Analysis of several thermal electrical cascades boosted by the absorption working cycle technology.

The thermal plants, operated by individual cycles of e.g. Steam Rankine (SR), Organic Rankine (OR) or Gas Turbine (GT) type, are used in practice to produce electrical power. If the thermal cascading method is applied to these cycles, the electrical efficiency can be benefited. The paper analyzes the possibility of creating new power cycles boosted by the absorption working cycle technology. To this extent, a known cycle with a new role, named WORK-CRAFT, is described, in order to form double and treble cascades with the individual power cycles mentioned above, i.e. WORK-CRAFT + SR, WORK-CRAFT + OR and WORK-CRAFT + SR + GT. The paper describes shortly WORK-CRAFT and cascades structure. The cascades are thermally modeled with a simple algorithm, considering that the sink source temperature is variable, 𝑇𝑀,𝑐∈[−30; +40]℃ and WORK-CRAFT is operated by ammonia-water working combination. Also, known reference state of SR, OR and SR + GT operation parameters (e.g. efficiency, temperature) is taken from literature. The model results show that the power efficiency of the mentioned cascades can increase up to 1,35 times, to 2,40 times and to 1,125 times, as compared to SR, OR and SR-GT plants, respectively. Finally, conclusions are formulated.