Abstract:
The properties of working fluid have a significant effect on performance of solar organic Rankine cycles (ORC). Taking R600, R600a, R245fa, R236fa, R236ea, R601, R601a, RC318 and R227ea as the working fluids, cycle performance of the ORC system was studied based on the first and the second law of thermodynamics, during which the evaporating temperature, thermal efficiency, work rate and exergy efficiency were respectively calculated and compared. Results show that for a low-temperature solar ORC system, R245fa creates relatively high thermal and exergy efficiency and produces relatively low total inreversable loss, which therefore is recommended as an ideal fluid for the ORC system; secondly, working fluids R236fa and R236ea have also better properties.