Performance investigation of reciprocating pump running with organic fluid for organic Rankine cycle

Organic Rankine cycles (ORC) are used to convert lowgrade heat sources into power. Current research and development investigate small scale and variable heat sources application such as waste heat recovery. Many experimental data on ORC are available. Feed-pump performances achieved are lower than expected and some authors reported cavitation issue. Pump performance has a non-negligible impact over the ORC performance, especially for transcritical cycles. Operations of diaphragm pumps in three different test benches with different fluid and pump size are analyzed. A semi-empirical model of the pump power chain is proposed and validated. Energetic analysis show highlevel of losses in the variable speed drive and electric motor, mainly due to design oversizing. Then a model and analysis of reciprocating pump volumetric efficiency is proposed, taking into account fluid properties. Finally, cavitation limits in different conditions are calculated. Required Net Positive Suction Head (NPSHr) calculated for R134a are found to be in accordance with manufacturer limits for water. Pump vibration sensor could be used for cavitation monitoring. This work gives information for ORC feed-pump simulation, design and operation.