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 ...

The Organic Rankine Cycle's principle is based on a turbogenerator working as a conventional steam turbine to transform thermal energy into mechanical energy and finally into electric energy through an electrical generator.

Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) machines are used to convert low-temperature heat resources into power. Examples include systems making use of waste heat in a cogeneration system, low temperature geothermal electricity generation, solar ponds, and potentially OTEC.

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.