Validation of an Organic Rankine Cycle Model of a Geothermal Power Plant

Abstract

The Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) has attracted attention around the world over the last decade as a solution to some of the problems posed by climate change and energy scarcity. It is generally accepted that modelling can significantly help engineers with process design, process control, trouble-shooting etc. Both steady state and dynamic models for the ORC processes have been built using the commercial process simulator: VMGSim. These models can be used for the further investigation of optimization and process control. Before these models can be used however, model validation must be conducted. In this paper, we will use white-box and black-box validation methods to validate a preheating heat exchanger and the plant-wide dynamic ORC model.