Second Law Analysis of a Carbon Dioxide Transcritical Power System in Low-grade Heat Source Recovery

Employing Carbon dioxide as a working media in power cycles for low-grade heat source utilization has attracted more and more attentions. However, compared to other well-known cycles that employed in low-grade heat source utilizations, the information about CO2power cycle is still very limited. In the current work, the performance of a CO2power cycle in utilizing the low-grade heat sources is simulated and the results are analyzed with a focus on second law thermodynamics (i.e. exergy and entropy). Different system parameters that influencing the system exergy and entropy change are discussed. Engineering Equation Solver (EES) is used for simulation. The simulation results show that the matching of the temperature profiles in the system heat exchangers has crucial influences on their exergy destructions and entropy generations. It is also an essential factor that influences the system thermodynamic efficiencies.QC 2011120