Carnot cycle is not a suitable model for steam power cycle since:

* The turbine has to handle steam with low quality which will cause erosion and wear in turbine
blades.
(can lead to erosion and wear in turbine blades due to impurities and moisture content.)

* It is impractical to design a compressor that handles two phase.

(the steam can often be two-phase, meaning it contains both vapor and liquid phases;
compression process needs to be isentropic, meaning it occurs without any heat transfer to or
from the surroundings and without any change in entropy.)
* It is difficult to control the condensation process that precisely as to end up with the desired at
point 4.
(it requires intricate control over variables such as temperature and pressure.)
* Other issues include the isentropic compression to extremely high pressure and isothermal heat
transfer at variable pressures. Thus, the Carnot cycle cannot be approximated in actual devices
and is not a realistic model for vapour power cycles.
(the Carnot cycle cannot be accurately approximated in real-world steam power devices,
making it an unrealistic model for vapor power cycles.)

THE IDEAL RANKINE CYCLE

The Rankine cycle is a model that is used to predict the performance of steam turbine
systems. The Rankine cycle is an idealized thermodynamic cycle of a heat engine that converts
heat into mechanical work. The heat is supplied externally to a closed loop, which usually uses
water as the working fluid. The Rankine cycle, in the form of steam engines, generates about
90% of all electric power used throughout the world, including virtually all biomass, coal, solar
thermal and nuclear power plants. It is named after William John Macquorn Rankine, a
Scottish polymath and Glasgow University professor.
• Most used cycle in terms of power generation.
• Water is the working substance/fluid used in Rankine Cycle.
Conveniency of water:
- Abundance/availability
- Low boiling point
- Properties (exhibits excellent thermodynamic properties that make it suitable
for energy conversion processes, such as its high heat capacity and thermal
conductivity.)
- Nonreactive
- Non-toxic
- Economical source/Low-cost
 - 4.186 kJ/g Heat of Vaporization (has a high heat of vaporization (4.186 kJ/g),
meaning it requires a significant amount of energy to convert from liquid to
vapor phase)
THE IDEAL CYCLE
The Rankine cycle is the fundamental operating cycle of all power plants where an
operating fluid is continuously evaporated and condensed. The selection of operating fluid
depends mainly on the available temperature range. The Rankine cycle closely describes the
process by which steam-operated heat engines commonly found in thermal power generation
plants generate power (because it efficiently converts heat energy into mechanical work.) The
heat sources used in these power plants are usually nuclear fission or the combustion of fossil
fuels such as coal, natural gas, and oil. (it produces high-pressure steam).
The efficiency of the Rankine cycle is limited by the high heat of vaporization of the
working fluid (a significant amount of heat energy is required to convert water from liquid to
vapor phase, reducing the overall efficiency of energy conversion). Also, unless the pressure and
temperature reach super critical levels in the steam boiler, the temperature range the cycle can
operate over is quite small: steam turbine entry temperatures are typically around 565°C and
steam condenser temperatures are around 30°C. This gives a theoretical maximum Carnot
efficiency for the steam turbine alone of about 63% compared with an actual overall thermal
efficiency of up to 42% for a modern coal-fired power station. This low steam turbine entry
temperature (compared to a gas turbine) is why the Rankine (steam) cycle is often used as a
bottoming cycle to recover otherwise rejected heat in combined-cycle gas turbine power stations
(to improve efficiency, the Rankine cycle is often used as a bottoming cycle in combined-cycle
gas turbine power stations to recover otherwise wasted heat, leveraging the higher temperatures
achievable in gas turbines).

PARTS OF A RANKINE CYCLE

1. Boiler - closed vessel or arrangement of vessels and tubes, together with a furnace or
other hear source, in which steam or other vapor is generated from water to drive turbines
or engines, supply heat, process certain materials, etc.
TYPES OF BOILERS
a. Water-Tube Boiler: a steam boiler in which water to be heated
circulates in tubes exposed to fire and enveloped by hot gases
b. Fire-Tube Boiler: a type of boiler in which hot gases from a fire pass
through one or more tubes running through a sealed container of water.
The heat of the gases is transferred through the walls of the tube by
thermal conduction, heating the water and ultimately creating steam.
 2. Turbine - from the Greek, tyrbe, ("turbulence"), is a rotary mechanical device that
extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. A turbine is a
turbomachine with at least one moving part called a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or
drum with blades attached.
3. Condenser - is a device or unit used to condense a substance from its gaseous to its
liquid state, typically by cooling it. In so doing, the latent heat is given up by the
substance, and will transfer to the condenser coolant.
4. Pump - is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes slurries, by
mechanical action. Pumps can be classified into three major groups according to the
method they use to move the fluid: direct lift, displacement, and gravity pumps.

Rankine Cycle
The Rankine cycle operates in the following steps:
• Isentropic compression (compression in centrifugal pumps) — The liquid condensate is
compressed adiabatically from state 1 to state 2 by centrifugal pumps (usually by
condensate pumps and then by feedwater pumps). The liquid condensate is pumped from
the condenser into the higher pressure boiler. In this process, the surroundings do work on
the fluid, increasing its enthalpy (h = u+pv) and compressing it (increasing its pressure).
On the other hand, the entropy remains unchanged. The work required for the compressor
is given by WPumps = H2 — H1.
• Isobaric heat addition (in a heat exchanger - boiler) - In this phase (between state 2 and
state 3) there is a constant-pressure heat transfer to the liquid condensate from an external
source, since the chamber is open to flow point (2 → 3a) of that fluid and then evaporated
in the boiler (3a → 3). The net heat added is given by Qadd = H3 – H2.
• Isentropic expansion (expansion in a steam turbine) - Steam from the boiler expands
adiabatically from state 3 to state 4 in a steam turbine to produce work and then is
discharged to the condenser (partially condensed). The steam does work on the
surroundings (blades of the turbine) and loses an amount of enthalpy equal to the work
that leaves the system. The work done by turbine is given by WT = H4 – H3. Again the
entropy remains unchanged.
• Isobaric heat rejection (in a heat exchanger) - In this phase the cycle completes by a
constant-pressure process in which heat is rejected from the partially condensed steam.
There is heat transfer from the vapor to cooling water flowing in a cooling circuit. The
vapor condenses and the temperature of the cooling water increases. The net heat rejected
is given by Qre = H4 – H1.
For the whole cycle, the energy balance can be obtained by summarizing the
(Qadded - Qrejected) - ([Link] - [Link]) = 0