Improvement on Performance of a Heavy-Duty Diesel Truck Engine by Utilizing Waste Heat Energy with Organic Rankine Cycle

Automotive sector is highly competitive and looking solution for performance improvement as well as emission reduction as per regulation. When analysing heat balance of IC engine, about 50–55% of heat energy is wasted, particularly at cooling and exhaust systems. It is possible to recover some amount of waste heat with additional power generation system. ORC is one such method which has high potential in heavy duty diesel engines. A Volvo D13K540 engine is selected for this analysis. The maximum power output of the engine is397 kW at the speed range of 1450 rpm to 1800 rpm. 1-D engine simulations are carried out with Ricardo Wave software to estimate heat load. In the present study, waste heat recovery from engine exhaust gas alone is considered. Engine simulations at various operating condtions are performed to estimate the available heat enegry in order to develop ORC system. About 28% of energy supplied to the engine is rejected in the exhaust gases. Equipments associated with the ORC cycle is modelled with DWSim software for simulations. It has been observed that the combined power of the system is increased to 425 kW. It is equivalent to improvenet in BSFC by 6.3%.