Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Introduction
About 70 % of energy used by India is produced in Coal fired thermal power plants. Not
just India, people all over the world heavily rely on thermal power stations. This is because of
the abundant availability of coal, reliable cheap power and early advent of steam engine
technology. Though there is a lot of hue and cry over the CO emissions and diminishing coal
reserves, coal power continues to dominate the energy sector.
Rankine cycle is the working principle of the plants all over the world. Water is boiled into
steam which is super heated. This is the phase where the energy of the coal is give to the
steam/water. The high pressure and high temperature steam is allowed to expand in turbines
coupled with generators. Here , a part of energy is given back by the steam. Most of
remaining heat is dissipated to atmosphere. More about this will be discussed in the
2
efficiency discussion.
plant leading to numerous other problems. Presently the ash is used for various industries
and also used for domestic purposes. In most cases it is stored in propoer places.
Huge quantities of water must be required for condenser, disposal of ash and feed water
circuit etc. It is therefore desirable to locate plant on side of river. For example, VTPS in
Vijayawada is located on the banks of river Krishna.
in
boiler.
The
end
product
is
steam.
practice, formation of water drops is strictly prohibited for the water drops will impinge the
turbine blades and cause corrosion. Now the ouput of the turbine is low pressure and low
temperature steam. This accounts for the phase 3-4 of the cycle.
In this phase of condenser, the heat of steam is exchanged with a heat exchanger,
essentially water. The steam now turns into water and this is processed again and sent into
boiler for the next cycle. The heat exchanger gets heated up and this needs to be cooled for
further use. Hence the heat of exchanger is dissipated in atmosphere through large cooling
towers. A lot of energy from the entire system remains unused in this 4-5 . The analysis can
be obtained in the efficiency discussion at the end of the tutorial.
As you have seen throughout the process, water needs to be flown from one part to other.
The necessary draught is created by the pump. The step 5-6 is a pump which is used to
circulate water. During this process, a little temperature change can be observed. Finally, the
cooled water cannot be directly sent into boiler. Because the boiler is at higher temperature, it
causes irregularly expansion which results in collapse of the boiler. Hence, the water should
be heated to higher temperature. This is done in economizer which uses heat from flue
gases. Thus this accounts for the 6-1 phase of the Rankine cycle. The efficiency of the
Rankine cycle is given by 1-T2T1. Where T is the temperature of super heated steam and
the T is the temperature of the water entering inside.
2
coal enters in such a way that , it creates a vortex inside the boiler. This is to ensure that coal
spends maximum time before settling down and gets burnt completely. The outer surface of
the boiler has thousands of pipes in which water runs through. This is the process in which
heat is exchanged. The flue gases rising out of burning coal pass through the super heater
as
shown
in
the
figure.
Generally there are two or three sets of turbines at one go. All the enrgy stored in the steam
cannot be obtained at one go from a single turbine. So, there are two or three sets of turbines
located which are connected by a shaft. Now the high pressure steam enters into the first
turbine, lets call it HP turbine. Once the expansion takes place, the pressure falls. Hence we
need to use a turbine designed for lower pressure appropriate to the out coming steam. So
the second turbine will be a medium pressure turbine (MP turbine).
Further , in some cases a third turbine is also added to make more energy out of steam
and this is called a low pressure turbine. The specifications of turbines are calclcuated during
the plant design and later during operations, same ratings of steam pressure and
temperature need to be maintained for optimum operation. Given below is a figure illustrating
the
construction
of
the
three
stage
turbine.
very large amount of coal can be burnt instantaneously in less volume efficiently. This is the
underlying interesting fact for using of a pulveriser.
Super heater :
The steam is super heated in order to make it hold more energy and transfer it to the turbine.
This job is accomplished by the super heater. Super heater is showed in the boiler schematic.
The flue gases coming out of the boiler are used to super heat the steam.
Economizer :
The water entering into the boiler must have a temperature compatible with the boiler
temperature. So, the heat left with the flue gases after super heater is used to heat the water
in the economizer. The economizer has convoluted tubes in which water flows and the flue
gases flow over these tubes in a closed structure.
Air pre heater :
The air used for combustion of the coal is also pre heated by the flue gases so as to take
maximum heat from the gases before they diffuse in to the atmosphere. It is also to ensure
that the un heated air should not interfere with proper combustion inside the boiler.Re
heater : To improve the efficiency of the plant, there is something interesting done. The area
under curve is the output or work done. If we could improve the area, we can improve the
efficiency of the system. The steam which comes out of high pressure turbine is taken out
and heated using flue gases and this reheated steam is sent into IP turbine. As a result the
new TS graph looks like below.
Generators :
The generators also called alternators are coupled with turbines which generate electrical
energy. The output of the generator at 11KV is stepped up to higher voltage of 220KV and
transmitted through the transmission lines. Here , the interesting area of study is to control
the output power of the generator. As the load on the system continuously vary and as the
energy cannot be stored, the output of generator has to be varied according to load. This
aspect will be covered in Power Systems Operations and Control tutorial.
Miscellaneous parts :
Ash handling plant, Ash precipitators, pumps for draught, turbine governing system etc.
Thermal energy is the most unclean energy. It causes thermal pollution and air
pollution apart from leaving off a lot of ash. The ash can be used for other purposes or should
be disposed properly otherwise during dry season , it mixes with air and makes the
surrounding places uncomfortable to live. The plant also produces thermal pollution ie by
adding more and more heat to the atmosphere. But as Nature is a huge sink of heat this
doesnt add much trouble. Other pollution from the plant is due to production of soot, SO ,
CO gases and consequent problems. Nowadays, latest technologies are being implemented
to minimize the emission of these gases by designing the boiler in a special way and adding
other compounds so as to neutralize these gases.
Problem : Find out the theoretical efficiency of a power plant whose steam is heated up to
a temperature of 400 Celsius and water temperature at the initial stages is 75 Celsius.
Efficiency : 1-(75+273)/(400+273) = 1- 0.51 = 0.49 = 49 % efficiency.
x