Exergy and economic assessments of solar organic Rankine cycle system with linear V-Shape cavity

In this research, a parabolic trough concentrator with linear V-Shape cavity receiver was studied as the heat source of an organic Rankine cycle system. The solar organic Rankine cycle system was evaluated under exergy and economic analyses. Thermal oil was used as the solar working fluid, and ethanol was used as the organic working fluid under different turbine inlet temperatures and turbine inlet pressure. The influence of different operational parameters, including solar radiation, mass flow rate, and inlet temperature of solar working fluid was investigated on the performance of the solar organic Rankine cycle system. It was found that exergy gain and exergy efficiency of the solar system improved with increasing solar radiation, increasing inlet temperature, and decreasing the flow rate of the solar working fluid. The highest organic Rankine cycle efficiency and total efficiency were found to be 35%, and 25% at turbine inlet temperature of 592 K and turbine inlet pressure of 6 MPa, respectively. Finally, the lowest levelized cost of electricity, and the lowest payback period were calculated equal to 0.0716 (€/kWh), and 8.79 (years) for the optimum condition of the developed solar organic Rankine cycle system, respectively. The present study is beneficial for improving the performance of the solar organic Rankine cycle systems with parabolic trough concentrators in a simple and convenient way and the development of solar thermal technologies.