Supersonic Impulse Turbine for Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) Truck Applications

Authors

Dipl.-Ing. Ole W. Willers, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Seume,
Institute of Turbomachinery and Fluid Dynamics (TFD),
Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover;
Dipl.-Ing. Harald Kunte,
Formerly Institute of Turbomachinery and Fluid Dynamics (TFD),
Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover

Summary

A large amount of thermal energy remains in the exhaust gas of combustion engines, even downstream of the turbocharger turbine and the after-treatment of exhaust gas. For this reason, the target of the present investigation is to recover a part of this energy through the use of an organic Rankine cycle (ORC). To maximise the amount of energy recovered at low temperature differences, the ORC requires high pressure ratios of up to 49 and low mass flow rates. In order to achieve these boundary conditions, a single stage supersonic axial impulse turbine with partial admission is designed and manufactured, to improve the efficiency of an ORC for truck
applications. A prototype of a compact turbine-generator unit is presented after five years of development at the Institute of Turbomachinery and Fluid Dynamics (TFD) at the Leibniz Universität Hannover.

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