ORC-101

The aim of this section is to provide interested readers with a basic introduction to some of the key scientific concepts behind my research. It is not intended as a highly-technical section, but instead is aimed at those readers who may not have a technical background but want to understand a little more about the world of thermal power systems.

If you are interested and have any additional questions not covered in this section, have any feedback on the content of this section or suggestions for future content, please feel free to get in touch.

1. What is a thermal power system?

A thermal power system is a system that converts energy from one form to another. More specifically, these systems convert heat into mechanical power. This mechanical power can subsequently be used directly, for example to power a car or aircraft, or converted into electricity, as is the case in large-scale power stations. Conventionally, the heat used to drive these systems has been derived from fossil fuels, but this heat could equally come from renewable sources such as the sun, deep under the ground, biomass or industrial waste heat.

2. What is a working fluid?

In the first section of ORC-101, the concept of a thermal power system was introduced. Within such a system, four distinct processes are coupled together to form a closed-loop thermal power system. The term working fluid refers to the fluid that undergoes each of these processes in turn to form the complete closed-loop system.

3. Components of a thermal power system

So far we have introduced the concept of thermal power system and the concept of a working fluid. In this section we will take a look at the four main components that make up this these systems, namely a pump or compressor, an expander and two heat exchangers.

4. What is an organic Rankine cycle?

Within the fourth section of this ORC-101 we will focus a little more on a specific thermal-power system that is suitable for converting relatively low-temperature heat into mechanical power. This cycle is referred to as the organic Rankine cycle.