Quote:
Originally Posted by oil pan 4
Not 70% of electricity, around 70% of the fuels original energy, unless it's a natural gas burned in a
combined cycle plant.
Or a large 2 stroke diesel engine, when I say large I mean like 50,000hp and bigger.
The most efficient a single rankine cycle plant can be is around 42% on paper. In real life its like it's more like 35 to 38%.
A Rankine cycle running off the heat rejection of a Brayton cycle can achieve combined system efficiency of around 70%.
Nuclear pressurized water reactors tend to run a little less efficient to achieve a wider margin of safety, mainly due to the limitations of a 2 pass water system. Can anyone blame them?
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Many years back,one of the popular science magazines,or CAR and DRIVER mentioned a Kalina-cycle, electric generating facility, which could wheel power onto the grid at around 42% thermal efficiency.