Organic Rankine Cycle Configurations

Abstract

In the last two decades the binary power plant, utilizing the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC), has become a preferred means of exploiting low to moderate enthalpy geothermal resources. It has been widely used to utilize the brine in existing single flash plants and in many other applications as an efficient and reliable way of employing a geothermal resource, in the form of brine only or brine and low pressure steam coming from a separator. Over the years the basic ORC has been improved and modified to better adapt the cycle to various conditions of the heat source. In this paper we will describe some advanced versions of the Organic Rankine Cycle and will demonstrate its means of providing an efficient conversion cycle adapted to specific thermal and chemical properties of geothermal fluid sources. Examples of implementation in different power plants include the power plants in the Azores, Iceland and the plant being constructed in Landau by Geo X GmbH of Ludwigshafen.