Theoretical Analysis of an ORC-VCR Based Air Conditioning System by Heat Recovery of Jacket Coolant

orc2019 Tracking Number 209

Waste heat recovery of engine has been taken as a most potential way to reduce the fuel consumption of vehicles. The thermal energy contained in jacket water is usually ignored due to its low temperature. In this paper, a combined cycle based on an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) integrated with a vapour compression cycle (VCC) has been proposed to produce cooling for vehicle cabin by heat recovery of engine jacket water. In this system, the power generated in ORC is used to drive the VCC compressor. R134a was used as refrigerant in refrigeration cycle, different ORC working fluids were studied and compared. The results suggest that the concept is thermodynamically feasible and the heat contained in jacket water is sufficient for ORC-VCC system to provide enough cooling for a coach more than 40 seats, which could significantly enhance the performance depending on part-load of the engine. However, possible challenges during transient operations as well as issues related to scalability and reliability require further investigation.