Experimental Study on Rankine Cycle Using Ammonia-Water Mixture as a Working Fluid

The Rankine cycle using ammonia-water mixture as a working fluid has been studied theoretically by several researches. Analytically, its plant efficiency is higher than that of a conventional steam Rankine cycle operating at relatively low temperatures. Typical applications are gas turbine combined cycles, geothermal power plants and ocean thermal power plants.

The purpose of this study is to investigate experimentally the applicability of this cycle to a bottoming cycle of a gas turbine combined plant. Authors' major concerns are plant efficiency, durability of materials and stability of ammonia-water at relatively high temperature region, as well as plant economy.

This paper describes the results of the experimental studies on the above problems.