Applied Energy 100 (2012) 285–294

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Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Investigation of a two stage Rankine cycle for electric power plants

Bo Liu a,c, Philippe Rivière a,⇑, Christophe Coquelet b, Renaud Gicquel a, Franck David c
a
Mines Paristech, Centre Energétique et Procédés, 60, Boulevard Saint Michel, 75272 Paris Cedex 06, France
b
Mines Paristech, CEP/TEP, 35 Rue Saint Honoré, 77305 Fontainebleau, France
c
EDF R&D, 6 quai Watier BP 49, 78401 Chatou Cedex, France

h i g h l i g h t s

" A two stage air cooled Rankine cycle with bottoming ORC is presented.
" Its efficiency is computed for pure fluids of four different families and for ammonia.
" There is an optimal exhaust steam pressure varying with ambient temperature.
" For dry organic fluids, regeneration allows to reduce the steam turbine size.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A two stage Rankine cycle for power generation is presented in this paper. It is made of a water steam
Received 3 February 2012 Rankine cycle and an Organic Rankine bottoming Cycle. By using an organic working fluid with higher
Received in revised form 15 May 2012 density than water, it is possible to reduce the installation size and to use an air-cooled condenser. In
Accepted 19 May 2012
order to search suitable working fluids for our application, nine potential candidates from four different
Available online 24 July 2012
organic fluid families and ammonia are tested. The performances of the two stage Rankine cycle operat-
ing with those different working fluids are evaluated. The influences of design external temperatures and
Keywords:
the steam turbine outlet pressure on the system are analyzed. Optimal points are found at different cold
Power plant
Thermal performance
source temperatures and steam turbine outlet pressures for each fluid. System efficiency can also be
Two stage cycle enhanced by introducing a regenerator for some of the selected working fluids.
Working fluids Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Optimization
Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC)

1. Introduction
The classic Rankine cycle is composed of a pump, a turbine, a
boiler/evaporator and a condenser and uses water as working fluid.
It is thus possible to convert the heat into mechanical energy. The
Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is a Rankine cycle, using organic fluid
as working fluid.
The use of ORC has been proven to be a promising solution for
low grade heat power production such as a biomass power plant
[1] and geothermal power plant [2]. It is more suitable for low tem-
perature heat recovery than water steam. The cycle performance
closely depends on the chosen working fluids, its architecture
and the operating conditions [3]. Generally, the conditions on the
heat source are fixed and a temperature glide can be observed.
Thus it is necessary to select the adequate fluid and cycle architec-
ture in order to obtain the best performance.
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 140519080; fax: +33 140519449.
E-mail address: philippe.riviere@mines-paristech.fr (P. Rivière).
The fluid selection for ORC has been investigated in the litera-
ture. Saleh et al. [4] made a screening of 31 pure working fluids
and observed the following tendency: cycle thermal efficiency is
generally better for fluids with higher critical temperature. When
considering an ideal ORC cycle and an isentropic fluid, Liu et al.
[5] were able to express the thermal efficiency according to the
critical temperature and conclude that the thermal efficiency for
various working fluids is a weak function of the critical tempera-
ture. Maizza and Maizza [6] suggested using high latent heat and
high density fluid in order to decrease the size of heat exchangers.
Chen et al. [7] investigated the thermodynamic and thermophysi-
cal selection criteria for working fluids and obtained a correlation
that links the turbine power output to the latent heat of working
fluids. Rayegan and Tao [8] developed a process to select working
fluids for solar applications. Wang et al. [9] investigated the perfor-
mance of R245fa and its zeotropic mixtures in low temperature
solar Rankine cycle and found that some mixtures have great po-
tential to improve collector efficiency comparing with pure R245fa.
Different cycle architectures have also been studied for ORC
applications. Liu et al. [10] studied several types of Organic

0306-2619/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2012.05.044
286 B. Liu et al. / Applied Energy 100 (2012) 285–294
Nomenclature
h mass enthalpy (J kg1)
m mass flow (kg s1)
P pressure (Pa)
Q heat (W)
R gas constant 8.314 J K1 mol1
STEP Steam Turbine Exhaust Pressure (bar)
T temperature (K)
v volume (m3)
w work (W)
Greek letter
g efficiency
Subscript
0 organic fluid cycle
ACC air cooled condenser
Air atmospheric air
c critical
Rankine Cycles with subcooling or superheating and concluded
that superheating and subcooling are detrimental to ORC
efficiency. Roy et al. [11] analyzed the performance of an ORC with
superheating, operating with R12, R123, R134a and R717. The basic
ORC can be modified by incorporating turbine bleeding or a
regeneration process to improve its efficiency [12]. Desideri and
Bidini [2] studied different types of Rankine cycles for geothermal
heat recovery and concluded that regenerated Rankine cycle is a
promising solution for the exploitation of low temperature
liquid-dominated geothermal source. Semi experimental studies
and modeling of an ORC using scroll expander and R123 has been
done by Quoilin et al. [13]. Dai et al. [14] compared the efficiency of
a basic ORC with a regenerative ORC and found the latter slightly
more efficient, the study was performed on 10 fluids including
R236ea and R245ca.
However, no single fluid has been identified as optimal for ORC
application due to the strong interdependence between the opti-
mal fluid, the working condition and the cycle architecture [15].
On the other hand, for high temperature heat power production
(thermal/nuclear power plant), the water steam Rankine cycle is
still the standard system. However, several weaknesses have been
observed with this technology: particularly the important turbine
size and its dependence on water cooling. An improvement can
be made here, by using multi-staged cycle architecture: combining
a classic steam Rankine cycle with an ORC.
In our study, we focused on an energy conversion cycle which is
slightly different to the traditional ORC application. The system is a
modified classic subcritical steam Rankine cycle for electricity pro-
duction. Instead of expanding the steam to extremely low pressure,
the vapor leaves the turbine at a higher pressure hereafter called
‘‘Steam Turbine Exhaust Pressure (STEP)’’. The energy which re-
mains in the steam is transferred to an ORC through a con-
denser-boiler for low grade heat recovery. Such a process is
similar to bottoming cycles [16]. However, the heat source for
the ORC is, in our case, controlled by the STEP and its temperature
is set by the steam condensation temperature at the STEP. The
steam condensation temperature lies between 70 °C and 120 °C,
corresponding to a STEP from 0.3 bar to 2 bar. Consequently, we
are only interested in sub-critical ORC where the evaporation tem-
perature is constant.
On leaving the turbine at a higher pressure, water steam vol-
ume is much smaller. Therefore, it is possible to greatly reduce
CB condenser-boiler
CONDO organic fluid condensation
EVAP steam evaporation
EVAP0 organic fluid evaporation
exp experimental
H heat source
mod modelled
Opt optimal
P steam cycle pump
P0 pump cycle turbine
r reduced
REG regenerator
sat saturation
SG steam cycle heat generator
T steam cycle turbine
T0 organic fluid cycle turbine
TH thermal
the size of the steam turbine. At the same time, density of organic
fluid vapor in the second cycle is generally much higher than ex-
panded water steam. The turbine and exchanger are more com-
pact. Thus we are able to largely reduce the global size of the
installation and its investment cost.
Furthermore, by using high density fluid, it is possible to trans-
port and exchange large amount of energy through an air cooled
condenser. Thus it becomes less expensive to use air as a cold
source instead of water. Although this leads to a larger heat
exchange surface than for conventional wet cooling process, it
enables to eliminate the dependency on water cooling.
The advantage of such a system is that it can be installed on a
chosen site independent of the great and constant availability of
a water source. This is of particular interest for nuclear power
plants. It reduces the likelihood of encountering natural-disaster-
induced accidents such as the recent one in Fukushima.
Another advantage of such a two stage cycle using high density
fluid is the possibility to reduce the leaving velocity loss of the tur-
bine and produce more electricity at lower cold source tempera-
ture. Actually, while the external temperature is low, the turbine
is able to produce more power. However, this gain is reduced by
the leaving velocity loss of the turbine. As the volume of water
steam is very large at low pressure, the velocity of vapor leaving
the turbine should be proportionally high. Thus this leaving loss
becomes important as the external temperature decreases. It
would eventually compensate the gain of operating at lower con-
densing temperature for outdoor temperatures below a certain
threshold. Operating the cycle with a higher density working fluid
can reduce the leaving velocity loss. Thus the system operates with
better performance when the cold source temperature is low.
Thus, while having a more compact machine room and using air
as cold source, the two stage cycle power plant is able to achieve
increased performance at low temperature because of low turbine
leaving velocity losses.
This concept of two stage cycle has been investigated by EDF
(Électricité de France) since the 70s. A 22 MW prototype was
developed in Gennevilliers near Paris [17]. In this early prototype,
instead of using an organic fluid, ammonia was chosen as a work-
ing fluid in view of its high density and latent heat. However, this
fluid is toxic [18]. The cost of such a two-stage cycle was studied by
EDF and it revealed this concept was economically interesting
comparing to a classic steam cycle [17]. The concept of multi-stage
 B. Liu et al. / Applied Energy 100 (2012) 285–294 287

for large steam and gas-steam power plants has also been studied
by Desideri and Facchini [19].
In the following sections, we investigate the performance of
such a two stage cycle with different working fluids and different
values of STEP. Indeed, the STEP is a degree of freedom in our study
and regarded as a design parameter for the cycle. The cycle compo-
nent designs are not provided in this paper.
2. Working fluids selection
The chosen working fluids should guarantee the cycle perfor-
mance, be adapted to the system’s operating conditions, satisfy
environment protection standards and ensure the operator’s
safety. However, at the end, the selection of fluids will probably
result from a tradeoff between different criteria.
Accordingly, the fluid selection criteria for our two-stage
Rankine cycle are discussed below.
2.1. Critical temperature
In order to guarantee improved ORC efficiency and be able to
run sub-critical cycles with high STEP, the critical temperature of
the chosen fluid shall be as high as possible compared to the evap-
oration temperature.
2.2. Density and latent heat
One main target for using two-stage Rankine cycle architecture
is to reduce the installation size. Therefore, the density and the la-
tent heat of the chosen working fluid need to be as high as possible.
2.3. Triple point temperature
By using the air-cooled condenser, we need to take into account
the fact that the temperature periodic variations of the cold source
are greater than for water. As a consequence, the condensation
temperature of the organic fluid can become very low in winter.
The fluid should not be freezing (in the ORC) under low tempera-
ture condition.
two-stage Rankine cycle should follow the current environment
protection standards and its likely future trends. The fluid should
have a null ODP and a GWP as low as possible.
2.6. Toxicity and inflammability
For operators’ safety, it is preferable to use a non-toxic and
non-inflammable organic fluid, following the Ashrae standards
classification [18]. However in the phase of this investigation on
the cycle’s efficiency, we do not eliminate any fluid yet. In fact,
as we only investigate pure fluids in this paper, toxicity and inflam-
mability may lead us to delete high performance fluid from the
potential candidates. However, these fluids could be used in mix-
tures. For this reason, this criterion, if essential, will be the last
to be examined in this study.
The following families of fluids will be tested: HFC (Hydro-
Fluoro-Carbon), HFO (Hydro-Fluoro-Olefin), HC (hydrocarbon)
and aromatic. The performance of steam/ammonia two-stage cycle
will be also calculated and compared with other selected fluids.
Table 1 lists the selected fluids and their properties in our
investigations.
3. Fluid model
Except for ammonia, organic components have been considered
in this investigation. Thus, cubic equations of state are suitable to
predict the properties of these organic fluids. Peng–Robinson EoS
[25] and Mathias Copeman alpha function [26] were chosen to cal-
culate the fluid data used in this paper. The Mathias Copeman
function parameters are fitted from NIST data base by using satu-
ration pressures, except for R1216 which is fitted from experimen-
tal data [24]. An external fluid properties server has been built to
calculate the properties required. The advantage of this approach
is that unavailable fluids in existing thermodynamic properties cal-
culation tools can be tested and newest available experimental
data can be used for the fluid models.
On the other hand, the properties of ammonia are calculated by
Refprop 8.0 [22].
Correlations
Peng–Robinson EoS:

2.4. Low pressure in the ORC RT aðTÞ

P¼  ð1Þ
v  b v þ 2bv  b2
Ideally, the condensation pressure of the fluid in the ORC should
be slightly higher than the atmospheric air pressure. This would R2 T 2c
a ¼ Xa with Xa ¼ 0:45724 ð2Þ
ensure no air enters the ORC installation. Pc

2.5. Global warming potential (GWP) and Ozone depletion potential RT c

b ¼ Xb with Xb ¼ 0:07780 ð3Þ
(ODP) Pc

The environmental regulation has become more stringent in the Pc v c

Zc ¼ ¼ 0:3074 ð4Þ
last two decades [20,21]. The choice of working fluid for the RT c

Table 1
Properties of pre-selected fluids from NIST [22] and DIPPR [23] data bases, except R1216 data issued from Coquelet et al. [24] and safety data issued from Ashrae 34, 2010 [18].

Fluid Full name Chemical formula Family Tc (K) Pc (bar) Acentric factor Molar mass (g/mol) GWP Safety data
R134a 1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane CH2FCF3 HFC 374 40.59 0.3267 102.03 1430 A1
R245fa 1,1,1,3,3-Pentafluoropropane CHF2CH2CF3 HFC 427 36.51 0.3776 134.00 1030 B1
R365mfc 1,1,1,3,3-Pentafluorobutane CF3CH2CF2CH3 HFC 460 32.66 0.3800 148.00 890 A2
R1234yf 2,3,3,3-Tetrafluoro-1-propene CF3CF = CH2 HFO 368 33.82 0.2760 114.04 4 A2
R1216 Hexafluoropropylene CF3CF = CF2 HFO 358 31.36 0.3529 150.02 1 –
R600 n-butane CH3CH2CH2CH3 HC 425 37.96 0.2002 58.12 1 A3
R290 Propane CH3CH2CH3 HC 370 42.47 0.1523 44.10 3 A3
Benzene Benzene C6H6 Aromatic 562 48.31 0.2092 78.11 – Toxic/inflammable
Toluene Methylbenzene C6H5CH3 Aromatic 592 41.26 0.2657 92.14 – Toxic/inflammable
R717 Ammonia NH3 – 405 113.33 0.2560 17.03 – B1
288 B. Liu et al. / Applied Energy 100 (2012) 285–294

Mathias Copeman alpha function:

T r 6 1; aðT r Þ
0:5 2 0:5 3 2
¼ ð1 þ c1 ð1  T 0:5
r Þ þ c 2 ð1  T r Þ þ c3 ð1  T r Þ Þ ð5Þ

2
T r > 1; aðT r Þ ¼ ð1 þ c1 ð1  T 0:5
r ÞÞ ð6Þ

where c1, c2, c3 are parameters and Tr is the ratio between the fluid
temperature and the critical temperature. The three parameters are
determined by minimizing the following objective function F:
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
mod 2
F¼ ðPexpsat  P sat Þ ð7Þ

where Psat is the saturation pressure.

4. Cycle architecture and operating condition

The architecture considered in our study (Fig. 1) is a modified

steam cycle combined with an ORC bottoming cycle. The cycle is
composed of the following elements: a water pump, a steam
turbine, a steam generator, a condenser-boiler, an ORC pump,
an ORC turbine and an air-cooled condenser. A regenerator can
be added to the ORC depending on the selected fluid. This pro-
vides an improvement on cycle efficiency when a dry fluid is
used. As it is detrimental to the cycle efficiency [8], superheat
is null.
The pump and turbine are defined by their isentropic efficiency
in this study. The heat exchanges are calculated by considering a
fixed pinch temperature in the condenser-boiler and the regenera-
tor. The pinch temperature in the steam generator and the ap-
proach temperature in the air cooled condenser are known. If a
regenerator is installed, its pinch temperature is expected to be
known.
The heat source temperature is maintained constant in the
steam generator. The cold source temperature corresponds to
the atmospheric air temperature. Its value changes according to
the season and climate zone.
The STEP is a value that we can control in our study and the
mass flow rate of the steam cycle is set to 1 kg/s. No pressure drop
is considered in heat exchangers.
We will analyze the cycle performance according to the STEP
and the cold source temperature. Then the basic two-stage cycle
will be compared to the regenerative cycle in order to observe
the efficiency increase.
It is important to keep in mind that the intent is not to compare
this cycle efficiency with a standard water steam Rankine cycle
used in current power plants, which would be more optimized.
Our assessment uses only rough assumptions on parameters for
the whole steam cycle, particularly for turbines, in an attempt to
rank the different fluids. Studying the components’ efficiencies
and comparing this type of generation plant with current technol-
ogies is to be developed in future works. Fig. 1. Structure of two-stage Rankine cycle for electricity production represented
in THERMOPTIM™ [27]: (a) basic cycle, and (b) regenerative cycle.
Table 2 and Fig. 2 summarize the hypothesis made in order to
calculate the efficiency of the two-stage cycle.
Water pump
5. Models of cycle components m isentropic
WP ¼ ðh4  h3 Þ ð9Þ
gP
In order to predict the performance of the two-stage Rankine
cycle, each component is modeled and the energy balance is calcu- ORC pump
lated. In this paper, we will neither design the dimension of heat mO isentropic
exchangers nor calculate the size of pump/turbine. W PO ¼ ðh40  h30 Þ ð10Þ
gTO
Steam generator
Steam turbine
isentropic
Q SG ¼ mðh1  h4 Þ ð8Þ W T ¼ mgT ðh2  h1 Þ ð11Þ
 B. Liu et al. / Applied Energy 100 (2012) 285–294 289

Table 2
Components and operating conditions of the two-stage Rankine cycle.

Cycle component Variable Value

Steam generator Heat source temperature (TH) 603.15 K (330 °C)
Pinch temperature (DTSG) 40 K
Water boiling temperature (TEVAP) 563.15 K (290 °C)
Steam turbine Isentropic efficiency (gT) 0.85
Water pump Isentropic efficiency (gP) 0.9
Condenser-boiler Steam Turbine Exhaust Pressure (STEP) Controlled, 0.3–2 bar
Pinch temperature (DTCB) 5K
ORC boiling temperature (TEVAPO) Depending on STEP value
ORC turbine Isentropic efficiency (gTO) 0.85
ORC pump Isentropic efficiency (gPO) 1
Air cooled condenser Temperature of atmospheric air (Tair) Depending on seasons and climate zone, 253.15–313.15 K (20 °C to 40 °C)
Approach temperature (DTACC) 29 K
ORC condensation temperature (TCONDO) Depending on the temperature of cold source
Regenerator Pinch temperature (DTREG) 5K

650
600 Heat source temperature
Pinch temperature of steam generator
550
500
450
T(K)

400
350 Pinch temperature of condenser boiler

300 Approach temperature of air cooled condenser

Cold source temperature
250
200
-120 -70 -20 30 80
s(J/mol/K)

Fig. 2. T–s diagram of a two-stage Rankine cycle.

ORC turbine developed for this project and linked to the external fluid proper-
isentropic ties server.
WT ¼ g
mO TO ðh20  h10 Þ ð12Þ
Condenser-boiler 6.1. Validation of model and uncertainties
– Case without regenerator:
Q CB ¼ mðh3  h2 Þ ¼ mO ðh10  h40 Þ ð13Þ The calculated pure component data is compared to NIST data.
Table 3 shows the model quality between 280 K and 390 K, which
– Case with regenerator: will correspond to the working temperatures of our ORC.
Q CB ¼ mðh3  h2 Þ ¼ mO ðh10  h10a Þ ð14Þ The saturation pressures are generally well represented in our
model. In most cases, the relative differences compared are less
Air cooled condenser
than 1% except for benzene and toluene. This can be explained
– Case without regenerator:
by the saturation pressures of benzene and toluene which have ex-
Q ACC ¼ mO ðh30  h20 Þ ð15Þ tremely small value at low temperature, respectively 5000 Pa and
– Case with regenerator:
Q ACC ¼ mO ðh30  h30a Þ ð16Þ Table 3
Fluid model: difference between model and source data.
Regenerator Fluid Average Average Maximal Maximal
saturation saturation saturation saturation
Q REG ¼ mO ðh2  h30a Þ ¼ mO ðh10a  h4 Þ ð17Þ pressure liquid volume pressure liquid volume
difference difference (%) difference (%) difference (%)
Thermal efficiency of the cycle is obtained by the following relation. (%)
R134a <1 <8 <1 19
W P þ W T þ W PO þ W TO
gTH ¼ ð18Þ R245fa <1 <5 <1 5
Q SG R365mfc <1 <5 2 4
R1234yf <1 <5 <1 15
R1216 <1 <9 <1 17
6. Results and discussion R600 <1 <5 <1 5
R290 <1 <5 <1 9
Benzene <2 <2 14 <2
The simulations of the two-stage cycles are performed with
Toluene <2 <2 10 <2
THERMOPTIM™ software [27], a modified version exclusively
290 B. Liu et al. / Applied Energy 100 (2012) 285–294
Table 4
Impact of fluid model uncertainty on the cycle efficiency.
STEP (bar) 0.3
Relative uncertainty on liquid volume (%) 1 4
Cycle efficiency THERMOPTIM™ (%) 31.74
Cycle efficiency based on Refprop data (%) 31.76
1400 Pa at 280 K for example. Thus, even if the absolute difference
is small, this leads to important relative differences.
On the other hand, the calculated saturation liquid volume is
less accurate. The relative difference can reach more than 15%
when the calculation is done near the critical point (R134a,
R1234yf and R1216). As Peng–Robinson cubic EoS is used and
Mathias Copeman alpha function is fitted only from saturation
pressure data, those results are not surprising.
Because of this relatively high uncertainty observed on the li-
quid volume calculation induced by the cubic model, we decided
to evaluate its impact on the cycle efficiency. The fluid chosen for
the uncertainty tests is propane. This choice is made for two main
reasons:
– Propane is a well-known fluid and the precision of available
data is high.
– For the STEP and the temperatures in our application, the liquid
volume calculation has a relatively high uncertainty, of up to 9%.
Peng–Robinson EoS is well adapted to predict the properties of
hydrocarbon and polar fluids. Thus the properties prediction for
propane is slightly more accurate than for other fluids. However,
the 9% uncertainty on the liquid volume calculation is high, and
thus, its impact on the cycle efficiency is investigated.
Table 4 shows the comparison between the two stage cycle effi-
ciency calculated by THERMOPTIM™ software linked to the fluid
properties server and simulations done in the same conditions,
using Refprop 8 as fluid properties calculation tool.
Despite an uncertainty of up to 9% on the liquid volume calcu-
lation, the difference on cycle efficiency remains relatively low. The
maximal difference between simulations is less than 0.1%. This
phenomenon can be explained by the following reasons. The liquid
volume uncertainty influences the pump power consumption
which is small comparing to the turbine power output. On the
0.365
0.36
0.355
0.35
Efficiency
0.345
0.34
0.335
0.33
0.325
0.3 0.5
Fig. 3. Cycle performance according to the STEP at Tair = 10 °C, with different working fluids: R245fa, h R365mfc, NR1234yf, + R1216, D benzene, s toluene,  R600, e
R290, d R134a, j R717.
0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
5 7 8 9
31.80 31.78 31.72 31.61 31.48
31.84 31.83 31.78 31.68 31.56
other hand, the major part of the power is still produced by the
steam cycle (more than 80%), thus the ORC fluid model precision
has a limited impact on the overall performance. Furthermore, in
real applications, the efficiency of energy system cannot be easily
evaluated as accurately as 0.1%. Thus the model precision on the
efficiency evaluation is mostly satisfactory. However, if the cycle
component design should be carried out, the uncertainty on liquid
volume calculation might play a more important role.
6.2. Influence of the STEP and the air temperature
The performance of the two stage Rankine cycle is obtained by
adding the two cycle power outputs. As the conditions on heat
source are fixed and the cycle components are known, the power
output of both cycles will be mainly influenced by the STEP and
the conditions on cold source.
For each working fluid, we fixed Tair and analyzed the influence
of the STEP value between 0.3 bar and 2 bar. An optimal point is
determined by the cycle simulations. For benzene and toluene,
the optimal STEP values exceeds 2 bar because of the higher critical
temperatures and thus the optimal pressure cannot be observed on
the figures and in the tables below. Figs. 3–5 show the cycle perfor-
mance according to the STEP for the 10 selected fluids at different
cold source (air) temperatures. We observe that the external cold
source temperature greatly influences the cycle’s efficiency. The
power output increases when the external air temperature lowers.
For different Tair, the cycle optimum is observed at different
STEP values. Table 5 summarizes the optimal STEP and the optimal
efficiency for each fluid as a function of Tair, obtained by comparing
the performance results calculated at every 0.1 bar of STEP. We can
also observe that the optimal STEP of the organic fluids increases
with increasing air temperature. This phenomenon may greatly
impact the cycle’s performance. In fact, when the cycle is designed,
a STEP should be defined as a design value. This means that, if the
0.7 0.9 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.7 1.9
STEP (bar)
 B. Liu et al. / Applied Energy 100 (2012) 285–294 291

0.335

0.33

0.325

Efficiency 0.32

0.315

0.31

0.305

0.3
0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.7 1.9
STEP (bar)

Fig. 4. Cycle performance according to the STEP at Tair = 10 °C, with different working fluids: R245fa, h R365mfc, NR1234yf, + R1216, D benzene, s toluene,  R600,e
R290,d R134a,j R717.

0.305

0.3

0.295
Efficiency

0.29

0.285

0.28
0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.7 1.9
STEP (bar)

Fig. 5. Cycle performance according to the STEP at Tair = 30 °C, with different working fluids: R245fa, h R365mfc, NR1234yf, + R1216, D benzene, s toluene,  R600, e R290,
d R134a, j R717.

system runs under off-design conditions, the performance would
further decrease because of the no-longer-optimal STEP value.
Thus it appears important to choose the STEP in relation to the cold
source conditions, in our case, the climate where the power plant is
built.
The table above also shows the performance ranking of the nine
tested organic fluids and ammonia by simulation: benzene and tol-
uene are the most efficient fluids, followed by ammonia, butane,
R365mfc and R245. R134a, propane, R1234yf and R1216 are less
efficient. This ranking remains the same even if the air temperature
changes.
6.3. Influence of regeneration
According to the previous simulations, the following fluids do
not reach the saturation temperature at the outlet of the ORC tur-
bine: R245fa, R365mfc, butane, toluene, benzene, R1234yf and
R1216. Instead of discharging this heat to the cold source, it is pos-
sible to use it to pre-heat the working fluid by adding a regenerator
to the basic two stage cycle.
However, for R1234yf and R1216, the differences between the
temperatures at turbine outlet and the saturation temperature
are very small. Thus installing a regenerator becomes much less
interesting. For this reason, only R245fa, R365mfc, butane, toluene
and benzene have been tested in the regenerative cycle in this
section.
The calculations are done around the previous optimal points
with Tair at 10 °C, 10 °C and 30 °C. Tables 5 and 6 show the
simulation results. It is clear that introducing a regenerator can
improve the cycle’s performance. Depending on fluids, the effi-
ciency improvement can go from 0.1% to 1%. In the previous stud-
ies with basic two stage cycle, R245fa and R365mfc have almost
the same performance. However R365mfc is ‘‘drier’’ than R245fa:
the difference between the temperatures at turbine outlet and
292 B. Liu et al. / Applied Energy 100 (2012) 285–294

Table 5
Cycle optimum according to Tair.

Fluid Tair (°C) 20 10 0 10 20 30 40

R245fa Efficiency 0.3633 0.3493 0.3355 0.3219 0.3084 0.295 0.2817
Opt STEP (bar) 0.4 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.6
R365mfc Efficiency 0.3629 0.3491 0.3355 0.3221 0.3089 0.2954 0.2823
Opt STEP (bar) 0.4 0.4 0.7 0.8 0.8 1.3 1.6
R134a Efficiency 0.3596 0.346 0.332 0.3182 0.3043 0.2907 0.2769
Opt STEP (bar) 0.3 0.4 0.4 0.5 0.5 0.7 0.8
R1234yf Efficiency 0.3588 0.3447 0.3309 0.3171 0.3032 0.2897 0.276
Opt STEP (bar) 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.4 0.6 0.7
R1216 Efficiency 0.3577 0.3422 0.3282 0.3149 0.3018 0.2884 0.2753
Opt STEP (bar) 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.6 0.7
R290 Efficiency 0.3603 0.3461 0.3319 0.3178 0.3041 0.2903 0.2765
Opt STEP (bar) 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.5 0.6 0.7
R600 Efficiency 0.3637 0.3497 0.3359 0.3222 0.3086 0.2951 0.2818
Opt STEP (bar) 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.8 1 1.3 1.5
Benzene Efficiency 0.3742 0.36 0.346 0.332 0.3178 0.3035 0.2889
Opt STEP (bar) 1.6 2 2 2 2 2 2
Toluene Efficiency 0.373 0.3589 0.3448 0.3308 0.3168 0.3026 0.2882
Opt STEP (bar) 1.4 1.5 1.9 2 2 2 2
R717 Efficiency 0.3688 0.3545 0.3403 0.3261 0.3121 0.2980 0.2841
Opt STEP (bar) 0.6 0.7 0.9 1 1.2 1.5 1.7

Table 6
Influence of regeneration on the two stage cycle performance (R245fa and R365mfc).

Fluids Tair (°C) STEP (bar) g basic cycle g reg cycle Improvement DTreg (°C) DHreg/total heat received by ORC (%)
R245fa 10 0.3 0.3488 0.3499 0.0011 5 3.3
10 0.4 0.3493 0.3511 0.0018 6 4.1
10 0.6 0.3491 0.3521 0.003 8 5.3
10 0.6 0.3217 0.3235 0.0018 5 3.9
10 0.8 0.3219 0.3246 0.0027 7 4.9
10 1 0.3215 0.3251 0.0036 8 5.6
10 1.2 0.3209 0.3253 0.0044 9 6.2
10 1.4 0.3202 0.3251 0.0049 10 6.7
30 1 0.2949 0.2964 0.0015 4 3.3
30 1.2 0.295 0.2971 0.0021 5 4.1
30 1.4 0.2946 0.2975 0.0029 6 4.6
R365mfc 10 0.3 0.3486 0.3522 0.0036 9 5.7
10 0.4 0.3491 0.354 0.0049 11 6.8
10 0.6 0.3489 0.3562 0.0073 15 8.5
10 0.6 0.3218 0.3259 0.0041 10 6.3
10 0.8 0.3221 0.3276 0.0055 12 7.7
10 1 0.3217 0.3289 0.0072 14 8.8
10 1.2 0.3212 0.3298 0.0086 16 9.7
10 1.4 0.3205 0.3304 0.0099 17 10.4
10 1.6 0.3198 0.3309 0.0111 19 11.1
10 1.8 0.319 0.3313 0.0123 20 11.6
10 2 0.3182 0.3315 0.0133 21 12.1
30 1.1 0.2953 0.2991 0.0038 9 6.4
30 1.3 0.2954 0.3003 0.0101 11 7.4
30 1.5 0.2952 0.3012 0.006 12 8.3

the saturation temperature is higher. Thus, after adding a regener-
ator to the basic cycle, R365mfc becomes more efficient (Fig. 6).
At the same time, the results also show that the optimal STEP
changes when a regenerator is introduced into the two stage cycle.
Looking at the five tested fluids at each air temperature, the opti-
mal STEPs become higher in the regenerative two stage cycles. At
Tair = 10 °C, the optimal performances before and after installing
the regenerator are underlined in Tables 6 and 7. This phenomenon
may be explained by the fact that when the STEP increases, more
energy is transferred to the ORC which is, at the same time, en-
hanced by the regenerator. Thus the global power output of the
two stage cycle becomes higher. This observation is quite interest-
ing: by increasing the cycle performance and the optimal STEP va-
lue, the regenerator is able to make the cycle more efficient and
reduce the steam turbine size. At the same time, less energy has
to be evacuated through the air-cooled condenser. Thus less heat
exchange surface is required. We also provided the temperature
difference DTreg in the regenerator on the cold side and the heat
transferred in the regenerator as a percentage of the heat input
to the ORC cycle for R245fa and R365mfc in Table 6.
However, installing regenerators in real industrial application
can be complicate and expensive. Thus the advantages of introduc-
ing regenerators are still debatable. The decision shall be carried
out after deeper studies (Table 8).
 B. Liu et al. / Applied Energy 100 (2012) 285–294 293

0.334
0.332
0.330
0.328

Efficiency
0.326
0.324
0.322
0.320
0.318
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5
Pressure (bar)

Fig. 6. Cycle performances of R245fa and R365mfc (with/without regenerator) according to the STEP at Tair = 10 °C,  R245fa basic, j R245fa reg, h R365mfc basic, X R365mfc
reg.

Table 7 Table 8
Influence of regenerator in the two stage cycle (butane, benzene and toluene). Critical temperature and the fluid ranking in this study.

Fluids Tair (°C) STEP (bar) g basic cycle g reg cycle Improvement Fluid Tc (K) Ranking
R600 10 0.3 0.3491 0.3512 0.0021 Benzene 562 1
10 0.5 0.3497 0.3535 0.0038 Toluene 592 2
10 0.7 0.3493 0.3544 0.0051 R717 406 3
10 0.6 0.322 0.324 0.002 R365mfc 460 4
10 0.8 0.3222 0.3252 0.003 R245fa 427 5
10 1 0.3219 0.3257 0.0038 R600 425 6
10 1.2 0.3213 0.3259 0.0046 R134a 374 7
10 1.4 0.3206 0.3259 0.0053 R290 370 8
10 1.6 0.3198 0.3258 0.006 R1234yf 368 9
30 1.1 0.2951 0.2967 0.0016 R1216 358 10
30 1.3 0.2951 0.2972 0.0021
30 1.5 0.2948 0.2974 0.0026
Benzene 10 1.6 0.36 0.3604 0.0004
10 1.8 0.36 0.3607 0.0007 pressures in the ORC are also inferior to 1 bar. R365mfc may be
10 2 0.36 0.3609 0.0009 slightly more efficient than R245fa, but its vapor density is three
10 1.6 0.3315 0.3325 0.001
times weaker than R245fa and thus the ORC turbine will be more
10 1.8 0.3318 0.333 0.0012
10 2 0.0015 expensive.
0.332 0.3335
30 1.6 0.3024 0.3032 0.0008
30 1.8 0.303 0.304 0.001 7. Conclusion
30 2 0.3035 0.3047 0.0012
Toluene 10 1.3 0.3588 0.3623 0.0035 This paper investigated a two stage Rankine cycle for electricity
10 1.5 0.3589 0.363 0.0041
production. This application is slightly different from the classic
10 1.7 0.3588 0.3636 0.0048
10 1.6 0.3306 0.3343 0.0037 ORC applications, such as waste heat recovery, in that we have con-
10 1.8 0.3307 0.3351 0.0044 trol over the ORC heat source and the heat exchange with the
10 2 0.3308 0.3357 0.0049 source occurs at constant temperature. Several criteria for fluid
30 1.6 0.3018 0.3041 0.0023 selection have been discussed. Nine pre-selected organic working
30 1.8 0.3022 0.3051 0.0029
fluids and ammonia have been tested using THERMOPTIM™ simu-
30 2 0.3026 0.3059 0.0033
lation software [27]. The dry fluids are also tested in enhanced cy-
cle architecture with a regenerator. For each cold source
6.4. Cycle performance and the fluid properties temperature, an optimal STEP exists. We observe that regenerative
cycles are more efficient and provide enhanced steam turbine size
We can compare the fluid ranking with fluid properties and reduction. But installing regenerator may be complicate.
confirm that fluids with a higher critical temperature are more No perfect fluid has been found among the pure fluids in the
efficient in the two stage Rankine cycle application. This statement study. However, the differences between the cycle efficiencies of
is valid for most of the tested fluids, except for benzene and the tested fluids are not very significant. Thus, the criterions
ammonia. related to installation volume, environmental protection and oper-
Benzene, with a lower critical temperature, shows a higher effi- ator safety should play an important role in future studies.
ciency compared to toluene. Overall, we can also rank the tested For further investigations, it will be of interest to size the differ-
organic fluids according to their family. Thus the family ranking, ent components in the cycle. Therefore, the off-design performance
by performance order (without regeneration), is: the aromatic, can be calculated for each selected working fluids. As we consider
the HFC, the hydrocarbon and the HFO. air as a cold source for our two stage Rankine cycle, the tempera-
Ammonia shall be considered apart from the other fluids. Actu- ture fluctuation will be great according to different seasons. Thus
ally, it is the only non-organic fluid among the 10 tested fluids. Its the off-design simulation is necessary to better evaluate the per-
performance is below the one of aromatic fluids and above the one formance of two stage Rankine cycle power plant.
of hydrocarbon and HFC fluids. An investigation of mixture fluids should also be considered in
We should also keep in mind that benzene and toluene are further research. We will particularly focus on azeotropic mixtures
highly efficient but toxic and inflammable, and that their low in order to avoid temperature glide.
294 B. Liu et al. / Applied Energy 100 (2012) 285–294
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the supports provided by EDF R&D.
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