Integration between a Thermo-Photo-Voltaic generator and an Organic Rankine Cycle

The constant increase of energy need and the growing attention to the related environmental impact have given the boost to the development of new strategies in order to reduce the primary energy consumption and to improve its utilization. One of the possible strategies to achieve this aim is the cogeneration (CHP) specially if coupled with the concept of the on-site generation (also known as distributed generation). These approaches allow to reduce fuel consumption and pollutant emissions and to increase the security in energy supply. The present study regards the integration between a ThermoPhotoVoltaic generator (TPV) and an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) (Thermophotovoltaic Organic Rankine Cycle Integrated System). This paper represents the start up of a research program which involves three research teams from IMEM - National Council of Researches, ENDIF - University of Ferrara and DIEM - University of Bologna; the aim of the research is the complete definition and the preprototyping characterization of this system covering all the unresolved issues on this field. More in details, TPV is a system to convert into electrical energy the radiation emitted from an artificial heat source (i.e. the combustion of fuel) by the use of photovoltaic cells; in this system, the produced electrical power is strictly connected to the thermal one as their ratio is almost constant and cannot be changed without severe loss in performance; the coupling between TPV and ORC allows to overcome this limitation and to realize a cogenerative system which can be regulated with a large degree of freedom changing the ratio between the produced electrical and thermal power. In this study a thermodynamic analysis of this system is presented and discussed in order to highlight its potential in the distributed generation scenario.