Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Feedwater Tank
P1.1 Acknowledgements
Author: Birute Bunkute, KTH, 2004, Reviewed and modified by Catharina Erlich, 2006
Reviewer: Marianne Salomon, KTH, 2004
Editor: Vitali Fedulov, KTH, 2005
P1.3 Prerequisites
It is expected that the reader has knowledge about:
1
Basic steam cycle
Basic thermodynamics (at least 160 LU = 4 weeks of fulltime studies),
At least one year of studies in an engineering career at university level.
P1.4 LU and TU
Learning Units: 6
Teaching Units: 2
Feedwater tank at heat and power laboratory, Energy Department, KTH, Stockholm Sweden
(year 2004)
Regeneration is a procedure of heating the feedwater before it enters the boiler in order to
decrease the temperature difference in the boiler.
2
Regenerative feedwater heating can be preformed in two ways:
– Feedwater passes through coils around the turbine (theoretical method),
– Extraction of steam into one or several heaters (practical method).
Boiler Turbine
T 1
5
6
4
2
3
3
P3.3 Around the turbine
The condensed liquid passes through coils around the turbine and receives heat from
the fluid expanding in the turbine.
This is not done in a practical cycle
G
2
Boiler Turbine
7
3
6 5
4
Pump
Open Pump
Feedwater Condenser
heater
Single extraction regenerative cycle flow diagram with an open heater
The heat (kJ/kg steam) to be supplied in the boiler is given by (h1 – h7); heating the working
fluid from temperature T7 up to temperature T1
4
1-2-3: expansion process in the turbine,
T
3-4: condensation process in the 1
condenser,
5
P4.1 Mean temperature
The temperature of the working fluid increases during the heat supply, which means that it
is a non-isothermal process.
For cycle efficiency analysis, the mean temperature of heat addition is considered. This
reflects what the temperature would be if the same amount of heat would be added all at
one temperature.
The mean temperature of heat addition is:
Qin
Tin =
∆s
where
Qin is heat transfer from energy source into the working fluid passing through the boiler,
∆s is entropy increase of the working fluid during heating in the boiler.
The temperature-entropy diagram shows the mean temperature of heat supply for a simple
steam cycle (Tin2) and a regenerative steam cycle (Tin1).
T
1
Qin1 (Qin2)
Tin1
Tin2
4
3 2
s1 s
s2
T-s diagram for a steam cycle with three closed feedwater heaters
- the amount of heat transferred from extracted steam (from turbine) to the feedwater.
∆s1 = s1 - s4: entropy increase of the working fluid during heating in the boiler with feedwater
preheating
6
∆s2 = s1 - s3: entropy increase of the working fluid during heating in the boiler without
feedwater preheating
Qin1 = heat supply to the steam cycle with feedwater preheating (heating needed from
temperature T4 to T1)
Qin2 = heat supply to the steam cycle without feedwater preheating (heating needed from
temperature T3 to T1)
According to Carnot, the higher is the temperature of heat supply, the higher is the thermal
efficiency of the cycle.
The mean temperature of heat addition with preheating , Tin1 is higher than mean
temperature of heat addition without preheating Tin 2 , thus the thermal efficiency for the
steam cycle becomes higher with feedwater preheating.
The regenerative feedwater heating has a larger impact on the thermal efficiency than the
power lost in the turbine caused by steam extraction.
G
2
Boiler Turbine
7
3
6 5
4
Pump
Open Pump
Feedwater Condenser
heater
T-s diagram
Thermodynamic analysis
The special type of the open feedwater heater is the feedwater tank.
7
P5.1 Direct contact-type heat exchanger
The principle scheme of open feedwater heaters is given below:
Ts(p)
Tw2 = Ts(p)
Tw1
The advantage of using open feedwater heaters is that the feedwater is heated to the
saturation temperature of the extraction steam; the temperature efficiency is therefore
100%.
Pumps are needed in between the heaters, as the heaters are working at different pressure
levels. The need of pumping power is a disadvantage (from cost perspective) when using
only open feedwater heaters in a steam cycle.
7
2
a 6
5 3
4
8
P5.3 The thermodynamic analysis
An important initial step is the evaluation of the mass and energy flow rates through each
of the components.
1
G
2
Boiler Turbine
7
3
6 5
4
Pump
Open Pump
Feedwater Condenser
heater
m, h6 m-mextr, h5
Pp ,tot = P1 + P2 ≈ 0
9
m-mextr
m, h7
h5 m-mextr
m, h6
h4
Pump 1 Pump 2
m, h7 m, h1
Gas out
Feedwater inlet
2 - 10 bar
Feedwater
to boiler
Feedwater Tank
10
The condensate of extracted steam is commonly lead through a pressure trap (7-8) to the
next lower pressure heater or to the condenser where it is added to the main stream.
T-s diagram
2-7: cooling and condensation of steam in the heater. Observe that the steam extracted from
the turbine most often is at superheated state, thus cooling takes place before condensation.
Thermodynamic analysis
There are several arrangements of closed feedwater heaters.
Steam from
turbine
Feedwater
outlet
Feedwater
inlet
Deaeration
Support plate Drainage
11
P6.2 T- s diagram
T
1
6 7 2
5
3
4 8
Steam cycle analysis is based on analysis of separate cycle components. To calculate the
power output of the cycle, it is needed to know the steam extraction massflow.
Heat balance for one closed heater (energy is conserved)
12
The turbine power output for one extraction point:
Pp = m& ⋅ ( h5 − h4 ) ≈ 0
m, h5
m, h4
Work required for pump can be neglected, because a liquid is incompressible (negligible
temperature increase when pressure is increased) i.e.:
h5 ≈ h4
The heat supply in the boiler:
m, h6 m, h1
13
P6.4 Arrangements
Arrangement 1:
The most common arrangement of closed-type heaters is where the condensate is led
to the next lower pressure heater as indicated in the figure below.
Condensate from the preheater with the lowest pressure (i.e. the last preheater) is led to
the condenser.
The condensate from the higher pressure preheater passes a trap to reduce the
pressure before entering the lower pressure preheater.
The condensate from the higher pressure preheater will partly change phase after the
pressure trap, as indicated earlier in the T-s diagram.
However, the throttling is isenthalpic, i.e. takes place at constant enthalpy. Therefore
the enthalpy of condensate exiting the high pressure preheater is the same as when
entering the lower pressure preheater.
This condensate will contribute to the feedwater to be heated in the lower pressure
preheater.
In an arrangement with only closed feedwater heaters, there is simplified only need for
one pump after the condenser, as the feedwater does not mix with the steam extracted.
Practically, the pumping can be divided into two steps:
• First pump after the condenser (before the first heater) to raise the pressure of
feedwater to such a level so that steaming of feedwater into the heaters is
avoided.
(Example: Feedwater with 2.0 bar pressure enters a closed preheater in which
the temperature of the extracted steam is 130ºC. As water at 2.0 bar boils at
120ºC, there is an overwhelming risk that part of the feedwater will start to
boil. The feedwater pressure thus needs to be higher than 2.7 bar, which is
the saturation pressure of 130ºC)
• Second pump after the last preheater to increase the pressure up to the boiler
pressure
T
P Ts(p)
Tw2 Tw1
Tw1 Tw2<Ts(p)
14
Arrangement 2:
The closed-heater is physically divided into a separate steam cooler and a condensing
part.
This can be done as the steam from the turbine extraction most often is superheated at the
given pressure and thus needs cooling before it can condense.
The feedwater is first entering the condensing heater and afterwards it is heated in the
steam cooling part.
Td
II
T Td
Tw2
Tw1
Ts(p)
Tw2<Ts(p)
Tw1
I
I II
Arrangement 3:
The feedwater first enters a heater where the condensate from the closed feedwater heater
is sub-cooled, thus leaving heat to the feedwater. Thereafter the feedwater is further
heated in the closed heater.
T
p
I Ts(p)
Tw2 Tw1
Tw2<Ts(p)
Tw1
Ts(p) L
15
The choice of the number of heaters is based on a balance between efficiency increase
and investment cost.
Power plants with multiple heaters have at least one open-type heater.
Analysis of the regenerative steam cycle with multiple heaters
16
P7.3 Analysis
To clarify the quantities of matter flowing through the various plant components, heat
balances are employed.
(m-m1)
4
3
(m) T
1
1
2 5 G
5 4
2
11
11
3
6 (m-m1-m2) 10 5
(m1)
9 13
(m) (m2) 8
10 7
7 6
9 8
12
(m1) 13
s
The steam extraction flows are determined from mass and energy balances for control
volumes around each of the feedwater heaters, starting with the highest pressure heater
where h13 = h12 ;h8 ≈ h7 and the flow exiting at 9 normally is at saturated liquid state
17
m2, h5
m, h9 m-m1-m2, h8
m1, h13
First stage:
Second stage:
The pump work can be neglected, because the enthalpy change in the pump is almost
equal to zero.
The total heat added into this exemplifying cycle is the sum of energy added by heat
transfer during boiling/superheating and reheating:
18
m-m1, h4
m-m1, h3
m, h1
m, h11
S.8 Summary
The thermal efficiency of the steam power cycle can be increased using regenerative
heating of feedwater before the boiler, as heat in the boiler thus will be supplied at a higher
average temperature (Carnot's efficiency expression).
Feedwater heating can be performed in the direct contact-type exchangers, which are
called open heaters.
The shell-and-tube-type recuperators, so called closed heaters can be also applied for
feedwater heating.
In most steam power plants, arrangements with several heaters and with at least one open-
type heater (feedwater tank) are employed.
Regeneration is:
Heating some fraction of steam in the boiler
Feedwater heating with steam extracted from boiler
Feedwater heating before boiler with extracted steam from turbine
Feedwater heating before heat exchanger with extracted steam from boiler
19
Closed feedwater heater is
Shell-and-tube type heat exchanger
Feedwater tank
Direct contact-type heat exchanger
Regenerator
Steam cycle usually has at least one open feedwater heater because
It is economically more feasible
It is technically more feasible
It removes air from cycle
It increases cycle efficiency
20