The present work is devoted to the problem of utilization of the waste heat contained in the exhaust gases having the temperature of 350 °C. Conversion of the waste heat into electricity using a power plant working with organic fluid cycles is considered. Three Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) power plant solutions are analysed and compared: a solution with the basic, single thermodynamic conversion cycle, one with internal heat recuperation and one with external heat recuperation. It results from the analysis that it is the proper choice of the working fluid evaporation temperature that fundamentally affects the maximum of the ORC plant output power. Application of the internal heat recuperation in the plant basic cycle results in the output power increase of approx. 5%. Addition of the external heat recuperation to the plant basic cycle, in the form of a secondary supercritical ORC power cycle can rise the output power by approx. 2%.
The authors presented problems related to utilization of exhaust gases of the gas turbine unit for production of electricity in an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) power plant. The study shows that the thermal coupling of ORC cycle with a gas turbine unit improves the efficiency of the system. The undertaken analysis concerned four the so called "dry" organic fluids: benzene, cyclohexane, decane and toluene. The paper also presents the way how to improve thermal efficiency of Clausius-Rankine cycle in ORC power plant. This method depends on applying heat regeneration in ORC cycle, which involves pre-heating the organic fluid via vapour leaving the ORC turbine. As calculations showed this solution allows to considerably raise the thermal efficiency of Clausius-Rankine cycle.