| Energy and Power Engineering |
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| A new power generation method utilizing a low grade heat source |
| Wei-feng Wu, Xin-ping Long, Xiao-ling Yu, Quan-ke Feng |
| School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China; School of Power and Mechanical Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China |
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Abstract Energy crisis make the effective use of low grade energy more and more urgent. It is still a worldwide difficult conundrum. To efficiently recover low grade heat, this paper deals with a theoretical analysis of a new power generation method driven by a low grade heat source. When the temperature of the low grade heat source exceeds the saturated temperature, it can heat the liquid into steam. If the steam is sealed and cooled in a container, it will lead to a negative pressure condition. The proposed power generation method utilizes the negative pressure condition in the sealed container, called as a condensator. When the condensator is connected to a liquid pool, the liquid will be pumped into it by the negative pressure condition. After the condensator is filled by liquid, the liquid flows back into the pool and drives the turbine to generate electricity. According to our analysis, for water, the head pressure of water pumped into the condensator could reach 9.5 m when the temperature of water in the pool is 25 °C, and the steam temperature is 105 °C. Theoretical thermal efficiency of this power generation system could reach 3.2% to 5.8% varying with the altitude of the condensator to the water level, ignoring steam leakage loss.
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Received: 08 June 2011
Published: 18 January 2012
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