Paloso, Generoso M. creator Mohanty, B. Chairperson Mora, Jean-Claude Examination Committee Bhattacharya, Sribas C. Examination Committee Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) Government of Germany Scholarship Donor text th Bangkok Asian Institute of Technology 1991 monographic eng 111 p. The vast amount of low temperature geothermal resources poses a great challenge to develop and rationally exploit their potentials for power generation. The application of organic Rankine cycles on these resources has broken the barrier and embarked a thrust towards their practical utilization. The technology, however, is limited to certain thermal threshold below which the occurence of the resource is still abundant. The present work offers alternatives to utilize the low enthalpy geothermal resources more economically. The impetus for developing these alternatives emanates from the concept of enhancing the availability of the resource. Absorption cycles are introduced to the Rankine system to boost the heat source temperature on one side and to reduce the heat sink temperature on the other. Computer models have been developed to assess the benefits of coupling absorption heat transformer (AHT) and vapor absorption chiller (VAC) to the organic Rankine cycle. Results indicate that though the work output per kg of geothermal fluid of the combined cycles is generally less than that of the conventional ORC, they have the advantage of requiring smaller components, thus reducing the overall costs of the system. Moreover, their work output per kg of Rankine fluid is larger than the ORC in the order of 180% for the ORC-VAC and· 150% for the AHT- ORC. Among the two alternatives, the AHT- ORC presents a better option from an economic point of view. Aside from requiring less heat exhanger areas, its required turbine sizes are significantly less than ORC- VAC as well as the ORC. However, these turbines may be of multi staged type considering the higher pressure and volume ratio. Further analysis on the costs of different types of turbines, which is not included in the study, would determine their impact on the overall system costs. A sidelight of the study was done on evaluating the performance of an absorption compression refrigeration cascade that utilizes geothermal brine as its heat source. The results showed that operating the refrigeration cascade at condensing temperature of 5° C could reduce the compressor size by 60 to 88%. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1991 Geothermal power plants Asian Institute of Technology. http://203.159.5.9/ait-thesis/detail.php?q=B17508 http://203.159.5.9/ait-thesis/detail.php?q=B17508 290998 20260817162155.0