Abstract In the present communication, thermal modelling and energy conservation studies on the steam Rankine cycle cooling system [Rankine engine (RE) cycle coupled with vapour compression (VC) cycle] have been undertaken using steam + NH3, steam + R-22 and steam + R-12 as the working fluids, and their comparative studies are presented having parametric variations of various operating conditions. The overall performance is dependent on the thermal efficiency of the RE-cycle and the COP of the VC-cycle subsystems. Subsequently, various methods of improvement of the efficiency of the Rankine engine cycle, viz. regeneration, superheating, recompression, etc. have been analysed quantitatively and their influences on Rankine engine efficiency performance are presented herewith. It has been found that the steam Rankine cycle cooling system performance is higher than a freon based cooling system [1] and the Rankine cycle performance can also be further improved by using external superheating and/or recompression of the turbine exhaust. Numerical results are presented for the sake of illustration.
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