Chapter 10

VAPOUR AND COMBINED

POWER CYCLES
 General Overview

Thermodynamics
Cycles

Power cycles Refrigeration

(Chapter 9 & cycles
10) (Chapter 11)

Produce
Produce net refrigeration
power output effect
Thermodynamics (heat engine) (Refrigerator, Thermodynamics
Cycles heat pump) Cycles

Gas cycles Vapour cycles Closed cycles Open cycles

One part liquid,

one part
Gaseous phase Working fluid is Working fluid is
vapour phase
working fluid recirculated renewed
throughout
cycle
3 Lecture Outline

Chapter 10
10-1 The Carnot vapor cycle
10-2 Rankine cycle: the ideal cycle for vapor
power cycles
10-3 Deviation of actual power cycles from
idealized ones
10-4 How can we increase the efficiency of the
Rankine cycle?
10-5 The ideal reheat Rankine cycle
10-6 The ideal regenerative Rankine cycle
 Carnot Vapour Cycle
• Most efficient cycle operating between two T limits
• Can be operated totally in the 2-phase region as a cycle of steady
flow processes
• Not suitable as a model for power cycles
1 - 2 isentropic compression, win
2 - 3 isothermal heat addition, qin
3 - 4 isentropic expansion, wout
4 - 1 isothermal heat rejection, qout

2 3

1 4
 The Carnot Impracticalities
5
• Process 1  2:
• Isentropic compression of liq-vap. mixture to
saturated liquid
• Difficulties
2 3
• Not easy to control condensation process
precisely to end up with the quality at state 1
1 4
• Not practical to design compressors that
handle 2 phases

Process 1 - 2 Limiting the heat transfer processes

to two-phase systems severely limits the maximum
2 boiler 3 temperature that can be used in the cycle (374°C
for water)
Tur
Comp.
bine

condenser
1 4
 The Carnot Impracticalities
6
• Process 2  3:
• Isothermal heat transfer
• Can be applied in actual boilers
• Limitations
2 3
• Max temperature used in cycle is limited
(must be below critical pt.)
1 4 • Thermal efficiency limited by max
temperature allowed in the cycle
• Any attempt to raise the max T involves
heat transfer to working fluid in a single
phase  not easy to accomplish
2 boiler 3 isothermally

Tur
Process 2 - 3 The turbine cannot handle steam
Comp. with a high moisture content because of the
bine
impingement of liquid droplets on the turbine
condenser blades causing erosion and wear.
1 4
 The Carnot Impracticalities
7 • Process 3  4:
• Isentropic expansion process
• Can be approximated by well-designed
turbines
2 3 • Difficulties
• Steam quality decreases  turbine has to
handle steam with high moisture content 
1 4
liquid droplets cause erosion on blades
• Steam with x < 0.9 cannot be tolerated in
power plants  eliminate using working
fluid with very steep sat. vapor line
2 boiler 3

Tur
Comp.
bine

condenser
1 4
 The Carnot Impracticalities
8
Why don’t we just move the cycle up?

2 3

2 3 1 4

1 4

This is not viable since it

requires isentropic
compression to extremely
high pressures and
isothermal heat transfer at
variable pressures.
 Rankine Cycle: The Ideal Cycle
9 for Vapor Power Cycles
• Impracticalities in the Carnot cycle can T
be eliminated by:
(2’) (3’)
• Condensing working fluid completely in 2 3
the condenser (2)

• Process 1  2: Isentropic compression is

now in liquid region (State 2 at subcooled) (1) 1 4
(f)

• Superheating the steam in the boiler T (3)

• Process 3  4: Isobaric expansion (2’) (3’)

occurs in superheated region. State 4 is 2 3
moved closer to saturated vapour to (2)
avoid condensation in the turbine
• Process 2  3: Isobaric heat addition 1 4
(1) (4)
10 The Ideal Rankine Cycle
• Ideal cycle for vapor power plants  internally reversible
• Working liquid: water  all properties are taken from the steam tables
• 1  2: Isentropic compression in a pump
• 2  3: Isobaric heat addition in boiler
• 3  4: Isentropic expansion in a turbine
• 4  1: Isobaric heat rejection in a condenser
 Example 1: The Ideal Rankine Cycle
11
 Example 1: The Ideal Rankine Cycle
12
 Example 1: The Ideal Rankine Cycle
13
 Example 1: The Ideal Rankine Cycle
14
 Example 1: The Ideal Rankine Cycle
15
 Example 1: The Ideal Rankine Cycle
16
 Example 1: The Ideal Rankine Cycle
17
 Example 1: The Ideal Rankine Cycle
18
 Example 1: The Ideal Rankine Cycle
19
 Deviation of Actual Power
20 Cycles From Idealized Ones
• Actual cycle deviates from ideal cycle due to irreversibilities
• Fluid friction causes pressure drops in boiler, condenser and pipings
• Heat loss to surroundings
• Pump requires greater work input and turbine produces smaller work output
• Steam leakage into surroundings and air leaking into condenser
• Deviation of actual pumps and turbines from isentropic ones can be
accounted using the isentropic efficiencies

Isentropic efficiencies
 Increasing the Efficiency of the
21
Rankine Cycle
• Production of most electric power in the world comes from steam power
plants
• Increase in thermal efficiencies  large fuel savings

• Two main ideas to increase thermal efficiency:

Increase the average temperature at which heat is transferred to the
working fluid in the boiler (qin), or decrease the average temperature at
which heat is rejected from the working fluid in the condenser (qout)
1) Lowering condenser pressure
2) Superheating steam
3) Increasing boiler pressure
 Lowering the Condenser Pressure
(lowers Tlow,avg)
• To increase efficiency, the condensers of steam
power plants usually operate well below the
atmospheric pressure.
• There is a lower limit to this pressure depending on
the temperature of the cooling medium
• Required heat input also increases (area under 2’-2).
However, increase is very small  net effect 
increase in thermal efficiency of cycle
• Side effect:
• Lowering condenser pressure increases
• possibility of air leakage into condenser
• the moisture content of the steam at the final
stages of the turbine.
 Superheating the Steam to High
Temperatures (Increases Thigh,avg)
• The net work and heat input
increase from superheating the
steam to a higher temperature.
• Desirable effects:
• Increase in thermal efficiency since
the average temperature at which
heat is added increases
• Decrease moisture content at turbine
exit (x4’ > x4)
• Limitations
• Temperature to which steam can be
superheated is limited by
metallurgical considerations
• Current highest T allowed = 620oC
 Increasing the Boiler Pressure
(Increases Thigh,avg)
• For a fixed turbine inlet temperature, the
Today many modern steam power
cycle shifts to the left
plants operate at supercritical
• Side effect: pressures (P > 22.06 MPa) and
have thermal efficiencies of about
•Moisture content of steam at the 40% for fossil-fuel plants and 34%
turbine exit increases for nuclear plants.
•This can be corrected by reheating the
steam

A supercritical Rankine cycle

 Modifications of the Simple Rankine
Cycle: The Ideal Reheat Rankine Cycle
How can we take advantage of the increased efficiencies at higher boiler
pressures without facing the problem of excessive moisture at the final stages
of the turbine?
1. Superheat the steam to very high temperatures. It is limited metallurgically.
2. Expand the steam in the turbine in two stages, and reheat it in between.
(3’)
Impractically high
Increasing boiler pressure to achieve 6 near
sat. vap. curve in a
single stage turbine

Using 2-stage
expansion with
ideal reheat to
same T: possible to
move 6 to near sat.
(6’)
vap. curve while
maintaining
reasonable max T
 The Ideal Reheat Rankine Cycle
• The stage-1 expansion exit (point 4) is at or as close as possible to sat. vapor
curve.
• Analysis is via ∆h for each process
• Thermal efficiency: wnet qin − qout q
ηth = = = 1 − out
qin qin qin

• Whereby the total heat input and total turbine work output for a reheat cycle is
Example 2 - Reheat Rankine cycle
Consider a steam power plant on the ideal reheat Ranking cycle.
Steam enters the high pressure turbine at 15 MPa and 6000C and is
condensed in the condenser at a pressure of 10 kPa. If the moisture
content of the steam at the exit of the low-pressure turbine is not to
exceed 10.4 percent, determine (a) the pressure at which the steam
should be reheated and (b) the thermal efficiency of the cycle.
Assume the steam is reheated to the inlet temperature of the high-
pressure turbine.
Example 2 - Reheat Rankine cycle
28
Example 2 - Reheat Rankine cycle
29
Example 2 - Reheat Rankine cycle
 The Ideal Regenerative Rankine Cycle
• Process 2  2’ is at a relatively low
temperature, thus lowers the average heat
addition temperature and cycle efficiency
• Regeneration – to raise the temperature of
the feedwater before it enters the boiler by
using heat transferred from turbine steam
expansion (counterflow heat exchanger) 
impractical to design such heat exchanger
• Thus, the regeneration is accomplished by
extracting (or “bleeding”) steam from the
turbine at various points
• Regenerator or feedwater heater (FWH) –
device where the feedwater is heated by Liquid leaving the
pump = feedwater
regeneration
• Open feedwater heater – Direct-contact
(mixing chamber)
• Closed feedwater heater – No mixing
 The Ideal Regenerative Rankine Cycle
- Open Feedwater
Open (or direct contact) FWH – mixing chamber
• Steam bled from turbine mixes with feedwater exiting pump
• Steam enters turbine at boiler P (pt.5). Fraction, y steam bled from turbine (state 6) is
routed to FWH. Fraction (1-y) continues to expand in turbine until state 7. Fraction (1-y)
steam leaves condenser at state 1, enters isentropic pump 1, and compressed to FWH P
(pt.2).
• Feedwater is mixed with steam extracted from turbine. Ideally, mixture leaves FWH as
sat. liquid (pt. 3) at heater pressure. A 2nd pump raises the P of sat. liquid to boiler P (pt.
4). Heat water in boiler to turbine inlet state (pt.5).
 The Ideal Regenerative Rankine Cycle
- Open Feedwater
Thermal efficiency:

where

•Thermal efficiency of
Rankine cycle increases
from regeneration since
it increases the ave. T at
which heat is transferred
to the boiler.
•No. of FWH increase,
ηth increase
 The Ideal Regenerative Rankine Cycle
– Closed Feedwater
Closed FWH – No mixing/direct contact (two streams can be at different pressures)
• Closed FWH are more complex and expensive due to internal tubing network
• Less effective heat transfer
• Do not require separate pumps for each heater
 Cogeneration
• Many industries require energy input in the form of heat, called process
35
heat.
• Eg: Chemical, pump and paper, oil production and refining, steel making
food processing and textile industries.
• Energy is usually transferred to the steam by burning coal, oil, natural gas, or
another fuel in a furnace.
• Cogeneration plant: A plant that produces electricity while meeting the
process-heat requirements of certain industrial processes
• Cogeneration: The production of more than one useful form of energy (such
as process heat and electric power) from the same energy source.

A simple process- An ideal

heating plant. cogeneration plant.
 Cogeneration
Utilization factor, 𝝐𝝐𝒖𝒖

• 100% -for ideal steam-

turbine cogeneration plant
• 80% - for actual
cogeneration plants
• Some recent cogeneration
plants have even higher
utilization factors.

Ideal cogeneration plant – Ideal steam-turbine cogeneration plant in the absence

of a condenser (no heat is rejected from the plant)
 COMBINED GAS-VAPOR CYCLE

• A popular modification involves a gas power cycle topping a vapor

power cycle, which is called the combined gas–vapor cycle, or just
the combined cycle.
• The best combined cycle is the gas-turbine (Brayton) cycle combined
with a steam-turbine (Rankine) cycle - higher thermal efficiency than
individual cycles.
• The combined cycle increases the efficiency without increasing the
initial cost greatly.
• Thermal efficiencies over 50% are reported.
38

Combined gas–steam power plant.

Example 3 – Combined Cycle
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 Summary
48
• The Carnot vapor cycle
• Rankine cycle: The ideal cycle for vapor power cycles
• Energy analysis of the ideal Rankine cycle
• Deviation of actual vapor power cycles from idealized ones
• How can we increase the efficiency of the Rankine cycle?
• Lowering the condenser pressure (Lowers Tlow,avg)
• Superheating the steam to high temperatures (Increases
Thigh,avg)
• Increasing the boiler pressure (Increases Thigh,avg)
• The ideal reheat Rankine cycle
• The ideal regenerative Rankine cycle
• Open feedwater heaters
• Closed feedwater heaters
• Cogeneration
• Combined gas–vapor power cycles