Rankine Cycle

James Watt (1736-1819), Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, renowned for his improvements of steam engine. Watt determined the properties of steam, especially the relation of its density to its temperature and pressure, and designs a separate condensing chamber for the steam engine that prevented enormous losses of steam engine in cylinder and enhanced the vacuum condition.

The misconception that Watt was the actual inventor of the steam engine arose from fundamental nature of his contributions to its development.
A simple power plant consists of a boiler, turbine, condenser and a pump. Fuel, burned in the boiler and superheater, heats the water to generate steam. The steam is then heated to a superheated state in superheater. This steam is used to rotate the turbine which powers the generator. Electrical energy is generated when generator winding rotate in a strong magnetic field. After the steam leaves the turbine it is cooled to its liquid state in the condenser. The liquid is pressurized by the pump prior to going back to the boiler. A simple power plant is described by a Rankine Cycle.

William John Macquorn Rankine, born 2 July 1820 in Edinburgh, Scotland, died 24 December 1872 in Glasgow, Scotland. Trained as a civil engineer, Rankine was appointed to the chair of civil engineering and mechanics at Glasgow in 1855. He developed methods to solve the force distribution in frame structures. He works on heat, and attempt to derive Sadi Carnot’s low from his own hypothesis. His work was extended by Maxwell. However, the fact that the Clausius-Rankine cycle was (and still is) used to operate steam engine does not make it less relevant for our modern times. On the contrary, simply replace the steam cylinder by turbine and the energy transformation equipment and process in a modern steam power plant.

Rankine Cycle
Saturated or superheated steam enters the turbine at state 1, where it expands

isentropically to the exir pressure at state 2. The steam is then condensed at constant pressure and temperature to a saturated liquid, state3. The heat removed from the steam in the condenser is typically transferred to the cooling water. The saturated liquid then flows through the pump which increase the pressure to the boiler pressure (state 4), where the water is first heated to the saturation temperature, boiled and typically superheated to state 1. Then whole cycle is repeated


This is a Power Station model system that I have drawn, and my friend Hadrianto (Antok) has drawn on model process. “Anto & Antok production”. This was we tried to learn the Rankine Cycle. Every operators of power station are mandatory to understand what is the rankine cycle is.




Thermodynamic concept is the first that we must be learn. And then Rankine Cycle concept is second.





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