The efficiency of current high temperature Organic Rankine Cycles does not exceed 24%. Typical steam Rankine cycles show a thermal efficiency higher than 30%, but with a more complex cycle design (in terms of number of components or size).

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 efficiency of the ORC system is always optimized: on average at 50% load, electrical efficiency is still 90% of the nominal electrical efficiency.

Additionally, ORCs eliminate the need for full-time plant operators because they operate at lower pressures and do not need water chemistry maintenance. However, working fluid cost, decomposition, temperature limits are an organic Rankine cycle's primary disadvantages.