Abstract Sliding vane rotary expanders (SVREs) are widely used in organic Rankine cycle (ORC)-based power units for low-grade heat recovery because of their capability to deal with severe off-design working conditions. In particular, the speed of SVREs is a very effective operating parameter, together with the speed of the pump, to regulate the recovery unit and to lead the involved components in an acceptable operating behaviour when they are far from the design conditions. In this study, a control strategy based on the variation in revolution speed of a SVRE was developed, where the inlet pressure of the expander is the main controlled property, which must be verified when the flow rate of the working fluid is changed to match the thermal power recovery at the hot source. In fact, pressure level control is a key point of the recovery unit for thermodynamic reasons and for the safety and reliability of the expander and, more generally, of the whole recovery unit. The proposed control strategy is based on an original theoretical procedure that relates the expander speed, inlet pressure, volumetric efficiency, and working fluid mass flow rate in an analytical form. This analytical formulation is widely nonlinear and is simplified for use as a tool for the model-based control of the inlet expander pressure. An experimental activity performed on a SVRE operating in an ORC-based power unit, fed by the exhaust gases of a supercharged diesel engine, was the base of the analytical formulation. This provided the possibility of deriving a simplified model-based control of the expander inlet pressure and assessing its effectiveness and limits during off-design conditions. Higher expander global efficiencies were obtained (up to 45%), allowing a greater mechanical energy recovery (up to 2 kW).