DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF EXPANDER FOR WASTE HEAT RECOVERY APPLICATION

Waste heat recovery (WHR) is one of the solutions for net zero carbon and decarbonization activity. Currently, the Organic Rankine Cycle is widely studied because of its capability to operate at a wide range of temperatures, scalability, lower operating temperature, and high thermal efficiency. Despite advancements, challenges in expander design and performance analysis limit waste heat recovery. Therefore, the objective is to design and analyse a suitable expander for waste heat recovery and achieve a total-to-total efficiency exceeding 70% with a minimum power output of 30kW at a pressure ratio of 1.4. The design and performance analysis for 3D blade geometry and expander using the ANSYS CFX software. An applied meanline modelling was conducted using MATLAB. The results demonstrated the expander's capability to generate 35.857 kW of power, exceeding the design target. Additionally, a total-to-total efficiency of 74.69% was achieved, surpassing the minimum efficiency threshold of 70%, even after accounting for tip leakage losses. The findings contribute valuable insights for optimizing expander designs and advancing waste heat recovery technologies aligning with global efforts to promote sustainable energy systems.