A regenerative supercritical-subcritical dual-loop organic Rankine cycle system for energy recovery from the waste heat of internal combustion engines

Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system is considered as a promising technology for energy recovery from the waste heat rejected by internal combustion (IC) engines. However, such waste heat is normally contained in both coolant and exhaust gases at quite different temperatures. A single ORC system is usually unable to efficiently recover energy from both of these waste heat sources. A dual loop ORC system which essentially has two cascaded ORCs to recover energy from the engine’s exhaust gases and coolant separately has been proposed to address this challenge. In this way, the overall efficiency of energy recovery can be substantially improved. This paper examines a regenerative dual loop ORC system using a pair of environmentally friendly refrigerants, R1233zd and R1234yf, as working fluids, to recover energy from the waste heat of a compressed natural gas (CNG) engine. Unlike most previous studies focusing on the ORC system only, the present research analyses the ORC system and CNG engine together as an integrated system. As such, the ORC system is analysed on the basis of real data of waste heat sources of the CNG engine under various operational conditions. A numerical model is employed to analyse the performances of the proposed dual loop cycle with four pairs of working fluids. The effects of a regenerative heat exchanger and several other key operating parameters are also analysed and discussed in detail. The performance of the integrated engine-ORC system is then analysed under actual engine operating conditions which were measured beforehand. The performance of the proposed system under off-design conditions has also been analysed. The obtained results show that the proposed dual loop ORC system could achieve better performance than other ORC systems for similar applications

Thermodynamic analysis of a dual-loop organic Rankine cycle (ORC) for waste heat recovery of a petrol engine

Huge amounts of low-grade heat energy are discharged to the environment by vehicular engines. Considering the large number of vehicles in the world, such waste energy has a great impact on our environment globally. The Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC), which uses an organic fluid with a low boiling point as the working medium, is considered to be the most promising technology to recover energy from low-grade waste heat. In this study, a dual-loop ORC is presented to simultaneously recover energy from both the exhaust gases and the coolant of a petrol engine. A high-temperature (HT) ORC loop is used to recover heat from the exhaust gases, while a low-temperature (LT) ORC loop is used to recover heat from the coolant and the condensation heat of the HT loop. Figure 1 shows the schematic of the dual-loop ORC. Differing from previous research, two more environmentally friendly working fluids are used, and the corresponding optimisation is conducted. First, the system structure and operating principle are described. Then, a mathematical model of the designed dual-loop ORC is established. Next, the performance of the dual-loop cycle is analysed over the entire engine operating region. Furthermore, the states of each point along the cycle and the heat load of each component are compared with the results of previous research. The results show that the dual-loop ORC can effectively recover the waste heat from the petrol engine, and that the effective thermal efficiency can be improved by about 20 ~ 24%, 14~20%, and 30% in the high-speed, medium-speed, and low-speed operation regions, respectively. The designed dual-loop ORC can achieve a higher system efficiency than previous ORCs of this structure. Therefore, it is a good choice for waste heat recovery from vehicle engines

Parametric optimization and heat transfer analysis of a dual loop ORC (organic Rankine cycle) system for CNG engine waste heat recovery

In this study, a dual loop ORC (organic Rankine cycle) system is adopted to recover exhaust energy, waste heat from the coolant system, and intercooler heat rejection of a six-cylinder CNG (compressed natural gas) engine. The thermodynamic, heat transfer, and optimization models for the dual loop ORC system are established. On the basis of the waste heat characteristics of the CNG engine over the whole operating range, a GA (genetic algorithm) is used to solve the Pareto solution for the thermodynamic and heat transfer performances to maximize net power output and minimize heat transfer area. Combined with optimization results, the optimal parameter regions of the dual loop ORC system are determined under various operating conditions. Then, the variation in the heat transfer area with the operating conditions of the CNG engine is analyzed. The results show that the optimal evaporation pressure and superheat degree of the HT (high temperature) cycle are mainly influenced by the operating conditions of the CNG engine. The optimal evaporation pressure and superheat degree of the HT cycle over the whole operating range are within 2.5–2.9 MPa and 0.43–12.35 K, respectively. The optimal condensation temperature of the HT cycle, evaporation and condensation temperatures of the LT (low temperature) cycle, and exhaust temperature at the outlet of evaporator 1 are kept nearly constant under various operating conditions of the CNG engine. The thermal efficiency of the dual loop ORC system is within the range of 8.79%–10.17%. The dual loop ORC system achieves the maximum net power output of 23.62 kW under the engine rated condition. In addition, the operating conditions of the CNG engine and the operating parameters of the dual loop ORC system significantly influence the heat transfer areas for each heat exchanger

Irrigation scheduling for potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) under drip irrigation in an arid region using AquaCrop model

Potato is one of the key food crops and China is the largest potato producer in the world. However water scarcity is the major constraint to increase the productivity of potato in the arid regions such as Ningxia in northwest China where this crop is extensively cultivated. The overall objective of this study was to optimize the irrigation for potato cultivated under the drip irrigation. To do this, the AquaCrop model was calibrated and validated using the data obtained from two years of field experiment. Then, the calibrated crop model was used to simulate growth and tuber yield of potato in response to 30 different irrigation schemes under two different irrigation scenarios. The crop model evaluation parameters namely, the root mean square error (RMSE), the index of agreement (d), the normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) and the coefficient of determination (R2) showed that the AquaCrop model could simulate the growth and yield of potato under the drip irrigation with different irrigation treatments with reasonable accuracy. Furthermore, yield of potato has increased with increasing amount of total irrigation under drip irrigation; however, yield begins to decline when the amount of total irrigation exceeds 2500 m3 ha-1. The study also found that the optimum irrigation schedule for potato was 20 mm of irrigation quota at 7 days of irrigation cycle (i.e., 1800 m3 ha-1 or 180 mm of total irrigation). The above irrigation scheduling has achieved 46.77 t ha-1 of tuber yield with 15.74 kg m-3 of water use efficiency. These findings may be evaluated in potato cultivation across different climate and soil conditions for wide applicability at different arid regions of the world

Fine mapping and candidate gene analysis of proportion of four-seed pods by soybean CSSLs

Soybean yield, as one of the most important and consistent breeding goals, can be greatly affected by the proportion of four-seed pods (PoFSP). In this study, QTL mapping was performed by PoFSP data and BLUE (Best Linear Unbiased Estimator) value of the chromosome segment substitution line population (CSSLs) constructed previously by the laboratory from 2016 to 2018, and phenotype-based bulked segregant analysis (BSA) was performed using the plant lines with PoFSP extreme phenotype. Totally, 5 ICIM QTLs were repeatedly detected, and 6 BSA QTLs were identified in CSSLs. For QTL (qPoFSP13-1) repeated in ICIM and BSA results, the secondary segregation populations were constructed for fine mapping and the interval was reduced to 100Kb. The mapping results showed that the QTL had an additive effect of gain from wild parents. A total of 14 genes were annotated in the delimited interval by fine mapping. Sequence analysis showed that all 14 genes had genetic variation in promoter region or CDS region. The qRT−PCR results showed that a total of 5 candidate genes were differentially expressed between the plant lines having antagonistic extreme phenotype (High PoFSP > 35.92%, low PoFSP< 17.56%). The results of haplotype analysis showed that all five genes had two or more major haplotypes in the resource population. Significant analysis of phenotypic differences between major haplotypes showed all five candidate genes had haplotype differences. And the genotypes of the major haplotypes with relatively high PoFSP of each gene were similar to those of wild soybean. The results of this study were of great significance to the study of candidate genes affecting soybean PoFSP, and provided a basis for the study of molecular marker-assisted selection (MAS) breeding and four-seed pods domestication

Nudel and FAK as Antagonizing Strength Modulators of Nascent Adhesions through Paxillin

Competition for binding to the cellular protein paxillin by the proteins Nudel and focal adhesion kinase is important for the proper regulation of cell adhesion and migration

Thermo-economic performance limit analysis of combined heat and power systems for optimal working fluid selections

In previous works, we have proposed the thermodynamic performance limit analysis methodology for the organic Rankine cycle for analyzing the impact of working fluid properties on system performance. Here the concept is extended to the thermo-economic performance limits, and is applied to a combined heat and power system based on an organic Rankine cycle. Working fluids are characterized with 8 characteristic thermodynamic and transport properties based on a corresponding state model and a residual entropy scaling approach. The 8 fluid characteristic properties along with 3 system operational parameters were optimized using a multi-objective genetic algorithm; a Monte Carlo algorithm was further adopted to avoid sub-optimal convergences. As the result, the performance limits could be well represented by the trade-off (Pareto front) between the maximized thermal efficiency and minimized payback period. The impact of the fluid characteristic properties on both thermodynamic and economic targets was investigated and ultimately guided the choice of working fluids: low molar mass, low thermal conductivity scaling factor, high viscosity scaling factor and high critical pressure are always preferred. Wet fluid is preferred for a high thermal efficiency while dry fluid is favored for a short payback period. Critical temperature has the most profound impact, while ideal gas isobaric heat capacity and acentric factor have negligible impacts. The choice of working fluid, system design (e.g., recuperative effectiveness) and system operational parameters (e.g., evaporation temperature) highly depends on the given hot sources and the preferences to the thermodynamic and economic targets

A Novel Coordination Scheme of Transaction Scheduling in Multi-Level Power Market

With power system deregulation undergoing worldwide, it\u27s urgent for China to establish multi-level power market in large interconnected power system to better configure energy resources and gain greater economic benefit of power exchanges. But it\u27s not clear how to maintain network security in such environment. This paper therefore suggests a coordination information based security coordination scheme under which the upper-level and lower-level power market can cooperate smoothly for the system security and potential power exchanges among lower-level markets can be greatly boosted. The method of obtaining the coordination information for lower-level market and the transaction scheduling model for upper-level market are also discussed. The suggested scheme is tested on IEEE 30 bus system and proved to be feasible. Numeric results show that the scheme and related algorithms proposed in this paper can make great economic benefit which is near to the ideal results

Impact of Ni concentration on. the intermetallic compound formation and brittle fracture strength of Sn-Cu-Ni (SCN) lead-free solder joints

Cu6Sn5 and Cu3Sn are common intermetallic compounds (IMCs) found in Sn-Ag-Cu (SAC) lead-free solder joints with OSP pad finish. People typically attributed the brittle failure to excessive growth of IMCs at the interface between the solder joint and the copper pad. However, the respective role of Cu6Sn5 and Cu3Sn played in the interfacial fracture still remains unclear. In the present study, various amounts of Ni were doped in the Sn-Cu based solder. The different effects of Ni concentration on the growth rate of (Cu, Ni)(6)Sn-5/Cu6Sn5 and Cu3Sn were characterized and compared. The results of characterization were used to evaluate different growth rates of (Cu, Ni)(6)Sn-5 and Cu3Sn under thermal aging. The thicknesses of (Cu, Ni)(6)Sn-5/Cu6Sn5 and Cu3Sn after different thermal aging periods were measured. High speed ball pull/shear tests were also performed. The correlation between interfacial fracture strength and IMC layer thicknesses was established. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved