National Student Conference On Advances in Electrical & Information Communication TechnologyAEICT-2014

Department of Electronics & communication Engineering PSITPSIT College of Engineering, Kanpur Page 293

Kalina Cycle
Gaurav Kishore Dubey
1
,Gaurav Kumar
2
,Keshav Gupta
3
Student of Mechanical Engg., Assistant Professor,
Deptt. Of Mechanical Engg.
PSIT, Kanpur
gaurav.kishore.311@gmail.com



Abstract- It is of great interest to improve the efficiency of power
generating processes, i.e. to convert more of the energy in the heat
source to power. This is favorable from an environmental point of
view and can also be an economic advantage. To use an ammonia-
water mixture instead of water as working fluid is a possible way to
improve the efficiency of steam turbine processes. This work
includes studies of power cycles with ammonia-water mixtures as
working fluid utilizing different kinds of heat sources for power
and heat generation. The thermo physical properties of the mixture
are also studied. They play an important role in the calculations of
the process performance and for the design of its components, such
as heat exchangers.

INTRODUCTION

The energy demand in the world is expected to
increase continuously. In order to minimize the
negative environmental impact from utilizing energy
resources, more efficient energy conversion processes
are necessary. The electrical power demand is also
expected to increase. It is therefore of great interest to
improve the efficiency of power generating
processes, i.e. converting more of the energy in the
heat source to power. This can also be favorable from
an economic point of view. There are many possible
ways in which these improvements can be achieved.

KALINA CYCLE
The Kalina cycle was first developed by Aleksandr
Kalina in the late 1970s and early 1980s [1]. Since
then, several Kalina cycles have been proposed based
on different applications. Kalina cycle uses a working
fluid comprised of at least two different components,
typically water and ammonia. The ratio between
those components varies in different parts of the
system to decrease thermodynamic irreversibility and
therefore increase the overall thermodynamic
efficiency. The Kalina cycle is a new concept in heat
recovery and power generation, which uses a mixture
of 70% ammonia-30% water as the working fluid
with the potential of significant efficiency gains over
the conventional Rankine cycle. Basically this
concept is suitable for medium to low gas
temperature heat recovery systems with gas inlet
temperatures in the range of 400 to 1000 F, offering
more gains (over Rankine cycle) as the gas
temperature decreases.

Figure. 1 Basic configuration of the Kalina cycle

In the Kalina cycle, the use of a mixture results in a
good thermal match in the boiler due to the non-
isothermal boiling created by the shifting mixture
composition. Several studies have shown that the
Kalina cycle performs substantially better than a
steam Rankine cycle system [2-5]. A second law
National Student Conference On Advances in Electrical & Information Communication TechnologyAEICT-2014

Department of Electronics & communication Engineering PSITPSIT College of Engineering, Kanpur Page 294

analysis showed that by using a binary fluid, the
Kalina cycle reduced irreversibility in the boiler,
resulting in improved efficiency of the cycle [6].


WORKING FLUID - MIXTURE OF 2 FLUIDS
What makes Kalina cycle different from conventional
Rankine
cycle of
power
producti
on is its
choice
of



Figure. 2 Comparison of Rankine and Kalina cycles
working fluid. Kalina cycle uses mixture of two
fluids as working fluid, most commonly used is
ammonia and water mixture. To get answer why
Kalina uses a mixture as its working fluid, have a
look at T-s diagrams of ordinary Rankine cycle and
Kalina cycle.
The major difference of Kalina cycle from Rankine
cycle is that in Kalina heat addition and heat rejection
happen at varying temperature even during phase
change, since the fluid is a mixture. But in Rankine
heat addition and heat rejection happen at uniform
temperature during phase change. This is the one
thing which makes all the difference in performance
of Kalina cycle.
COMPARISON WITH CARNOT ENGINE
In a Carnot engine heat addition and rejection happen
at uniform temperature.

Figure.3 In a Carnot engine heat addition and rejection happen at
uniform temperature
Efficiency of such an engine can easily b
e proved as

So it is clear that if heat rejection temperature (Tc)
decreases or heat absorption temperature (Tb)
increases thermal efficiency of Carnot engine will
increase. Same analysis can be done for Rankine and
Kalina cycles, using average temperature of heat
addition and rejection as reference temperatures. This
is marked in dotted lines in following figures


Figure.4 Average heat addition and rejection temperatures of Kalina cycle is
much wider than a Rankine cycle

National Student Conference On Advances in Electrical & Information Communication TechnologyAEICT-2014

Department of Electronics & communication Engineering PSITPSIT College of Engineering, Kanpur Page 295

So it is clear from the diagrams that Kalina cycle has
got lower average heat rejection temperature (Tc) and
higher average heat addition temperature (Tb)
compared to Rankine cycle. It will obviously lead to
high thermal efficiency. This forms theoretical
background of Kalina cycle, but in order to
implement it we have to overcome some practical
hurdles.

DIFFICULTY AT CONDENSER - USE OF SEPARATOR
Kalina cycle uses high concentration ammonia
mixture (around 70% ammonia) at steam turbine part,
but such a mixture has got very low condensing
temperature.


Figure.5 Phase diagram of Ammonia-Water mixture
Means you have to supply very low temperature
cooling water at condenser for this purpose.
Production of such low temperature cooling water is
not economical. You can observe from Figure.5 that
condensing temperature of ammonia-water mixture
increases drastically with decrease in ammonia
concentration. So in a Kalina cycle power plant, we
will decrease ammonia concentration at condenser
side. Equipment called separator will produce 2
streams of fluid from condenser outlet, one with high
concentration and other with low concentration (30%
ammonia). Low concentration ammonia mixture will
get mixed with exist fluid at turbine and will produce
a medium concentration (40% ammonia) ammonia
mixture. This mixture will have fairly high
condensing temperature and can be condensed with
supply of ordinary cooling water. This is shown in
following figure.

Figure.6 Use of recuperator
original state by mixing high Concentration of fluid is
brought back to concentration ammonia stream from
separator with fluid exit at condenser.

USE OF RECUPERATOR
It is clear from T-s diagram of Kalina cycle that
temperature at exit of steam turbine (point 4) is
greater than temperature at inlet of boiler (point 2).
So there exists a chance of heating up boiler liquid by
virtue of this high temperature steam turbine output.
This is accomplished with help of a heat exchanger
called recuperator. This is shown in following figure.

National Student Conference On Advances in Electrical & Information Communication TechnologyAEICT-2014

Department of Electronics & communication Engineering PSITPSIT College of Engineering, Kanpur Page 296

Figure.7 Increase in further thermal efficiency with help of a
recuperator
Thus with use of recuperator one need not supply
same amount of heat at boiler side as supplied in
previous case, this will further increase efficiency of
Kalina cycle power plant. But this opportunity of heat
transfer is not there in Rankine cycle based power
plant. You can notice that in Rankine cycle
temperature at point 4 is always less than temperature
at point 2, thus there is no chance of heat transfer
from steam turbine outlet to boiler inlet.
ADVANCEMENTS IN KALINA CYCLE POWER PLANTS
Instead of ammonia-water mixture industries have
started implementing organic mixture based Kalina
cycles in order to harness maximum from given
condition. Some examples are mixture of R22 &
R114 and mixture of Hexamethyldisiloxane &
Decamethyltetrasiloxane.
Thanks to its unique feature of varying thermo-
physical properties by varying mixture concentration
at different parts of cycle, Kalina cycle power plants
are widely used in Geothermal stations and waste
heat recovery units. They can easily match to any
source (heat addition) and sink (heat rejection)
condition by varying mixture concentration in the
cycle.
DRAWBACK
A. One drawback of the Kalina cycle is the fact that
high vapor fraction is needed in the boiler; however,
the heat exchanger surface is easy to dry out at high
vapor fractions, resulting in lower overall heat
transfer coefficients and a larger heat exchange area.
B. Another drawback relates to the corrosivity of
ammonia. Impurities in liquid ammonia such as air or
carbon dioxide can cause stress corrosion cracking of
mild steel and also ammonia is highly corrosive
towards copper and zinc.

APPLICATION: KALINA CYCLE USED IN POWER
PLANTS
A. The Kalina Cycle trademark and patents are
owned by Global Geothermal Ltd [7]. The Sumitomo
Metal steelworks and Fuji Oil's refinery in Tokyo
Bay are reportedly using using the Kalina cycle to
recovery their waste heat.
B. Kalina cycle also are in operation in gethermal
power plants in Husavik, Iceland, and Untherhaching,
Germany.

Figure. 8 Kalina Cycle Geothermal Power Plant in Iceland
National Student Conference On Advances in Electrical & Information Communication TechnologyAEICT-2014

Department of Electronics & communication Engineering PSITPSIT College of Engineering, Kanpur Page 297

The above figure is the first Kalina cycle
geothermal power plant in Iceland, built by Mannvit
Engineering in 1999, and commissioned in the
middle of 2000. The power plant generates 2
megawatts of electricity from the geothermal brine
flow of 90 kg/s, at a temperature of 120C. The 2
megawatt power generated from the geothermal
power plant fulfills up to 80% of the electricity
demand of the Husavik town, where the plant is is
located [7]. The discharged brine is at 80C, which
can still be used for various purposes, such as district
heating.


CONCLUSIONS

Power cycles with ammonia-water mixtures as the
working fluid are well suited for utilization of waste
heat from industry and from gas engines. The
ammonia-water power cycles can give up to 32 %
more power in the industrial waste heat application
and up to 54 % more power in the gas engine
bottoming cycle application compared to a
conventional Rankine steam cycle. Also, the simpler
configurations of the ammonia-water power cycles
are able to generate considerably more power than
the simple Rankine steam cycle. A rough economic
estimation of the gas engine bottoming cycles show
that the cost of the extra equipment needed for an
ammonia-water power cycle may be justified by the
extra amount of power generated.

REFERENCES
[1] L. Shaoguang and D.Y. Goswami, Optimization of a Novel Combined
Power/Refrigeration Thermodynamic Cycle, Journal of Solar Energy
Engineering, vol. 125, 2003, pp. 212-217.
[2] E. Rogdakis and K. Antonopoulos, A high efficiency NH3/H2O absorption
power cycle, Heat Recovery Systems and CHP, vol. 11, 1991, pp. 263-
275.
[3] M.B. Ibrahim and R.M. Kovach, A Kalina cycle application for power
generation, Energy, vol. 18, Sep. 1993, pp. 961-969.
[4] P. Lolos and E. Rogdakis, A Kalina power cycle driven by renewable
energy sources, Energy, vol. 34, Apr. 2009, pp. 457-464.
[5] C. Dejfors, E. Thorin, and G. Svedberg, Ammonia-water power cycles for
direct-fired cogeneration applications, Energy Conversion and
Management, vol. 39, 1998, pp. 1675-1681.
[6] P.K. Nag and A.V.S.S.K.S. Gupta, Exergy analysis of the Kalina cycle,
Applied Thermal Engineering, vol. 18, Jun. 1998, pp. 427-439.
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalina_cycle