WOM: Whole ORC Model

Over the last decade, environmental and economic concerns have pushed the researchers to find new solutions in the track of a more responsible use of energy. Particularly, small scale organic Rankine cycles (ORCs) have been regarded as candidate for a better employment of waste energy. In order to increase the performance of these cycles and to extend their operating range, attention has been drawn on the behavior of the different components both experimentally as well as by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The numerical approach has been increasingly used in the study of the machines that compose the cycle, avoiding the problems that typically affect the experimental analyses, e.g. compatibility of refrigerant with sealing systems, and allowing for the preliminary test of new machines to be added to the cycle. In this work, the numerical analysis will be focused not only on the single components considered as a stand-alone, but rather extended on their reciprocal interaction and on the system integration of the different machines. A Whole ORC Model (WOM), can thus be built and employed as a virtual test bench. Such a virtual model can be of paramount importance in predicting the behavior of the cycle in off-design conditions or in gathering information about fluid stagnation locations. The analysis can be even extended by coupling the WOM with the external world. Specifically, the grid demand and the heat flux at the evaporator can vary: such change is translated in a variation in the boundary conditions. The response of the cycle to the external variation can be therefore monitored and studied. A full three-dimensional, transient analysis and the framework in which the WOM is developed are presented in this work. The numerical strategies employed are described, with particular attention to the fashion in which the real gas effect of the working fluid and the motion inside the positive displacement machines are treated. The performance variation in response to an external change is reported to show the capability of the virtual test bench in helping both the system conductor as well as the designer

Full 3D numerical analysis of a roots blower with open-source software

In recent years, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been applied for the design and analysis of positive displacement machines (both compressors and expanders) for vapor compression and power generation (e.g., ORCs) applications. In particular, twin screw compressors are widely employed in industrial vapor compression systems because of their high efficiency compared to other compressor types. The numerical modeling of the operation of such machines is challenging: the dynamics of the compression (or expansion) process and the deforming working chambers make the simulation process a not-trivial task. The relative motion of the rotors and the variation of the gaps during machine operation are few of the major challenges towards the implementation of reliable CFD models. Furthermore, the elaborated working fluid (i.e. the refrigerant) operates in many cases either close to the critical point or to the saturated-vapor line. Under such conditions, the ideal gas model does not hold and, thus, a compressible real gas solver is required. Among the several numerical techniques that have been developed throughout the years, the custom predefined mesh generation is one of the most used techniques. In such an approach, a set of meshes (one for each time step) is generated in advance before running the CFD simulation. The solver is fed with the mesh for each time step retaining the configuration of the mesh unchanged. In this work, SCORG-V5.2.2 was used to generate the meshes of the deforming domain around rotating parts of the machines. This was interconnected with OpenFOAM-v1606+, which is used to compute the flow field associated with the operation of the twin screw machine. It was demonstrated that the proposed methodology allows for a fast simulation and to achieve a good agreement with experimental test results

Ammonium recovery from municipal wastewater by ion exchange: Development and application of a procedure for sorbent selection

Ion exchange represents one of the most promising processes for ammonium recovery from municipal wastewater (MWW). However, most previous studies on ammonium ion exchange did not optimize the process or evaluate its robustness under real operational conditions. This experimental study aimed at (i) developing a procedure for the selection of a sorbent for selective ammonium removal/recovery from MWW, (ii) validating the procedure by applying it to several sorbents, (iii) performing a preliminary optimization and robustness assessment of ammonium removal/recovery with the selected sorbent. The application of the procedure to natural and synthetic zeolites and a cation exchange resin confirmed that batch isotherm tests need to be integrated by continuous-flow tests. The selected sorbent, a natural mixture of Chabazite and Phillipsite, resulted in high performances in terms of cation exchange capacity (33 mgN gdry resin-1), ammonium operating capacity (5.2 mgN gdry resin-1), ammonium recovery yield (78-91%) and selectivity towards ammonium. The process performances resulted stable during 7 adsorption/desorption cycles conducted with MWW treatment plant effluents in a 60-cm column. The switch to a highly saline effluent produced in a hotspot of seawater intrusion did not determine significant changes in performances. Contact time was reduced to 6 min without any decrease in performances. Potassium – well tolerated by crops – was selected as the regenerating agent, in the perspective to produce a desorbed product to be re-used as fertilizer. The study shows that Chabazite/Phillipsite has a high capacity to recover ammonium from MWW in a circular economy approach

Geopolymers adsorbents: Production and use

Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

CFD Approaches Applied To A Single-Screw Expander

Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) systems rely on the expander performance to generate power output in an efficient manner. Especially in the low power range (below 100 kWe), positive displacement (PD) expanders (e.g. scroll, twin-screw, reciprocating, vane, spool, etc.) result to be cost-effective. However, commercially available PD expanders are still limited and, in many cases, the existing PD compressors are operated in reversed mode by introducing design modifications to sealing, bearings, port sizes, lubrication requirements to increase both their performance and reliability. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as a design and analysis tool of positive displacement machine has been proven to be viable. Challenges arise when CFD is applied to PD machines due to the dynamics of the expansion (or compression) process, presence of internal leakages and heat transfer mechanisms, as well as deforming working chambers. Different grid generation methods and solution schemes have been successfully implemented to scroll, twin-screw and reciprocating machines (Rane et al. 2012, Rane et al. 2013). The limitation of such methodologies to be applied directly to complex multi-rotor machines has been highlighted by Rane et al. (Rane at al. 2012). In this paper, a single-screw expander is used as benchmark to evaluate different grid generation methodologies (dynamic remeshing and Chimera strategy overlapping grid) and commercial software, in terms of computational resources required, accuracy of the results and limitations. The calculations have been performed with air to reduce the complexity of the problem.     REFERENCES Rane S., Kovacevic A., Kethidi M., “CFD Modeling in Screw Compressors with complex multi rotor configurationsâ€(2012), Int. Compressor Engineering Conference at Purdue Univ. Paper 2141. Rane S., Kovacevic A., Stosic N., Kethidi M., “Grid deformation strategies for CFD analysis of screw compressorsâ€, Int. J. Refrigeration, 36(2013), 1883-1893

Genome-Wide Scan for Signatures of Human Population Differentiation and Their Relationship with Natural Selection, Functional Pathways and Diseases

Genetic differences both between individuals and populations are studied for their evolutionary relevance and for their potential medical applications. Most of the genetic differentiation among populations are caused by random drift that should affect all loci across the genome in a similar manner. When a locus shows extraordinary high or low levels of population differentiation, this may be interpreted as evidence for natural selection. The most used measure of population differentiation was devised by Wright and is known as fixation index, or FST. We performed a genome-wide estimation of FST on about 4 millions of SNPs from HapMap project data. We demonstrated a heterogeneous distribution of FST values between autosomes and heterochromosomes. When we compared the FST values obtained in this study with another evolutionary measure obtained by comparative interspecific approach, we found that genes under positive selection appeared to show low levels of population differentiation. We applied a gene set approach, widely used for microarray data analysis, to detect functional pathways under selection. We found that one pathway related to antigen processing and presentation showed low levels of FST, while several pathways related to cell signalling, growth and morphogenesis showed high FST values. Finally, we detected a signature of selection within genes associated with human complex diseases. These results can help to identify which process occurred during human evolution and adaptation to different environments. They also support the hypothesis that common diseases could have a genetic background shaped by human evolution

different numerical approaches for the analysis of a single screw expander

Abstract Positive displacement machines (e.g. scroll, twin screw, reciprocating, etc.) are proven to be suitable as expanders for organic Rankine cycle (ORC) applications, especially in the medium to low power range. However, in order to increase their performance, detailed simulation models are required to optimize the design and reduce the internal losses. In recent years, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been applied for the design and analysis of positive displacement machines (both compressors and expanders) with numerous challenges due to the dynamics of the expansion (or compression) process and deforming working chambers. The majority of the studies reported in literature focused on scroll, twin screw and reciprocating machines. Furthermore, the limitation of such methodologies to be applied directly to complex multi-rotor machines has been highlighted in literature. In this paper, a single screw expander (SSE) is used as benchmark to evaluate the applicability of different grid generation methodologies (dynamic remeshing and Chimera strategy overlapping grid), in terms of computational resources required, accuracy of the results and limitations. Although, the low-order models have been applied to single screw machines, there is still a lack of CFD analyses due to the particular complexity of the machine geometry and of its working principle. The calculations have been performed with air to reduce the complexity of the problem. to the main results are two folds: (i) the assessment of a numerical strategy with respect to the most critical parameters of a dynamic mesh-based simulation and (ii) the comparison of the pressure field and internal flow features obtained by using different numerical approaches

Computational Models for the Analysis of positive displacement machines: Real Gas and Dynamic Mesh

Abstract In recent years, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been applied for the design and analysis of positive displacement machines (both compressors and expanders) with numerous challenges due to the dynamics of the compression (or expansion) process and deforming working chambers. The relative motion and in turn, the variation of the gaps during machine operation implies several obstacles for the implementation of reliable CFD models. The majority of the studies reported in literature focused on scroll, twin screw and reciprocating machines. The limitation of the developed methodologies to be applied directly to positive displacement machines with more complex meshing such as that of single-screw has been highlighted in literature. In this paper, a single screw expander is studied by means of (i) a moving mesh technique (dynamic mesh in the Key Frame Remeshing approach) and (ii) a real gas model of a R134a (Peng-Robinson model) implemented in OpenFOAM ®. On the top of that, all the possible techniques that come with the software are investigated in their application to single screw. An useful review of the state of the art CFD with open-source software (OpenFOAM-v1606+ and foam-extend4.0) is therefore carried out. The reliability of CFD model represents indeed the first step on which the design process and further optimization will be based

Batch and Continuous Flow Adsorption of Phenolic Compounds from Olive Mill Wastewater: A Comparison between Nonionic and Ion Exchange Resins

The goals of this work were (i) to compare two anion ion exchange resins (IRA958 Cl and IRA67) and a non-ionic resin (XAD16) in terms of phenolic compounds adsorption capacity from olive mill wastewater, and (ii) to compare the adsorption capacity of the best resin on columns of different length. The ion exchange resins proved less performant than non-ionic XAD16 in terms of resin utilization efficiency (20% versus 43%) and phenolic compounds/COD enrichment factor (1.0 versus 2.5). The addition of volatile fatty acids did not hinder phenolic compounds adsorption on either resin, suggesting a non-competitive adsorption mechanism. A pH increase from 4.9 to 7.2 did not affect the result of this comparison. For the best performing resin (XAD16), an increase in column length from 0.5 to 1.8 m determined an increase in resin utilization efficiency (from 12% to 43%), resin productivity (from 3.4 to 7.6 g sorbed phenolics/kg resin) and phenolics/COD enrichment factor (from 1.2 to 2.5). An axial dispersion model with non-equilibrium adsorption accurately interpreted the phenolic compounds and COD experimental curves

Numerical investigation of oil injection in a Roots blower operated as expander

The adoption of positive displacement machines as expanders in Organic Rankine Cycles (ORCs) is increasingly common, especially in the low to medium power range. At the same time, these devices often serve as compressor in Vapor-Compression Refrigeration Systems. In both cases, the application of Computation Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to optimize such machines has become an integrated tool in the design process. As a consequence, several challenges associated with the numerical simulation have to be taken into account. For example, the modeling of the gap represents a challenge for the stability of the numerical analysis. The dynamic of the process, combined with deformations of the clearances and of the working chamber has to be considered with extra care. To raise the efficiency of the machine, oil is typically injected. Its numerical modeling imply an extra challenge in the simulation of the actual operation of the machine. The present work is mainly focused on the multi-phase nature of the flow, with a particular analysis of the lubricant oil injected. In this work, a two-lobe Roots blower operated as expander has been simulated with the open-source software OpenFOAM-v1812, using the SCORG-V5.2.2. This analysis highlights the areas that are affected the most by the oil presence in order to highlight the sealing effect it provides