Performance Analysis of Near-Critical and Subcritical Organic Rankine Cycle

In this paper, three typical working fluids were selected for the near-critical ORC and subcritical ORC. The difference of performance between the near-critical ORC and subcritical ORC was analyzed by establishing the thermodynamic model. The reason for difference was analyzed in terms of the thermophysical properties. The results indicate that the performance of the near-critical ORC is better than the subcritical ORC. The net absorbed heat, net power and efficiency of the near-critical ORC vary slowly with the vapor generation temperature, which means that the near-critical ORC has good off-design performance. The dry working fluid R236fa is best adapted for the near-critical ORC among the three working fluids. The singular performance of the near-critical ORC depends on the properties of latent heat and type of working fluid in near-critical region.