost" to the surroundings. Traditionally this heat was regarded as low-grade and not useful, particularly if it was at temperatures below that required to reliably boil water into steam. More recently however, use of the organic Rankine cycle (ORC) to harvest energy from this waste heat is gaining notable attention. Organic Rankine cycles utilize working fluids that have lower boiling points than water. Subsequently, the lower temperatures that are common to waste heat are capable of changing the fluid phase from liquid to gas. Coupled with the appropriate mechanical engine, the expanding gases can drive electric generation equipment. Vengeance Power Inc. (VPI) is developing such an engine. A next generation engine that promises better efficiency, cleaner emissions and a higher power-to-weight ratio for applications in stationary and portable power generation in the agricultural, automotive, marine, aerospace and military industries. Currently the company is interested in exploiting the engine's potential in recovering generation energy from waste heat produced through industrial processes. To be able to integrate the engine into an optimized waste heat recovery system, necessary design data must be produced for the other components that support the complete power circuit. These include the waste heat harvester, working fluid condenser, and fluid pump. This first requires a comprehensive determination of the thermodynamic behavior of the engine itself in this application. Subsequently, the overarching goal of this proposal is for VPI and the University of Windsor to develop a comprehensive computer model of their novel engine. The aim of the model will be to predict the performance of the engine under a variety of operating conditions. This information will enable VPI and the University to then design optimized versions of the supporting components required to complete an efficiency-optimized waste heat energy recovery circuit.