Parametric Analysis of Heat Source and Sink and Design of Heat Exchangers for Trilateral Flash Cycle (TFC)

The utilization of a low-grade heat source (<100 o C) can improve energy conservation and reduce the harmful emissions contributing effectively to the environment protection.Consequently, the advancement of technologies related to heat-to-power conversion applications needs to be considered, since large amounts of energy from industrial applications are rejected to the ambient.Trilateral Flash Cycle (TFC) is a thermodynamic cycle that employs the same components as an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) unit, while the main difference with the latter is that the working fluid does not evaporate at the heating phase but expands from a saturated liquid state.The present work aims to achieve primarily the investigation of a TFC unit towards the commercialization if such cycles, focusing on the heat exchangers and their detailed design, before the manufacturing and the experimental study of the unit.The simulation models of the TFC unit have been developed employing the commercial software Aspen Plus for process modelling and Aspen Exchanger Design and Rating (EDR).The Aspen Plus is used to simulate the overall system while heat exchangers are modelled by Aspen EDR.