Effects of working fluids on cryogenic power

generation through two stages organic

Rankine cycle
Cite as: AIP Conference Proceedings 2230, 030001 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0003024
Published Online: 04 May 2020

Alkifli Adnan and Sutrasno Kartohardjono

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© 2020 Author(s).
 Effects of Working Fluids on Cryogenic Power Generation
through Two Stages Organic Rankine Cycle
Alkifli Adnan b) and Sutrasno Kartohardjono a)

Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia

a)
Corresponding author: sutrasno@che.ui.ac.id
b)
alkifli.adnan@ui.ac.id

Abstract. The cold energy of LNG released during its regasification process can be used to generate power using a working
fluid in the organic Rankine cycle (ORC). This study will investigate three working fluids, namely R1150, R170 and R290
to produce power in the two stages ORC cycle in the LNG regasification plant with a capacity of 50 MMSCFD based on
simulation program. Based on the simulation program, the fluid pressure coming out of turbine 2 greatly influences the net
power produced by the cycle. R290 has a working pressure range that is narrower than the other two refrigerants as it has
the highest dew point temperature among the three. The mass of working fluid that can be utilized in the cycle is also shown
by R290 as the difference between LNG and condensation temperatures are relatively much higher than the other 2
refrigerants. As a result, R290 will provide the highest net power, but can only be used at maximum working fluid pressure
of 550 kPa, which provides net power of around 880 kW. If the desired net power is higher than 880 kW, the R170 shows
better performance than R1150.

INTRODUCTION
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is obtained by cooling natural gas to -160°C at atmospheric pressure. It is 1/600
times its initial volume before liquefaction, which means the energy density is much higher than natural gas [1]. LNG
composition generally consists of 85-95 mole% of methane along with several other hydrocarbon components such
as ethane, a small portion of propane, butane and nitrogen components [2]. Before it is sent out to consumer as fuel,
it must be evaporated into natural gas at a certain pressure at the regasification terminal. During regasification, the
cold energy is used to generate power, separate air, freeze material and intakes cool air. However, it is most effective
in cryogenic power generation [3]. During its regasification process from -160 oC to gas phase at a temperature of
about 20 oC, cold energy will be released at 830 kJ/kg. Efficient utilization of energy will significantly increase the
efficiency of the LNG supply chain and reduce greenhouse gas emissions [4].
The cryogenic power generation cycle using LNG cold energy comprises of a direct expansion, combined, Kalina,
Brayton and an organic Rankine cycles. In the direct expansion cycle, it is pumped to a higher pressure using pipe
distribution pressure and then regasified into natural gas. Furthermore, the natural gas is expanded in the turbine at
high pressure to produce power equivalent to the pressure of the pipe [5]. The combined cycle uses LNG to cool air
intake in order to increase thermal efficiency [6]. The Kalina cycle from which the Rankine cycle emerges, uses a
multicomponent working fluid [7]. While the Brayton cycle utilizes LNG cold energy to reduce the compressor inlet
gas temperature, thereby significantly reducing compressor power consumption and increasing net output power as
well as the thermal efficiency [8]. Meanwhile, Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) uses a low boiling temperature of the
working fluid to recover the cold energy of LNG in the condenser. Fluids compresses, evaporates, expands, and
condenses to produce power [9]. The ORC is not only effective in utilizing cold energies released from the LNG
evaporation process, as it is also be used by various kinds of heat sources such as solar [10], geothermal [11], biomass
[12] and oceanic energy [13]. Furthermore, the ORC has currently received extensive attention and massive research.
This study therefore, aims at examining the effects of working fluid used in the ORC cycle to generate power using
three working fluids, namely R1150, R170 and R290.

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AIP Conf. Proc. 2230, 030001-1–030001-6; https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0003024
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1989-6/$30.00

030001-1
 METHODS
The schematic diagram of simulation program of the 2-stage ORC cycle for generating power applicable to the
LNG regasification plant is shown in Fig. 1. The working fluid from the working pump (1) is heated in an evaporator
to a superheated condition at (2) using seawater as a heat source. Furthermore, the working fluid will be split into two
streams, namely stream (3) and (7). The fluid of stream (3) and (7) expand to turbine one and 2, and exit as stream (4)
and (8), respectively. The fluids of streams (4) and (8) will be condensed in condensers 1 and 2 to form saturated
liquid at streams (5) and (9), respectively. The fluids in streams (5) and (9) are pumped to maximum pressure in
streams (6) and (10) using working pumps 1 and 2, respectively. Finally, streams (6) and (10) culminate with (1) to
continue the next cycle. However, LNG is first pumped to specific pressure for the regasification process. It will be
evaporated into natural gas through three consecutive heat exchangers, namely condensers 1 and 2 using the working
fluid and seawater as a heat source.
The energy needed in the regasification process as shown in Figure 1 is as follows:

WPLNG = mLNG (hLNG1 – hLNG) (1)

WPWF1 = m5 (h6 – h5) (2)
WPWF2 = m9 (h10 – h10) (3)
WPSW = mSW (hSW1 – hSW) (4)
QEvap = m1 (h2 – h1) (5)

The power produced comes from turbine 1 and turbine 2:

WT1 = m3 (h3 – h4) (6)

WT2 = m3 (h7 – h8) (7)

The following illustrates the net power of the cycle

WNet = WT1 + WT2 – WPLNG – WPWF1 – WPWF2 – WPSW (8)

Finally, the efficiency of the working fluid cycle is as follows:

𝑊𝑊𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁
𝜂𝜂 = (9)
𝑄𝑄𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸

Nomenclature

W Power, kW m mass flow rate, kg/s

h mass entalphy, kj/kg Q heat transfer rate, kW
η thermal efficiency

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 FIGURE 1. Schematic diagram of cryogenic power generation using organic Rankine cycle 2 stages

TABLE 1. Physical properties of working fluids [14].

Normal boiling
Working fluids Pc (MPa) Tc (oC)
point (oC)
R1150 (C2H4) 5.042 9.2 -103.8
R170 (C2H6) 4.872 32.2 -88.6
R290 (C3H8) 4.251 96.7 -42.1

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

UniSim Design R390.1 using Peng-Robinson fluid package was used to simulate the effects of the working fluids
on the cryogenic power generation through two stages of organic Rankine cycle. The working fluids employed are
R1150, R170 and R290, with their various properties presented in Table 1. The conditions used to evaluate the effect
of working fluids on the performance of the cycle are as follows:
1. LNG flow rate is set at 50 MMSCFD (N2=0.002, CH4=0.918, C2H6=0.060, C3H8=0.020)
2. The Natural gas pressure is 4.0 MPa
3. Maximum pressure of working fluid is 2.0 MPa
4. Outlet working fluid temperature from the evaporator is 5 oC
5. Outlet working fluid pressure from turbine 1 is 100 kPa
6. No pressure drop in all stream at the heat exchangers
7. Sea water at 30 oC and 100 kPa, while the sea water pressure at pump outlet is set 300 kPa
8. The minimum approach temperature of evaporator and heater are set 20 oC to prevent water freezing
The simulated pressure of the working fluid from the second turbine, P8, is adjusted in such a way as to provide
maximum net power, WNet, to the cryogenic power cycle. Fig. 2 shows the effect of the working fluid pressure emitting
from the pump, P1, along with the optimum working fluid pressure from Turbine 2, P8. Based on simulation, the
maximum working fluid pressure for R290 is only about 550 kPa, while those of R1150 and R170 are above 2000
kPa. In general, the optimum pressure of fluid from the Turbine 2 increases with rise in pressure of the working fluid
in stream (1), P1. Amongst the three working fluids investigated, the dew point temperature of R1150 is the lowest
therefore; it has the highest optimum working fluid pressure from the Turbine 2, P8. Furthermore, as there is no liquid
allowed in the stream (9), the R290 has a narrower pressure range of P1 compared to R1150 and R170 due to its
highest dew point temperature.

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 FIGURE 2. The optimum pressure of working fluid stream from Turbine 2, P8, as a function of the pressure from its pump, P1

Figure 3 shows the mass of working fluids, m1, utilized in cycles as a function of maximum pressure. R290
provides the highest mass of working fluid with its dew point being the highest among the three investigated. A high
dew point provides a high temperature difference with LNG stream therefore; more fluid is condensed in condenser 1
and 2.

FIGURE 3. The mass of working fluid that can be utilized in the cycle, m1, as a function of the pressure from its pump, P1

Figure 4 presents the net power output from the cycle, WNet, as a function of the working fluid pressure at the pump
outlet. The net power output increases as the working pump outlet pressure rises. Xue et al. using ethylene and propane
as working fluids [13] also reported similar result. R290 has the highest mass among the three working fluids studied
as illustrated in Fig. 3, which gives the highest WNet based on Eq. (8) as demonstrated in Fig. 4. However, the maximum
power generated from R290 cycle is only about 880 kW. Therefore, to produce power higher than 880 kW, the R170
cycle is preferred to provide higher net power than the R1150 cycle.

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 FIGURE 4. The net power produced from the cycle, WNet, as a function of the pressure from its pump, P1

The thermal efficiency, η, of the cycle increases with a rise in the maximum pressure of the working fluids (P1)
as presented in Figure 5. Rashwan et al. also reported similar trend for the different types of basic, recuperated,
combined and cascading closed loop cycles using R290 as a working fluid [15]. Fig. 5 reveals that the R290 cycle
provides the highest efficiency as it has the largest net power, but only at a narrow pressure range of P1, where the
maximum pressure is approximately 550 kPa. The R170 cycle is preferred if the higher operating pressure of P1 is
required as it provides higher efficiency compared to the R1150 cycle.

FIGURE 5. The efficiency the working fluids cycle, η, as a function of the pressure from its pump, P1

CONCLUSION
Based on the simulation, the cold energy of LNG can be utilized to produce power during its regasification into
natural gas. Furthermore, the organic Rankine cycle can be applied using three refrigerants, namely R1150, R170 and
R290 as working fluids. The organic Rankine cycle used to produce power during the LNG regasification was
conducted in two stages. Two turbines were also used to produce power in the cycle with the fluid pressure emitting
from the first turbine fixed at 100 kPa. Based on the simulation results, the fluid pressure coming out of the second
turbine, P8, greatly affects the net power output by the cycle. Therefore, the R290 has a working pressure range

030001-5
narrower than the other two refrigerants owing to its higher dew point temperature. In addition, it has a higher
refrigerant mass utilized as the working fluid with the highest temperature difference between the LNG and its
condensation temperature. It will also provide the highest net power and efficiency, conducted at maximum refrigerant
pressure of 550 kPa, which produces power of around 880 kW. R170 as a working fluid is preferred compared to
R1150 if the desired net power of the cycle is higher than 880 kW.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors wish to express their gratitude to the PIT9 Project for their financial support to this study through the
Directorate of Research and Services Universitas Indonesia with Contract No. NKB-
0079/UN2.R3.1/HKP.05.00/2019.

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