Thermodynamic and Exergetic Analyses of Power and Cooling Systems

Thermodynamic and exergetic analysis of power and cooling systems examines how energy conversion cycles — particularly the Organic Rankine Cycle and Supercritical CO₂ Cycle — can extract useful work from heat sources that conventional steam turbines cannot efficiently exploit, such as industrial exhaust, geothermal fluids, and solar thermal collectors. Exergy analysis goes beyond simple energy accounting to identify exactly where and how much work potential is irreversibly destroyed within a system, guiding engineers toward designs that waste less of what is thermodynamically available. A central challenge is selecting and optimizing working fluids whose thermophysical properties match a given heat source while satisfying safety, cost, and environmental constraints — a problem that grows more complex when systems are coupled with thermal energy storage or configured for simultaneous power and cooling output. Active research directions include pushing cycle performance into supercritical operating regimes, integrating waste heat recovery into industrial processes at scale, and developing accurate models that account for real-fluid behavior far from ideal-gas conditions.

Works

38,874

Total citations

572,091

Keywords

Organic Rankine CycleWaste Heat RecoveryThermodynamic AnalysisWorking FluidsExergy AnalysisLow-Grade Heat