Design study of configurations on system COP for a combined ORC (organic Rankine cycle) and VCC (vapor compression cycle)

► The article introduces a novel thermally activated cooling concept - a combined cycle couples an ORC (organic Rankine cycle) and a VCC (vapor compression cycle). ► A systematic design study was conducted to investigate effects of a variety of cycle configurations on overall cycle COP. ► The combined cycle with cooling subcooling and recuperation can achieve overall cycle COP of 0.66, which is 22% above the basic cycle. ► The parametric design study identified expander isentropic efficiency, condensing temperature and boiling pressure to be the most critical parameters. ► Two advanced cycle configurations including dual-fluid system were proposed for future studies.