Applied Thermodynamics for Sustainable

Heat and Power Cycles

MVKP60

Tutorial Notes

Department of Energy Sciences

Narmin Hushmandi
Tutorials (MVKP60), N. Hushmandi, 2024, Lund University

Introduction
The current tutorials are prepared with Ebsilon Professional version 15.04 for the course “Applied
Thermodynamics for Sustainable Heat and Power Cycles (MVKP60)” at the Department of Energy
Sciences, Lund University. The aim of having these tutorials are to get the students acquainted with
professional tools for real cycles design, as well as to get deeper knowledge and skills in various
methods for thermal and power cycles’ analysis and optimization.
This compendium is divided into 8 tutorials. They develop along with the similar topics that are covered
in the theoretical part of the course. We start with explaining the very basics of using the software from
and move to harder topics. Once a topic is explained, it is normally not repeated in the following
tutorials, therefore, it is advisable to work with the tutorials in the same order as they are presented.

TUT 1. Ideal and Real Rankine Cycles

Ebsilon Professional, has a workspace, a menu bar similar to MS Office and components Toolbar. There
are in total, 162 different components available inside Ebsilon version 15.04. Some of the components
that are used more commonly in the cycles have shortcuts in the components Toolbar, however, all of
the components can be selected from the component wizard which is a drop-down list on the
components Toolbar. The components can be selected either by typing their number or name in the
wizard. For example, the component “Steam turbine/General expander” has the number 6 assigned to
it, therefore, it can be either selected from the component wizard drop-down list by typing number “6”
or the first letters of the steam turbine, “st” and selecting the right component from the suggested list or
from the shortcut key on the toolbar since it is a common component. Once the component is selected,
it can be placed in the desired location in the workspace. A left mouse button click, places the
component on the workspace and a right click is used to stop the selection mode. In order to delete one
component, click on it and then “Delete” from the keyboard or right click and select Delete on the list.

Preparation and General Layout, Simple Rankine Cycle

A simple ideal Rankine cycle is analysed in this tutorial. The steam properties at the entrance to the
turbine (point 3) are 15 MPa and 500°C while the pressure of condenser is 50 kPa. The steam properties
at various locations as well as the thermal efficiency of the cycle should be calculated.

Figure 1-1 Schematic layout and h-s diagram of a simple ideal Rankine cycle

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Preparation of the cycle is started by placing the components needed for a simple Rankine cycle on the
workspace. The number inside the brackets, always indicate the component number in this text. Each
component has one or more inlets and outlets or “ports”. Inlet streams have white ends and the outlet
streams have black ends. In general, stream colours like blue or red indicate cold or hot streams,
respectively. If the mouse pointer is hold close to a port, a small pop up window appears on the screen
with brief description which indicate the type of the port and its connection number. For example, steam
generator (5) has two outlets, one is HP live steam outlet (connection point 2) and the other one is Hot
reheat outlet (connection point 4). It is clear from the problem statement above that we should use the
connection point 2 or “HP live steam outlet” since we do not have any reheat process in this example.
Table 1-1 is the list of the components used in this tutorial.
Table 1-1 List of components used to analyse the ideal Rankine cycle
Component name Number
Boundary input value 1
Cycle efficiency meter 32
General input value / start value 33
Generator 11
Pump 8
Measured value input 46
Separator (logical) 80
Steam generator 5
Steam Turbine / General expander 6
Steam Turbine condenser 7

The components are connected by double clicking on the port ends, for example “HP live steam outlet”
in the steam generator and dragging the stream to the correct connection point in the next component,
(Steam inlet on the steam turbine component). In order to make sure that a line or port is correctly
connected, place the mouse pointer on top of the line and while keeping the mouse left button, drag the
line, if the line is not connected, the line’s loose end will show up. Figure 1-2 shows the basic
components of Rankine cycle connected together on the Ebsilon workspace.

Figure 1-2 Basic components of the simple Rankine cycle connected in Ebsilon workspace

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Cycle Parametrization

After connecting the main components of Rankine cycle, the next step is to parametrize the cycle and
to provide the cycle’s working or input conditions. The various methods to provide input values for a
specific cycle, include the following:

· Double clicking on a component: Double-click on a component like the steam generator, opens
the properties window for that component in which all the possible settings can be seen. It is
possible to set the live steam temperature and pressure which would be used in the cycle
analysis

· Boundary input value (component number 1), this component should be added to the end of a
stream. It cannot be connected in the middle of a stream because it has only one connection
port (outlet). If one stream does not have a correct direction, it is possible to turn the component
by either mirroring it or turning it (this can be done by right clicking on the object and selecting
the desired transformation or rotation)

· General input value / start value (component number 33), this component can be added at any
point on a stream without the need to cut the stream open. Properties for streams like,
temperature, pressure, mass flow and enthalpy can be added using this component. The values
specified using this component are treated as the starting values for calculations and the cycle
analysis may alter the initial values specified by this component

· Measured value input (component number 46), can be used to specify a single state point on
the stream. This component has also a confidence interval specification for the measured
property and may be used if the measurement uncertainties are known.
To perform a cycle analysis, the general rule is that the governing equations for mass and energy should
be balanced for each component. For example, in a component like steam turbine condenser (7), which
is basically a type of heat exchanger, the energy balance needs to be satisfied between the two (hot and
cold) fluid streams.

ETA=?

Figure 1-3 Components of the Simple Rankine cycle connected in Ebsilon and parametrized

Figure 1-3 shows the schematic diagram of the basis Rankine cycle parametrized according to the data
given for the cycle. Live steam pressure and temperature is specified in the steam generator’s properties
box (15 MPa and 500°C). General input value / start value (33), is used to specify a starting value for
the mas flow rate.

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It should be noted that, the cycle mass flow rate is not required when calculating a simple Rankine cycle
by hand as there is only one main stream in the cycle, e. g. when calculating the cycle’s thermal
efficiency, the turbine’s specific power output is divided with the required heat for the steam generator
(enthalpy difference across the steam generator). However, in order to analyse a real cycle with Ebsilon,
an initial mass flow rate should be specified. The reason for this is that, the energy balance for various
components should be done using the total energy transfer, e. g. the energy transfer balance in a
condenser should be done using the respective mass flow rates and enthalpy differences between the
hot and cold streams.
There are two types of errors encountered in a cycle analysis, major (or red errors) prevent the process
of cycle analysis. Warnings are minor errors that inform the user about possible problems in the cycle
but with a warning, the cycle analysis can still be performed. The list of Errors/warnings can be accessed
from the main menu bar, “Calculation/Error Analysis” or CTRL+Shift+D. When clicking on an error,
the component where the error has occurred is highlighted.
Over determination is a major problem (red error) which prevents the start of calculation and should be
avoided or solved before a cycle analysis can be started. An example of over determination can be
mentioned as specifying a property like pressure at the inlet of a turbine two times (e. g. inside the
turbine’s property box and via a measuring point component outside the main component). In this case
one of the specification methods should be deleted or taken away.
By placing the mouse pointer on top of each component in the workspace, a brief description of the
settings for that component appear on the screen in a small pop-up window. By double clicking on each
component, the properties box for that component is opened and it is possible to check or change the
settings for each component.
For the steam turbine, the settings can be changed so that the “inlet pressure handling” option is taken
“from outside” which means that the inlet of turbine pressure will be taken as the pressure of the outlet
stream specified in the steam generator’s properties box. Otherwise if this option was not chosen, the
default settings for the steam turbine was to calculate the pressure using P1NSET (or specified nominal
inlet pressure in the properties box) which means an over determination of pressure would have
appeared in the process if the pressures of the steam generator outlet and the pressure of the steam
turbine inlet was not the same.
Downstream of the turbine, a measured value input (46) can be placed and the pressure of the condenser
(exhaust pressure of steam turbine) can be specified using it. It should be noted that both a measured
value input (46) and a general input value (33) could be used interchangeably downstream the condenser
without a notable difference in the results.
Another addition in Fig. 1-3 compared to Fig. 1-2 is a generator connected to the steam turbine’s shaft.
Green line indicates a mechanical power transfer line and the pink line on the generator indicates the
electrical power transfer line. Another component, is the cycle efficiency meter (32) which calculates
the thermal efficiency of the cycle by dividing the energy values connected to its ends. Make sure that
the ends of the cycle efficiency meter (32) are connected to the correct ends and if the alignment is
wrong, mirror the component using the right mouse click. Expenditure (sensible heat) end should be
connected to the “Thermal boiler duty” end of the stream generator component and the useful power
end should be connected either to the green shaft line of the steam turbine or to the electric power line
of the generator. There may be some differences in the thermal efficiency calculated if either the turbine
or the generator outputs are selected for the calculation of the useful power. Internal efficiencies of the
components will be dealt later on and for now, all the component’s internal efficiencies are turned to
100% or 1.
Finally, the condenser is a heat exchanger and has inlet/outlet for a secondary fluid which is used to
cool down the main stream (exhaust of steam turbine), therefore a secondary cycle must be introduced

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in the simulation (see Fig. 1-3) in order to balance the energy equation for the condenser. The secondary
fluid is a water stream with the boundary input value component (1) as the inlet, we use water at
atmospheric conditions (P=1 bar, T=20◦ C). A pump is introduced in order to give the water, the
necessary head to flow inside the pipe and a measured value input (46) is introduced after the pump to
specify the pressure difference along the pump (∆P = 0.2 bar in this example).
After the cycle is parametrized with the initial values, the Simulate button (small turbine on the tool bar
or F9 button on the keyboard) is pressed and the cycle is calculated. After the calculations are finished,
a message will appear to inform that the calculations were successful or not along with the number of
possible errors/warnings. If the calculations were successful, it will also ask weather to take the nominal
values and if accepted, the calculation results will be updated in all of the points inside the cycle.

Calculation Results

Figure 1-4, shows the simulation results for the simple Ideal Rankine cycle described above. One more
component can be seen in Fig. 1-4 in comparison to Fig. 1-3 and that is a separator (80), connected after
the main cycle pump. The reason for having this component is the warning that was encountered after
simulating the cycle. Warnings inform about smaller problems in the cycle, although the cycle
calculations move forward with the warnings, however it is better to try to have a cycle without any
warning. One of the warnings in the above cycle was a small imbalance in the mass flow rate (⁓ 0.0001
kg/s) in the cycle. The imbalance is due to minor differences (errors) in the iteration of governing
equations. This warning can be removed by adding a separator (80) which basically cancels the
imbalance of mass flow on that stream. In the properties box of the separator, the type of separation
should be chosen as mass flow.

P 15.000 MPa H 3310.791 kJ/kg P 0.050 MPa H 2203.884 kJ/kg

T 500.000 °C M 500.000 kg/s ETA= 0.369 T 81.317 °C M 500.000 kg/s

Q 544.393 MW

P 0.050 MPa H 2203.884 kJ/kg

T 81.317 °C M 500.000 kg /s
Q 1476.971 MW
G

P= 15 MPa

P 16.000 MPa H 356.848 kJ/kg

P 0.050 MPa H 340.476 kJ/kg
T 82.210 °C M 500.000 kg /s
T 81.317 °C M 500.000 kg/s

Figure 1-4 Basic Ideal Rankine Cycle Simulation Results

Value crosses (selectable from the main toolbar) are added in various points of a successfully calculated
cycle in order to visualize the properties of the fluid in different sections. The default shape of the value
cross has two rows and two columns but it’s content and the shape can be adjusted. For example, the
power displayed on the power lines of the electric generator and steam generator in Fig 1-4 are basically
similar to the other value crosses, however by adjustment, power is chosen as the only displayed
property.
Various components of the cycle, like turbine, pump, generator, etc. have a certain pre-defined internal
efficiency. For example, in the case of steam turbine, the default isentropic efficiency is 0.88 and the
mechanical efficiency of its shaft is 0.998. As was mentioned earlier, when simulating the ideal cycle,

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all the component efficiencies are changed to 1. This can also explain the reason why two cycles that
looked similar may have had different cycle efficiencies, since the overall cycle performance depended
on the internal efficiencies of its components, how the initial values were specified and the specified
losses for various processes.
The last point to be mentioned in this section, is the pressure value displayed in the middle of Fig. 1-4,
the text is composed of three fields (text boxes). Text fields are selectable from the main toolbar. The
first text field is “P=” and the last one is “MPa”, these two texts are un-editable texts and their content
are basically created by double clicking and entering the text inside their properties box. The text field
with number 15 in the middle is however of a different type. In the first hand, the box for the field “text
is editable” is ticked inside the text field’s property box. Secondly, a name is chosen for it under the
name field below the text field. Let’s assume that we have chosen the name P2 for it and we want the
outlet pressure of the steam generator to be editable using this text field’s value. Then we open the
properties box of the steam generator and in the field related to the HP live steam pressure, we type
“P2.text”. By doing this, the steam generator’s pressure is referred to the text value inside the text box
named “P2”. The extension “.text” is necessary here. Note the dimension that is chosen in the properties
box of steam generator, the text dimensions will be evaluated with the same dimension as the one inside
the steam generator’s properties box. The name for the text field should also follow the same rules as
naming the general variables in a programming language, for example it should not contain any specific
character like &, %.

Analysis of an Actual Simple Rankine Cycle

To analyse an actual simple Rankine cycle, the same cycle layout is utilized but the isentropic
efficiencies of the turbine and pump are altered. For the steam turbine, an isentropic efficiency of 0.83
is chosen. The value is changed by opening properties box of the steam turbine, under Specification
values/Isentropic efficiency (nominal). For the pump, an isentropic efficiency of 0.8 is chosen. After
running the calculations, the following results might be obtained if the suggested changes were done.

Figure 1-5 Real Rankine Cycle Calculation Results

It can be seen from the analysis result that the isentropic efficiency alteration for only two components
have changed the results considerably. The turbine’s power output is decreased as was expected due to
the lower isentropic efficiency of the component. The thermal efficiency of the cycle has also dropped
as was expected.

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TUT 2. Re-heat Rankine Cycle

An ideal reheat Rankine cycle is shown in Fig. 2-1. Steam properties at the inlet of the high-pressure
(HP) turbine are 15 MPa, 500°C and at the inlet of the low-pressure (LP) turbine, 2 MPa, 500°C, while
the condenser’s operating pressure is 50 kPa. The cycle produces 5 MW of useful electric power. The
thermal efficiency of the cycle and the mass flow rate of the steam are to be determined.

Figure 2-1 Schematic and T-s diagrams of an ideal re-heat Rankine cycle

List of the components needed for the cycle is given in Table 2-1. Components are connected together
as shown in Fig. 2-2. Live steam is expanded from (15 MPa, 500°C) to the re-heat pressure (2 MPa)
and then it is sent to the steam generator for re-heating. In order to simulate a re-heat steam turbine
cycle, it is possible to use two steam turbines connected in series, one for the HP turbine cycle and the
other for the LP turbine or re-heat cycle.

Table 2-1 List of the components used to simulate the ideal re-heat Rankine cycle
Component name Number
Boundary input value 1
Controller with internal target value 39
Cycle efficiency meter 32
General input value / start value 33
Generator 11
Pump 8
Measured value input 46
Steam generator 5
Steam Turbine/General expander 6
Steam Turbine condenser 7

The steam turbines’ shafts are connected, therefore, it is assumed that both of the shafts are rotating
with the same rotational speed. The turbines connected above can be assumed equivalent to a single
turbine having a stream extraction for re-heating. Steam generator (5) has two outlet ports, connection
point 2 is the HP live steam outlet and connection point 4 is the reheat stream outlet.

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P 2.000 MPa H 3468.093 kJ/kg

P 15.000 MPa H 3310.791 kJ/kg
T 500.000 °C M 3.603 kg/s
T 500.000 °C M 3.603 kg/s

Q 5000.000 kW

P 2.000 MPa H 2802.640 kJ/kg P 0.050 MPa H 2588.680 kJ/kg

T 213.730 °C M 3.603 kg/s T 81.317 °C M 3.603 kg/s

ETA= 0.384
P 0.072 MPa H 319.520 kJ/kg
Q 13032.119 kW T 76.317 °C M 34.403 kg/s
P 0.050 MPa H 340.476 kJ/kg
T 81.317 °C M 3.603 kg/s
P 0.122 MPa H 84.038 kJ/kg
T 20.002 °C M 34.403 kg/s

Figure 2-2 Schematic diagram of the components connected in a simple re-heat Rankine Cycle

Each steam turbine component (6) has one steam inlet port to receive steam from the steam generator
and one steam outlet port to send the exhaust steam back to the steam generator for reheating (If reheat
port is not used then there is no reheat process). Cycle is parametrized according to data of Fig. 2-1.
There are several methods to specify the initial values within a cycle. For this purpose, either initial or
boundary value components can be used or data can be entered inside the properties box of various
components. However, care should be taken to avoid over-determination of the properties in the cycle.
Steam data can be entered in the steam generator’s properties box. Inside the properties box of the steam
generator, under the Specification-values Tab, the option “P2, T2, T4 given by internal specification”
can be chosen. This enables us to specify the pressure and temperature of the steam entering the HP
turbine (P2, T2) and the temperature of the steam entering the LP turbine (T4). Steam generator does
not set the pressure of the LP turbine inlet, this pressure should be specified at the re-heat line of the
HP turbine using an initial value component (33) or inside the properties box of the LP turbine. We
have used an initial value component in the outlet line from the HP turbine to specify the re-heat
pressure value or the level of pressure to which the steam is expanded in the HP turbine. A pressure of
2000 kPa is specified in the initial value component’s properties box.
Up to this point, the inlet temperatures and pressures of the HP and LP turbines are specified. The
pressure to which the LP turbine expands, can be specified either by using a component like Measured
value input (46) in the LP turbine’s exhaust line and to change the properties box of the condenser under
“specification for design” to accept the pressure externally, or else to enter the exhaust vapor pressure
given by specification value “P3N” inside the properties box of condenser.
Steam condensers are normally of counter-current design. Therefore, some explanation is followed here
regarding properties setting methods for these type of heat exchangers (schematic layout can be seen in
Fig. 2-3). It is well known that the counter-current heat exchangers have better efficiency compared to
the co-current heat exchangers, therefore most of the designs are of the counter-current type. Point A
(in Fig 2-3) is the cold-water inlet and point B is the water outlet. Cold water is used in the condenser
to cool down the steam exiting the turbine, the water does not change phase in the cold side but its
temperature rises from the inlet to the outlet value. Point 4 is the steam turbine’s exhaust steam which
is the fluid entering into the condenser in the hot side. The hot side fluid is normally in saturation or

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two-phase condition at the operating pressure of the condenser. The fluid in the hot side, change phase
from the two-phase steam-water mixture to saturated water at the exit of the hot fluid side, therefore the
temperature of the hot side normally remains constant. One of the design specifications for the steam
turbine condenser (heat exchanger) is to set the upper terminal temperature difference ∆T=(T4-TB). This
temperature difference is also sometimes called briefly as Thermal Temperature Difference (TTD). The
default value for the upper terminal temperature difference is 5K in Ebsilon. Occasionally, it is hard to
achieve this design constraint which means that, it is not possible to transfer as much heat from the hot
stream to the cold stream so that the cold side water outlet temperature is only 5K less than the hot side
inlet fluid temperature. In such case, there will be an error or warning message in Ebsilon to alter the
design specification restraint. Alteration can be done, for example by increasing the upper terminal
temperature difference or to change the design specification method to the lower terminal temperature
difference instead.

Figure 2-3 Schematic layout of a steam condensor and connection points together with a T-s
diagram to show the temperature differences of the hot and cold streams

As a final comment on this tutorial, note the existence of a new component in Fig. 2-2, a Controller
with internal target value (39). In the statement of problem, it was required to compute the mass flow
rate for a certain amount of electrical power output (5000 kW). It was not possible to obtain the required
mas flow rate without calculating the cycle once with an initial value of the mass flow rate, therefore
an initial value component (33) was used on the stream connecting the steam generator to the HP turbine
inlet. An estimated mass flow rate was specified on this component (10 kg/s), this value was used for
the initial cycle calculations. After successful completion of the calculations, in order to control the
cycle to have a certain power output, it is possible to use a Controller with internal target value (39).
The controller has two ports, one is the actual (target or process) value and the other is the corrected
variable (controlled variable). The actual value connection line should be connected to the generator’s
power output line and the corrected variable line, should be connected to the HP steam line (Fig. 2-2).
The properties box of the controller is adjusted as follows. The process or target variable is chosen to
be power and the controlled variable to be mass flow. The characteristics is kept in the default positive
option, which means an increase in the controlled variable (mass flow) will result in the increase of
target value (power). It is possible to choose the source of target value by specification in the properties
box. The target value is set at the required value (5000 kW). Simulation of the model after adding a
controller will result in the mass flow rate to be adjusted in order for the cycle to generate the specified
power output. It should be noted that the value specified by the component initial value (33) on the HP
steam line is used as the initial value only once the controller is added to the cycle.

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TUT 3. Re-heat Regenerative Rankine Cycle

Consider a steam power plant that operates on an ideal reheat–regenerative Rankine cycle with one
open feedwater heater (FWH), one closed FWH, and one reheater. Steam enters the HP turbine at 15
MPa and 500°C and is condensed in the condenser at a pressure of 50 kPa. Some of the steam is
extracted from the turbine at 2 MPa for the closed FWH, and the remaining steam is reheated at the
same pressure (2 MPa) to 500°C. The extracted steam for feedwater heating is completely condensed
before being pumped to 15 MPa and mixing with the feedwater at the same pressure. Steam for the
open FWH is extracted from the low-pressure turbine at a pressure of 1 MPa. Determine the fractions
of steam extracted from the turbine at various points as well as the thermal efficiency of the cycle.

Figure 3-1 Schematic layout & T-s diagram of an ideal reheat regenerative Rankine cycle

Schematic layout and T-s diagrams of the cycle is given in Fig. 3-1. Table 3-1 lists the components
needed for the reheat regenerative Rankine cycle.
Table 3-1 List of the components used to simulate re-heat regenerative Rankine cycle
Component name Number
Boundary input value 1
Feedwater tank / de-aerator / direct contact steam condenser 9
Cycle efficiency meter 32
Feed water preheater / heating condenser 10
General input value / start value 33
Generator 11
Pump 8
Measured value input 46
Simple mixer 37
Steam generator 5
Steam Turbine / General expander 6
Steam Turbine condenser 7

In order to analyse the cycle, components listed in Table 3-1 are connected together as seen in Fig. 3-
2. Reheating and regeneration improve the cycle’s overall thermal efficiency. The de-aeration process
helps to remove air or other gases from the feedwater to prevent corrosion in the boiler, therefore, the
de-aerator should be placed in a location, where it can extract most of the air of the feedwater in the
cycle. De-aerator is of open FWH type, note its specific shape in Fig. 3-2 in comparison to other heat
exchangers. There is another component called feedwater tank / de-aerator (extended) with number (63)

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which can also be used instead of component number (9), the difference is that there are more streams
(inlets / outlets) in the former de-aerator. In general, there are usually more than one component in the
software which can be used for a specific purpose without noticeable difference in the layout and
performance of the cycle. The remaining heat exchangers in the cycle which are used to rise the
temperature of the feedwater before it enters the boiler are normally of the closed FWH type. Increasing
the number of FWHs increase the cycle efficiency but there should be a balance between increased
efficiency and the additional cost due to adding more FWHs. Note that the terminal temperature
difference (or TTD) chosen in the closed FWH is (T6 -T5), see Fig. 3-1.
P 15.000 MPa H 3310.791 kJ/kg P 2.000 MPa H 3468.093 kJ/kg P 1.000 MPa H 3242.145 kJ/kg
T 500.000 °C M 1.000 kg/s T 500.000 °C M 0.944 kg/s T 389.545 °C M 0.807 kg/s

Q 1248.691 kW

ETA= 0.410

G
P 0.050 MPa H 2588.680 kJ/kg
T 81.317 °C M 0.807 kg/s
P 1.000 MPa H 3242.145 kJ/kg
T 389.545 °C M 0.137 kg/s
Q 3046.200 kW P 2.000 MPa H 2802.640 kJ/kg
P 2.000 MPa H 2802.640 kJ/kg T 213.730 °C M 0.056 kg/s
T 213.730 °C M 0.944 kg/s

P 15.000 MPa H 890.891 kJ/kg

T 207.385 °C M 0.944 kg/s

P 0.050 MPa H 340.476 kJ/kg

T 81.317 °C M 0.807 kg/s
P 2.000 MPa H 908.622 kJ/kg
P 15.000 MPa H 923.851 kJ/kg
T 212.385 °C M 0.056 kg/s
T 214.753 °C M 0.056 kg/s

P 15.000 MPa H 892.739 kJ/kg

T 207.799 °C M 1.000 kg/s P 15.005 MPa H 778.407 kJ/kg
T 181.826 °C M 0.944 kg/s

P 1.000 MPa H 762.683 kJ/kg

T 179.886 °C M 0.944 kg/s

Figure 3-2 Reheat regenerative Rankine Cycle in Ebsilon

Three steam turbines are required to be connected on the same shaft because two intermediate pressure
levels are present in the expansion process (2 MPa and 1 MPa). Steam generator, sets the pressure level
of the main stream (HP turbine’s inlet), the temperatures of the HP and reheat turbines can also be set
in the steam generator’s properties box. A measured value input (46) is connected to the reheat stream
outlet of the HP turbine inorder to set the pressure of the exhaust stream of HP turbine as well as the
inlet stream of reheat turbine. Note that one pressure specification component is sufficient on the lines
which are supposed to have the same pressure, since more value specifications on the reheat or the
closed FWH stream will result in an overdetermination error. For example, the pressure of all the
streams entering the deaerator should be the same as mixing takes place in this open FWH and
specifying the pressure on one of its streams suffices. The pressure on the two sides of the closed FWHs
(hot and cold sides) can be different, though.According to Fig. 3-1, HP turbine’s inlet is point 9 and
inlet of intermediate pressure (IP) turbine is point 11. Low pressure (LP) turbine’s inlet is point 12 and
the exhaust from the LP turbine goes into the condenser. The exhaust pressure of the LP turbine can be
set inside properties’ box of condenser. All the internal efficiencies of the components are turned into
1 since the cycle is ideal. Finally, the streams are joined together using a simple mixer (37). As seen
from the computed results, the cycle efficiency has improved compared to ideal simple and re-heat
Rankine cycles.

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TUT 4. Cogeneration
Consider a cogeneration cycle, steam properties at the inlet of turbine is 15 MPa and 500°C. Steam is
extracted from the turbine at 1 MPa for process heating. Turbine’s exhaust steam pressure is 50 kPa.
When the demand for heating is high, some steam is throttled from the main stream line after the boiler
before entering the turbine and is sent to the process heating. The mass flow rate of steam through the
boiler is 20 kg/s. For an ideal cycle, determine (a) the power produced and the utilization factor for a
cycle without process heating, and (b) the rate of process heating supply when 20 percent of the steam
is extracted before it enters the turbine for emergency process heating and 50 percent of the steam is
extracted from the turbine at 1 MPa.

Figure 4-1 Schematic layout and T-s diagram for an ideal cogeneration plant

Components listed in Table 4-1 are chosen for this cycle and are connected together as in Fig. 4-2.
Table 4-1 List of the components used for the cogeneration cycle
Component name Number
Boundary input value 1
Calculator 77
Control valve 14
Cycle efficiency meter 32
Feed water preheater / heating condenser 10
General input value / start value 33
Generator 11
Heat consumer 35
Pump 8
Measured value input 46
Simple mixer 37
Splitter with ratio specification 18
Steam generator 5
Steam Turbine / General expander 6
Steam Turbine condenser 7

The live steam going out of the steam generator is divided using a splitter with ratio specification (18).
One line is connected to a control valve (14) which throttles the flow to 1 MPa, this is the emergency
process heating line and is used when the heating demand is high. The other line out of the splitter is
connected to the HP turbine. At the exhaust of the HP turbine, there are two streams, one line goes to
the process heating line and the other is directed towards the LP turbine. The mass flow passing through

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the LP turbine is the difference between the main stream mass flow rate and the sum of two lines for
process heating.

+ P 10.000 bar H 2669.723 kJ/kg

P 150.000 bar H 3310.791 kJ/kg T 179.886 °C M 20.000 kg/s
T 500.000 °C M 20.000 kg/s
ETA= 0.344 Q 20274.784 kW

P 150.000 bar H 3310.791 kJ/kg

T 500.000 °C M 20.000 kg/s

P 150.000 bar H 3310.791 kJ/kg

G
T 500.000 °C M 0.000 kg/s

P 150.000 bar H 3310.791 kJ/kg

T 500.000 °C M 20.000 kg/s P 0.500 bar H 2297.052 kJ/kg
T 81.317 °C M 20.000 kg/s

P 10.000 bar H 2669.723 kJ/kg

P 10.000 bar H 2990.257 kJ/kg
T 179.886 °C M 0.000 kg/s
T 271.478 °C M 0.000 kg/s

Q 59022.574 kW

Figure 4-2 Schematic diagram of a Cogeneration Rankine cycle

It should be mentioned that the streamlines connected to splitters and mixers have to have the same
pressure, therefore, specifying the pressure on one of the lines is sufficient. A heat consumer (35)
element is connected to the process heating line. In order to calculate the utilization factor of the cycle
or the amount of energy utilized for heating and power according to the formula given below, a
calculator element (77) is used. It is possible to sum up quantities of similar type using a calculator
element. Finally, to find the utilization factor, a cycle efficiency meter (32) is used to divide the
summed-up value obtained from the calculator with the thermal boiler duty. The thermal boiler duty is
the amount of energy required for the boiler to produce the steam with specified mass flow rate and
properties.

process heat output + useful power

Utlization factor =
heat input to boiler

Design and off-design calculations

Every component of a cycle is designed for a certain working condition where it operates at its best
efficiency, the “best efficiency” condition, is called the design point of that component. For example,
in the case of a turbine, it has the best performance at a certain rotational speed, mass flow rate and inlet
condition. The performance of the turbine can be quantified by means of characteristic curve at other
working conditions else than the design condition, for example at a different mass flow rate than the
design value. The characteristics curve is usually an empirical curve which relates the mass (or volume)
flow rate to the efficiency of the turbine. A default characteristic curve is defined for each component
with varying working conditions like a turbine under “Component properties / Characteristics”. It is
possible to edit the characteristics curve manually.
If the properties box of the turbine is opened, under the “Specifications value” the type of calculation
mode (FMODE) can be seen, the choices are “expression, Global, local off-design and local-design”.

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If we select a certain working condition to be the design condition, all the other working conditions for
that component will get their efficiency by interpolation from the characteristics curve.

Figure 4-3 Default characteristics curve for steam turbine in Ebsilon (Normalized efficiency vs.
normalized volume flow rate)

As an example, the characteristics curve for a steam turbine component of Ebsilon is seen in Fig. 4-3.
The vertical axis is the efficiency values normalized with the efficiency of the design point (or the
maximum efficiency) and the horizontal axis is the volume flow rate normalized with the design volume
flow rate. In an off-design condition in which the volume flow rate is 60% of the design value, the
isentropic efficiency of the turbine will be 993% of the design point efficiency (point 3 in Fig. 4-3).
Inorder to define an off-design operating point, in the main window of Ebsilon, the “Edit profiles” tab
can be selected or (CTRL+Shift+P). Inside the profile’s property box, it is possible to define sub-
profiles based on the design profile. The name for the sub-profiles follow the same rule as avariable’s
naming in a programming language (i. e. it should not contain any arithmetic signs or empty spaces).
All the geometry and settings of the off-design cases (sub-profiles) are inherited from the design profile,
however when the values are changed in sub-profiles the changes do not affect the other sub or main
profiles. Therefore, it is possible to study the effect of various parameters on the performance by making
various sub-profiles and changing the parameters inside each sub-profile.

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As an example, we want to see how does the turbine’s efficiency change when its volumetric flow rate
change compared to the design volumetric flow rate. We assume that the current working condition
with 20 kg/s of main stream mass flow rate and zero process heating flow is the design case, then we
make a sub-profile in which 50% of the steam is diverted into the emergency process heating and 20%
to the main process heating line (after the HP turbine). The cycle calculation values of the off-design
case can be seen in Fig. 4-4.

+ P 10.000 bar H 2675.492 kJ/kg

P 150.000 bar H 3310.791 kJ/kg T 179.886 °C M 6.000 kg/s
T 500.000 °C M 10.000 kg/s
ETA= 0.789 Q 9677.123 kW

P 150.000 bar H 3310.791 kJ/kg

T 500.000 °C M 20.000 kg/s
P
T
150.000 bar
500.000 °C
H 3310.791 kJ/kg
M 10.000 kg/s
G
P 0.070 bar H 2121.470 kJ/kg
P 150.000 bar H 3310.791 kJ/kg T 38.870 °C M 6.000 kg/s
T 500.000 °C M 20.000 kg/s

P 10.000 bar H 2675.492 kJ/kg

P 10.000 bar H 3129.277 kJ/kg
T 179.886 °C M 4.000 kg/s
T 336.399 °C M 14.000 kg/s

Q 54228.354 kW

Figure 4-4 Cogeneration Rankine Cycle in Off-design

Results show that the cycle utilization factor has increased in off-design (Fig. 4-4) in comparison to
design case (Fig. 4-3). The heat consumer, utilizes the energy of the steam until it condenses completely,
however this is not possible in a steam turbine and the latent heat of vaporization is lost in the condenser
of a turbine.
The second point is that the energy required for the steam generator to produce the same amount of
steam is decreased. This can be explained by looking at the cycle T-s diagram in Fig. 4-1, the stream
going out of the process heating component enters the steam generator in a higher pressure and thus
higher enthalpy than the design case (where there was no process heating) therefore it needs less heat
to reach the same enthalpy. The electric power output of the turbine is decreased in the off-design case,
obviously due to the decreased mass flow rate in the turbines.
Finally, if the steam turbines’ performance are examined for the design and off-design cases, under the
results tab, it can be seen that the isentropic efficiency for the design case is 1 (as we have defined it)
but for the off-design case, due to the reduced volumetric flow rate, the isentropic efficiencies of the
turbines are decreased to 0.991 and 0.789 respectively for the HP and LP turbines.

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TUT 5. Combustion
In this tutorial we will use two different combustion chamber components available in Ebsilon,
combustion chamber with heat output (21) and combustion chamber of a gas turbine (22) to simulate
combustion process. The following components are used in this tutorial.
Table 5-1 List of the components used to simulate combustion process
Component name Number
Air preheater 25
Boundary input value 1
Combustion chamber with heat output 21
Combustion chamber of a gas turbine 22
Controller with external target value 12
Cycle efficiency meter 32
General input value / start value 33
Generator 11
Pump 8
Measured value input 46
Separator (logical) 80
Steam generator 5
Steam Turbine / General expander 6
Steam Turbine condenser 7

In order to simulate a simple combustion process for a gas turbine we can choose the component number
(22). The combustion chamber, has 4 ports, fuel inlet, main air inlet, exhaust gas outlet and secondary
or cooling air inlet. The secondary air inlet is for cooling and controlling the exhaust gas temperature.
P 1.498 bar H 2803.142 kJ/kg
T 2136.226 °C M 16.150 kg/s

XH2O 0.088 - XO2 0.000 -

XCO2 0.191 - XN2 0.709 -

P 1.500 bar H 20.101 kJ/kg

T 20.000 °C M 15.150 kg/s P 1.500 bar H 176.219 kJ/kg
T 100.000 °C M 1.000 kg/s

Figure 5-1 Simulation of a simple combustion chamber of a gas turbine

Yellow port is the air inlet, the air pressure, temperature and mass flow rate can be specified using a
boundary input value (1), connected to this port. The purple port is the fuel inlet, the material
composition, pressure, temperature and mass flow rate of the fuel can be specified here.
Let’s assume that we want to simulate the combustion of Octane (C8H18). The default fuel of the
combustion chamber component is methane or natural gas (CH4). This can be changed by opening the
properties box of the boundary value component (1) connected to the fuel port, under “Material
fractions”. Choose Octane (C8H18) and change its fraction from 0 to 1, similarly, change methane
fraction from 1 to 0. This action will make the fuel to be 100% Octane or gasoline. Note that the material
fractions are mass fraction based. For example, if the air inlet’s boundary input value component is

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opened the composition of the air is displayed as Oxygen 0.2314, Nitrogen 0.7553, Argon 0.0129 and
Carbon-dioxide 0.0004.
The combustion equation for the octane can be written as below in the follwing form for when the air
is composed of only oxygen and nitrogen.

C8 H18 + 12.5 ( O2 + 3.76 N 2 ) ® 8CO2 + 9 H 2 O + 47 N 2

The balance equation states that 1 mole of octane consumes 12.5 ´ (1 + 3.76 ) = 59.5 moles of air. In the
calculation results, under the properties box of the combustion chamber in the “Results” Tab, the
minimum air to fuel ratio is also displayed, if the provided mass flow rate of air is lower than this
amount, there will be an error and the calculation will not proceed. For example, if both the fuel and air
flow rates was provided, and the fraction was not correct, an overdetermination error would have
appeared. By removing one of the inlet flow rates (either air or fuel), the stochiometric ratio is used and
the calculation results are based on the flow rate which is specified.
Now, let us assume that we want to simulate a combustion chamber which burns coal for the steam
generator of a simple Rankine cycle power plant. For this purpose, we choose a combustion chamber
with heat output (21). The main material of coal is Carbon; therefore, it is expected that the products
will only contain CO2, O2 and N2 (If the combustion is complete). It is possible to see the composition
of the exhaust gas by inserting a value cross on the exhaust gas line and choosing the desired/expected
gases from the drop-down list inside the value field properties. It is also possible to quickly see the
composition by placing the mouse pointer on top of a successfully computed exhaust gas line and
checking the list that appear on the pop-up window.

P 1 .1 7 6 b ar H 1 64 .5 3 5 kJ/kg
T 1 65 .0 8 9 °C M 6 86 .7 3 9 kg /s
P 1 .2 0 0 b ar H 20 .1 0 1 kJ/kg
T 20 .0 0 0 °C M 6 39 .9 6 0 kg /s

P 1.196 bar H 1085.894 kJ/kg

T 980.000 °C M 686.739 kg/s ETA= 0.325 P 150.000 bar H 3310.791 kJ/kg
XCO2 0.247 - XH2O 0.000 - T 500.000 °C M 500.000 kg/s Q 479.066MW
XN2 0.704 - XO2 0.036 -

Q 1474.925MW

G
Q 1474.925MW
P 0 .5 0 0 b ar H 3 40 .4 7 6 kJ/kg
T 81 .3 1 7 °C M 5 00 .0 0 0 kg /s
P 1.198bar H 1008.808kJ/kg P 1 60 .0 0 0 b ar H 3 60 .9 4 2 kJ/kg
T 930.000°C M 639.960kg/s T 83 .1 9 3 °C M 5 00 .0 0 0 kg /s

P 1.198bar H 85.768kJ/kg
T 100.000°C M 46.779kg/s

Figure 5-2 Simple Rankine cycle with combustion chamber added to steam generator
using an external controller

In order for the combustion chamber to provide the steam properties required for the cycle, one
additional component should be added to the cycle, it is a controller with external target value (12). In
another words, in order to have a combustion chamber which can provide the steam properties that we
need in the cycle, there should be a controller in the cycle. Controller is a device (or algorithm) that
recives an input signal and generates an output or control signal. It compares the measured control
variable to the desired value and calculates an error signal. Based on the error signal, the controller
generates the control output. In this example, the controller characteristic should be positive, which
means that an increase in controlled variable would result in an increase in the target variable. The
controller has three ports, the green port is the target variable, this port should be connected to the steam
generators’ heat demand line. The yellow port is the actual value, this port should be connected to the

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combustion chambers power (or heat) output line. The black port is the controlled variable, this port
should be connected to the fuel inlet line of the combustion chamber. The function of the controller in
this cycle is to control the mass flow rate of the fuel so that the same amount of energy is produced in
the combustion chamber as it is required in the steam generator of the Rankine cycle. Finally, it should
be noticed that an air preheater is added into the combustion chamber system inorder to preheat and
increase the temperature of the air going into the combustion chamber. The air preheater is simply a
type of heat exchanger which utilizes the waste heat from the exhaust gases of the combustion gases.
Note that in a successfully calculated cycle, the heat production of the combustion chamber is equal to
the heat demand of the steam generator (see Fig 5-2).

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TUT 6. Gas Turbine Cycles

This tutorial is about gas turbine cycles. Schematic layout of a simple gas turbine cycle is seen in Fig.
6-1. Air at the pressure of 1 bar and temperature of 23◦C enters the compressor and the pressure ratio
along the compressor is 1:10. The fuel for the combustion chamber is methane and the mass flow rate
for the fuel is 1 kg/s. Assuming the same pressure ratio for the gas turbine, calculate the power output
and the cycle efficiency, if the combustion chamber’s fuel is methane.

Figure 6-1 Simple gas turbine cycle layout and T-s diagram

The main components of a simple gas turbine are, gas expander (23), compressor (24) and combustion
chamber of a gas turbine (22). It should be noted that there exists a “one piece” component of gas
turbine with simple characteristics inside Ebsilon but we avoid using it at this stage since we want to
simulate various configurations like regeneration and intercooling in the gas cycle. The components
used are as follows:
Table 6-1 List of the components used to simulate gas turbine cycle

Component name Number

Air preheater 25
Boundary input value 1
Combustion chamber of a gas turbine 22
Compressor 24
Cycle efficiency meter 32
Gas expander 23
General input value / start value 33
Generator 11
Measured value input 46

Compressor’s shaft is connected to the turbine’s shaft, therefore, some of the work produced in the gas
turbine is used to drive the compressor. The remining useful energy produces electricity in a generator.
The boundary input value component (1) connected to the air inlet of the compressor specifies the
properties of the air entering into the compressor (P=1 bar, T=23◦C). The measured value input
component (46) connected to outlet line of the compressor, specifies the pressure ratio across the
compressor (1:10). The combustion chamber of a gas turbine component (22) has methane (CH4) as its
default fuel and this is retained. The boundary input value component (1) connected to the fuel line is
used to specify the mass flow rate of fuel.

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P 10.000 bar H 2648.688 kJ/kg

T 2012.116 °C M 21.688 kg/s

P 10.002 bar H 348.000 kJ/kg

T 340.003 °C M 20.688 kg/s

Q 17299.439 kW

P 1.000 bar H 23.117 kJ/kg P 1.000 bar H 1526.771 kJ/kg

T 23.000 °C M 20.688 kg/s T 1228.653 °C M 21.688 kg/s

Figure 6-2 Simple gas turbine cycle

There is no need to specify the mass flow rate of air going into the combustion chamber since the ratio
of air to fuel mass flow rate is specified inside the properties box of the combustion chamber. Under
the specification values / Air ratio, the ratio of the actual air to the stochiometric air is specified. The
default value is 1.2 or 20% of excess air because complete combustion of fuel is desired in the gas cycle
combustor. Finally, another measured value input component (46) is used to specify the pressure at the
exit of the gas turbine. Inorder to find the performance of the cycle, it is possible to divide the useful
power output of the generator with the energy consumption of the combustion chamber. The energy
consumption can be observed inside the properties of the combustion chamber under the Results, in a
successfully computed cycle.
Regeneration is added to the simple gas cycle by adding an air pre-heater to the air line after the
compressor. All the other components and simulation conditions are retained in the gas cycle. While,
the same amount of fuel (1 kg/s of methane) is burned inside the combustion chamber but adding an air
preheater has led the combustion gases to have much higher outlet temperature and thus larger power
output from the gas turbine and generator.
P 9.998 bar H 1583.205 kJ/kg
T 1407.417 °C M 20.688 kg/s P 9.996 bar H 3826.938 kJ/kg
T 2801.915 °C M 21.688 kg/s

Q 26878.397 kW
P 10.000 bar H 299.235 kJ/kg
T 293.535 °C M 20.688 kg/s

G
P 1.000 bar H 23.117 kJ/kg
T 23.000 °C M 20.688 kg/s
P 1.000 bar H 2306.342 kJ/kg
T 1777.653 °C M 21.688 kg/s

Figure 6-3 Regenerative gas cycle

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TUT 7. Combined Cycle

For the combined cycle tutorial, the following cycle is to be simulated. The cycle is a one pressure level
combined gas-steam cycle. The bottoming cycle, is a simple Rankine cycle. The toppoing cycle (gas
turbine cycle) sets the inlet temperature of the steam cycle. We can basically copy and paste the
components from the two previous tutorials of simple Rankine and gas cycles. We need to use a heat
exchanger that can handle 2-phase water-steam in the cold side (fluid heating up side) and gas in the
hot side (or fluid cooling down side). For this purpose, the universal heat exchanger component (55)
can be a good choice. The properties of the two cycles are as follows: Pressure at the outlet of the
feedwater pump is 15 MPa. Mass flow rate at the steam side is 10 kg/s. For the gas cycle side,
temperature and pressure of the air at the inlet of compressor is T=23◦C and P= 1bar. Pressure ratio
along the compressor is 10:1. Mass flow rate of the fuel (methane) is 1 kg/s at inlet of combustion
chamber with temperature T=100◦C. Combustion is with excess air of 1.2 times the stochiometric air
ratio (mass basis). Cycle layout and T-s diagram is seen in Fig. 7-1.

Figure 7-1 Combined cycle layout, one pressure level

The following list of components are used for the simulation of combined steam-gas cycle.
Table 7-1 List of the components used to simulate combined cycle

Component name Number

Boundary input value 1
Combustion chamber of a gas turbine 22
Compressor 24
Gas expander 23
General input value / start value 33
Generator 11
Measured input value 46
Pump 8
Steam Turbine / General expander 6
Steam Turbine condenser 7
Universal heat exchanger 55

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For the universal heat exchanger (55) we need to have a design specification in the properties box.
Among various possible choices, one can mention, the lower terminal temperature difference, the higher
terminal temperature difference, both hot and one cold stream temperatures. In this example, it is
straightforward to choose “both hot and one cold stream temperatures” as the design method
specification and to specify the outlet temperature of the gas side (or the temperature to which the
exhaust gas reaches). We have assumed T=900◦C for the heat exchanger outlet temperature of the gas
side. The remining temperatures are fixed with the fluid properties inside the cycle.

P 10.000 bar H 299.235 kJ/kg

P 149.998bar H 1307.401kJ/kg T 293.535 °C M 20.688 kg/s
T 294.331°C M 10.000kg/s
Q 17635.452kW
P 1.000bar H 1081.576kJ/kg
T 900.000°C M 21.688kg/s

P 150.000 bar H 399.797 kJ/kg

T 92.697 °C M 10.000 kg/s
P 0.750bar H 1099.863kJ/kg
T 91.758°C M 10.000kg/s

P 0.750bar H 1099.863kJ/kg
T 91.758°C M 10.000kg/s

G
Q 3997.970kW

P 0.750 bar H 384.365 kJ/kg

T 91.758 °C M 10.000 kg/s

Figure 7-2 One pressure level combined cycle simulated using Ebsilon

A suggested cycle layout is shown in Fig. 7-2. Inorder to find the efficiency of the cycle as a whole, it
is possible to add the useful power obtained from both cycles (gas and steam turbine generators) and to
divide the sum with the energy input of the fuel. The value is obtained in the combustion chamber’s
properties box under the Results.

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TUT 8. Refrigeration Cycles

A vapor compression cycle using refrigerant R134a operates between two pressure levels 0.14 MPA
and 0.8 MPa. Mass flow rate of the refrigerant is 0.05 kg/s. A simple layout of the cycle is seen.

Figure 8-1 Schematic cycle layout and T-s diagram of a vapor compression refrigeration cycle

List of the components used in this part are as follows:

Table 8-1 List of components used to simulate vapor compression refrigeration cycle

Component name Number

Condenser 7
Compressor 24
Control valve 14
General input value / start value 33
Heat exchanger 26

The main cycle medium is R134a. REFPROPS can be used to get the properties of this fluid at various
states. REFPROPS are the reference fluid properties developed by the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) and it calculates the thermodynamic and transport properties of industrially
important fluids and their mixtures. REFPROP is based on the most accurate pure fluid and mixture
models currently available.
The default fluid types of common components are steam, air, etc, inorder to change the fluid type to
R134a, the procedure below can be followed. Put a condenser (7) component into the work space. Open
the properties box and then the ports tab. Change the connection point 3 (Exhaust steam inlet) to 2-
phase gaseous. You can also change the connection point 1 (Cooling medium inlet) to air if the
condenser is air cooled. Place a compressor (24) into the work space and connect its exit port to the
inlet port of the condenser, by doing this, the fluid type of compressor would also change to 2-phase
gaseous. Place a General input value (33) on the line connecting the condenser to compressor. Open
component 33’s properties box and under the tab “Material Fractions”, choose the option “Set fluid
complete (composition, additional flags and coefficients …):1”, then under “Type of medium” in the
same Tab, choose Refprop: R134A.

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Figure 8-2 Simple Refrigeration cycle with Ebsilon

It is important to identify the hot and cold sides of the heat exchangers correctly. In the cycle’s high-
pressure side (condenser), the hot side of the heat exchanger, is R134a fluid and the cold side is air, heat
is transferred from the refrigerant to the outdoor air in this side. In the lower pressure side of the cycle,
the hot side of the heat exchanger is the air side and the cold side is the R134a side, heat is transferred
from the air inside the freezer into the refrigerant in the cycle. For the heat exchanger component (26),
open its properties and change the heat exchanger type from default economizer type to evaporator.
The following input/initial values can be specified. For the evaporator, in the air side (point A in Fig.
8-2) P=1.1bar, T= -10◦C and mass flow rate=1 kg/s. The design specification method for the heat
exchanger is changed to “Both cold and one hot steam temperature given”. In the condenser, air side
inlet (point C in Fig. 8-2), P=1.1 bar and T=20◦C. Temperature on air outlet (point D in Fig. 8-2),
T=22◦C.
The second cycle is an absorption refrigeration cycle. This cycle requires an inexpensive source of heat
input (e. g. solar thermal or waste process heat). The working media is the mixture of ammonia (NH3)
and water (H2O) where ammonia acts as refrigerant and water as the transport media. Components are
as given in Table 8-2.
Table 8-2
Absorber 103
Rectifier 104
Air preheater 25
pump 8
Control valve 14
separator 80
Evaporator for binary mixture 98
Condenser 7
Measuring point 46

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Cycle diagram is seen in Fig. 8-3. The condenser, throttling valve and evaporator are similar to vapor-
compression cycles (left side), however the compressor is replaced with an absorption system. The
absorption system consists of absorber, pump, heat exchanger (regenerator), throttling valve and
rectifier. Pure ammonia works in the main cycle (left side) and mixture of ammonia and water with
varying concentration in the absorption system. When pure ammonia enters the absorber, it is mixed
with water. The process of mixing water with ammonia produces heat and the heat should be removed
from the absorber by a cooling media to be able to dissolve more ammonia in the water. The ammonia
rich water-ammonia mixture in liquid form is then pumped to the higher pressure and on the way, heat
is transferred into it by the fluid in the other side of the absorption cycle (regeneration). In the rectifier
system, heat is added to the mixture by means of an external source and ammonia is separated from the
water in the rectifier. Pure ammonia in gaseous phase is sent to condenser and lean ammonia/water
mixture is throttled to the absorber pressure.

Figure 8-3 Absorption refrigeration cycle

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