The organic Rankine cycle is is similar to the Rankine steam cycle, but uses an organic fluid such as refrigerants and hydrocarbons instead of water as the working fluid. The ordinary Rankine cycle uses thermal power to convert water to steam, which expands through a turbine in order to generate electricity.

An organic Rankine cycle (ORC), is fundamentally the same as a steam Rankine cycle; however, it uses a lower boiling point organic fluid to better match its operation to lower temperature heat sources. ORC systems can achieve better efficiencies than steam turbines for smaller systems (less than a few MW_e).

A simple Rankine cycle is based on pressurizing water with a pump, heating the pressurized water beyond its boiling point to produce superheated steam in the boiler, expanding the steam through a steam turbine, cooling the residual steam to regenerate water, and returning the water to the pump to start through the ...

Financial analysis shows that the ORC system, including the cost of the unit plus the costs of installation and integration into the process, will cost approximately 4.8 Million USD.