THERMAL POWER PLANT

 A Thermal Power Plant converts the heat energy of

coal into electrical energy. Coal is burnt in a boiler
which converts water into steam. The expansion of
steam in turbine produces mechanical power which
drives the alternator coupled to the turbine.Thermal
Power Plants contribute maximum to the generation
of Power for any country

 Thermal Power Plants constitute 75.43% of the total installed

captive and non-captive power generation in India

 In thermal generating stations coal, oil, natural gas etc. are

employed as primary sources of energy.
 Coal handling plant
 Pulverizing plant
 Draft fans
 Boiler
 Ash handling plant
 Turbine
 Condenser
 Cooling towers and ponds
 Feed water heater
 Economizer
 Superheated and Reheated
 Air preheated
 In modern thermal power plant , coal is pulverized i.e. ground
to dust like size and carried to the furnace in a stream of hot air.
Pulverizing is a means of exposing a large surface area to the
action of oxygen and consequently helping combustion.
 Pulverizing mills are further classified as:

1. Contact mill
2. Ball mill
3. Impact mill
 The circulation of air is caused by a difference in pressure, known as
Draft.
 Draft is a differential pressure b/w atmosphere and inside the boiler.
 It is necessary to cause the flow of gases through boiler setting

 It may be –
1. Natural draft
2. Mechanical draft
 Flue Gases

The Ash from the boiler is collected in two forms:

1. Bottom Ash(Slurry):It’s a waste which is dumped into a Ash Pond
2. Fly ash: Fly ash is separated from Flue Gases in ESP(Electro static
Precipitator).

Economizer : Reduces the temperature

Fly Ash
& Flue
Boiler Gases Flue Gases
Economizer ESP
Chimney
Bottom
ash(wet ash) Fly ash

Ash Pond Cylo

Cement Factory
 Steam after rotating
steam turbine comes
to condenser.
Condenser refers here
to the shell and tube
heat exchanger (or
surface condenser)
installed at the outlet
of every steam turbine
in Thermal power
stations of utility
companies generally.
o A condenser needs huge quantity of water to
condense the steam .
o Typically a 2000MW plant needs about 1500MGallon
of water.
o Most plants use a closed cooling system where warm
water coming from condenser is cooled and reused
o Small plants use spray ponds and medium and large
plants use cooling towers.
o Cooling tower is a steel or concrete hyperbolic
structure having a reservoir at the base for storage of
cooled water
o Height of the cooling tower may be 150 m or so and
diameter at the
 Advantages of heating water before feeding back to the
boiler:-

a) Feed water heating improves overall plant efficiency.

b) The dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide which would
otherwise cause boiler corrosion are removed in feed
water heater
c) Thermal stresses due to cold water entering the boiler
drum are avoided.
d) Quantity of steam produced by the boiler is increased.
e) Some other impurities carried by the steam and
condensate, due to corrosion of boiler and condenser are
precipitated outside the boiler
 Super heater :
 Super heater is
a component of a steam-
generating unit in which
steam, after it has left the
boiler drum, is heated
above its saturation
temperature

 Reheater : Some of the heat

of superheated steam is used
to rotate the turbine where it
loses some of its energy
 After flue gases leave economizer, some further heat can
be extracted from them and used to heat incoming heat.
Cooling of flue gases by 20 degree centigrade increases
the plant efficiency by 1%.
 Air preheaters may be of three types
 Plate type
 Tubular type
 Regenerative type
Water in a Power Plant is used for
1. Production of Steam- for rotating turbine.
2. Cooling Purpose- For cooling of various equipment .

Water is recycled and used for various purpose:

Raw
Water

Purified
Conden
DM
ser
water

For
Steam cooling
purpose

3% of water is wasted during this process. Appx 4

cubic mt water is lost /day/MW
 The coal is brought and crushed to powder. This is feed to Boiler for producing heat
 In Boiler the water is converted to steam.
 In Super heater the moisture content is removed from the steam and that steam is called
super heated steam
 The superheated steam rotates the shaft of the High pressure turbine
 The Exhausted steam is sent to preheater and the steam then rotates the Intermediate
pressure(IP) Turbine
 The steam from the IP turbine is then feed to low pressure turbine.
 The turbine shaft is connected to the Generator, which produces Electric Power.
 The power generated is then Transmitted.
The Synchronous Generator is used to Generate power by connecting the shaft of
the Turbine to the shaft of the generator which cuts the magnetic flux
producing Emf.

 The Generated Voltage will generally 11KV to 20 KV max.

 The Generated Voltage is stepped up by connecting Step up transformer and is
transmitted and is also used for Auxiliary purposes.

Unit Auxiliary Transformer: This transformer is used to step down the produced
voltage and use for Auxiliary purpose.
•70% comes from the decay of radioactive nuclei with long half
lives that are embedded within the Earth
•Some energy is from residual heat left over from Earths formation.
•The rest of the energy comes from meteorite impacts.
Hot Water Reservoirs: As the name implies these are reservoirs of hot
underground water. There is a large amount of them in the US, but they
are more suited for space heating than for electricity production.
Natural Stem Reservoirs: In this case a hole dug into the ground can
cause steam to come to the surface. This type of resource is rare in the
US.
Geopressured Reservoirs: In this type of reserve, brine completely
saturated with natural gas in stored under pressure from the weight of
overlying rock. This type of resource can be used for both heat and for
natural gas.
Normal Geothermal Gradient: At any place on the planet, there is a normal
temperature gradient of +300C per km dug into the earth. Therefore, if one
digs 20,000 feet the temperature will be about 1900C above the surface
temperature. This difference will be enough to produce electricity. However,
no useful and economical technology has been developed to extracted this
large source of energy.

Hot Dry Rock: This type of condition exists in 5% of the US. It is similar to
Normal Geothermal Gradient, but the gradient is 400C/km dug underground.

Molten Magma: No technology exists to tap into the heat reserves stored
in magma. The best sources for this in the US are in Alaska and Hawaii.
• space heating
• air conditioning
• industrial processes
• drying
• Greenhouses
• Aguaculture
• hot water
• resorts and pools
• melting snow
 Hot springs, used as spas.
 Heating water at fish farms.
 Provide heat for buildings.
 Raising plants in
greenhouses, drying crops.
 Provides heat to
industrial processes.
 Electricity Generation:
There are 3 types of power plants:-

 Dry steam power plant

Flash steam power plant
Binary cycle power plant
 The oldest type of Geothermal power plant
used.
 Geothermal reservoir containing pure
steam is required.
 Pure dry steam drives turbine.
 Very rare type of geothermal power plant.
 Operating at California, Italy, and Japan.
 Commonly used geothermal power
plant.
 Geothermal reservoirs containing both
hot water & steam is required.
 Pressure changing system is required.
 Operating at Hawaii, Nevada, Utah &
some other places
 Does not use steam directly to spin turbines.
 Only the heat of the underground water is used.
 Vapourized hydrocarbons are used to spin the
turbine.
 Hydrocarbons having lower boiling point such
as isopentane, isobutane and propane can be
used.
 No harmful gas is emitted to the atmosphere
because the underground water is never disclosed
to outside.
 This’s the worldwide accepted power plant.
 Direct use of geothermal energy is
absolutely cheaper than other energy
sources.

 Cost of electricity generation depends

upon certain factors:
Temperature and depth of resource
Type of resource (steam, liquid, mix)
Available volume of resource
Size and technology of plant
 The initial investment is high.

 But after certain time period, the cost of electricity

becomes comparable to other resources of
energy.

 US $0.05 to $0.08 (Rs. 2.772 to Rs. 4.4352) per kWh

 Once the capital cost is recovered, the price can

decrease to below US $0.05 (Rs 2.2772) per kWh
 Geothermal provinces are estimated to
produce 10,600 MW of power (experts are
confident only to the extent of 100 MW)
 Geothermal provinces in India: the Himalayas,
Sohana, West coast, Cambay, Son-Narmada-
Tapi , Godavari, and Mahanadi
 Reykjavík Geothermal will assist Thermax to set
up a pilot project in Puga Valley, Ladakh
(Jammu & Kashmir)
 First operational commercial geothermal
power plant is likely to come up in AP with a
capacity of 25 MW by Geosyndicate Pvt Ltd.
 Available all the year around.
 Does not involve any combustion of
fuel.
 Independent of weather
 Clean Resource – Very little emissions
or overall environmental impact.
 Economically Sound Alternative –
The fuel is free, rate / KWh likely to be
competitive
 Overall, geothermal energy is a
sustainable resource.
 Not widespread source of
energy
 High installation costs
 Can run out of steam
 May release harmful gases
 Transportation
 Earthquakes
 Geothermal heating system can replace
fossil fuel heating system in a particular
area.
 Annual costs for common heating purposes
can be reduced by more than 60%.
 Continued energy shortages have created
added interest in geothermal energy for
power generation.
 Potential exists to provide all energy
requirements in the U.S
 Geothermal energy appears to be a partial
solution to our energy needs.
•Direct Sources function by sending water down a well to be heated by the
Earth’s warmth.
•Then a heat pump is used to take the heat from the underground water to the
substance that heats the house.
• Then after the water it is cooled is injected back into the Earth.
This system uses horizontal loops filled with circulating water at a depth of 80
to 160 cm underground.

Borehole Heat Exchange

This type uses one or two underground vertical loops that extend 150
meters below the surface.
Dry Steam Plants: These were the first type of plants created. They use
underground steam to directly turn the turbines.
Flash Steam Plants: These are the most common plants. These systems pull
deep, high pressured hot water that reaches temperatures of 3600F or more to
the surface. This water is transported to low pressure chambers, and the
resulting steam drives the turbines. The remaining water and steam are then
injected back into the source from which they were taken.
Binary Cycle Plants: This system passes moderately hot geothermal water
past a liquid, usually an organic fluid, that has a lower boiling point. The
resulting steam from the organic liquid drives the turbines. This process
does not produce any emissions and the water temperature needed for
the water is lower than that needed in the Flash Steam Plants (2500F –
3600F).

Casa Diablo
Hot Dry Rocks: The simplest models have one injection well and two
production wells. Pressurized cold water is sent down the injection well
where the hot rocks heat the water up. Then pressurized water of
temperatures greater than 2000F is brought to the surface and passed
near a liquid with a lower boiling temperature, such as an organic liquid
like butane. The ensuing steam turns the turbines. Then, the cool water
is again injected to be heated. This system does not produce any
emissions. US geothermal industries are making plans to commercialize
this new technology.
 Brine can salinate soil if the water is not injected back into the reserve after
the heat is extracted.

• Extracting large amounts of water can cause land subsidence, and this can
lead to an increase in seismic activity. To prevented this the cooled water
must be injected back into the reserve in order to keep the water pressure
constant underground.

• Power plants that do not inject the cooled water back into the ground can
release H2S, the “rotten eggs” gas. This gas can cause problems if large
quantities escape because inhaling too much is fatal.
•One well “blew its top” 10 years after it was built, and this threw hundreds
of tons of rock, mud and steam into the atmosphere.

•There is the fear of noise pollution during the drilling of wells.

 Useful minerals, such as zinc and silica, can be extracted from
underground water.

 Geothermal energy is “homegrown.” This will create jobs, a better

global trading position and less reliance on oil producing countries.

 US geothermal companies have signed $6 billion worth of contracts

to build plants in foreign countries in the past couple of years.

 In large plants the cost is 4-8 cents per kilowatt hour. This cost is
almost competitive with conventional energy sources.
•Geothermal plants can be online 100%-90% of the time. Coal plants can only be
online 75% of the time and nuclear plants can only be online 65% of the time.

•Flash and Dry Steam Power Plants emit 1000x to 2000x less carbon dioxide than
fossil fuel plants, no nitrogen oxides and little SO2.

•Geothermal electric plants production in 13.380 g of Carbon dioxide per kWh,

whereas the CO2 emissions are 453 g/kWh for natural gas, 906g g/kWh for oil and
1042 g/kWh for coal.

•Binary and Hot Dry Rock plants have no gaseous emission at all.

•Geothermal plants do not require a lot of land, 400m2 can produce a gigawatt of
energy over 30 years.
 •Geothermal Heat Pumps:
- produces 4 times the energy that they consume.
-initially costs more to install, but its maintenance cost is 1/3 of the
cost for a typical conventional heating system and it decreases
electric bill. This means that geothermal space heating will save the
consumer money.
-can be installed with the help of special programs that offer low
interest rate loans.

•Electricity generated by geothermal plants saves 83.3 million barrels of fuel

each year from being burned world wide. This prevents 40.2 million tons of
CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere.
•Direct use of geothermal energy prevents 103.6 million barrels of fuel each
year from being burned world wide. This stops 49.6 tons of CO2 from being
emitted into the atmosphere.
 On average, the Earth emits 1/16
W/m2. However, this number can be
much higher in areas such as regions
near volcanoes, hot springs and
fumaroles.

 As a rough rule, 1 km3 of hot rock

cooled by 1000C will yield 30 MW of
electricity over thirty years.

 It is estimated that the world could

produce 600,000 EJ over 5 million
years.

 There is believed to be enough heat

radiating from the center of the
Earth to fulfill human energy
demands for the remainder of the
biosphere’s lifetime.
Geothermal production of energy is 3rd highest among renewable
energies. It is behind hydro and biomass, but before solar and wind.

Iceland is one of the more countries successful in using geothermal

energy:
-86% of their space heating uses geothermal energy.
-16% of their electricity generation uses geothermal energy.