ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Organic Rankine cycle

Alright kiddo, let me explain the organic Rankine cycle to you in a way that's easy to understand.

Imagine you have a toy car that you want to run using a small engine that runs on fuel. But instead of gasoline, you use heat from the sun to make the engine go. That's similar to how the organic Rankine cycle works.

The organic Rankine cycle is a way to generate electricity using heat. It uses a fluid known as an organic fluid, which has a low boiling point. When you heat up the organic fluid, it turns into a gas, and you can use this gas to power a turbine, which spins and generates electricity.

To heat up the organic fluid, you need a heat source like geothermal energy, solar energy, or waste heat from industrial processes. You pass the organic fluid through a heat exchanger, where it gets heated up by the heat source.

Once the organic fluid turns into a gas and powers the turbine, it needs to be cooled down again so that it can be reused. You do this by passing it through a condenser, which cools down the gas and turns it back into a liquid.

So essentially, the organic Rankine cycle is a way to convert heat energy into mechanical energy, which can then be converted into electricity. It's a very efficient way of generating electricity because it can use waste heat or renewable energy sources that might otherwise go unused.

In a nutshell, the organic Rankine cycle is like a toy car engine that's powered by the sun or other sources of heat, which spins a turbine to generate electricity.