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 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.

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

ORC is a closed cycle process like a conventional steam cycle process, in which waste heat is used to evaporate an organic fluid. Through an expander this drives a generator to produce clean energy. ORC captures lost profit by using low and mid temperature waste heat sources that most companies aren't aware of.