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THERMODYNAMICS - CASE STUDY SOLUTION

 

Three designs for a power plant using the geothermal energy are proposed by a company. Use the Carnot principles to determine which design is possible.

     


Carnot Principles

 

Power plant receives heat from a heat source (the hot spring), output net work, and rejects heat to a heat sink (the ambient air). Hence, it is a heat engine. All heat engines in practice are irreversible.

The Carnot principles state that the efficiency of an irreversible heat engine is always less than the efficiency of a reversible one operating between the same two reservoirs. The thermal efficiency of a Carnot heat engine working between 140 oC and 30 oC is 26.6%.

 
Team
A
B
C
efficiency
18.0% < 26.6%
26.6% = 26.6%
28.0% > 26.6%
Possibility possible impossible impossible