Energy 203 (2020) 117809

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Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Multi-objective optimization and off-design evaluation of organic

rankine cycle (ORC) for low-grade waste heat recovery
Lingbao Wang a, b, c, Xianbiao Bu a, b, c, Huashan Li a, b, c, *
a
Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China
b
CAS Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy, Guangzhou, 510640, China
c
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New and Renewable Energy Research and Development, Guangzhou, 510640, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is a technically feasible way for low temperature waste heat recovery.
Received 26 June 2019 Multi-objective optimization of the ORC using R245fa is conducted considering both thermodynamic
Received in revised form performance and economic factors simultaneously, by means of Non-dominated sorting genetic algo-
16 March 2020
rithm-II. The optimum operating parameters were achieved by sorting the Pareto-optimal solutions
Accepted 5 May 2020
Available online 10 May 2020
using the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal situation. A comprehensive analysis on the
off-design performance of the optimized ORC system is examined. Rls is defined as the ratio of latent heat
to sensible heat of the input heat to investigate the relation between the distribution of the input heat
Keywords:
Organic rankine cycle
and the system performance. The effects of hot water temperature and mass flow rate, cooling water
Multi-objective optimization temperature and mass flow rate, superheated degree, subcooling degree and working pump rotational
Non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II speed, on thermal efficiency, exergy efficiency, net power output, investment cost per unit power and Rls
Off-design analysis were investigated. The fitted correlations between Rls and the system performance indexes were derived.
Input heat The novelties of the present paper are the multi-objective optimization for the further off-design
behavior analysis and the quantitative relation investigation between Rls and system performance in-
dexes. It is indicated that the direction of system optimization is to reduce Rls.
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The accelerated energy demand causes increasing consumption
of fossil fuels and massive discharge of pollutants, which promote
the development of low grade heat utilization. In China, there is a
large amount of waste heat in industrial processes. Waste heat
recovery has been carried out in many occasions. Nevertheless, the
recovery amount is inadequate. There still exists abundant waste
heat far from fully utilized [1,2]. Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is
demonstrated to be an efficient solution for low-grade waste heat
exploitation, owing to simple mechanism, low pressure require-
ment, compact and simple components, and convenient mainte-
nance [3]. Extensive investigations have been conducted, including
working fluid selection, system design and optimization [4e7].
However, most of the studies were performed under the design
conditions.
* Corresponding author. Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China.
E-mail address: lihs@ms.giec.ac.cn (H. Li).
Actually, the ORC often operates under variable working con-
ditions. The heat source and heat sink may be unstable and un-
controllable. Taking industrial waste heat as an example, the flow
rate and temperature fluctuate with production process [8]. It is
impossible to change the production status to be consistent with
the design conditions. The ORC would suffer performance degra-
dation as the operating parameters deviate from the design point.
To maximize waste heat utilization, the ORC should be adjusted to
adapt itself to variable working conditions. It is of great significance
to comprehensively investigate the off-design performance.
Many efforts have been devoted to the off-design performance
analysis of the ORC. Gabbrielli [9] built an ORC off-design model to
obtain the optimal design parameters to reduce the system
degradation. Hu et al. [10] performed an off-design performance
evaluation of the ORC with the system component designed in
detail. And also a flow chart of simulation procedures was given.
Song et al. [11] conducted an off-design analysis in detail for a
preliminary designed ORC. Calise et al. [12] presented a thermo-
economic optimization of heat exchanger geometrical parameters
and evaluated the off-design performance for the optimized sys-
tem. Song et al. [13] conducted an off-design analysis of the ORC for

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2020.117809
0360-5442/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 L. Wang et al. / Energy 203 (2020) 117809
industrial waste heat recovery, based on the modeling of the radial-
inflow turbine and the heat exchangers. More attention was paid to
the turbine and heat exchanger performance. Liu and Gao [14]
established the off-design performance prediction model of the
ORC. The radial inflow turbines and plate heat exchangers were
specifically designed. Fu et al. [15] performed an off-design per-
formance investigation of a 250 kW ORC system under various heat
source temperatures and flow rates. The main attention was
focused on the heat transfer characteristics. Nevertheless, only the
off-design performance of preheater was considered. Zheng et al.
[16] put forward a preliminary design and off-design performance
study of the radial-inflow turbine designed by mathematic method
and CFD method. Erdeweghe et al. [17] developed a thermoeco-
nomic design optimization strategy for the ORC, accounting for the
off-design behavior. The optimized design parameters were ob-
tained with the net present value as the objective function. How-
ever, the optimization is based on single objective function.
Chatzopoulou et al. [18] investigated the off-design performance of
the ORC with a screw expander and two heat exchanger architec-
tures. Unlike other studies, the expander and heat exchanger were
not fixed during off-design operation, which can be adjusted with
the variations of the operating parameters. Ibarra et al. [19] studied
the off-design behavior of the ORC with two expanders in series.
The influences of intermediate pressure and volumetric expansion
ratio on the system performance were also discussed.
By the literature review, there are many articles published
involving the off-design analysis of the ORC. However, the design
aspects have not received enough attention compared with the off-
design evaluation. And few of them are conducted for the multi-
objective optimized ORC. Most of them focus on the effects of
fluctuating operating conditions on the ORC for the off-design
analysis. The evaporator is the connection between the heat
source and the rest of the ORC components. As imagined, the dis-
tribution of input heat may have a significant effect on the system
performance. Mikielewicz and Mikielewicz [20] pointed that the
thermal efficiency of the ORC has certain relationship with the ratio
of latent heat to sensible heat. However, the quantitative relation
between the system performance and the ratio has not been
investigated. Wang et al. [21] proposed a theoretical equation
which revealed the relationship between the thermal efficiency
and ratio of latent heat and sensible heat. Kuo et al. [22] also ob-
tained the similar conclusions reported by Wang et al. [21]. To the
author’s knowledge, there are few quantitative relationship inves-
tigation between the evaporation heat distribution and system
performance during the off-design operation. The off-design anal-
ysis is conducted for a finished design ORC system. The off-design
performance evaluation of a multi-objective optimized ORC sys-
tem is more meaningful. In the present paper, a two-step investi-
gation framework is proposed. In the first step, the ORC is multi-
objective optimized considering both thermodynamic and eco-
nomic factor simultaneously. In the second step, the influences of
operating parameters on the system are investigated as well as the
relationship between the input heat distribution and system
performance.
2. System description
The schematic diagram and T-s chart of the ORC is presented in
Fig. 1. The letter “L”, “T” and “G” in Fig. 1 denote the liquid phase
section, gas-liquid two phase section and gas phase section of the
heat exchangers, respectively. The ORC mainly consists of an
evaporator, an expander, a condenser and a working fluid pump.
The working fluid absorbs the heat from the heat source and is
vaporized to saturated or superheated vapor in the evaporator. The
high pressure vapor drives the expander to produce power. The
working fluid exhaust of the expander is condensed to liquid in the
condenser by the cooling water. The liquid is then pumped to the
evaporator to continue cycle operation. R245fa has the advantages
of excellent thermodynamic performance, environmentally-
friendly characteristics and suitable operation conditions. Besides,
the decomposition temperature is about 167
C, which is higher
than the geothermal brine inlet temperature investigated [23]. As a
consequence, R245fa is selected as the working fluid [4,24,25]. And
the thermophysical properties is listed in Table 1.
3. Thermoeconomic model
3.1. Model assumptions
The model is established on the simplifying assumptions as
follows: the system is modeled under steady state conditions;
pressure drops in the heat exchangers and pipelines are neglected;
the kinetic and potential energies as well as heat losses in all of the
components and pipes are ignored.
3.2. Heat exchangers
All the heat exchangers used in the system are plate type heat
exchangers due to its advantages of compactness, excellent heat
transfer characteristic, and easy maintenance [26].
3.2.1. 1Evaporator
The heat absorbed by the working fluid is equal to the heat
released by the waste heat.
 
 
Q eva ¼ mhf cp;hf Thf;in  Thf;out ¼ mwf ðh5  h2 Þ (1)
where Q ð Þ is the heat transfer rate, kW; mð Þ is the mass flow
rate, kg/s; cp is the specific heat capacity, kJ/kg$K1; T is the tem-
perature, K; h is the specific enthalpy, kJ/kg; the subscripts “hf”,
“wf” denote the heat source fluid, working fluid, respectively; the
subscripts “in” and “out” represent inlet and exit, respectively. The
subscript numbers in these equations are corresponding to the
ones indicated in Fig. 1.
The evaporator is divided into three sections: liquid phase sec-
tion, gas-liquid two-phase section, and gas phase section. Each
section is calculated separately.
The total heat transfer rate of each region is given by:

Q i ¼ Ui Ai DTm (2)
where Ui is the overall heat transfer coefficient, W/(m2$K); Ai is the
heat transfer area, m2; DTm is the log mean temperature difference,
K.
The overall heat transfer coefficient is given by:
1 1 d 1
¼ þ þ (3)
Ui ai;hs l ai;cs
where ai,hs is the heat transfer coefficient on the hot fluid side, W/
(m2$K); d is the fin thickness, mm. l is coefficient of thermal con-
ductivity, W/(m$K); ai,cs is the heat transfer coefficient on the cold
fluid side, W/(m2$K).
The heat transfer coefficient in the liquid phase section and
vapor phase section is calculated using the correlation by Chisholm
and Wanniarachchi [27].
 L. Wang et al. / Energy 203 (2020) 117809 3

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram and T-s chart of the ORC.

Table 1
Thermophysical properties of R245fa [23].

Fluid Molecular mass (kg/ Critical temperature Critical pressure Normal boiling point Ozone Depletion Global Warming Toxicity
type kmol) (oC) (kPa) (oC) Potential Potential

Dry 134.05 154.01 3651.00 15.14 0 950 Non-

toxic

 
 0:646
ai;hs=cs dh 6b 0:583 1=3
Rls ¼ Q l =Q s (10)
Nu ¼ ¼ 0:724 Re Pr (4)
l p

where Nu is the Nusselt number; dh is the hydraulic diameter, m; b

3.2.2. Condenser
is the corrugation angle on the surface of a plate; Re is the Reynolds
The heat released by the working fluid in the condenser is equal
number; Pr is Prandtl number.
to the heat absorbed by the cooling water.

Re ¼ Gdh =n (5)  
 
Q con ¼ mcf cp;cf Tcf;out  Tcf;in ¼ mwf ðh6  h1 Þ (11)
where G is the mass velocity through the plate channels, kg/(m2$s);
n is the viscosity, Pa$s. where the subscripts “con”, “cw” denote the condenser and cooling
water, respectively.
Cp h The condenser is divided into three sections as well, i.e. gas
Pr ¼ (6) phase section, gas-liquid two-phase section and liquid phase
l
section.
The correlation proposed by Yan and Lin [28] is used to estimate The heat transfer coefficient in the single phase section of the
the convection heat transfer coefficient on the working fluid side in condenser is also calculated by Eq. (4). The convection heat transfer
the gas-liquid two-phase section. coefficient on the hot side in the gas-liquid two-phase section is
expressed as:
  0:5 
ai;cs dh rl
Nu ¼ ¼ 1:926Pr 1=3 Re0:5 0:3
eq Boeq 1  xm þ xm (7) ai;hs dh
l rv Nu ¼ ¼ 4:118Re0:4 Pr1=3 (12)
l
where Reeq and Boeq are the equivalent Reynolds and boiling
number; xm is the vapor quality. The latent heat section of the input
heat is calculated by: 3.3. Working fluid pump

  The rotating speed of the working fluid pump is adjustable. It is

Q l ¼ mwf ðh5  h3 Þ (8)
assumed that the working fluid pump has good control effect, and
The sensible heat section of the input heat is calculated by: the mass flow of the working fluid is proportional to the rotation
speed.
 
Q s ¼ mwf ðh3  h2 Þ (9) 
mwf Np
 ¼ (13)
In order to investigate the relation between the distribution of mwf ;d Np;d
the input heat and the system performance, an indicator is defined
as follows:
4 L. Wang et al. / Energy 203 (2020) 117809

where mð Þwf and mð Þwf,d are the actual and designed mass flow

rate, respectively, kg/s; Np and Np,d are the actual and designed CEPCI2017 0
Chx ¼  Fs  Chx  B1;hx þ B2;hx  Fm;hx  Fp;hx
rotation speed, RPM. The nominal rotational speed is assumed to be CEPCI2001
1500 RPM. (21)
The isentropic efficiency of the working fluid pump will vary in
the autual operation, estimated by Ref. [29]. where Chx is the capitalized cost of heat exchanger, USD; CEPCI2001

 and CEPCI2017 are the Chemical Engineering Plant Cost Index for
εp ¼ 0:72  0:1680RV 3  0:0336RV 2 þ 0:6317RV þ 0:5699 years 2001 and 2017; Fs is an additional factor for overhead cost;
C0hx is the basic cost, USD; B1,hx, B2,hx are the constants for the
(14) certain type of heat exchanger; Fm,hx is the material factor; Fp,hx is

 .  . the pressure factor.
RV ¼ mwf rwf _in 1000 0:25 (15)
0
log Chx ¼ K1;hx þ K2;hx  ðlog Ahx Þ þ K3;hx  ðlog Ahx Þ2 (22)
where RV is the ratio of the inlet volumetric flow with respect to the
design point, r is the density, kg/m3. log Fp;hx ¼ C1;hx þ C2;hx  ðlog Phx Þ þ C3;hx  ðlog Phx Þ2 (23)
The power consumption of the pump is expressed by:
where K1,hx, K2,hx, C1,hx, C2,hx, C3,hx are the constants; Ahx is heat
    .
W p ¼ mwf ðh2  h1 Þ ¼ mwf h2;s  h1 εp (16) exchanger area, m2; Phx is the pressure of heat exchanger, bar.
The cost of the working fluid pump is obtained by:
where Wð Þ is power, kW; subscripts “p” and “s” represent working CEPCI2017 
fluid pump and isentropic process. Cp ¼  Fs  Cp0  B1;p þ B2;p  Fm;p  Fp;p (24)
CEPCI2001

3.4. Expander
   
2
log Cp0 ¼ K1;p þ K2;p  logW p þ K3;p  logW p (25)

The constant expander efficiency is generally assumed in most

  
2
ORC studies, which do not match the actual situation. To address log Fp;p ¼ C1;p þ C2;p  log Pp þ C3;p  logW p (26)
this issue, the correlation of the dynamic expander efficiency is
fitted based on the ORC experimental data using R245fa as working where Cp is capitalized cost of the working fluid pump, USD; Fm,p is
fluid conducted by Lemort et al. [30]. an additional factor; Fp,p is pressure factor; C0p is the basic cost, USD;
The power produced is written by: B1,p, B2,p, K1,p, K2,p, K3,p, C1,p, C2,p, C3,p are the constants; Pp is the
pressure, bar.
   
W exp ¼ mwf ðh5  h6 Þ ¼ mwf h5  h6;s εexp (17) The cost of the expander is given by:

where subscripts “exp” represents expander.

CEPCI2017 0
Cexp ¼  Fs  Cexp  Fm;exp (27)
CEPCI2001

3.5. Thermal performance indexes 0

    2
log Cexp ¼ K1;exp þ K2;exp  logW exp þ K3;pp  logW exp
The net power output is given by: (28)
   where Cexp is capitalized cost of the expander, USD; Fm,exp is pres-
W net ¼ W exp  W p (18)
sure factor; C0exp is the basic cost; K1,exp, K2,exp, K3,exp are the
The thermal efficiency is defined by: constants.
The total investment cost can be estimated by:
 
hth ¼ W net =Q eva (19)
Ctot ¼ Chx þ Cp þ Cexp (29)
The exergy efficiency is expressed as:
In this paper, the investment cost per unit power is selected to
 evaluate the economic performance, as expressed by:
W net
hex ¼ 
.  (20) 
Q eva 1  T0 Thf;m CP ¼ Ctot =W net (30)
The parameters of the economic model are listed in Table 2.

4. Multi-objective optimization and decision

3.6. Economic model
The economic model is based on the purchased equipment costs
of each component at a specific size or capacity. The cost of indi-
vidual components is calculated by the approach [31] using the
appropriate Chemical Engineering Plant Cost (CEPCI) for the year
2017, which is used to update the basic cost. Note that the cost of
piping, working fluid and labor is not considered. The cost of the
heat exchangers is given by:
All codes for the ORC were developed in MATLAB. The properties
of R245fa is referred to NIST REFPROP 9.0 [33].
4.1. Multi-objective optimization
4.1.1. Objective function
A multi-objective optimization model is established. The
maximum hex and minimum CP are considered as objective
 L. Wang et al. / Energy 203 (2020) 117809 5

Table 2 Table 4
Parameters of economic model [32]. Input parameters of NSGA-II.

Parameter Value Parameter Value NSGA-II Parameters Value/Range

CEPCI2001 394 Fm,pp 2.20 Generation size 100

CEPCI2017 623.5 K1,pp 3.389 Crossover fraction 0.8
Fs 1.70 K2,pp 0.536 Selection process Tournament
B1,hx 0.96 B1,pp 1.89 Migration fraction 0.2
B2,hx 1.21 B2,pp 1.35 Maximum generation 200
Fm,hx 2.40 C1,pp 0.3935 Evaporation pressure (kPa) 600e900
K1,hx 4.66 C2,pp 0.3957 Condensation pressure (kPa) 170e350
K2,hx 0.1557 C3,pp 0.00226 Superheating degree (
C) 5e8
K3,hx 0.1547 Fm,exp 3.50 Subcooling degree (
C) 5e10
C1,hx 0.00 K1,exp 2.2659 Rotation speed (RPM) 1100e1500
C2,hx 0.00 K2,exp 1.4398
C3,hx 0.00 K3,exp 0.1776
K3,pp 0.1538

functions herein, as described below.


maxhex
Teva ; Tcon ; Tsh ; Tsc ; Np (31)
minCtot Wnet Teva ; Tcon ; Tsh ; Tsc ; Np

CP
4.1.2. Constraints
The selected decision variables should satisfy the following
constraints. Fig. 2. Pareto frontier of CP with hex.

Teva > Tcon ; Teva < Thw_in

Tcon > Tcw_in point B (45.2%), at while CP obtains the peak value (23365.4 USD/
3
C < Tsh < 10
C kW). Each point introduced by the Pareto frontier solution can be
(32)
3
C < Tsc < 8
C selected as an optimum point. The decision maker can select the
3
C < dTpp < 10
C most preferred according to the weights of the objective functions.
0 < Npp < 1500 RPM

4.2. Decision-making in multi-objective optimization

4.1.3. Optimization algorithm TOPSIS method (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to
Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II (NSGA-II) in Ideal Situation) is applied to select the final solution on the Pareto
MATLAB optimization environment is employed to conduct the bi- frontier, proposed by Hwang and Yoon [36]. In TOPSIS method, an
objective optimization. Genetic Algorithms (GAs) concept intro- ideal solution (the best value for each objective function) and a
duced by Holland [34], applies an interactive method to seek an negative ideal solution (the worst value for each objective function)
optimal solution and emulates the principles of biological evolu- are defined, as shown in Fig. 2. The bi-objective function matrix is
tionary processes [35]. The Pareto-optimal solutions present a expressed as:
compromise for the two objective functions. The design parameters  
 h11 CP12 
are listed in Table 3. The genetic algorithm parameters, decision 
 h21 CP22 
variables and their ranges are listed in Table 4. 
 h31 CP32 
The Pareto frontier solution is illustrated in Fig. 2. It can be seen 
 : :  (33)
that it is impossible to obtain maximum hex and minimum CP 
 : : 
simultaneously. It is illustrated clearly that hex and CP conflict with 
 : : 
each other, as one improves, the other deteriorates. The minimum 
h CPm2 
value of CP occurs at point A (21111.9 USD/kW), where hex is the m1
lowest (41.9%). Moreover, the maximum hex is achieved at design The normalized decision matrix is expressed as:
 
 
 ; ; 
Table 3 h CP12
Operating conditions and parameters.  11 
 h; ; 
 21 CP22 
Parameters Values  ; ; 
h CP32

 31 
Hot source inlet temperature ( C) 100  
Hot source mass flow rate (kg/s)  : :  (34)
1.4  
Cooling water inlet temperature (
C) 22  : : 

Cooling water mass flow rate (kg/s) 6  
Ambient temperature (
C)  : : 
20  ; ; 
Parameters of plate heat exchanger h CPm2
 m1 
Plate thickness (mm) 0.6  
Plate spacing (mm) 2
Corrugation pitch (mm) 7.2 The weight coefficients of hex and CP are set as 0.4 and 0.6,
Chevron angle (o) 45
respectively. The decision matrix is expressed as:
6 L. Wang et al. / Energy 203 (2020) 117809

  of working fluid pump. In the following analysis, the input data are
 
 ; ;  the same as the designed values given in Table 5, except the
h CP12   
 11   f11 parameter whose effect is discussed. The influences of hot water
 h; ;   f12 
 21 CP22   f21 flow rate (mhw) on system performance are presented in Figs. 3e4.
 ; ;   f22 
h    f31 As can be seen, hth and hex present upward trend as the rise in mhw,
 31 CP32  f32 
  0:4 0  
F ¼ : :  ¼ : :  (35) but the growth rate is decreased gradually. In the range of
  0 0:6  
 : :   : :  1.8e2.1 kg/s for mhw, hth and hex reach the maximum. Higher mhw
   :
   :  yields higher heat transfer coefficient in the evaporator, especially
 : :  f
 ;  m1 fm2  in the two-phase section, as displayed in Fig. 5. Note that the heat
h CP hm2 
;
transfer coefficient of the gas phase section is in the range of
 m1
  304.26e364.14 W/(m2$K), which is in accordance with the reports
(390.64e355.68 W/(m2$K)) presented by Feng et al. [37]. Moreover,
The Euclidian distance of every solution on the Pareto frontier
Wnet increases from 5.2 to 11.6 kW, while CP decreases from
from the ideal solution is calculated as:
41488.7 to 20,552 USD/kW. The system performance is significantly
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 ffi improved by increasing mhw. But larger mhw is not always benefi-
Sid ¼ hex  hex;id 2 þ ðCP  CPid Þ2 (36) cial, because when mhw is larger than 1.6 kg/s, both the hth and hex
basically remain unchanged. He et al. [38] obtained the similar
where hex,id and CPid are the ideal solutions of the respective single- variations of hth and hex with mhw, due to the limited design heat
objective function. transfer capacity of the evaporator. The effect of mhw on Rls is shown
The Euclidian distance of every solution from the negative ideal in Fig. 6. As can be observed Rls is decreased with the increasing
solution is calculated as: mhw. It seems smaller Rls is conductive to better system perfor-
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 ffi mance. Sustained attention will be paid on the relationship be-
Sneid ¼ hex  hex;neid 2 þ ðCP  CPneid Þ2 (37) tween Rls and the system performance.
The effects of hot water temperature (Thw) on system perfor-
where hex,neid and CPneid are the negative ideal solutions of the mance are illustrated in Figs. 7e8. As can be discovered, with the
respective single-objective function. increment of Thw, hth is increased, while hex first increases and then
The TOPSIS method attempts to choose alternatives that declines. High Thw means larger evaporation pressure, leading to an
simultaneously have the shortest distance from the ideal solution increasing specific enthalpy drop across the expander. The working
and the farthest distance from the negative ideal solution. An fluid mass flow rate is constant with a specific rotational speed of
evaluation index is defined to insight into the status of various the pump. As a consequence, an increasing in Thw leads to increased
solutions, the maximum of the index is proposed to be the optimal Wnet, but meanwhile it will increase the exergy of the input heat.
solution. With the interaction between these two effects, an optimum Thw
(99
C) occurs and makes hex maximized (43.8%). The increasing
Sneid Thw is conductive to the rise of hth and Wnet, and decrease of CP. The
Crit ¼ (38)
Sid þ Sneid effects of Thw on the evaporator area and log mean temperature
difference of different sections are displayed in Fig. 9. A and dT
The optimal design parameters of the 10 kW ORC are listed in denote evaporator area and log mean temperature difference,
Table 5. The corresponding hex and CP are 43.8% and 21680.1USD/ respectively. The subscripts “l”, “tp” and “v” represent liquid phase,
kW, respectively. gas-liquid two-phase and gas phase. As can be seen, higher Thw
leads larger log mean temperature difference. With the designed
5. Results and discussions specific evaporator area, higher Thw yields more input heat in the
evaporator, leading to the decrease of CP. When Thw is more than
5.1. Effects of heat source parameters on system performance 110
C, the increase of Thw has little help for the system perfor-
mance improvement. Hu et al. [39] reported similar variations of hth
As one of the objectives, this paper aims at investigating the
system performance under off-design conditions. The system
behavior is evaluated by varying the heat source, heat sink condi-
tions, superheated degree, subcooling degree and rotational speed

Table 5
Design parameters of 10 kW ORC.

Parameters Designed Values

Environment pressure (kPa) 101.3

Environment temperature (
C) 25
Pinch point in heat exchanger (
C) 5
Geothermal brine mass flow rate (kg/s) 1.4
Geothermal brine inlet temperature (
C) 100
Cooling water mass flow rate (kg/s) 6
Cooling water inlet temperature (
C) 22
Evaporation pressure (kPa) 814.0
Condensation pressure (kPa) 181.0
Superheated degree in evaporator (
C) 6.1
Subcooling degree in condenser (
C) 5.1
Heat transfer area of evaporator (m2) 22.7 m
Heat transfer area of condenser (m2) 33.4
Rotational speed of working fluid pump (RPM) 1352.9
Fig. 3. Variations of hth and hex with hot water flow rate (mhw).
 L. Wang et al. / Energy 203 (2020) 117809 7

W
CP
W

CP
m
T
Fig. 4. Variations of Wnet and CP with hot water flow rate (mhw).
Fig. 7. Variations of hth and hex with hot water temperature (Thw).

U W
CP
U
U
W

CP
U

m T

Fig. 5. Variations of evaporator heat transfer coefficients of different sections with hot Fig. 8. Variations of Wnet and CP with hot water temperature (Thw).
water flow rate (mhw).

R
R

A
A
A

T
m
Fig. 9. Variations of evaporator area (A) and log mean temperature (dT) of different
sections with hot water temperature (Thw).
Fig. 6. Variations of Rls with hot water flow rate (mhw).
8 L. Wang et al. / Energy 203 (2020) 117809

W
R CP

W
R

CP
m

Fig. 12. Variations of Wnet and CP with cooling water flow rate (mcw).
T

Fig. 10. Variations of Rls with hot water temperature (Thw).

and hex wtih Thw. The effect of Thw on Rls is presented in Fig. 10. It
can be found Rls drops nearly linearly with the increasing of Thw.
Basically smaller Rls leads to relatively better system performance.
Nevertheless, the effect of Rls on any of evaluation indicators cannot U
be estimated straightforward. Rls has a closer relationship with hth. U
U
5.2. Effects of heat sink parameters on system performance
U

The effects of cooling water flow rate (mcw) on the system per-
formance are depicted in Figs. 11 and 12. The raising of mcw is
contributed to the system performance promotion, i.e. increasing of
hth, hex and Wnet, decreasing of CP. Compared with the effect of mhw
on the system performance, the mcw has weaker influence. As can
be seen in Fig. 13that the effect of mcw on the system reflects on
changing heat transfer coefficient in the condenser. The heat m
transfer in the gas-liquid two-phase section of the condenser can
be enhanced with the increasing mcw, while the heat transfer in the Fig. 13. Variations of condenser heat transfer coefficients of different sections cooling
water flow rate (mcw).
liquid and gas phase sections are basically unaffected. The influence
of mcw on Rls is shown in Fig. 14. It is shown that Rls is decreased
with the increment of mcw. The smaller Rls yields better the system
performance.
The effects of cooling water temperature (Tcw) on system R
R

m Fig. 14. Variations of Rls with cooling water flow rate (mcw).

Fig. 11. Variations of hth and hex with cooling water flow rate (mcw).
 L. Wang et al. / Energy 203 (2020) 117809 9

T
T
Fig. 18. Variations of hth and hex with superheated degree (Tsh).
Fig. 15. Variations of hth and hex with cooling water temperature (Tcw).

W
W CP
CP
W

CP
W

CP

T
T
Fig. 19. Variations of Wnet and CP with superheated degree (Tsh).
Fig. 16. Variations of Wnet and CP with cooling water temperature (Tcw).

R
R
R
R

T T

Fig. 20. Variations of Rls with superheated degree (Tsh).

Fig. 17. Variations of Rls with cooling water temperature (Tcw).
10 L. Wang et al. / Energy 203 (2020) 117809

performance are shown in Figs. 15 and 16. As expected, lower Tcw is

in favor for improving the system performance. The variation of Rls
W
with Tcw is presented in Fig. 17, the same conclusion can be drawn
CP
that smaller Rls is contributed to better system performance.

5.3. Effects of Tsh on system performance

The influences of superheated degree (Tsh) on the system per-

CP
formance are depicted in Figs. 18e20. It can be found that hth and
hex decrease with the increasing of Tsh. That is to say that the
working fluid do not need to be superheated. It is implied that Tsh
should be designed as low as possible in the view of system effi-
ciency. The negative effects of Tsh on hth and hex has been demon-
strated by Zhou et al. [40]. In practical operation of the ORC, the
volume of R245fa increases by many times during vaporization. The
T
vapor velocity is high enough to carry considerable amounts of
liquid droplets to the outlet of the evaporator. As a consequence,
Fig. 22. Variations of Wnet and CP with subcoolingdegree (Tsc).
the vapor dryness at the evaporator outlet is less than 100%. The
entrained small droplets can gain heat from the superheated vapor
and vaporize again before entering the expander. As a result,
although the R245fa is a dry working fluid, superheat degree is still
necessary. The necessity of Tsh to maintain the stable operation of
the ORC has been revealed by Hu et al. [41]. The Wnet firstly in- R
creases then decreases with the increasing Tsh, yet changes slightly.
The CP exhibits an opposite variation tendency. With the Tsh of
16
C, the Wnet and CP obtain the optimum values. Because when Tsh
increases, expander inlet enthalpy increases, on the other hand,
total flow rate decreases. Consequence of these mentioned effects
leads to such change. Yu et al. presented that the net power output
R

achieves the maximum with the Tsh of 20
C [42]. The discrepancy is

caused by different boundary conditions and control strategies.
From Fig. 20, Rls is increased with the increasing of Tsh. There still
exists the conclusion that smaller Rls achieves better system
performance.

5.4. Effects of Tsc on system performance

The influences of subcooling degree (Tsc) on system perfor-

mance are presented in Figs. 21e23. It can be seen that with the rise
T
of Tsc, hth, hex and Wnet are decreased, CP is increased. The reason is
Fig. 23. Variations of Rls with subcooling degree (Tsc).
that the increase of Tsc causes a reduction in the temperature of
working fluid at the inlet of evaporator. With the evaporator area
and working fluid flow rate unchanged, the temperature at the inlet
of expander decreases. Therefore, under the premise of stable

T Fig. 24. Variations of hth and hex with rotational speed (Np).

Fig. 21. Variations of hth and hex with subcooling degree (Tsc).
 L. Wang et al. / Energy 203 (2020) 117809 11

displays a significant decline later, resulting in a decrease in Wnet

W afterwards. There exists the optimal Np of 1440 RPM, at which the
CP Wnet and CP achieve the optimal value. As can be seen from Fig. 26.
Rls increases linearly with the rising of Np. With changes of Np, the
variation in Rls cannot be used to directly determine whether it is
beneficial or detrimental to Wnet, while it is applicable for esti-
mating hth.
Based on the off-design analysis of the ORC, it can be indicated
W

that there exists a certain relationship between Rls and the system

CP
performance. The fitted correlations are derived for Rls and system
performance as followed.
.
hth ¼ j1 þ j2 Rls þ j3 Rls 2 þ j4 ðLn Rls Þ2^ þ j5 Rls 1:5 (39)

. .
N hex ¼ k1 þ k2 Rls þ k3 Rls 3 þ k4 LnðRls Þ þ k5 LnðRls Þ Rls 2 (40)
Fig. 25. Variations of Wnet and CP with rotational speed (Np).

Wnet ¼ p1 þ p2 Rls þ p3 Rls 1:5 þ p4 Rls 0:5 þ p5 eRls (41)

, ,
R CP ¼ q1 þ q2 LnðRls Þ þ q3 Rls þ
q4
(42)
Rls 1:5

The correlation coefficients are 0.95, 0.85, 078 and 0.85,

respectively. The parameters of the correlations are listed in Table 6.
Based on the four correlations, a further multi-objective opti-
mization is conducted to investigate the value range of Rls using
R

NSGA-II. The objective functions are expressed as:

maxðhth Þ
maxðhex Þ (43)
minðCPÞ
Note that Wnet and CP achieve the maximum and minimum,
respectively, under the same Rls. So the hth, hex and CP are selected
as objective functions. According to the off-design analysis, as the
sole decision variable, Rls is between 1.4 and 3.5. The Pareto frontier
N solution is shown in Fig. 27, which apparently reveals the conflict
among the objective functions. Fig. 28 depicts the distribution of Rls
Fig. 26. Variations of Rls with rotational speed (Np).
for the Pareto frontier. It can be observed that Rls locates in the
range of 1.4e1.8, concentrating on the lower limit of the range. It
can be inferred that the system performance is closely related to Rls,
operation of working fluid pump, Tsc should also be minimized. Rls
and smaller Rls means better system performance, which indicates
is decreased with the increase of Tsc. From Fig. 23, it can be found
the path for improvement and optimal design of the ORC.
that Rls is decreased with the Figure 10increasing of Tsc. It is con-
trary to the above conclusion, which is related to the definition of
Rls. The raising of Tsc causes the increase of sensible heat transferred
by the heat source.

5.5. Effects of Np on system performance

The influences of rotational speed (Np) on system performance

are depicted in Figs. 24e26. The mass flow rate of the working fluid
is controlled by Np. From Fig. 24, it is illustrated hth and hex first
decrease slowly and then decrease significantly. According to the
model of the working fluid pump, the mass flow rate of the working
fluid rises with the increasing Np. Under the predesigned evapo-
rator area and constant working conditions, the increasing mass
flow rate of working fluid leads to the decline of evaporation
temperature, and then the decrease of hth and hex. From Fig. 25,
since an increase in Np results in a large increase of working fluid
mass flow rate and also a reduction enthalpy drop across the
expander. The initial rise in Wnet can be attributed to the former
cause. Yet as the effect of the dwindling enthalpy drop gradually
outweighs that of the increasing working fluid mass flow rate, Wnet Fig. 27. 3-D diagram of Pareto frontier of the three-objective optimization.
12 L. Wang et al. / Energy 203 (2020) 117809

Table 6
Parameters of the correlations.

Parameters Values Parameters Values Parameters Values

j1 2369.8182 k3 5.5978 p5 7643.7118

j2 1455.0303 k4 85.3012 q1 31422552.9710
j3 54.0989 k5 2403.3064 q2 12574437.5614
j4 1410.1000 p1 14675.8798 q3 462300.2729
j5 978.7188 p2 8115.3763 q4 37033763.7850
k1 985.8418 p3 1190.4500 q5 17514219.3306
k2 267.4823 p4 18734.2988

pump rotational speed, hth and hex are decreased. There ex-
ists the optimal pump rotational speed of 1440 RPM, at
R which the Wnet and CP achieve the optimal value.
(5) Based on the off-design analysis, the ratio of latent heat to
sensible heat of the input heat (Rls) has close relationship
with the system performance, especially for hth. The fitted
correlations between Rls and system performance indexes
are derived. Although there is not a rigorous positive corre-
lation between Rls and the system performance, it is still an
R

important parameter to evaluate the system performance.

(6) Based on the fitted correlations between Rls and system
performance indexes, Rls is optimized using NSGA-II with the
maximum hth and hex, and minimum CP as objective func-
tions. Rls locates in the range of 1.4e1.8, at the lower limit of
the range. It indicates the direction for the system optimi-
zation, i.e. reduction of the proportion of latent heat in the
input heat.

Declaration of competing interests

Fig. 28. Scattered distribution of Rls.

We declare that we have no known competing financial in-

6. Conclusions
In this paper, a comprehensive study on the off-design perfor-
mance of the multi-objective optimized ORC has been investigated.
In the exploration of the off-design performance, the quantitative
relationship between the distribution of the input heat and the
system performance was innovatively studied. The following con-
clusions can be drawn:
terests or personal relationships that could have appeared to in-
fluence the work reported in this paper.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Lingbao Wang: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing -
original draft. Xianbiao Bu: Supervision, Formal analysis. Huashan
Li: Software, Investigation, Writing - review & editing.

(1) With the maximum hex and minimum CP, a bi-objective
optimization is conducted using NSGA-II. The optimal
design parameters are obtained with TOPSIS method based
on the Pareto-optimal solutions, at which hex and CP are
43.8% and 21680.1 USD/kW, respectively.
(2) The system performance can be significantly improved by
increasing hot water mass flow rate, while larger hot water
mass flow rate is not always beneficial. The higher hot water
temperature leads to the rise of hex and Wnet, and decrease of
CP. The optimal hot water temperature is 99
C at which the
maximal hex is obtained.
(3) The raising cooling water mass flow rate and decreasing
cooling water temperature are beneficial to the system per-
formance promotion, i.e. increasing of hth, hex and Wnet,
decreasing of CP. The heat source temperature has more
significant influence on the system performance than the
cooling water temperature.
(4) Increasing the superheated degree has a negative effect on
hth and hex. With the superheated degree of 16
C, Wnet and
CP obtain the optimum values. The increase of superheated
degree is detrimental for the system performance except for
the stable operation of working fluid pump. With the rise of
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial supports
provided by the National Key Research and Development Program
of China (No. 2018YFB1501805), and Natural Science Foundation of
Guangdong Province (No. 2018A030313018), and the Youth Inno-
vation Promotion Association, Chinese Academy of Sciences (No.
2017402).
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gen: vapor generator v: vapor

hf: heat source fluid wat: water
hs: heat side wf: working fluid
in: inlet
l: liquid Acronyms
m: thermodynamic mean value
net: net output
out: outlet CEPCI: Chemical Engineering Plant Cost
p: pump ODP: ozone depletion potential
Pre1: Preheater 1 ORC: organic rankine cycle
Pre2: Preheater 2 GWP: global warming potential
s: isentropic process GA: genetic algorithm
th: thermal efficiency TOPSIS: Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Situation
tot: total