Second Law Assessment of a Wet Ethanol Fuelled HCCI Engine Combined With Organic Rankine Cycle

In this study, first and second law analyses of a new combined power cycle based on wet ethanol fuelled homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine and an organic Rankine cycle are presented. A computational analysis is performed to evaluate first and second law efficiencies, with the latter providing good guidance for performance improvement. The effect of changing turbocharger pressure ratio, organic Rankine cycle (ORC) evaporator pinch point temperature, turbocharger compressor efficiency, and ambient temperature have been observed on cycle’s first law efficiency, second law efficiency, and exergy destruction in each of its component. A first law efficiency of 41.5% and second law efficiency of 36.9% were obtained for the operating conditions (T₀ = 300 K, r_p = 3, η_T = 80%). The first law efficiency and second law efficiency of the combined power cycle significantly vary with the change in the turbocharger pressure ratio, but the change in pinch point temperature, turbocharger efficiency, and ambient temperature shows small variations in these efficiencies. Second law analysis demonstrates well how the fuel exergy is used, lost, and reused in all of the cycle components. It was found that 78.9% of the total input exergy is lost: 2.0% to the environment in the flue and 76.9% due to irreversibilities in the components. The biggest exergy loss occurs in the HCCI engine which is 68.7%, and the second largest exergy loss occurs in catalytic converter, i.e., nearly 3.13%. Results clearly show that performance evaluation based on first law analysis alone is not adequate, and hence more meaningful evaluation must include second law analysis.