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.

Similar to a simple Rankine cycle, a basic organic Rankine cycle (ORC) consists of four processes: increasing pressure of the working fluid through a pump, high temperature heat addition through an evaporator, expansion of the high temperature as well as high pressure fluid through a turbine, and low temperature heat ...

An organic Rankine⁵ cycle turbine is a small turbine that is identical in design to a steam turbine but which uses a low boiling point organic fluid as its working fluid instead of water and steam. The turbine is packaged into a closed cycle system with a condenser and heat exchanger.

The minimum operating temperature is 90 °C, and it can complement the electrical generation with the production of useful heat with temperatures of up to 50 °C. When the heat source temperature of the ORC machine is between 120 °C and 150 °C, Rank® MT equipment offers excellent electrical performance.