ORC: How it works In a typical ORC design, a thermal energy source feeds an evaporator to drive an expander or “reverse compressor”, which in turn generates the electricity. The provider of the heat can be natural, such as in the case of geothermal energy, or waste heat from any number of industrial waste heat sources.

Financial analysis shows that the ORC system, including the cost of the unit plus the costs of installation and integration into the process, will cost approximately 4.8 Million USD.

ORC WHR system consists of four major components: pump, evaporator, expander and condenser, as shown in Figure 1.

The superheated vapor passes through a turbine, which allows electricity generation by its expansion. The Rankine cycle is closed by a condenser (using cooling water) that convert saturated vapor at low pressure from the turbine generator into condensate, which is pumped back to the heat exchanger to restart the cycle.