Rankine Cycle

The Rankine cycle is an idealized thermodynamic cycle describing how a heat engine, typically a steam turbine, converts heat into mechanical work, named after the Scottish engineer William John Macquorn Rankine. In its basic form, heat supplied at a boiler turns a working fluid, usually water, into high pressure steam that drives a turbine before condensing back to liquid as waste heat is rejected, and the fluid then returns to the boiler to repeat the cycle. It underlies most thermal power generation worldwide, run on heat from coal, natural gas, nuclear fission, biomass, and concentrated solar or geothermal sources; as of 2022 supercritical plants operating around 24.1 megapascals and 538 to 566 degrees Celsius reach about 40 percent thermal efficiency, while ultra-supercritical plants running hotter reach about 42 percent.