To take full advantage of the waste heat from a diesel engine, a set of dual loop organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system is designed to recover exhaust energy, waste heat from the coolant system, and released heat from turbocharged air in the intercooler of a six-cylinder diesel engine. The dual loop ORC system consists of a high temperature loop ORC system and a low temperature loop ORC system. R245fa is selected as the working fluid for both loops. Through the engine test, based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics, the performance of the dual loop ORC system for waste heat recovery is discussed based on the analysis of its waste heat characteristics under engine various operating conditions. Subsequently, the diesel engine-dual loop ORC combined system is presented, and the effective thermal efficiency and the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) are chosen to evaluate the operating performances of the diesel engine-dual loop ORC combined system. The results show that, the maximum waste heat recovery efficiency (WHRE) of the dual loop ORC system can reach 5.4% under engine various operating conditions. At the engine rated condition, the dual loop ORC system achieves the largest net power output at 27.85 kW. Compared with the diesel engine, the thermal efficiency of the combined system can be increased by 13%. When the diesel engine is operating at the high load region, the BSFC can be reduced by a maximum 4%. Crown Copyright (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.