Experimental investigation on the performance of a Solar-Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion system based on the Organic Rankine Cycle

To improve the performance of the Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) system based on the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC), a solar-assisted cycle is added, and the power generation experimental setup for the SolarOcean Thermal Energy Conversion (S-OTEC) system has been constructed. Through energy and exergy analysis, the effects of solar hot water temperature and working fluid flow rate on the components and system performance are investigated, and the performance differences between S-OTEC and OTEC at the same seawater temperature and working fluid flow rate are compared. The results show that: in the S-OTEC system, as the solar hot water temperature is increased from 54 degrees C to 72 degrees C, the isentropic efficiency of the working fluid pump and expander is improved, but the heat transfer coefficient of the heat exchanger is decreased. Futhermore, the thermal efficiency, power generation efficiency, and exergy efficiency increase in the ranges of 2.02-3.26 %, 2.93-3.15 %, and 37.93-41.01 %, respectively. When the working fluid flow rate is increased from 124.33 kg/h to 216.73 kg/h, the isentropic efficiency of the working fluid pump and expander as well as the heat transfer coefficient of the heat exchanger are improved. Additional, the thermal efficiency, power generation efficiency and exergy efficiency increase in the ranges of 2.05-2.75 %, 2.46-2.97 % and 38.01-48.13 %, respectively. What's more, the thermal efficiency, power generation efficiency and exergy efficiency of the S-OTEC system can be increased by 154.32 %, 39.33 % and 27.87 % respectively compared to the OTEC system.