Waste heat recovery of an ORC-based power unit in a turbocharged diesel engine propelling a light duty vehicle

Finally, once the engine performances were verified, the contribution due to the heat recovery inside the ORC-based power unit fed by the exhaust gases in terms of mechanical power was evaluated and experimentally verified in some points, considering the strong off design conditions produced by the engine operating point variations. In fact, exhaust gas flow rate and temperature variations lead the evaporator, even though properly designed, to severe off-design conditions which modify the inlet working fluid conditions till to make the mechanical recovery impossible. Under the hypothesis that the engine propels a light duty vehicle, the effect of the extra weight is discussed re-evaluating the propulsion power increase in terms of fuel consumption.