Are there any existing industrial processes that exploit the thermal rejuvenation phenomenon?
A. Yes, the multi-stage flash desalination process, developed in the 1950’s provides a good analogue. In this process, outlined at http://cape.uwaterloo.ca/che100projects/sea/msf.html thermal rejuvenation is used to improve the efficiency of the evaporation desalination process. Flash desalination uses latent heat release along a chain of decreasing vapour pressure chambers to evaporate water at successively lower temperatures. Instead of evaporating fresh batches of water, we plan to generate electricity. Q6. Using the Carnot efficiency equation, I can’t see how its possible to exceed the 40% efficiency of a conventional steam cycle, for a maximum operating temperature of 100oC. A. The individual turbo-generators have a Carnot efficiency of 2 -6%. But, after passing through each turbo-generator, the partial condensation process thermally rejuvenates the moist air, lifting its temperature. This means that the input temperature of the second turbine is higher than the output temperature
