Increasing waste heat recovery and elimination of the radiator of the internal combustion engine by utilizing a Low-Temperature Rankine Cycle

The research proposes and studies a low-temperature Rankine cycle (LTRC) to increase the operational output power of the recovery system by focusing on the increase of the energy input. In the proposed system, the cooling system of an internal combustion engine is combined with a LTRC. Since in this recovery system, the absorption of the entire waste heat of the cooling fluid is performed with a low mass flow rate of the working fluid, the radiator can be removed from the engine cooling system, and by mounting a few additional parts on the engine, the idea can perform both the engine cooling and the generation of extra power.Using the thermodynamic analysis for 19 working fluids, the appropriate matching conditions between the LTRC with the engine and properties of an appropriate working fluid were determined. Investigating the effect of ambient temperature changes for the LTRC, showed that a variation in the ambient temperature has a small effect on the cooling fluid temperature. The comparison of the results showed that the extent to which it is possible to obtain the available energy in the cooling system by the proposed system with a very lower mass flow rate is much higher.

Keywords:

Waste heat recovery , Low-temperature Rankine cycle , Internal combustion engine , Cooling system , Available energy