Financial analysis shows that the ORC system, including the cost of the unit plus the costs of installation and integration into the process, will cost approximately 4.8 Million USD.

ORC technologies operate by transferring heat from the source through an evaporator to boil a fluid and create vapor that is expanded across a turbine or other work extraction device. This creates shaft power that can be easily turned into electrical power through a generator.

It is shown that by utilizing the full potential of screw expanders instead of turbines, it is possible to produce Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) systems at these outputs, which can be installed for a cost in the range of $1500 to $2000 /kWe of net output.

ORC: How it works In a typical ORC design, a thermal energy source feeds an evaporator to drive an expander or “reverse compressor”, which in turn generates the electricity. The provider of the heat can be natural, such as in the case of geothermal energy, or waste heat from any number of industrial waste heat sources.