9/10/2023

Rankine cycle

KALINA CYCLE

• One of the commercially proven cycle already in use.

• Divergence between the thermal behaviour of the source/sink and

working fluid is a potential cause of irreversibility in the cycle.

• One method is using multiple pressure heat recovery steam generator.

• Another method is, Instead of using single fluid, if we use mixture of

fluid having different boiling points, reduce the irreversibility losses.

• Kalina Cycles are family of Cycles . Different designs are possible.

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Advantages of Ammonia and Water mixture used as a fluid medium

• NH3 and H2O is having similar Molecular Weight.

• They both have excellent heat transfer co-efficient.

1 1
• Quantity of fluid circulated is rd to of that of the Organic Rankine cycle.
3 2

• The fluid mixture having low boiling point.

• Pressure stay above atmospheric pressure.

• 20 to 40% increase in efficiency is achieved for Waste Heat Recovery

applications

• Depending on the source temperature we can use fluid mixture with

different compositions . Therefore reducing the irreversibility losses due to
temperature difference.

Advantages of Kalina over Rankine cycle

For same Heat source and heat sink, the average temperature of heat addition
is higher and average temperature of heat rejection is lower in case of Kalina
cycle compare to the Ideal Rankine cycle.

Hence the Efficiency of the Kalina Cycle is 20 to 30% higher than the Ideal
Rankine cycle.

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Advantages of Kalina over Rankine cycle

In Kalina cycle, compared to the Rankine cycle the average

temperature difference between heat source and the fluid
medium to be heated is less. Hence losses due to
irreversibilites in less
Tsource
Tsource

Kalina Cycle Components

• Vapour Turbine Expander

• Distillation Condensation subsystem (DCSS)
• Pump
• Heat Recovery Vapour Generator (HRVG)

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Kalina Cycle
The boiler consists of two
sections, the first section is the
economizer and the second part
is the evaporator. In the
evaporator, the liquid solution is
converted into liquid (8) and
vapor (1) mixture. It indicates
the incomplete evaporation or
boiling. In the Rankine cycle, the
liquid is completely converted
into vapor. In KCS, the boiling
starts at bubble-point
temperature (BPT) (6) and stops
at a temperature below the dew-
point temperature. The dew-
point temperature is the
temperature where the liquid
converts completely into
saturated vapor, that is,
complete evaporation or boiling

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Kalina Cycle

In the boiler, after the heat

addition, the liquid and vapor
are separated. These two
outlets, that is, saturated liquid
(8) and saturated vapor (1), are
connected to throttling (8–9)
and turbine, respectively. The
liquid solution is the weak
solution as the strong solution is
distilled in the generator and
separator assembly by removing
the vapor. The throttling allows
transferring the liquid from the
high pressure to low pressure
before entering into absorber.

SEPERATOR
WORKING PRINCIPLE
At boiler, 70% NH3
and 30% H2O mixture
is sent at the inlet.

At boiler outlet the

temperature is below
the DPT, hence the
A mixture is in wet
B C condition.

Now when we pass

the fluid through the
Boiling

separator, we get a
very strong vapour
(90% NH3, 10% H2O)
and a very weak
liquid solution (40%
NH3, 60% H2O)

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Kalina Cycle
In single fluid system with
ammonia as a working fluid, the
condensation of ammonia vapor
at the exit of turbine is difficult
as its condensation temperature
is very low at higher
concentration. It demands high
pressure to condenser at the
standard sink temperature. To
avoid this difficulty, in KCS, the
turbine exit vapor is diluted by
mixing with the weak solution
before condensation. The
concentration of the fluid is
decreased by mixing the weak
solution with turbine vapor.
After throttling, the weak
solution (9) is mixed with the
turbine vapor (2) and the
resultant mixture (3) is a strong
solution.

Kalina Cycle In single fluid system with

ammonia as a working fluid, the
condensation of ammonia vapor at
the exit of turbine is difficult as its
condensation temperature is very
low at higher concentration. It
demands high pressure to
condenser at the standard sink
temperature. To avoid this
difficulty, in KCS, the turbine exit
vapor is diluted by mixing with the
weak solution before
condensation. The concentration of
the fluid is decreased by mixing the
weak solution with turbine vapor.
After throttling, the weak solution
(9) is mixed with the turbine vapor
(2) and the resultant mixture (3) is
a strong solution. The absorption
process is continued by rejecting
the heat in the absorber. The
function of absorber is the same as
the condenser. The condensed
liquid (4) is pumped to the boiler

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Low Conc NH3,

High Condensation
temperature

High Conc NH3,

Low Condensation
temperature

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Kalina Cycle with Dephlegmator

The process of distillation

of the working fluid to
increase the concentration
is called dephlegmation.
The equipment is called
dephlegmator.
Dephlegmator is a heat
exchanger in which
circulating water flow to
cool the working fluid. The
cooling of the working fluid
removes the moisture and
so increased concentration.

Kalina Cycle with

Superheater

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Kalina Cycle with

Low Temperature
Regenerator

Kalina Cycle with

High Temperature
Regenerator [HTR]