Evaluation of the potential use of a combined micro-turbine organic Rankine cycle for different geographic locations

This paper presents an analysis to determine the economic, energetic, and environmental potential benefits that can be obtained from the implementation of a combined micro-turbine organic Rankine cycle (MT-ORC) versus a simple micro-turbine or a topping-cycle combined heat and power (CHP) system. The analysis was performed for sixteen different geographic locations using micro-turbines of sizes 30, 65, and 200 kW. It is found that for some cities where the use of a micro-turbine is not cost effective, the combination of MT-ORC is a viable alternative to grid power. Results also show that, for the micro-turbines considered, in terms of the total electric power, the ones with smaller power levels benefit the most (percentagewise) when combining them with an ORC. Finally, a minimum bound for the power-to-heat ratio of a building that results in MT-ORC operation being superior to that of CHP operation, is obtained.