Rankine cycle

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The Rankine cycle is a thermodynamic cycle which converts heat into work. The heat is supplied externally to a closed
loop, which usually uses water as the working fluid. Almost all coal and nuclear power stations use this cycle for power
generation. It is named after William John Macquorn Rankine, a Scottish polymath.

Contents
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 1 Description
 2 Processes of the Rankine cycle
 3 Variables
 4 Equations
 5 Real Rankine cycle (non-ideal)
 6 Variations of the basic Rankine cycle
o 6.1 Rankine cycle with reheat
o 6.2 Regenerative Rankine cycle
 7 Organic Rankine Cycle
 8 References

 9 External links

Description

Physical layout of a Rankine cycle

A Rankine cycle describes a model of the operation of steam heat engines most commonly found in power generation
plants. Common heat sources for power plants using the Rankine cycle are coal, natural gas, oil, and nuclear.

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The Rankine cycle is sometimes referred to as a practical Carnot cycle as, when an efficient turbine is used, the TS
diagram will begin to resemble the Carnot cycle. The main difference is that a pump is used to compress the liquid
water. This requires about 100 times less energy than that compressing a gas in a compressor (as in the Carnot cycle).

The efficiency of a Rankine cycle is usually limited by the working fluid. Without the pressure going super critical the
temperature range the cycle can operate over is quite small, turbine entry temperatures are typically 565°C (the creep
limit of stainless steel) and condenser temperatures are around 30°C. This gives a theoretical Carnot efficiency of
around 63% compared with an actual efficiency of 42% for a modern coal-fired power station. This low turbine entry
temperature (compared with a gas turbine) is why the Rankine cycle is often used as a bottoming cycle in combined
cycle gas turbine power stations.

The working fluid in a Rankine cycle follows a closed loop and is re-used constantly. The water vapor often seen
billowing from power stations is generated by the cooling systems and represents the waste heat that could not be
converted to useful work. Note that steam is invisible until it comes in contact with cool, saturated air, at which point it
condenses and forms the white billowy clouds seen leaving cooling towers. While many substances could be used in
the Rankine cycle, water is usually the fluid of choice due to its favorable properties, such as nontoxic and unreactive
chemistry, abundance, and low cost, as well as its thermodynamic properties.

One of the principle advantages it holds over other cycles is that during the compression stage relatively little work is
required to drive the pump, due to the working fluid being in its liquid phase at this point. By condensing the fluid to
liquid, the work required by the pump will only consume approximately 1% of the turbine power and so give a much
higher efficiency for a real cycle. The benefit of this is lost somewhat due to the lower heat addition temperature. Gas
turbines, for instance, have turbine entry temperatures approaching 1500°C. Nonetheless, the efficiencies of steam
cycles and gas turbines are fairly well matched.

Processes of the Rankine cycle

Ts diagram of a typical Rankine cycle operating between pressures of 0.06bar and 50bar

There are four processes in the Rankine cycle, each changing the state of the working fluid. These states are identified
by number in the diagram to the right.

 Process 1-2: The working fluid is pumped from low to high pressure, as the fluid is a liquid at this stage the
pump requires little input energy.
 Process 2-3: The high pressure liquid enters a boiler where it is heated at constant pressure by an external
heat source to become a dry saturated vapor.
 Process 3-4: The dry saturated vapor expands through a turbine, generating power. This decreases the
temperature and pressure of the vapor, and some condensation may occur.
 Process 4-1: The wet vapor then enters a condenser where it is cooled at a constant pressure and temperature
to become a saturated liquid. The pressure and temperature of the condenser is fixed by the temperature of
the cooling coils as the fluid is undergoing a phase-change.

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 In an ideal Rankine cycle the pump and turbine would be isentropic, i.e., the pump and turbine would generate no
entropy and hence maximize the net work output. Processes 1-2 and 3-4 would be represented by vertical lines on the
Ts diagram and more closely resemble that of the Carnot cycle. The Rankine cycle shown here prevents the vapor
ending up in the superheat region after the expansion in the turbine [1], which reduces the energy removed by the
condensers.

Variables
Heat flow rate to or from the system (energy per unit time)
Mass flow rate (mass per unit time)
Mechanical power consumed by or provided to the system (energy per unit time)
ηtherm Thermodynamic efficiency of the process (net power output per heat input, dimensionless)
ηpump,ηturb Isentropic efficiency of the compression (feed pump) and expansion (turbine) processes, dimensionless
h1,h2,h3,h4 The "specific enthalpies" at indicated points on the T-S diagram
h4s The final "specific enthalpy" of the fluid if the turbine were isentropic
p1,p2 The pressures before and after the compression process

Equations
Each of the first four equations[1] is easily derived from the energy and mass balance for a control volume. The fifth
equation defines the thermodynamic efficiency of the cycle as the ratio of net power output to heat
input. As the work required by the pump is often around 1% of the turbine work output,
equation 5 can be simplified.

Real Rankine cycle (non-ideal)

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Rankine cycle with superheat

In a real Rankine cycle, the compression by the pump and the expansion in the turbine are not isentropic. In other
words, these processes are non-reversible and entropy is increased during the two processes. This somewhat increases
the power required by the pump and decreases the power generated by the turbine. It also makes calculations more
involved and difficult.

In particular the efficiency of the steam turbine will be limited by water droplet formation. As the water condenses,
water droplets hit the turbine blades at high speed causing pitting and erosion, gradually decreasing the efficiency of
the turbine. The easiest way to overcome this problem is by superheating the steam. On the Ts diagram above, state 3 is
above a two phase region of steam and water so after expansion the steam will be very wet. By superheating, state 3
will move to the right of the diagram and hence produce a dryer steam after expansion.

Variations of the basic Rankine cycle

Rankine cycle with reheat

The overall thermodynamic efficiency (of almost any cycle) can be increased by raising the average heat input

temperature of that cycle. Increasing the temperature of the steam into the superheat
region is a simple way of doing this. There are also variations of the basic Rankine cycle which are designed to raise
the thermal efficiency of the cycle in this way; two of these are described below.

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Rankine cycle with reheat
In this variation, two turbines work in series. The first accepts vapor from the boiler at high pressure. After the vapor
has passed through the first turbine, it re-enters the boiler and is reheated before passing through a second, lower
pressure turbine. Among other advantages, this prevents the vapor from condensing during its expansion which can
seriously damage the turbine blades, and improves the efficiency of the cycle.

Regenerative Rankine cycle

Regenerative rankine cycle

The regenerative Rankine cycle is so named because after emerging from the condenser (possibly as a subcooled
liquid) the working fluid is heated by steam tapped from the hot portion of the cycle. On the diagram shown, the fluid
at 2 is mixed with the fluid at 4 (both at the same pressure) to end up with the saturated liquid at 7. The Regenerative
Rankine cycle (with minor variants) is commonly used in real power stations.

Another variation is where 'bleed steam' from between turbine stages is sent to feedwater heaters to preheat the water
on its way from the condenser to the boiler.

Organic Rankine Cycle

Main article: Organic Rankine Cycle

The organic Rankine cycle (ORC) uses an organic fluid such as pentane[1] or butane[2] in place of water and steam. This
allows use of lower-temperature heat sources, such as solar ponds, which typically operate at around 70–90 °C[3]. The
efficiency of the cycle is much lower as a result of the lower temperature range, but this can be worthwhile because of
the lower cost involved in gathering heat at this lower temperature. Alternatively, fluids can be used that have boiling
points above water, and this may have thermodynamic benefits.

The Rankine cycle does not restrict the working fluid in its definition, so the inclusion of
an "organic" cycle is simply a marketing concept that should not be regarded as a
separate thermodynamic cycle.

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v • d • e

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 Thermodynamic cycles
Gas cycles
Bell Coleman cycle · Brayton/Joule cycle; (Externally heated) · Carnot cycle
without
· Stirling cycle  · Pseudo Stirling cycle is same as Adiabatic Stirling cycle[1]
phasechange -
Cycles normally with [2]  · Ericsson cycle · Stoddard cycle · Ported constant volume cycle[3]  ·
hot air engine
external combustion Vuilleumier cycle
cycles
Cycles withKalina cycle · Rankine cycle (encompasses Organic Rankine Cycle) ·
phasechangeRegenerative cycle · Two phased Stirling cycle[4]
Cycles normally with
Atkinson cycle · Brayton/Joule cycle · Diesel cycle · Otto cycle · Lenoir cycle · Miller cycle
internal combustion
Cycle mixing Combined cycle · HEHC cycle[5][6] · Mixed/Dual Cycle
Claude cycle [7] · Fickett-Jacobs cycle · Gifford-McMahon cycle [8] · Hirn cycle ·
Not categorized
Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition · Humphrey cycle · Linde-Hampson cycle

References
1. ^ http://www.solar2006.org/presentations/tech_sessions/t38-A007.pdf
2. ^ EERE: Bookmark Update
3. ^ Nielsen et al, 2005, Proc. Int. Solar Energy Soc.

 ^Van Wyllen 'Fundamentals of thermodynamics' (ISBN 85-212-0327-6)

 Moran & Shapiro 'Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics' (ISBN 0-471-27471-2)
 Wikibooks Engineering Thermodynamics

External links
 Rankine cycle on the Mathcad Application Server
 Organic Rankine Cycle for electric power generation

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rankine_cycle"

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