View article

The ever-increasing global energy demand and the mounting environmental concerns caused by the increasing consumption of fossil fuels call for more and more utilisation of sustainable energy sources such as biomass. Many medium- and large-scale biomass-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plants have been demonstrated and commercialised in many parts of the world, such as several European countries and China. However, few biomass-fuelled micro-scale CHP (1–10kW_e) systems suitable for domestic applications have been demonstrated or commercialised. This paper presents the preliminary results of an experimental investigation on the biomass-fired organic Rankine cycle (ORC)-based micro-CHP system currently developed by the authors. The biomass-fired ORC-based micro-CHP system mainly consists of a biomass boiler, an evaporator, an ORC expander, an alternator, a heat recuperator …