Transient thermodynamic and parametric analysis of solar-assisted Rankine cycle

Abstract

In this study, the parabolic solar collector supported Rankine cycle is thermodynamically and parametrically conducted using the TRNSYS program. The system contains a collector cycle, an auxiliary heater cycle and a Rankine cycle. In the Rankine cycle, water vapor is employed as the heat transfer fluid, whereas in the other two cycles, heat transfer fluid with a boiling temperature of 359 degrees C is utilized. In the system, an auxiliary heater is configured to maintain a source-side temperature of 250 degrees C prior to entering the steam boiler. The whole system is analyzed throughout the year for different collector tilt angles. In addition, nine different scenarios are designed so that the collector area, tank volume, turbine and condenser pressures in the Rankine cycle, flow rate in both collector and auxiliary heater cycle and three different provinces are analyzed. Collector outlet temperature, collector efficiency, SF, Rankine cycle efficiency, system thermal efficiency and utilization factor are analyzed. The maximum values observed in the analyses are as follows: the overall system efficiency of 5.46% in Scenario 5; the Rankine cycle efficiency of 24.1% in Scenarios 8 and 9; the utilization factor of 24.03% in Scenario 5; SF of 100% except Scenario 4 and 9; the collector efficiency of 28.96% in Scenario 4; and the collector outlet temperature of 303 degrees C in Scenario 7. In Scenario 5, the turbine delivers its peak performance at roughly 346 MWh, resulting in a net energy of approximately 157 MWh, the highest among all cases.