Solar thermal power The organic Rankine cycle can be used in the solar parabolic trough technology in place of the usual steam Rankine cycle. The ORC allows electricity generation at lower capacities and lower collector temperature, and hence the possibility for low-cost, small scale decentralized CSP units.

A waste heat recovery cycle explained A waste heat recovery system extracts thermal power from the exhaust gas of the industrial plant to feed the ORC module via the intermediate fluid. This fluid, usually oil, pressurized water or steam, transfers heat to the organic fluid in the ORC evaporator, where it vaporizes.

The organic Rankine cycle is is similar to the Rankine steam cycle, but uses an organic fluid such as refrigerants and hydrocarbons instead of water as the working fluid. The ordinary Rankine cycle uses thermal power to convert water to steam, which expands through a turbine in order to generate electricity.

A simple Rankine cycle is based on pressurizing water with a pump, heating the pressurized water beyond its boiling point to produce superheated steam in the boiler, expanding the steam through a steam turbine, cooling the residual steam to regenerate water, and returning the water to the pump to start through the ...