The promise of the Kalina cycle

Journal Article · Tue Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1986 · IEEE Spectrum; (United States)

OSTI ID:5678070

Jurgen, R K

New technologies come and go, but the Rankine steam cycle goes on forever - or so it seemed until Alexander I. Kalina found a better way. Power engineers have known for years that heat can be generated more efficiently in a boiler if a mixture like ammonia and water is used as the working fluid, but no one had figured out how to condense the working fluid mixture at normal heat rejection temperatures. Kalina solved the problem, at least in theory. Now it must be determined whether his theory holds up in practice. In the Rankine steam cycle, water is used in a boiler to produce high-pressure vapor, which is expanded through a turbine to produce power. The expanded vapor is subsequently condensed and is pumped back to the boiler in liquid form to repeat the cycle. In the Kalina cycle, a mixture of approximately 70 percent ammonia and 30 percent water is used in a boiler to produce superheated vapor. The ammonia begins to boil first, having the lower boiling point. As the ammonia boils off, the concentration of ammonia in the remaining mixture decreases, and the mixture's boiling point increases. The boiling point keeps changing as the ammonia-water ratio changes, and the fluid mixture is gradually depleted. This leads to a better match in temperature profiles and permits more energy to be transferred to the working fluid. Overall, more of the available heat is utilized in vapor production than in the steam cycle, and more vapor means more power output from the turbine-generator.

• OSTI ID: 5678070
• Journal Information: IEEE Spectrum; (United States), Journal Name: IEEE Spectrum; (United States) Vol. 23:4; ISSN IEESA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
421000* -- Engineering-- Combustion Systems
425007 -- Engineering-- Power Cycles-- Other-- (1980-)
AMMONIA
BOILERS
BOILING
BOILING POINTS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CONVERSION
DISPERSIONS
EFFICIENCY
ENERGY CONVERSION
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
FLUIDS
GASES
HEATING
HYDRIDES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MIXTURES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NITROGEN HYDRIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
QUANTITY RATIO
RANKINE CYCLE
SUPERHEATING
TEMPERATURE EFFECTS
THERMAL EFFICIENCY
THERMODYNAMIC CYCLES
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
TRANSITION TEMPERATURE
VAPOR CONDENSATION
VAPORS
WATER
WORKING FLUIDS