Boilers in the Rankine cycle are used for steam generation.

Rankine Cycle

• The Rankine cycle is the most commonly used vapor power cycle.
• In most practical systems, water is the working fluid for this cycle, and the produced vapor is steam.
• There are a few systems that utilize an organic fluid, typically a hydrocarbon or ammonia, which produces the vapor of the organic fluid.
• In such cases, the cycle is referred to as the organic Rankine cycle.
• Water-steam Rankine cycles and their variations are the principally used cycles of all coal and nuclear power plants.

The processes contained in a Rankine cycle are:

A) (1-2) Isentropic compression

B) (2-3) Constant pressure heat addition

C) (3-4) Isentropic expansion

D) (4-1) Constant pressure heat rejection

In the above processes, the working fluid will undergo phase change during the heat addition and heat rejection process and the most practical fluid for the Rankine cycle is water because air cannot be used in the Rankine cycle and air-fuel, fuel is not the working fluids.

• The Rankine cycle or Rankine Vapor Cycle is the process widely used by power plants such as coal-fired power plants or nuclear reactors.
• In this mechanism, a fuel is used to produce heat within a boiler, converting water into steam which then expands through a turbine producing useful work.