Experimental study of an organic Rankine cycle system with radial inflow turbine and R123

A new micro radial inflow turbine is developed for a mini organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system in this study. With R123 as the working fluid, the turbine operational characteristics and performance are investigated by experiments. Based on the experimental data, the maximum rotational speed of the radial inflow turbine reaches 53,564 r/min, and the maximum output power of the turbine is 3.386 kW and the maximum electric power reaches 1.884 kW. When the turbine rotational speed is 34,586 r/min, the system isentropic and electromechanical efficiencies achieve the maximum values of 83.6% and 65.3% respectively. Both the turbine isentropic and thermal efficiencies increase with the heat source temperature.