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Concept
Rankine cycle
Summary
The Rankine cycle is an idealized thermodynamic cycle describing the process by which certain heat engines, such as steam turbines or reciprocating steam engines, allow mechanical work to be extracted from a fluid as it moves between a heat source and heat sink. The Rankine cycle is named after William John Macquorn Rankine, a Scottish polymath professor at Glasgow University.
Heat energy is supplied to the system via a boiler where the working fluid (typically water) is converted to a high pressure gaseous state (steam) in order to turn a turbine. After passing over the turbine the fluid is allowed to condense back into a liquid state as waste heat energy is rejected before being returned to boiler, completing the cycle. Friction losses throughout the system are often neglected for the purpose of simplifying calculations as such losses are usually much less significant than thermodynamic losses, especially in larger systems.
The Rankine cycle closely describes the process by which steam engines commonly found in thermal power generation plants harness the thermal energy of a fuel or other heat source to generate electricity. Possible heat sources include combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and oil, use of mined resources for nuclear fission, renewable fuels like biomass and ethanol, and energy capture of natural sources such as concentrated solar power and geothermal energy. Common heat sinks include ambient air above or around a facility and bodies of water such as rivers, ponds, and oceans.
The ability of a Rankine engine to harness energy depends on the relative temperature difference between the heat source and heat sink. The greater the differential, the more mechanical power can be efficiently extracted out of heat energy, as per Carnot's theorem.
The efficiency of the Rankine cycle is limited by the high heat of vaporization of the working fluid. Unless the pressure and temperature reach supercritical levels in the boiler, the temperature range over which the cycle can operate is quite small.
Official source
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