This two-part paper investigates the potential of ORC (organic Rankine cycles) for the exploitation of low-medium enthalpy geothermal brines. Part A deals with thermodynamic analysis and optimization, while Part B focuses on economic optimization.

The thermodynamic efficiencies of selected HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons) have been investigated for applications in binary geothermal conversion systems. Following examination of thermodynamic cycles, interactions with sensible heat sources were considered. For every working fluid, there is a...

A detailed optimization model is presented for planning the short-term operation of combined cooling, heat and power (CCHP) energy systems. The purpose is, given the design of a cogeneration system, to determine an operating schedule that minimizes the total operating and maintenance costs minus...

Limited dispatchability of wind parks and unexpected grid power injections create unbalances between the generated electric power and the actual required power that has to be reduced for proper operation of the electrical grid. The increasing amount of renewable energy sources stresses this...

This paper presents an innovative code for predicting performances, as well as preliminary plant sizing and investment costs estimation, for different parabolic trough solar fields operating at nominal conditions. The code allows a preliminary design of the solar field lay-out, the sizing of the...

Air-blown IGCC systems with hot fuel gas clean-up are investigated. In detail, the gas clean-up station consists of two reactors: in the first, the raw syngas exiting the gasifier and passed through high-temperature syngas coolers is desulfurized by means of a zinc oxide-based sorbent, whereas...

This paper presents the development and testing of an innovative code for the prediction of thermodynamic performances at nominal conditions, as well as a preliminary plant sizing and investment costs estimation for different parabolic trough solar fields. Part A of the paper presented in detail...

This paper analyzes the thermodynamic performance of IGCC power plants based on an air-blown gasifier. A preliminary computational model for a lab-scale gasifier was calibrated on experimental data available in open literature, as a first step for the modeling of a large-scale MHI-type air-blown...

In IGCC power plants, hot gas desulfurization (HGD) represents an attractive solution to simplify syngas treatments and to improve the efficiency, potentially reducing the final cost of electricity. In the present study, the various consequences of the introduction of a HGD station in the power...

This paper analyzes the performance of multi-MW wind turbines by means of a specific numerical model, with the aim of evaluating the application of an advanced hydrostatic transmission in a conventional state-of-the-art machine. The interest for such a solution is mainly related to the potential...