Parametric and exergetic analysis of a two-stage transcritical combined organic Rankine cycle used for multiple grades waste heat recovery of diesel engine

Diesel engine has multiple grades of waste heat with different ratios of combustion heat, exhaust is 400 °C with the ratio of 21% and coolant is 90 °C with 19%. Few previous publications investigate the recovery of multiple grades waste heat together. In this paper, a two-stage transcritical combined organic rankine cycle (CORC) is presented and analyzed. In the combined system, the high and low temperature stages transcritical cycle recover the high grades waste heat, and medium to low grades waste heat respectively, and being combined efficiently. Meanwhile, the suitable working fluids for high stage are chosen and analyzed. The cycle parameters, including thermal efficiency (ηth), net power output (Pnet), energy efficiency (ηexg) and global thermal efficiency of DE-CORC(ηglo) have also been analyzed and optimized. The results indicate that this combined system could recover all the waste heat with a high recovery ratio (above 90%) and obtain a maximum power output of 37kW for a DE of 243kW. The global thermal efficiency of DE-CORC can get a max value of 46.2% compared with 40% for single DE. The results also indicate that all the energy conversion process have a high exergy efficiency.