A comparative study of combined cycles for concentrated solar power for efficient power generation using low Global Warming Potential (GWP) fluids to reduce environmental effects

A comparative analysis of a combined system comprising organic Rankine cycles (ORC) and supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂) cycles for concentrated solar power (CSP) applications was performed in the article. Low global warming potential (GWP) fluids were used to investigate strategies for reducing the effects on global warming. In the current study, four different combinations of the sCO₂ cycles and ORC, including basic recuperated, pre-compression, recompression with main compressor intercooling, and partial cooling, were taken into consideration, and their performances with regard to CSP application were compared. The integrated recompression with main compressor intercooling and ORC arrangement was seen to operate thermodynamically more efficient than the other considered configurations. This configuration's highest thermal and exergy efficiencies were discovered to be 51.9% and 55.84%, respectively, and R1243zf was found to be the best-performing fluid among other considered low GWP fluids to reduce the environmental effects.