Energy 238 (2022) 121688

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Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Combined Rankine Cycle and dew point cooler for energy efficient
power generation of the power plants - A review and perspective
study
Xiaoli Ma a, b, Xudong Zhao b, *, Yufeng Zhang a, Kaixin Liu a, Hui Yang c, Jing Li b,
Yousef Golizadeh Akhlaghi b, Haowen Liu b, Zhonghe Han a, Zhijian Liu a
a
North China Electrical Power University, Baoding, 071000, China
b
Centre for Sustainable Energy Technologies, University of Hull, Hull, HU6 7RX, UK
c
Shanghai Publishing and Printing College, Shanghai, Yangpu, 100093, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The Rankine Cycle is a thermodynamic process widely applied to power plants such as coal-fired power
Received 11 January 2021 plants or nuclear reactors. The thermal efficiency of a power plant is largely dependent upon the tem-
Received in revised form perature difference between a heat source and a cold source; an increased temperature difference leads
2 August 2021
to the significant increase in the thermal efficiency and power generation rate of the power plant.
Accepted 3 August 2021
Available online 18 August 2021
Integrating the dew point cooler, i.e., Maistosenko Cycle system, into the traditional Rankine Cycle is an
effective approach to reduce the temperature of the cold source (i.e. condenser), and thus, increase the
thermal efficiency and power generation rate of the power plant. The paper presents a close overview of
Keywords:
Rankine cycle
the combined Rankine/Maisotsenko Cycle, concerning with: (1) current development of Rankine Cycle
Maistsenko cycle power systems and Maisotsenko Cycle evaporative cooling technologies; (2) existing pre-cooling tech-
Power plant nologies for the cooling tower; and (3) thermal efficiency of the combined Rankine/Maisotsenko Cycle
Thermal efficiency and its relevant impact factors. It is concluded that the combined Rankine/Maisotsenko Cycle can
Dew point cooling technology overcome the limit of the existing similar technologies, has great energy-saving potential and is
economically viable. The further research should focus on a number of critical issues which require
effective solutions to enable the energy efficient power generation. These include: (1) Optimisation of the
combined Rankine/Maistsenko cycle using advanced multi-objective evolutionary optimisation algo-
rithms; (2) Prediction of the future operational performance of the combined Rankine/Maistsenko cycle
based power plant using future weather forecast scenarios and associated machine learning algorithms;
(3) Analysis of thermal economics performance of the combined cycle using entropy and exergy analytic
approach; and (4) Analysis of energy costs of the combined cycle using the exergo-economic and
emergoeconomic analytical methods. This benefit also thanks to the recent development of the dew
point cooling technology with highly enhanced COP, especially in hot and dry climates.
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In recent years, global power demand has been in a dramatic
growth. On the other hand, the environmental effects of fossil fuel
combustion for power generation have threatened the world
through various ways, e.g. the atmospheric pollution, global
warming and ozone layer depletion. There are two ways to mitigate
the negative impacts of fossil fuel power generation: (1) Utilization
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: Xudong.zhao@hull.ac.uk (X. Zhao).
of renewable & clean energy sources (e.g. solar and wind energies)
for power generation; and (2) Reconfiguration of existing fossil fuel
power plants to enable the enhanced power generation efficiency
[1].
Renewable (or clean) energy driven power generation technol-
ogy, making use of the endless and free-charging renewable energy
sources (e.g. solar and wind), creates a low cost and environment-
friendly power generation. However, this technology faces the
challenges of time-dependent and unsteady operation, which have
restricted its wide application in many engineering practices. For
instance, solar energy is only available during the day; the amount

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2021.121688
0360-5442/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
X. Ma, X. Zhao, Y. Zhang et al.
of which also depends on the season of the year. At present, even if
the renewable energy sources are considered as the major power
suppliers, it seems necessary to incorporate conventional fossil fuel
power plants into the power supply chain in order to meet the peak
power demand at any occasion [2]. Currently, renewable & clean
energy driven power generation takes only about 23% of the overall
electricity generation capacity and is expected to grow to 30% by
2020 [3], while majority power plants still rely on fossil fuel com-
bustion. In line with this situation, reconfiguration of the fossil fuel
driven power generation plants in order to improve its thermal
efficiency and power generation rate is critically important.
A fossil fuel driven power plant involves a combustion process
and so operates at a high temperature condition, which helps
increasing the thermal efficiency of power generation. This process,
based on the thermodynamic Rankine Cycle, can achieve a signif-
icantly enhanced thermal efficiency if a significant temperature
difference between the hot and cold sources is created [4]. If the
temperature of the heat source remains unchanged, reducing the
temperature of the cold source is a major way to enhance the
thermal efficiency of the Rankine Cycle based power generation.
Rankine cycle is a thermodynamic process applied to all large
steam power plants to convert heat into mechanical work, which is
then transformed into electricity by using an electric generator. The
steam power plants normally use water as the working fluid [3].
The cold sources used to cool the condenser of the Rankine Cycle
power generation systems could be cooling towers or a large water
body (river or sea). The cooling towers are widely used in large
thermal power plants, especially in arid and water-scarce areas, to
cool the circulating water coming from the condenser by rejecting
waste heat to the atmosphere. Improving the performance of the
cooling towers helps lower temperature of water entering the
condenser, thus reducing steam turbine back-pressure & temper-
ature, and improving the power generation efficiency [5].
Researches on improving the performance of air-cooling towers
are numerous; most of which are focused on optimal design of the
existing cooling towers. J. Smrekar et al. [6] investigated a method
of improving the efficiency of a natural draft cooling tower by
optimizing the heat transfer within the cooling tower pack. This
makes use of a suitable water distribution across the plane area of
the cooling tower to minimize the amount of exergy loss and
achieve more effective heat transfer. R.V. Rao et al. [7] explored the
use of artificial bee colony algorithm for optimisation of mechanical
draft counter flow wet-cooling tower, which can solve the prob-
lems of a large variables and discontinuity in the objective function,
thus improving the performance of the designed wet-cooling
tower. Jameel-Ur-Rehman Khan et al. [8] investigated the perfor-
mance of the counter flow wet cooling towers. The results show
that evaporation contributes around 62.5% of the total heat transfer
at the bottom of the tower and almost 90% at the top of the tower.
Therefore, improving the water evaporation is a major approach to
improve the efficiency of the cooling towers. Chen [5] et al. inves-
tigated the effect of cross walls on the thermal performance of
natural draft wet cooling towers under the crosswind conditions,
showing that installation of the cross walls can improve the per-
formance of the natural draft wet cooling towers. Sun et al. [9]
introduced and evaluated the spray cooling system consisting of
various kinds of spray nozzles used for inlet air pre-cooling in
natural draft dry cooling towers. The evaluation results illustrate
that the inlet air pre-cooling would improve the efficiency of nat-
ural draft dry cooling towers.
However, no matter what efforts have been made, the current
air-cooling towers have very limited temperature reduction po-
tential owing to the theoretical constraint of the air's dry bulb
temperature (for dry cooling towers) and wet bulb temperature (for
wet or close circuit cooling towers). Although the cooling towers
2
Energy 238 (2022) 121688
using the evaporative cooling can achieve lower cooling tempera-
ture compared to a dry cooling tower using the conventional air-to-
refrigerant heat transfer, they cannot break the limit of the ambient
air's wet bulb temperature due to the conventional direct or indi-
rect evaporative technologies used in the cooling towers.
Dew point cooling, being a new form of Indirect Evaporative
Cooling, can break this limit and enable air to be cooled
approaching its relevant dew point, thereby achieving higher
cooling efficiency than conventional evaporative cooling. This
technology is established on a Maisotsenko Cycle (M-cycle) heat
and mass exchanger. Owing to this distinguished advantage, the
dew point cooling technology has drawn the increasing attention to
researchers, industrial personnel, as well as users [10e12].
Recent development in dew point cooling technology has been
progressed well, leading to the significantly enhanced cooling ef-
ficiency, reduced size and costs of the cooler. It has been reported
that the experimental testing of an innovative dew point cooler has
achieved a COP (Coefficient of performance) of 16e52.5 depending
on the climate conditions [13]. In this case, introducing the dew
point cooling technology into the cooling systems of the power
plants would lead to a breakthrough in condensation temperature
reduction and therefore enhance the thermal efficiency of the po-
wer plants.
The paper presents an overview of the existing air-cooling
technology in power plants and the recent developed most
advanced air-cooling technology, i.e, Maisotsenko cycle dew point
cooling technology, based on the review, a method of combination
of Rankine cycle with Maisotsenko cycle is proposed, in order to
reduce the temperature of the cold source of the existing air-cooled
Rankine cycle power systems and thus improve the cooling effi-
ciency of condenser in the Rankine cycle. The innovation points of
the paper include: (1) address the limitation of existing air-cooling
technologies in power generation systems and introduce the recent
developed most advanced air-cooling technology, i.e., dew point
cooling technology into power generation systems; (2) propose a
new technology, i.e., combined Rankine/Maisotsenko cycle, and
demonstrate its potential to break the limitation of the existing air
cooling technology in power generation systems through a case
study; (3) identify a number of perspective research focuses that
require workable solutions to enable the energy efficient power
generation. These include structure optimisation, performance
prediction, thermal economic performance analyses.
2. Rankine cycle power plant
2.1. Principle of Rankine cycle
The Rankine cycle is an energy conversion process widely
applied to power plants such as coal-fired power plants or nuclear
reactors. This cycle converts heat into mechanical energy, which is
usually transformed into electricity by using an electrical generator.
As shown in Fig. 1 (a), a typical Rankine cycle consists of a boiler, a
turbine, a condenser and a water pump, and involves four ther-
modynamic processes which are plotted in a T-S diagram, shown in
Fig. 1(b). In this diagram, 4-5-6-1 is the heating, vaporization and
superheating process of the working fluid taking place in a boiler
under constant pressure; 1e2 is isentropic expansion process of the
steam through the turbine to generate power; 2e3 is the heat
releasing process of exhausting steam in the condenser at a con-
stant pressure; and 3e4 is the isentropic compression process of
condensate in the pump.
2.1.1. Thermal efficiency of Rankine cycle
Thermal efficiency of Rankine cycle (ht) is defined as the ratio of
net power output to heat input, i.e.
X. Ma, X. Zhao, Y. Zhang et al.
Fig. 1. Rankine cycle (a) Schematic drawing (b) T-S diagram [14].
w ðh  h2 Þ  ðh4  h3 Þ
ht ¼ 0 ¼ 1 (2-1)
q0 h1  h4
where.
w0 - ideal work (specific internal work) produced by 1 kg of
steam in turbine, kJ/kg;
q0 - cycle heat absorption (specific heat), kJ/kg;
h1, h2, h3, h4 - enthalpy at point 1, point 2, point 3 and point 4
respectively (h4-h3 equal to power consumption of the pump), see
Fig. 1; As the work required by the pump is often around 1% of the
turbine work output, it can be simplified as:
ðh1  h2 Þ
ht ¼ (2-2)
h1  h4
Alternatively, the Rankine cycle efficiency (ht) can be expressed
as the function of the average temperatures of the heat absorption
process and heat rejection process, which is shown as below:
w0 qc Tc Ds Tc
ht ¼ ¼1 ¼1 ¼1  (2 e3)
q0 q0 T1 Ds T1
where.
qc - circle heat release (specific heat), kJ/kg;
q0 - cycle heat absorption (specific heat), kJ/kg;
Tc - average temperature of exothermic process, K;
T1 -average temperature of endothermic process, K;
Ds -Entropy increase, kJ/(kg$K);
By equations (2) and (3), it can be seen that increasing the
average temperature in the boiler heating process and/or
decreasing the average temperature in the condensing process can
improve the thermal efficiency.
The heat sources used in the power plants are usually the fossil
fuels such as coal, natural gas, oil, or nuclear fission. The increased
heat source temperature leads to the increased power efficiency.
The cold source used in the power plants are usually cooling towers
and a large water body (river or sea). The reduced cold source
temperature leads to the increased power efficiency. Currently the
power efficiency of the Rankine cycle is largely limited by the
temperature of the cold source which is refrained by natural
resource.
Fig. 2 shows the impact of condensation temperature on the
efficiency of the Rankine cycle. As shown in Fig. 2(a), reducing the
condenser temperature leads to a significant reduction in the
average temperature of the heat rejection process and a minor
reduction in the average temperature of the heat addition process,
which leads to the increased thermal efficiency (ht) of the cycle
[14]. Fig. 2(b) shows the variation of the thermal efficiency with
condensation temperature in a 300 MW steam turbine plant, which
3
Energy 238 (2022) 121688
indicates that the thermal efficiency of the power plant falls
significantly with the increase of condensation temperature [15].
2.2. Condensation equipment
The condenser temperature (pressure) has significant influence
on steam consumption and thermal economy, as around 60% of
heat is exhausted through condenser. A case study showed that for
the condition of the steam parameters of 9.0 MPa and 490  C,
reducing the condensation temperature by 10  C will lead to the
increase of thermal efficiency by 3.5%; and when the condensation
pressure decreases from 0.006 MPa to 0.004 MPa, the thermal ef-
ficiency of the cycle will increase by 2.2%. However, for a cold source
with a certain temperature, reducing the condensation pressure
will need larger size of the condensation equipment, which will
lead to a higher investment in the power plant construction [15].
A power plant cooling system consists of the low-pressure cyl-
inder which is the last stage group of the turbine, the condenser,
the cooling tower, and the circulating water pump, of which the
condenser is the key component that is used to condense the
exhausting steam from the turbine [16]. The cooling tower is an
important condensation equipment for a power plant, which is
used to cool the circulating working fluid (water) in the thermo-
dynamic cycle of the power plant.
An air-cooling tower uses a water-to-air heat exchanger to
transfer the heat from the hot water inside the heat exchanger to
the air flow across the heat exchanger, thus generating a colder
circulating water. It may either use the evaporation of water to
remove the process heat and cool the working fluid to near the wet-
bulb of the air, or rely solely on air to cool the working fluid to near
the dry-bulb temperature of the air. The air flow is induced by
blowers located at the bottom of the air inlet louver (forced draft
cooling tower), or driven by the buoyancy force generated by the
difference of the air density between the inside and outside of the
tower (natural draft cooling tower). In fact, the thermal perfor-
mance of the air-cooling tower is significantly affected by the
ambient temperature. In summer, when the ambient temperature
is high, the air cooling tower cannot meet the power plant's re-
quirements and therefore will lead to the reduced thermal effi-
ciency of the power plants, which creates a significant impact on
the economic performance of the power plants. Fig. 3 shows a
power plant cooling system with a natural draft cooling tower.
In most of the power plants, cold water is used to provide
cooling energy to the condenser through a heat exchanger. The
temperature of the colder water out of the cooling tower has a
direct impact on the pressure of the exhausting steam from the
turbine and the thermal efficiency of the Rankine cycle. Li et al. [18]
investigated the effect of the temperature of the cooling water out
of the cooling tower on the economic/efficiency of the power
X. Ma, X. Zhao, Y. Zhang et al. Energy 238 (2022) 121688

Fig. 2. Effect by Tc reduction: (1) T-S diagram; (2) Thermal efficiency diagram [15].

Fig. 3. Schematic of a power system with a natural draft cooling tower [17].

plants, giving the results listed in Table 1. It was found that the
temperature of the cooling water out of the cooling tower rising by
1  C can lead to measurable thermal efficiency of the Rankine cycle
decrease, heat consumption rate increase and coal consumption
rate increase for various power generation capacities. This shows
that improving the cooling efficiency of the cooling tower will lead
to significant energy saving in the power plant operation.
3. Air cooled condensation systems in power plants
3.1. Air cooling towers
With respect to the heat transfer mechanism applied, there are
four major types of cooling towers, namely wet cooling towers (or
open circuit cooling towers), closed circuit cooling towers (or fluid
coolers), dry cooling towers, and hybrid cooling towers. These are
illustrated below:
3.1.1. Wet cooling towers (or open circuit cooling towers)
Wet cooling towers operate on the principle of direct
evaporative cooling. The working fluid and the evaporated fluid are
the same kind of fluid (usually water), see Fig. 4. A wet cooling
tower cools water by enabling direct contact between water and air.
This allows air to be cooled to a temperature lower than the
ambient temperature, i.e., toward wet bulb temperature of the air.
3.1.2. Closed circuit cooling towers (or fluid coolers)
Closed circuit cooling towers operate on the principle of indirect
evaporative cooling to protect the working fluid from environ-
mental exposure and contamination. This cooling tower passes the
working fluid through a tube bundle, upon which clean water is
sprayed and a fan-induced draft is applied. The heat transfer be-
tween the water and air is similar to a wet cooling tower, as shown
in Fig. 5.
3.1.3. Dry cooling towers
Dry cooling towers conduct heat transfer through air-cooled
heat exchangers that separate the working fluid from the cooling
air, seeing Fig. 6. Dry cooling towers require more area and have
lower efficiency, and the temperature of the cooled water

Table 1
Economic analysis of 1oC rise of water temperature at cooling tower outlet [18].

Unit capacity/MW 25 50 125 200 300 350

Unit load/MW 25 50 125 200 300 350

Cycle thermal efficiency reduction/% 0.45 0.38 0.31 0.33 0.23 0.24
Increase of heat rate/kJ/(kWh) 56.86 44.84 30.28 32.44 23.39 21.63
Increase of coal consumption/t/a 340 536 904 1550 1676 1808

4
X. Ma, X. Zhao, Y. Zhang et al. Energy 238 (2022) 121688

Fig. 4. Wet cooling tower [19].

Fig. 5. Closed circuit cooling tower [20].

temperature out of the dry cooling towers are limited by the dry
Fig. 6. Dry cooling tower [21].
bulb temperature of the ambient air. Fig. 6 shows a typical dry
cooling tower.
3.2. Types of air-cooling systems

3.1.4. Hybrid cooling towers
Hybrid cooling towers are the closed circuit cooling towers that
can switch between wet and dry operation. This helps to balance
the water demand and energy savings across a variety of weather
conditions [22]. As soon as the temperature of the ambient air
exceeds the limit, this appliance will be automatically switched to
wet mode and make additional use of the cooling effect of evapo-
rating water, as shown in Fig. 7.
5
Based on the method of exhaust steam cooling, the air-cooling
systems in power plants can be classified into three types: i.e.,
direct type, indirect type, and hybrid type (Heller type) indirect
type, which are presented as follows:
3.2.1. Direct air-cooling system
In a direct air-cooling system, the exhaust steam from the tur-
bine is directly condensed into water by the airflow, and the heat is
X. Ma, X. Zhao, Y. Zhang et al.
Fig. 7. Hybrid cooling tower [22].
exchanged between the steam and the air through the pipe wall.
The required cooling air is usually supplied by a cooling fan, as
shown in Fig. 8. Direct air-cooling system, though having a higher
cost, is widely applied because of its significant water saving
feature [23,24].
3.2.2. Indirect air-cooling system
With indirect dry cooling tower shown in Fig. 9, the exhaust
steam from the turbine is condensed in the surface of condenser.
The cooling water obtains the heat from the condenser and is
pumped back to the heat exchanger within the cooling tower.
Airflow is across the exterior surface of the heat exchanger to cool
the hot water within the heat exchanger tubes. The cooled water
Fig. 8. Direct air-cooling system [24].
6
Energy 238 (2022) 121688
within the heat exchanger tubes is then pumped back to the
condenser [25].
Hybrid type (Heller type) indirect air-cooling system.
For this type of system, the condenser in the air-cooling system
is a jet (hybrid) condenser in which the exhaust steam is directly
mixed with the cooling water. The mixture of the cooling water and
condensed steam is then pumped to the air-cooling tower in which
it is cooled, while the cooling water is circulated back to the
condenser to mix with the exhaust steam and get the steam
condensed, thus completing a cycle. The system, as shown in Fig. 10,
comprises a hybrid condenser, circulating machine group, circu-
lating water mains and a dry cooling tower.
4. Improvement of the cooling tower efficiency by using pre-
cooling technologies e recent development
To improve the cooling efficiency of an air cooling tower, studies
on using evaporative cooling technologies for pre-cooling of the
intake air have been undertaken. The evaporative pre-cooling
technology can reduce the inlet temperature of air entering the
air-cooling tower through water evaporation, and improves the
cooling efficiency of the air-cooling tower, especially in summer. In
this case, the cooling performance of the air cooling tower can be
improved by controlling the amount of water evaporated. The
evaporative precooling mainly includes spray nozzle evaporative
precooling and filler evaporative precooling.
Nozzle evaporative intake air pre-cooling air cooling tower.
This type of cooling tower has the nozzles at the air inlet to produce
water spray that is used to pre-cool the intake air of the tower
through the evaporation of the water spray. This cooling tower can
therefore achieve the enhanced cooling efficiency. Fig. 11 shows the
schematic of a nozzle evaporative precooling air cooling tower.
Sadaf et al. [28] studied the effect of nozzles layout on cooling
efficiency of the cooling tower. Comparison was made among five
different nozzle arrangements each with six nozzles, leading to
determination of the optimum nozzle layout which can improve
the cooling efficiency by 2.9%. Sun et al. [29] studied the influence
of different nozzle heights and angles on the cooling effectiveness,
and found that the optimum injection angle to achieve full evap-
oration varies with the height of nozzle location. Sun et al. [30]
conducted a research to optimize the multiple nozzles layout in a
cooling tower, showing that the intake air temperature can be
reduced by 6.3  C and the cooling tower thermal efficiency reaches
51.2% when a five-nozzle arrangement is used for pre-cooling.
Filler evaporative precooling air cooling tower: This type of
cooling tower is shown schematically in Fig. 12. Some material (wet
X. Ma, X. Zhao, Y. Zhang et al. Energy 238 (2022) 121688

Fig. 9. Indirect air-cooling system [26].

Fig. 10. Hybrid indirect air cooling system [27].

medium for an evaporation) is filled around the tower shell at the

air inlet of the air cooling tower, and the water is evenly distributed
in the filling material by water distribution device. When the intake
air flows through the filling material, its temperature is reduced
owing to the water evaporation in the material [31].
He et al. [32e34] investigated a filler evaporative pre-cooling
method to improve the cooling efficiency of air-cooled towers
during the hot days in summer. It was found that a thicker filling
material leads to a higher cooling efficiency and a higher air-side
pressure drop of the air-cooling tower and the film type materials
are superior to the drip film type materials. It also found that the
filler precooling air cooling tower can effectively improve the heat
rejection rate in summer, and the water consumption of the filler
evaporative pre-cooling air cooling tower is much lower than that
of the wet cooling tower. Katsoulas et al. [35] found that the cooling
efficiency of the filler evaporative pre-cooling air cooling tower is
higher than that of the nozzle evaporative pre-cooling air cooling
tower, but the filler can cause the additional air pressure loss [36].
Fig. 11. Nozzles evaporative precooling air-cooling tower [26].
5. Dew point cooling technology-a potential solution in
breakthrough of the air-cooled technology in power plant
5.1. Limitation of current cooling technologies in power generation
systems
The traditional air cooling towers in power plants (shown in
Figs. 4e7) either use the evaporation of water to remove the pro-
cess heat and cool the working fluid to a temperature near the wet-
bulb air temperature or, in the case of dry cooling towers, use air to
cool the working fluid to a temperature near the dry-bulb air
temperature. In case of the hybrid cooling towers, the cooling can
be switched between wet and dry operational mode.

7
X. Ma, X. Zhao, Y. Zhang et al.
Fig. 12. Schematic of the filler evaporative precooling air-cooling tower [31].
The wet cooling tower (Fig. 4) and closed-circuit cooling tower
(Fig. 5) use the direct and indirect evaporative cooling technology
respectively to cool the working fluid to a temperature near the
wet-bulb air temperature, with the limit of the wet-bulb air tem-
perature. The dry cooling tower (Fig. 6) uses convective heat
transfer technology with no evaporation to cool the working fluid
to a level near the dry bulb air temperature, with the cooling lim-
itation of the dry-bulb air temperature. The hybrid cooling tower
(Fig. 6) can be switched between the wet and dry operation, limited
by wet bulb and dry bulb temperatures.
The air cooling systems of Rankine cycle power plants include
three types, i.e., direct air cooling systems, indirect air cooling
systems and hybrid (Heller type) air cooling systems (Figs. 8e10).
These systems use the air cooling towers to cool the turbine
exhaust steam either directly (Fig. 8), or indirectly (i.e., use air
cooling tower to cool the condenser cooling water) (Fig. 9), or cool
the mixed condensation fluid (Fig. 10). The cooling towers in the
direct cooling systems can make use of dry cooling or evaporation
cooling methods.
For the indirect air cooling systems, wet cooling towers, closed
circuit cooling towers and dry cooling towers can be used. What-
ever cooling towers are used, the air cooling systems are limited by
wet-bulb air temperature (in case of the cooling tower using
evaporation) or dry-bulb air temperature (in case of the cooling
tower without using evaporation).
Current research on improvement of cooling tower efficiency by
pre-cooling the intake air of the tower using direct evaporative
technologies is steadily progressing [28e36]. These technologies
are actually suitable for dry cooling towers (Fig. 6), enabling the dry
cooling towers to break the dry-bulb temperature limit and
reducing the cooling temperature towards the wet-bulb tempera-
ture of the ambient air. For wet cooling towers (Fig. 4) and closed
circuit cooling towers (Fig. 5) with the evaporative cooling imple-
mentation, the pre-cooling does not help further reduction of the
cooling water temperature. This is because the direct evaporative
cooling in a pre-cooling process will add moisture to the cooling air,
thus creating a humid air that is not effective for further evapora-
tion within the cooling towers.
5.2. Necessity for investigation in combining dew point cooling
technology into power generation systems
In summary, all the existing air-cooling technologies in power
8
Energy 238 (2022) 121688
plants are limited by either dry bulb temperature or wet bulb
temperature of the ambient air. And current researches in
improvement of the air-cooling technologies in power plants are
still focused on using the conventional direct or indirect evapora-
tive cooling technologies, therefore, whatever efforts will have
been made, no significant improvements can be expected.
Dew point cooling, being a new form of indirective evaporative
cooling technology, can break up the limit of wet-bulb temperature
of conventional indirect cooling technologies and allows the air to
be cooled toward its dew point temperature, thereby achieving
higher cooling efficiency and lower cooling air temperature than
conventional indirect evaporative cooling technology. This tech-
nology is established on a Maisotsenko cycle (M-cycle) heat and
mass exchanger which basically has two possible structures, i.e.
cross- or counter-flow [37,38]. It is anticipated that dew point
cooling technology used in a power plant would make a break-
through in improvement of the condensation system and the
thermal efficiency of the power generation, which would result in
significant energy saving and carbon reduction. Therefore, with the
development of the dew point cooling technology, it is necessary to
introduce the dew point cooling system into power plant and
research in this aspect needs to be conducted. In recent years, the
dew point cooling technology has made great progress, with much
higher performance achieved. An overview of current development
of dew point cooling technologies is presented in Section 5.3.
5.3. Current development of dew point cooling technologies
Over the past decades, evaporative cooling technologies, by
making use of the principle of water evaporation for heat
absorbing, have gained the growing popularity for the use in air
conditioning [39,40], owing to its simple structure and good use of
the latent heat of water - a recyclable (renewable) energy existing
in natural environment. Evaporative cooling systems include two
types: direct and indirect ones. Direct evaporative cooling systems
can lower the temperature of the air using the latent heat of water
evaporation, as a result, the warm dry air is changed into cold
humid air. Indirect evaporative cooling systems have the advantage
of being able to lower temperature of the air without increasing
humidity of the product air. Thermodynamically, an indirect
evaporative air cooler passes the primary (product) air over the dry
side of a heat/mass exchanging wall and the secondary (working)
air over its opposite wet side. The wet side absorbs heat from the
X. Ma, X. Zhao, Y. Zhang et al.
dry side by evaporating water and therefore cools the air from dry
side, while the latent heat from evaporating water is transferred
into air on the wet side [41]. Fig. 13 shows the principle of direct and
indirect evaporative cooling. Owing to the aforementioned advan-
tages, indirect evaporative cooling technology has found wide ap-
plications in air conditioning sector [42]. However, owing to the
theoretical constraint of the air's wet bulb temperature, the con-
ventional evaporative cooling technologies, either direct or indi-
rect, have very limited temperature reduction potential [43] which
has restricted applications in wide areas.
Dew point cooling technology, being a new form of indirect
evaporative cooling technology, can break up this limit and enable
air to be cooled below the limit of conventional evaporative cooling
(i.e., the wet-bulb temperature) and approaching its relevant dew
point, thereby achieving higher cooling efficiency than conven-
tional indirect evaporative cooling. This technology is established
on a Maisotsenko Cycle (M-cycle) heat and mass exchanger which
basically has the cross- or counter-flow types [44,45], see Fig. 14 (a)
and (b).
The schematic drawing of M-cycle cross-flow heat exchanger is
shown in Fig. 14 (a). This heat exchanger is designed on the M-cycle
principle to perform the enhanced cooling namely dew point
cooling. The heat exchanger comprises numerous fibrous heat
transfer sheets that are stacked together with the support of the
triangular (or paralleled-stud) air guides. One side of each sheet has
a water-proof coating (wax, plastic or aluminum foil) on its surface,
thus each sheet forms a dry surface (coating side) and wet surface
(uncoated side) of the adjacent channels of the heat exchanger. Dry
Fig. 13. Principle of evaporative cooling: (a) direct (b) indirect [42].
9
Energy 238 (2022) 121688
surfaces of two adjacent sheets face each other to form numerous
dry channels separated by the air guides; whilst the wet surfaces of
the two adjacent sheets also face each other to form numerous wet
channels separated by the air guides. In operation, the air to be
cooled flows through part of the dry channels and transfers heat to
the adjacent wet channel air streams, so it is cooled and delivered
as a product air. The working air initially flows through the
remaining part of the dry channels and is pre-cooled before being
diverted into the adjacent wet channels through the perforated
holes (as in Fig. 14(a)). The air flow in wet channel is vertical to the
product air stream. The established temperature difference be-
tween the dry and wet channel air will lead to the evaporation of
the water distributed on the wet surface of the sheet, the evapo-
rated water vapor is then mixed into the passing air stream in wet
channel. In the meantime, the passing air stream in wet channel
will also absorb the sensible heat from the air stream in adjacent
dry channel before being discharged to the environment as a hot
and humid air. By examining this heat exchange mechanism, some
key disadvantages are revealed: (1) the working air stream is not
fully cooled as a high proportion of it is gradually diverted to the
adjacent wet channels early on in the flow path, and (2) the
structure creates a cross air flow pattern that is unfavored for heat
exchange. As a result, the exchanger structure can achieve only
50e60% of the dew point effectiveness [45].
To enhance cooling effectiveness of the dew point cooling sys-
tems, a M-cycle counter-flow heat exchanger was developed [46],
the schematic of this type of exchanger is shown in Fig. 14 (b). This
heat exchanger comprises numerous polygonal heat transfer
X. Ma, X. Zhao, Y. Zhang et al.
Fig. 14. Schematics of the cross- and counter-flow heat exchanger for dew point cooling: (a) Cross-flow; (b) Counter-flow [45].
sheets, which are stacked together with the support of triangular
(or parallel-stud) air guides. It also consists of numerous dry & wet
channel pairs as described above, but with different operational
characteristics. In operation, both the air stream to be cooled and
working air stream are firstly directed into the dry channels, losing
heat to the adjacent wet channels and at the end of the channels
have been cooled to a level approaching its relevant dew point. At
the end of each channel, part of the air stream (product air stream)
is delivered as a product air and the remaining air stream (working
air stream) is diverted to the adjacent wet channel, where it travels
along an opposite flow direction to the dry channel air. Due to the
temperature difference established between the dry and wet
channel air streams, there is a heat transfer across the heat transfer
sheet, which causes evaporation of the moisture distributed on the
wet surface of the sheet, the evaporated water vapor will be mixed
into the passing air in wet channel. In the meantime, the wet
channel air stream will absorb the sensible heat from the dry
channel air stream and become hot. Finally, the wet channel air
stream will be discharged to the environment as a hot and humid
air. Compared to the crossflow heat exchanger, this type of the heat
exchanger has the following advantages: (1) the working air stream
flows to the end of the dry channels and therefore be fully cooled,
leading to increased temperature difference and heat transfer be-
tween the two air streams, and (2) this structure creates a counter-
air-flow pattern that could enhance heat transfer between the two
air streams [45].
Researches on the M-cycle cross-flow and counter-flow heat and
mass exchangers for dew point evaporative cooling are numerous
and many advances in dew point air-cooling have been realized
[37,47e51]. Riangvilaikul et al. [50] tested a novel vertically
configured dew point air cooler which has the counter-current flow
patterns between the intake and working air and between the
working air and water. The tests were carried out under various
inlet air conditions and the results indicated that the wet-bulb
effectiveness of the cooler was in the range 92%e114% and the
dew-point effectiveness in the range 58%e84%. Coolerado (USA)
developed a cross-flow heat and mass exchanger with perforated
holes on the flow paths. The test indicated that this heat and mass
exchanger can achieve wet-bulb and dew-point effectiveness of
around 80% and 50% under a specific operational condition [51],
which is around 20% higher than that of conventional indirect
evaporative coolers. The above researches on dew point cooling
heat and mass exchangers were mostly focused on the flat-plate
types. This type of heat exchangers was found to still have
limited temperature reduction potential when undertaking the
dew point cooling, resulting in the problems of larger size and
10
Energy 238 (2022) 121688
higher cost.
To tackle the above problems, recent research conducted by
authors (at University of Hull) has developed a novel complex heat
and mass exchanger that, compared to conventional flat-plate heat
exchangers, presented the following distinguished advantages:
 Removal of the use of the channel supporting guides leads to
significantly reduced air flow resistance.
 Implementation of the corrugated heat transfer surface as a
replacement of flat-plate surface leads to increased heat transfer
area [52].
 A super performance wet material layer, i.e., Coolmax fabric, has
been identified. This material, owing to its larger capillary force,
high water diffusivity, excellent moisture evaporation rate, as
well as strong binding capability with the dry-side material
compared to other applicable material [42], could generate a
higher water absorption capacity, a higher diffusion area and
better evaporation effect over others.
 The high absorption capacity of the wet material layer created
an opportunity to implement the intermittent water supply
scheme that can minimize the water usage and water pump
power consumption. In this case, the system could also use the
in-house tap water directly, thus eliminating the use of a
circulating water pump and associated power consumption.
Experimental testing of a 4 kW dew point cooler prototype
using the above novel heat exchanger has been carried out. The
cooler comprises a novel complex heat and mass exchanger, two
supply fans, two exhaust fans, one circulating pump, a water tank, a
water piping loop, the inlet/supply/exhaust air vents, and control-
lers for the pump and fans. Fig. 15 shows the schematic of the
experimental testing system, and the illustration of the air treat-
ment process on the psychometric chart is shown in Fig. 16.
The operation of the system is as follow: the intake air is initially
introduced into the dry channels of the heat and mass exchanger
where it loses heat to the neighborhood wet channels, leading to a
certain temperature drop and change of the states from 1 to 2. At
the end of each dry channel, the air is split into two parts: one,
namely ‘product air (PA)’, is delivered to the conditioned space to
perform cooling, while the remaining part, namely ‘working air’, is
diverted into the neighborhood wet channels to cool the dry
channel air, with the assistance of water evaporation. Within the
wet channels, the working air travels backwards, absorbing heat
transported from the dry channel and receiving the moistures
evaporated from the surface of the wet channels, thus resulting in
continuous temperature and moisture growth of the air and the
X. Ma, X. Zhao, Y. Zhang et al. Energy 238 (2022) 121688

Fig. 15. Schematic of the experimental testing system.

Fig. 16. Illustration of the heat and mass transfer process on the psychometric chart [53].

state of the air changes from 2 to 3. The curve from points 2 to 3
shows a state change of the air within a wet channel. At the initial
stage, the temperature of the wet wall is relatively low, which
causes the sensible heat transfer from the passing air to the wall, as
well as the latent heat transfer resulted from moisture evaporation
from the wall to the passing air. When the water stream flows along
the wet-wall (from its upward to downward), temperature of the
water stream is gradually increasing and at a point of the flow path,
water temperature is becoming higher than the passing air tem-
perature. In this case, both the sensible and latent heat transfers are

11
X. Ma, X. Zhao, Y. Zhang et al. Energy 238 (2022) 121688

directed to the passing air. For this reason, the air state changing
process (from points 2e3) is defined as a curve, rather than a
straight line.
The test results showed the system can achieve a significantly
higher energy efficiency (i.e. Coefficient of Performance, COP) and a
much lower electrical energy use compared to the existing air
coolers of the same type, under various simulated climatic condi-
tions representing the climate of hot & dry, warm & dry, moderate,
warm & humid and standard lab testing condition [13].
The COP of the dew point cooler is expressed as the ratio of the
cooling output (Qcooling) to the total power consumption (W) of the
air cooler, given by:
.  Maisotsenko Cycle (called double cycle) system using dew point
COP ¼ Qcooling Wfan þ Wpump
A comparison between this novel dew point cooler and M  30
(Coolerado USA), which is the existing most advanced dew point
cooler, was undertaken. As a result, the novel dew point cooler can
achieve a COP (Coefficient of Performance) of 52.5 compared to 18.8
for existing dew point cooler - M  30 series, Coolerado USA, which
are shown in Table 2. This enables a near-zero-carbon cooling
operation and thus expand its applications in wider areas [13].
6. Combination method between the Rankine cycle and the
Maisotsenko cycle (M-cycle)
therefore, achieve lower temperature in the condensing process.
This process can thus effectively improve the thermal efficiency of
the power plant and an analysis for this process is presented in
Section 7.
7. Potential thermal efficiency increase by using the
combined Rankine cycle and dew point cooler - a case study
As above mentioned, the cooling temperature in a dry cooling
tower is limited by air's dry bulb temperature and the cooling
temperature in a wet/closed cooling tower are limited by air's wet
bulb temperature. However, the combined Rankine cycle and
(5-1) cooling technology can break these limits and enable cooling
temperature to be lowered to a level approaching the air's dew
point.
In practice, due to the effect of the wet bulb effectiveness of
conventional direct/indirect evaporative cooling technologies and
dew point effectiveness of dew point cooling technology, the
cooling temperature in a wet/closed cooling tower cannot reach the
air's wet bulb temperature and the cooling temperature of the
double cycle system using dew point cooling technology cannot
reach the air's dew point. The wet bulb effectiveness and dew point
effectiveness are expressed as:
Ewb ¼ ðTin  Tout Þ=ðTin  Twb Þ (7-1)

The Rankine cycle power plant using M-cycle dew point cooler
as an air cooling system is proposed in this paper. The combination
of the Rankine cycle and the M-cycle and its operation is shown in
Fig. 17. In operation, the ambient air enters the M-cycle system and
is cooled approaching to its dew point to provide cooling air to cool
the circulating cooling water from the condenser of the Rankine
cycle. Part of the intake air of M-cycle turns to be hot and humid
exhaust air and dissipates to the environment. The circulating
cooling water from the condenser of the Rankine cycle is cooled
through a heat exchanger, which is integrated into the product air
outlet of the M-cycle system. The cold circulating water is then
pumped back to the condenser of the Rankine cycle to enable the
exhaust steam from the turbine to be condensed and the
condensed water is pumped back to the boiler to complete a cycle.
As shown in Fig. 17, the function of the heat exchanger, which is
integrated into the outlet of the product air of the M-cycle, is the
same as that in closed circuit cooling tower (Fig. 5) and dry cooling
tower (Fig. 6). However, unlike the heat exchanger in closed circuit
cooling tower where the clean water is sprayed to induce evapo-
rating cooling, the heat exchanger in the double cycle system does
not need to perform evaporation to increase the cooling as the
cooling air from the M-cycle has already approached its dew point.
In this case, spraying clean water above the heat exchanger will not
induce evaporation and associated cooling.
Integration of the dew point cooler into the condenser side of
the Rankine cycle can reduce the temperature of the cooling air,
while the lower temperature cooling air can remove the heat of the
circulating water from the condenser more efficiently, and
. 
Edp ¼ ðTin  Tout Þ Tin  Tdp (7-2)
where.
Ewb-wet bulb effectiveness;
Tin-temperature at the inlet of the wet cooling tower or dew
point cooler (air's dry bulb temperature);
Tout-temperature at the outlet of the wet cooling tower;
Twb-wet bulb temperature of the air;
Tdp-dew point temperature of the air;
Whatever dry cooling tower, wet/closed cooling tower or the
double cycle system, the cooling air is supplied to the heat
exchanger that is connected to the condenser of the Rankine cycle
to cool the water from the condenser. For dry cooling tower, the
cooling air is the atmosphere air with its dry bulb temperature; For
wet/closed cooling tower, the cooling air temperature is treated to
be at a level approaching its wet bulb due to the effect of the direct
or indirect evaporative cooling, and for the double cycle system
using dew point cooling technology, the cooling air temperature is
treated to be at a level approaching its dew point by applying the
dew point cooling technology.
In practice, the temperatures of the cooling air in a wet/closed
cooling tower and the double cycle system are affected by their wet
bulb effectiveness and dew point effectiveness respectively, as
expressed in Eqs (7-1) and (7-2). The current conventional evapo-
rative cooling technology can have a wet bulb effectiveness up to
75e95% and dew point effectiveness of dew point cooler can reach
up to 81e93% [54].

Table 2
Comparison between the prototype cooler and the M30 cooler product [13].

Cooler PA flow rate Working air ratio Cooling capacity PA temperature COP Deweff Fan power Pump power

(m3/h) () (kW) (oC) () () (W) (W)

M30 765 0.441 4.15 21.5 18.4 93.0% 450 1.56

Prototype 750 0.441 4.25 20.8 37.4 102.4% 112
0.364 4.75 18.8 52.5 114.4% 89
Testing conditions: DB-37.8  C; WB-21.1  C (same as Coorlerado® M30)

12
X. Ma, X. Zhao, Y. Zhang et al. Energy 238 (2022) 121688

Fig. 17. Schematic of combined Rankine/Maisotsenko cycle.

To conduct an analysis, the wet bulb effectiveness of the wet/
closed cooling tower and the dew point effectiveness of the double
cycle system are assumed to be 85% and 87% respectively (the
average of the above-mentioned wet bulb effectiveness of 75e95%
and dew point effectiveness of 81e93% respectively), which are
listed in Table 3.
The effectiveness of the heat exchangers (HEX) connected to the
condenser (inside the cooling tower) can be expressed as:
Eex ¼ ðThi  Tho Þ=ðThi  Tci Þ ðCh  Cc Þ
where.
Eex-heat exchanger effectiveness;
Thi-hot fluid temperature at inlet, K;
Tho-hot fluid temperature at outlet, K;
Tci-cold fluid temperature at inlet;
Ch-heat capacity rate of hot fluid, KW/K;
Cc-heat capacity rate of cold fluid, KW/K;
To simplify the analytical process of the thermal efficiency
enhancement of the power plant with proposed combined
Rankine/Maisotsenko cycle, the following assumptions were made:
(1) the heat exchanger, which is connected to the condenser, are
ideal heat exchanger with the effectiveness setting to be 1; (2) the
heat loss through the pipe line is neglected. Based on the above
assumption (2), the condensation temperature of the Rankine cycle
is equal to the temperature of the cooling water at the heat
exchanger outlet. Based on the assumption (1) and Eqs (7)e(3), the
cooling water temperature at the heat exchanger outlet is equal to
cooling air temperature at the heat exchanger inlet. Therefore, the
condensation temperature of a Rankine cycle power plants is
assumed to be equal to the temperature of the cooling air supplied
to the heat exchanger.
combined double cycle system compared to the power generation
systems with conventional dry and wet cooling towers for various
climate conditions, which is presented as follow:
7.1. Working conditions
The case study has assumed the boiler temperature/pressure of
the Rankine cycle power plant to be 300  C/85.9 bars, and various
climate conditions including 6 different climates in summer and 2
(7-3) different climates in winter was investigated, the climate condi-
tions are listed in Table 4 and Table 5.
7.2. Cooling air temperatures
Based on the above working conditions and assumed wet bulb/
dew point effectiveness, the cooling air temperatures in dry cooling
tower, wet/closed cooling tower and combined double cycle system
can be obtained and listed in Tables 6 and 7. In Tables 6 and 7, the
cooling air in the dry cooling tower is the atmosphere air with its
dry bulb temperature. While the temperature of the cooling air in
wet/closed cooling tower is calculated by Eqs (7)e(1) with the
assumed wet effectiveness shown in Table 3, and the temperature
of the cooling air out of the dew point cooler in combined cycle
double cycle system is calculated by Eqs (7)e(2) with the assumed
dew point effectiveness shown in Table 3.
As the aforementioned, due to the effectiveness of the heat
exchanger is assumed to be 1 and the heat loss from the pipe lines
are neglected for simplification, the condensation temperature is
Table 4
Climate conditions (In summer).

Based on the above assumptions, a case study has been under- Location DB (oC) WB (oC) DP (oC) RH (%)
taken to investigate the thermal efficiency enhancement of the Coolerado M30(US) 37.8 21.1 12.4 21.7
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 35.6 20.6 13.5 25.0
Las Vegas, US 34.8 21.9 15.8 32.2
Table 3 Kashi, China 32.1 21 15.6 36.9
Assumed effectiveness. London, UK 26 19.6 16.4 55.5
Beijing, China 20.5 26.2 24.5 71.5
System Wet/closed cooling tower Double cycle dew point system
DB-dry bulb temperature; WB-Wet bulb temperature; DP-dew point; RH-
Effectiveness 85% (wet bulb effectiveness) 87% (dew point effectiveness) relative humidity

13
X. Ma, X. Zhao, Y. Zhang et al. Energy 238 (2022) 121688

Table 5 where, R - the rate of the thermal efficiency enhancement; ƞdc -

Climate conditions (In winter).
Location DB (oC) WB (oC) DP (oC)
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 14.8 8.8 2.7 44%
Beijing, China 3.4 6.1 13.6 41%
DB-dry bulb temperature; WB-Wet bulb temperature; DP-dew point; RH-
relative humidity
assumed to be equal to the cooling air temperature in dry cooling
tower, wet/closed cooling tower and combined double cycle system
respctively, which are listed in Tables 8 and 9.
8. Results
The thermal efficiencies of the ideal Rankine cycle power plant
systems using dry cooling tower, wet/close circuit cooling tower
and the combined M-cycle system for various climates are calcu-
lated by Equations (2) and (3). The results in summer conditions are
shown in Table 10 and Fig. 18, and the results in winter conditions
are shown in Fig. 19.
As shown in Figs. 18 and 19, for any climates in summer and
winter, the Rankine cycle using the combined double cycle system
has the highest thermal efficiency and that using dry cooling tower
has the lowest thermal efficiency. For the same location, i.e., Riyadh
or Beijing), the thermal efficiency for any of the cooling methods
(i.e., dry cooling tower, wet cooling tower or combined M-cycle) in
winter is higher than that in summer, this is because the air tem-
perature in winter is lower.
The rate of thermal efficiency enhancement using combined M-
cycle compared to the dry cooling tower and wet/closed circuit
cooling tower can be calculated by Equations (7)e(4), and the re-
sults are shown in Fig. 20 and Fig. 21.
R ¼ ðhdc  hcw Þ=hcw
thermal efficiency of combined double cycle system; ƞcw - thermal
RH (%) efficiency of Rankine cycle using dry or wet/closed cooling tower.
Fig. 20 shows the thermal efficiency increase rates for 6 different
climates in summer, compared to the dry cooling tower and wet/
closed circuit cooling tower, the Rankle cycle combined with M-
cycle has 2.6%e8.5% and 0.4%e2.9% of increase in thermal efficiency
respectively, depending on the climate conditions. By reviewing
Table 3 and Fig. 20, it is clear that the dryer climate with a lower
relative humidity leads to a higher degree of increase in the thermal
efficiency.
Fig. 21 shows the thermal efficiency increase rates for 2 different
climates (i.e., Riyadh and Beijing) in winter. By Compared to the
thermal efficiency increase rates for Riyadh and Beijing in summer
(shown in Fig. 20), it is seen that the efficiency of Riyadh in summer
grows 7.4% and 2.5% compared to dry cooling tower and wet/closed
circuit cooling tower respectively, which is higher than that in
winter (3.7% and 1.8% respectively, shown in Fig. 21) in winter.
However, the efficiency growth of Beijing in summer is lower than
that in winter. In summer the growths in Beijing are 2.6% and 0.4%
compared to the dry cooling tower and wet cooling tower respec-
tively; while in winter the growths are 2.9% and 2.2% respectively.
This is because the relative humidity ratio in Beijing in winter (41%)
is lower than that in summer (71.5%), while the relative humidity
ratio in Riyadh in winter (44%) is higher than that in summer (25%).
Simultaneously, the dryer climate with lower relative humidity
leads to a higher COP of the M-cycle dew point cooler. Fig. 22 shows
the tested temperature drops and COPs of the most advanced M-
cycle cooler in different climates in summer [13].
It is seen from Figs. 20e22 that the combined Rankine/Mai-
sotsenko cycle is mostly suitable for dryer climate with lower
relative humidity ratio. In a dryer climate, both the Rankine cycle
and Maisotsenko cycle have higher thermal efficiency increase rate
and COP respectively, which can lead to a highly efficient power
(7-4) generation. For some very wet climates such as Beijing (China) it
may not be a desired choice to use combined M-cycle instead of wet

Table 6
Cooing air temperature (In summer).

Location Dry cooling tower (oC) Wet/closed circuit cooling tower (oC) Combined double cycle (oC)

Coolerado M30(US) 37.8 23.6 15.7

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 35.6 22.9 16.4
Las Vegas, US 34.8 23.8 18.3
Kashi, China 32.1 22.7 17.7
London, UK 26 20.6 17.6
Beijing, China 20.5 25.3 23.9

Table 7
Cooling air temperature (In winter).

Location Dry cooling tower (oC) Wet/closed circuit cooling tower (oC) Combined double cycle (oC)

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 14.8 9.7 4.3

Beijing, China 3.4 5.7 12.3

Table 8
Condensation temperature (In summer).

Location Dry cooling tower (oC) Wet/closed circuit cooling tower (oC) Combined double cycle (oC)

Coolerado M30(US) 37.8 23.6 15.7

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 35.6 22.9 16.4
Las Vegas, US 34.8 23.8 18.3
Kashi, China 32.1 22.7 17.7
London, UK 26 20.6 17.6
Beijing, China 20.5 25.3 23.9

14
X. Ma, X. Zhao, Y. Zhang et al. Energy 238 (2022) 121688

Table 9
Condensation temperature (In winter).

Location Dry cooling tower (oC) Wet/closed circuit cooling tower (oC) Combined cycle (oC)

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 14.8 9.7 4.3

Beijing, China 3.4 5.7 12.3

Table 10
Thermal efficiencies for various climates (In summer).

Location Dry cooling tower Wet cooling tower Combined M-cycle

Coolerado M30(US) 45.7% 48.2% 49.6%

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 46.1% 48.3% 49.5%
Las Vegas, US 46.3% 48.2% 49.1%
Kashi, China 46.7% 48.4% 49.3%
London, UK 47.8% 48.7% 49.3%
Beijing, China 47.0% 48.0% 48.2%

Fig. 18. Thermal efficiencies for various climatic conditions (In summer).

structure (i.e., need more components) compared to the dry cooling

Fig. 19. Thermal efficiencies for different climatic conditions (In winter).
cooling tower, but for the dry climates use of the combined M-cycle
may lead to significant energy saving in power plants.
9. Economic assessment of the combined Rankine cycle/dew
point cooler-a discussion
As the combined M-cycle system has more complicated
15
tower and wet/closed cooling tower, it will have the increased
capital cost. Therefore, the trade-off between the thermal and
economic performance is necessary to address their potential for
practical deployment.
By comparing the structures of the dry cooling tower (Fig. 6),
wet/closed cooling tower (Fig. 5) and the combined M-cycle
(Fig. 17), the required components of the three cooling methods are
summarised in Table 11.
It is seen that although more components, i.e., water sprayer,
fans and M-cycle heat exchanger are required in combined M-cycle
system compared to the dry cooling tower (buoyancy type), the
heat exchanger connected to condenser will be much smaller than
that in dry cooling tower because dry cooling tower has less effi-
ciency and needs more heat transfer area. Furthermore, the
condensation temperature reduction of 8.4oCe22.1  C (see the case
study in section 7, except for Beijing in summer)) leads to the
enhanced thermal efficiency of 2.6%e8.5% using the combined M-
cycle will bring much more economic benefits compared to its
increased capital cost, especially in dry climates. The data listed in
Table 1 indicates that 1  C decrease in the condensation tempera-
ture leads to the measurable heat consumption rate and coal con-
sumption rate decrease for various power generation capacities
(i.e., coal consumption rate decrease of 340e1808 ton/annual for
X. Ma, X. Zhao, Y. Zhang et al. Energy 238 (2022) 121688

Fig. 20. Thermal efficiency increase rate of the combined M-cycle (Summer).

power plant capacity of 25e350 MW), while all the increased

components (i.e., water spray system, fans and M-cycle heat
exchanger) of the combined M-cycle are cheap components with
long life span (the M-cycle heat exchanger is made of aluminium
sheets and fabrics; the water sprayer is metal tube with perfora-
tions on it, it is connected to tap water to spray water to the heat
exchanger; the fans are common fans usually used in HVAC sys-
tem), the payback time will be very short. The running cost of the
M-cycle system is extremely low as the M-cycle system can have a
COP up to 52, which is a near zero energy system.
Similarly, the combined M-cycle system contains one more
component (i.e., M-cycle heat exchanger) than the wet/closed
cooling tower, however, the condensation temperatures reduction
of 1.4e7.9  C (see case study in section 7) leads to the enhanced
thermal efficiency of 0.4%e2.9% using the combined M-cycle
instead of wet/closed cooling tower will bring much more eco-
Fig. 21. Thermal efficiency increase rate of the combined M-cycle (Winter).
nomic benefits compared to its increased cost from M-cycle heat
exchanger, especially in dry climates.
To conduct a dedicate analysis of the thermal economics of the

Fig. 22. Temperature drop and COP of the Maisotsenko cycle for various climates in summer [13].

16
X. Ma, X. Zhao, Y. Zhang et al. Energy 238 (2022) 121688

Table 11
The required components.

Heat exchanger connected to condenser Water spray system Fans M-cycle heat exchanger

Dry cooling tower Yes (bigger) No No* No

Wet/closed cooling tower Yes (smaller) Yes Yes No
Combined M-cycle Yes (smaller) Yes Yes Yes (smaller)

* Here it indicates a natural draft dry cooling tower, but for a forced convention dry cooling tower, fans are required.

combined Rankine/Maisotsenko cycle system, the entropy and cycles can enhance the thermal efficiency of the traditional Rankine
exergy methods will be used to do the analysis from different Cycle power plants. However, optimisation of the combined cycle to
perspectives, which has not yet been undertaken and is regarded as enable achieving maximum efficiency with the least capital cost is a
a research gap requiring speedy action and proposed in this paper, necessary effort that needs careful and in-depth study. The his-
details can be seen in section 9.3. In addition, analysis of energy torical operational data of both Rankine Cycle and Maistsenko cycle
costs of the combined Rankine/Maistsenko cycle using the exergo- can be taken to optimize/maximize the thermal efficiency of the
economic and emergoeconomic analytical methods will be con- combined cycles using the advanced evolutionary algorithms, e.g.,
ducted, which has also been proposed in this paper, details can be Genetic Algorithm [55], Particle Swarm Optimisation [56]. This can
seen in section 9.4. be undertaken by identifying the optimum operating conditions for
the desired system which will lead to efficient and economic per-
formance of the technology. In general, optimisation includes a
9.1. Perspective studies of the combined Rankine cycle/dew point
process in which a particular function is maximised or minimized
cooler system
by finding appropriate inputs. The function/parameter which is
aimed to get maximal/minimal figures is called objective of the
Evaporative cooling technology as an effective latent heat of
optimisation and the inputs being considered are called decision
evaporation has been used in power generation in power plant for a
variables of the optimisation.
long time. The efficiency of the evaporative cooling tower has been
For the combined Rankine/Maistsenko cycle, maximizing the
enhanced with the improvement of the evaporative cooling tech-
thermal efficiency of Rankine cycle which is equivalent with
nology. It is reported that evaporation contributes around 62.5% of
maximizing the ideal work produced by turbine and minimizing
the total heat transfer at the bottom of the cooling tower and
the heat input in the boiler, and maximizing the cooling capacity
almost 90% at the top of the cooling tower. Therefore, improving the
and COP of the Maistsenko cycle are the desired multiple objec-
water evaporation is a major approach to improve the efficiency of
tives. In order to reach the aforementioned objectives, the optimum
the cooling towers [8]. Current evaporative cooling technologies in
values of the effective operating and design parameters on per-
power plants are all conventional direct or indirect cooling, which
formance of the combined Rankine/Maistsenko cycle will be
is limited by wet bulb temperature of the air. Dew point cooling
identified through an iterative stochastic approach which can lead
technology is a new generation indirect cooling technology that can
to the global solutions. The decision variables (i.e., operating and
break this limit and can cool air toward its dew point. However, this
design parameters in the combined Rankine/Maistsenko cycle) of
new technology has not been used in the power plant yet. Recent
the optimisation algorithms will be identified using the sensitivity
development in dew point cooling technology has showed its
analysis to reveal the most effective parameters on performance of
significantly enhanced COP, reduced size and cost [13]. Therefore, it
the combined cycle. For instance, intake air temperature, relative
is necessary to introduce this technology into power plant cooling
humidity, flow rate, and heat and mass exchanger dimensions in
system to improve the thermal efficiency of power generation, in
Maistsenko cycle, and temperature, pressure, and flow rate of the
other word, the combined Rankine/Maistsenko cycle would be the
working fluid (water) in the Rankine cycle can be selected as the
next generation power plant cooling system. Study on the potential
potential decision variables.
thermal efficiency increase rate for a range of climates (for both
In general, the optimisation model is defined by the fitness
summer and winter conditions) showed that the increase rates are
function and constraint function. The fitness function is used to
mainly determined by the relative humidity ratio of the environ-
predict the objective functions through Machine Learning (ML)
ment. Lower relative humidity ratio leads to a higher degree of
models which can be trained using the key operating and perfor-
increase in the thermal efficiency.
mance parameters of the combined Rankine/Maistsenko cycle. The
Further research on optimisation of the combined Rankine/
trained ML models can be developed based on the robust deep
Maistsenko cycle to meet different climates and economic analysis
learning algorithms or any other popular supervised ML algorithms
will be required, which would be a trend of future research.
such as Gaussian Process Regression [57], or Polynomial Regression
A combined Rankine/Maistsenko cycle for power generation is
[58] etc.
firstly proposed in this paper and is an initiative with potential to
The novelty and advantages of the optimisation approach lie in
increase the thermal efficiency of the power plant by 2.6%e8.5%
implementation of the state-of-the-art evolutionary optimisation
compared to the power plant using dry cooling tower and 0.4%e
algorithms which will enable the optimum design and operation of
2.9% compared to that using wet/closed circuit cooling tower,
the combined cycle in which the temperature of the circulating
which subsequently leads to the significant increase in power
water in the condenser is minimized to have the maximum thermal
output. However, to make it happen, a few critical perspective
efficiency of the Rankine cycle.
studies are required, which will be conducted in the furture, and
these are outlined as follows:
9.3. Prediction of the future operational performance of the
9.2. Optimisation of the combined Rankine cycle and dew point combined Rankine cycle/dew point cooler based power plant using
cooler using advanced multi-objective evolutionary optimisation the weather forecast scenarios
algorithms
Having trained the Machine Learning models and identified the
In principle, combination of the Rankine cycle with Maistsenko optimum operational and design parameters of the combined
17
X. Ma, X. Zhao, Y. Zhang et al.
Rankine/Maistsenko cycle, it is vital to observe/predict the perfor-
mance of the cycle in upcoming operational years. This becomes
feasible by considering the rational forecast of the future weather
conditions by taking the effects of climate change into consider-
ation. To this end, the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change
(IPCC) developed a quantity of probable scenarios of future
greenhouse gas emissions based on the socio-economic data and
scenarios to project the future climate variations for impact and
adaptation assessment [59]. A number of emission pathways are
presented through the Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES).
Among the proposed scenarios, SRES A1F1 and A2 scenarios
represent the high emission scenario, A1B and A1T are the inter-
mediate scenario, B1 and B2 describe the low case scenario.
The future climates in upcoming operating years will forecast
the temperature and relative humidity of the operational regions to
predict the hourly performance of the combined Rankine/Maist-
senko cycle using the developed machine learning algorithms to
give a rational vision on performance of the proposed optimised
cycle in future climates. This will contribute to the rational
assessment of the proposed methods to reveal the advantages of
the optimisation algorithms in performance and thermal efficiency
improvement of the novel combined Rankine/Maistsenko cycle.
9.4. Analysis of thermal economics of the combined Rankine cycle/
dew point cooler using entropy and exergy analytic approach
The entropy and exergy methods are used to analyze the ther-
mal economics of the power plant from different perspectives, both
based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics to reveal the
work capacity loss due to irreversibility in the heat-work conver-
sion process. The entropy method is used to calculate the functional
capacity loss, while the exergy method is used to calculate the work
capacity. Both methods can be used to explain the possibility,
directionality and conditionality of the heat-power conversion
process from two aspects of the thermal power process.
The overall efficiency of the power plant calculated by entropy
or exergy methods should be the same. By using the energy flow
diagram, the analysis using both the entropy and exergy methods
can find that the work capacity loss of the boiler is the highest,
while the work capacity loss in the condenser is the lowest in the
power plant. Due to the large temperature difference in heat
transfer within a boiler, the work capacity loss is large. Although
the heat loss in the condenser is high, its heat grade is very low.
Consequently, the work capacity loss through the condenser is also
very low [60].
At present, the entropy and exergy methods have been applied
to analyze the thermal economics of the individual steam Rankine
cycle and Maisotsenko cycle. Energy and exergy analysis of a steam
power plant had been conducted by the fundamental works of the
early years [61]. While the largest energy loss took place in the
condenser, the greatest exergy generally occurred in the combustor
because of the low combustion temperatures and the need for
cooling the flue gas [62]. The exergy loss in the combustor may
reach 42.73% of the total losses [63]. The exergy efficiency (52%e
60%) of the plant is generally higher than the energy efficiency
(38%e44%) at different operating pressures, as the high-quality
energy sources such as coal, oil and nature gas have an amount of
exergy less than the heat input [64]. It is worth to mention that in
the exergy analysis, the reference temperature and pressure are
required although they have little effect on the performance and
results [65].
For the Maisotsenko cycle, it was more efficient than other heat
rejection/recovery cycles and could cool any fluid to the tempera-
ture approaching the dew point temperature of incoming air
without using compressor and refrigerant. The Energy Efficiency
18
Energy 238 (2022) 121688
Ratio (EER) (EER >45) was significantly higher than the conven-
tional air coolers (EER ¼ 13) [66]. The exergy destruction decreased
with increasing the reference temperature. Maximum exergy
dispersal occurred for the exergy destruction in the system for all of
the different reference temperatures, while minimization of this
value may increase the output exergy and exergy efficiencies [67].
When combined with a gas turbine, M-cycle can remarkably reduce
exergy destruction by using a gradual injection and evaporation
rather than going for direct water injection, and is therefore pref-
erable for the both large and small-scale gas turbines [68].
Although the entropy and exergy methods have been applied to
analyze the thermal economics performance of the individual
steam Rankine cycle and Maisotsenko cycle, the research on the
thermal economics of the combined Rankine/Maisotsenko cycle
has not yet been undertaken, which is regarded as a research gap
requiring speedy action. By using the entropy and exergy analytical
methods, the overall efficiency of the power plant with the com-
bined Rankine/Maistsenko cycle can be acquired. By comparing the
performance of the combined cycle with that of the Rankine cycle
alone, the increases in thermal efficiency and power output of the
combined cycle against the traditional cycle can be obtained.
9.5. Analysis of energy costs of the combined Rankine cycle/dew
point cooler using the exergo-economic and emergoeconomic
analytical methods
Exergoeconomic method is a combination of exergetic and
economic analysis for complex energy systems. Exergy costing, as
one of the basic principles of exergoeconomic method, is a crucial
aspect to balance the input cost including fuel costs and capital
expenditures and production cost. A cost value to the unit of total
exergy of a material stream at a given state is generally assigned
[69]. Through an exergoeconomic analysis, the efficacy of energy
conversion systems is compared, concerning the unit cost of
products, which otherwise is not feasible if exergy and financial
analyses are carried out individually. Various methods, including
the cost of energy theory [70], average cost approach [71], specific
exergy cost (SPECO) theory [72] and last-in-first-out (LIFO) princi-
ple [73], have been employed for the exergoeconomic system
analysis. These methods allow the monetary evaluation of costs
caused by thermodynamic irreversibility, as well as comparisons
between these costs and the investment and operating costs for
each component of an energy system.
Emergy analysis, proposed by Odum et al. in the 80s [73], con-
siders the amount of energy that was consumed in direct and in-
direct transformations to make a product or service. It considers all
systems to be networks of energy flow and determines the emergy
value of the streams and systems involved [74]. Emergy, specifically
solar emergy, is a suitable measure for calculating the consumption
of natural resources as a function of equivalent solar energy [75]. In
this method, a transformity coefficient or Unit Emergy Value (UEV)
is defined to convert all process inputs such as energy, materials,
workforce, and financial services to a type of available energy, for
instance, solar equivalent joules (Sej). There are five main types of
UEV: (1)Transformity, emergy input per unit of available energy
output; (2) Specific emergy, emergy per unit mass output; (3)
Emergy per unit money, the emergy supporting the generation of
one unit of economic product; (3) Emergy per unit labour, the
emergy supporting one unit of direct labor applied to a process; (4)
Emergy per unit labor, the emergy supporting one unit of direct
labor applied to a process; and (5) Empower, a flow of emergy [76].
The exergoeconomic and emergoeconomic analysis will be
applied to maximize the cost-effectiveness of the combined
Rankine/Maisotsenko cycle. The method will put an emphasis on
cost as well as environmental effect including usage of water
X. Ma, X. Zhao, Y. Zhang et al.
resource compared with conventional Rankine cycle evaporative
cooling technology.
10. Conclusions
Currently, the air-cooling towers in existing power plants have
very limited temperature reduction potential owing to the theo-
retical constraint of the air's dry bulb temperature and wet bulb
temperature. Dew point cooling using Maiotsenko cycle can break
this limit and enable air to be cooled approaching its relevant dew
point. However, this new technology has not been used in the
power plant yet. Recent development in dew point cooling tech-
nology has showed its significantly enhanced COP, reduced size and
cost. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce this technology into
power plant cooling system to improve the thermal efficiency of
power generation. The paper proposes a novel combined Rankine/
Maisotsenko cycle that can reduce the temperature of the cold
source of the existing air-cooled Rankine cycle power systems and
thus improve the cooling efficiency of condenser in Rankine cycle
and the thermal efficiency of the power plant. It is prospected the
combined Rankine/Maistsenko cycle would be the next generation
power plant cooling system.
An analysis through a case study showed that for any weather
conditions, the thermal efficiency of the combined Rankine/Mai-
sotsenko cycle is higher than that of the Rankine cycle using con-
ventional wet cooling tower and dry cooling tower. For a power
plant with the boiler temperature of 300  C, the Rankle cycle
combined with M-cycle achieved 2.6%e8.5% and 0.4%e2.9% of in-
crease in thermal efficiency, depending on the weather conditions.
It was also found that the combined Rankine/Maisotsenko cycle is
most suitable for dryer weather conditions with lower relative
humidity ratio. In dryer weather conditions, both the Rankine cycle
and Maisotsenko cycle system have higher thermal efficiency and
COP respectively, which leads to a highly efficient power generation
operation. Due to the relative humidity ratio in the same location
varies through the year, the most suitable climates for adoption of
the combined Rankine/Maisotsenko cycle should be that with
lower average relative humidity ratio through a year.
Further, to improve the performance of the proposed combined
Rankine/Maisotsenko cycle and develop associated power genera-
tion system, a number of perspective research topics have been
identified and associated research methodologies presented. These
include (1) Optimisation of the combined Rankine/Maistsenko cy-
cle using advanced multi-objective evolutionary optimisation al-
gorithms; (2) Prediction of the future operational performance of
the combined Rankine/Maistsenko cycle based power plant using
future weather forecast scenarios and associated machine learning
algorithms; (3) Analysis of thermal economics performance of the
combined cycle using entropy and exergy analytic approach; and
(4) Analysis of energy costs of the combined cycle using the exergo-
economic and emergoeconomic analytical methods.
CRediT author contribution statement
Xiaoli Ma: Methodology, Analysis, writing up. Yufeng Zhang:
Literature review, section writing-up. Kaixin Liu: literature review,
section writing-up. Hui Qaung: Literature review, section write-up.
Jing Li: Literature review, section write-up. Yousef Golizadeh
Akhlahaghi: Literature review, section write-up. Haowen Liu:
Drawing, sketch up. Xudong Zhao: Development of paper struc-
ture, methodology, and overall writing-up.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
19
Energy 238 (2022) 121688
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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