학술논문

Enhancing Thermal Performance of Thermodynamic Cycle through Zeotropic Mixture Composition Regulation: An Overview
Document Type
article
Source
Energies, Vol 17, Iss 7, p 1769 (2024)
Subject
thermodynamic cycle construction
organic rankine cycle
zeotropic mixed working fluid
composition regulation
low and medium temperature thermal energy
Technology
Language
English
ISSN
1996-1073
Abstract
Composition regulation of zeotropic mixture working fluid for a thermodynamic cycle is an effective way to improve energy conversion efficiency, which offers the potential to construct efficient, flexible and intelligent cycles. Current research on cycle construction of zeotropic mixture composition regulation still heavily relies on construction methods using pure working fluids, where the characteristics of flexible composition variations fail to be utilized. In this paper, the research progress of cycle construction methods and composition regulated structures are comprehensively reviewed, aiming to clarify the potential for enhancing a thermodynamic cycle based on composition regulation. The characteristics of different cycle construction methods are firstly summarized and compared. Then, the composition-regulated structures of a physical-based method and chemical-based method are introduced, and the composition regulation performance are also concluded. Finally, a future outlook on the cycle design and structure design is provided. The review results show that the combination of 3D construction method and superstructure/intelligences construction method has the potential to maximize the cycle performance, where the improvement of each thermal process and the optimization of complex cycles can be considered simultaneously. The composition regulation based on a passive physical method has the advantage of being readily applicable; however, the composition regulation range is limited. In addition, the distillation and hydrate method have a wider regulation range through extra energy input, where the trade-off between energy consumption and cycle performance improvement should be considered in the future. This study greatly assists in the design of thermodynamic cycles involving zeotropic mixture composition regulation and the corresponding composition regulation structures.