Abstract

Taking into account the dispersed systems technologies and their development, the ORC systems seem to be promising technology amongst various micro-CHP domestic units (electrical power production below 10 kWe), however practical realization of the ORC cycle in a micro-scale is technically challenging. The system consists in devices such as the vapour generation unit (boiler), expansion device and heat exchangers. Each of them should be of high performance so that the system as a whole could work efficiently. This is the reason why novel constructions of heat exchangers or heat transfer enhancement mechanisms are looked for in relation to the evaporator, condenser or regenerator. In the present paper the own construction of compact heat exchangers (plate-type and cylindrical constructions) with microjets and with minichanels are proposed. They were designed on the basis of several years of experiences, for the needs of domestic ORC system and other dispersed energy generation technologies. The features of mentioned above heat exchangers are discussed together with the flow and thermal characteristics of their prototypes. As a summary, the experimental studies of the authors domestic ORC unit equipped with prototype minichannel heat exchangers are also presented.

Authors (2)