GC: n

CT: Thermal power plant based on a Rankine cycle. In a simple Rankine cycle, steam is used as the working fluid, generated from saturated liquid water (feed-water). This saturated steam flows through the turbine, where its internal energy is converted into mechanical work to run an electricity generating system. All the energy from steam cannot be utilized for running the generating system because of losses due to friction, viscosity, bend-on-blade etc.
Most of the heat energy is rejected in the steam condenser. The feed water brings the condensed water back to the boiler.

S: http://www.erc.uct.ac.za/jesa/volume19/19-1jesa-kapooria-etal.pdf (last access: 24 February 2014)

N: 1. Rankine (proper name): William John Macquorn Rankine, (born July 5, 1820, Edinburgh, Scot.—died Dec. 24, 1872, Glasgow), Scottish engineer and physicist and one of the founders of the science of thermodynamics, particularly in reference to steam-engine theory.
Trained as a civil engineer under Sir John Benjamin MacNeill, Rankine was appointed to the Queen Victoria chair of civil engineering and mechanics at the University of Glasgow (1855). One of Rankine’s first scientific works, a paper on fatigue in metals of railway axles (1843), led to new methods of construction. His Manual of Applied Mechanics (1858) was of considerable help to designing engineers and architects.
cycle (n): late 14c., from Late Latin cyclus, from Greek kyklos “circle, wheel, any circular body, circular motion, cycle of events,” from PIE kw(e)-kwl-o-, suffixed, reduplicated form of root kwel-, also kwele-, “to roll, to move around, wheel”.
2. A closed heat engine cycle using various components, including a working fluid pumped under pressure to a boiler where heat is added; an expander (turbine) where work is generated; and a condenser used to reject low-grade heat to the environment.
2. The steam-Rankine cycle employing steam turbines has been the mainstay of utility thermal electric power generation for many years. The cycle, as developed over the years, is sophisticated and efficient. A typical cycle uses superheat, reheat, and regeneration. Heat exchange between flue gas and inlet air adds several percentage points to boiler efficiency in fossil-fueled plants. Modern steam Rankine systems operate at a cycle top temperature of about 800K with efficiencies of about 40 percent. All characteristics of this cycle are well suited to use in solar plants.

S: 1. EncBrit – http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/491239/William-John-Macquorn-Rankine (last access: 24 February 2015); OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=cycle&searchmode=none (last access: 24 February 2015). 2 & 3. GDT.

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CR: combined cycle, energy, heat energy, thermal power plant, thermodynamic cycle.