ENEX ORC waste heat recovery

Significant part of the energy consumed by people and technological processes is heat energy obtained from the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels, coal or biomass. Also there are other sources of thermal energy (geothermal, solar collectors, chemical processes, etc.). Unfortunately, large quantity of thermal energy is used extremely inefficient, often simply dissipated in the environment. There is a technology to convert wasted heat into electrical energy using organic Rankin cycle (ORC). The cycle is called organic because of organic substance (refrigerant or hydrocarbons) with a boiling point lower than that of water is used as a working fluid. This allows the use of low-grade heat sources with temperatures from +80 degrees C. We package complete gensets based on ORC heat recovery units in a range of 75 to 5000 kW electric power. To produce nominal power, the heat source must have a temperature of at least +130 degrees C for low power units and from +230 degrees C for large ORCs.

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The principle of ORC genset operation is the following: working fluid in liquid state is pumped into the evaporator (heater), where at high pressure it evaporates due to heat transferred from external source of waste heat, then the working fluid in steam form enters turbine, in which, expanding, it does mechanical work to rotate alternator. Working fluid steam water turbine is cooled and condensed by external cooling source (air dry cooler of water). Further, the substance in liquid state enters the pump and the cycle is closed. Thermal energy can be transferred from heat source to a working fluid using an intermediate heat carrier, which is usually superheated water, steam or thermal oil. The use of an intermediate heat carrier allows the system to avoid local overheating of the working fluid and to use heat sources with a wide range of temperatures and physical liquids or gas states.

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ENEX ORC units can be effectively used on the following waste heat sources:

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- flue gases (technological furnace, gas turbines or diesel tor gas fuelled reciprocating IC engines both used as gensets of mechanical drive)

- liquids (steam, hot water, thermal oil)

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To obtain heat from solid waste, sludge, sludge residues or local biomass fuels (wood, coal, peat) with the subsequent generation of electric energy on ORC turbines, we complete installations with gas, liquid fuel or solid fuel boilers.

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ENE ORC systems are fully automated with PLC based controls, operation of the ORCs does not require presence of maintenance personnel onsite, all control is carried out remotely using standard communication protocols integrated into site SCADA.