Steam Power Plants

Introduction
Thermodynamics
Working Principles

Prof. P. K. Das
Department of Mechanical Engineering
IIT Kharagpur
[email protected]
 History of Power
Energy & power
standard of living and quality of civilization are proportional
to the quantity of energy a society uses.

Energy = Progress = Civilization

• Age of muscle and Animal power

• Age of water & wind power

• Age of steam power

• Electrical Age

• Nuclear Age
 Timeline of Steam Power
• First century AD : Hero’s Wheel

• 1606 : Steam powered pumping device

• 1705 : Newcomen Engine

• 1765 : James Watt

• 1867 : Stephen Wilcox and George Herman Babcock patented the "Babcock &
Wilcox Non-Explosive Boiler” (first water-tube boiler)

• 1897 : Charles Algernon Parsons patented a workable Turbine

• 1903 : Curtis Turbine in use by GE

• 1913 : Nikola Tesla – Bladeless Turbine

• 1923 : Alan Arnold Griffith – Theory of Steam Turbine

 Principles of Thermodynamics

• Types of Systems
Closed Systems:

(A) Closed system definition (B) Closed system with moving boundary
Open System or Control Volume:

Open system definition

First Law of Thermodynamics: Closed System

• Heat and Work

Energy change for a Cycle :
First Law :
First Law of Thermodynamics: Open System

• Steady-Flow Devices Operate Steadily for Long Periods

• The mass and energy balances for any system undergoing
any process can be expressed as
• Assume : heat transfer to & work done by the system to be +ve
quantities

• Conservation of mass and energy equations for steady-flow

processes:
 Second Law of Thermodynamics:
GOD’s Mandate
"In its most modern forms, the Second Law is
considered to have an extremely wide range of
validity. It is a remarkable illustration of the
ranging power of the human intellect that a
principle first detected in connection with the
clumsy puffing of a steam engine should be found
to apply to the whole world, and even to the whole
cosmic universe.“
*A.R. Ubbelohde, Man and Energy (1955), p. 146.
 Second Law of Thermodynamics: in
a lighter note
Nothing in life is certain except death, taxes and the second law of
thermodynamics. All three are processes in which useful or accessible
forms of some quantity, such as energy or money, are transformed into
useless, inaccessible forms of the same quantity. That is not to say that
these three processes don't have fringe benefits: taxes pay for roads and
schools; the second law of thermodynamics drives cars, computers and
metabolism; and death, at the very least, opens up tenured faculty
positions.

Seth Lloyd, writing in Nature 430, 971 (26 August 2004)

Statement for Second Law of Thermodynamics:

• Kelvin-Planck Statement :

It is impossible for any device that

operates on a cycle to receive heat
from a single reservoir and
produce a net amount of work.

A heat engine that violates the Kelvin–Planck

statement of the second law.
 Carnot’s (1824) Hypothesis

• Attempt to increase the efficiency of steam engines

• Concept of irreversibility (Internal and External)

• Cause of irreversibility

• Reversible cycle
 Typical Carnot cycle for Heat Engines

• T1>T2 Q2≠0

• All the processes are

reversible

• Heat addition and

rejection at constant
temperature

• Expansion and
compression processes
are adiabatic
 Carnot Principle

1. The efficiency of an irreversible

heat engine is always less than the
efficiency of a reversible one
operating between the same two
reservoirs.

2. The efficiencies of all reversible

heat engines operating between the
same two reservoirs are the same.
Carnot Efficiency
 Facts regarding the conversion between thermal
energy and mechanical energy – in common man’s
language

You can't win; you can only break even.

TL
ηth ,rev = 1−
TH
You can only break even at absolute zero.

You can't reach absolute zero.

Selection of suitable working medium –different
phases of matter
Vapor as a Working Fluid
Limitation of Carnot Cycle for Vapour as Working
Fluid

1’
4’

3’ 2’
 Vapor power cycle with feasible processes and
realizable mechanical components - Rankine Cycle
 Modification over Carnot cycle

1) Condensation process 3

4
2) Constant pressure heating

3) Superheating of steam to
improve exit quality
 Energy Analysis: Ideal Rankine Cycle

Thermal efficiency: Ratio of the area enclosed by the cycle on a T-s diagram to the area
under heat-addition process.
Basic steam power cycle
Utilization of boiler heat
Steam Generator Energy Absorption by function
 Irreversibility in Steam Power Cycle

• Internal Irreversibility
• External Irreversibility
 Methods of increasing ηR

To increase ηR , first attempt was made by changing the operating

parameters

a) Increase the average temperature at which heat is transferred to the

working fluid in the boiler

b) Decrease the average temperature at which heat is rejected from the

working fluid in the condenser.

 Lowering the Condenser Pressure
• The shaded area indicates
the increase in work done.

• Decrease in condenser
pressure also indicates a
decrease in condensing
temperature.

• The lowest value of

condensing temperature is
limited by the available heat
sink.

• Lower condenser pressure

also results in air leakage
and a subsequent fall in the
performance of the
condenser due to the
presence of non-condensable
gases.
 Increasing degree of Superheat

• Increasing degree of superheat

has several positive effects on the
cycle performance.

• It increases the cycle efficiency

due to increase in mean
temperature of heat addition.

• It increases the work output or

the same mass flow rate of the
working fluid.

• It also improves the exit quality of

steam.

• However, this is restricted by the

material property, particularly if
the boiler pressure is high.
 Increasing Boiler Pressure

• Both net work and heat input

increase. Overall effect: increase
ηth since Tavg at which heat is
added increases.

• Superheating to higher
temperatures , decreases the
moisture content of the steam
turbine exit.

• metallurgical considerations.
Presently highest steam
temperature allowed at the
turbine inlet 620 C .
Effects of Operating Pressure and Temperature on ηR

• As pressure increases,
there is continuing but
decreasing rate of
improvement of ηR.

• Limitation of increase in
steam pressure:
 Mechanical stresses
 Higher equipment
cost
 Modification of Basic Rankine Cycle

• Many of the basic power cycles will have efficiency lower than that
of a Carnot cycle working between the same temperature limits.
Different modifications are made so that these cycles can mimic the
Carnot cycle. This is called Carnotization.

• Carnotization of Rankine cycle also been tried by different

schemes.

• Some of these schemes are Reheating, Regenerative feed heating,

Binary vapor cycle, Combined power cycle etc.
 Reheating of Steam

qin = q primary + qreheat = (h3 − h2 ) + (h5 − h4 )

wturb ,out = wturb , I + wturb , II = (h3 − h4 ) + (h5 − h6 )
w pump = (h2 − h1 )
wturb ,out − w pump
η=
qin
Effect of Reheat-to-initial Pressure ratio on Cycle
Efficiency
• ηcycle in a single reheat
plant is influenced by the
pressure(prh) at which
steam is reheated.

• Optimum reheat
pressure for most of the
modern power plants is
0.2 to 0.25 of the initial
steam pressure.

• Reheat improves the exit

quality.

• the rate of increase in

efficiency decreases as
more than one reheat is
adopted.

• Usually more than two

reheat never employed.
Regenerative Feed Heating Motivation

• Decrease irreversibility

• Heating by “low potential” steam

• Reduction in volume flow rate

Cycle with Single Open Feed Heater

qin = ( h5 − h4 )
qout = (1 − y )(h7 − h1 )
wturb ,out = ( h5 − h6 ) + (1 − y )(h6 − h7 )
w pump ,in = (1 − y ) w pumpI ,in + w pumpII ,in
.
m6
y= .
m5
w pumpI ,in = v1 ( p2 − p1 )
w pumpII ,in = v3 ( p4 − p3 )
Closed Feed Water Heater
Multiple Heaters
A typical Steam Power cycle
Supercritical Rankine Cycle
 Different Types of Fluids

Wet Dry

Reheating becomes essential

when water is the working
fluid

Isentropic
Parametric Range of Supercritical Steam Power Cycle
Time Line for the Development of Steam Power Cycle
Steam Power Cycle for Nuclear Plant (PWR)
Combined Cycle Power Plant with coal
gasification
Geothermal Power Plant
 Some figures taken from
• Cengel.A Y, Boles A M. Thermodynamics – An Engineering Approach.
sixth Edition. Tata McGraw Hill 2008.

• Nag. K. P. Power Plant Engineering. Second Edition. Tata McGraw

Hill 2008.

• Wakil. M. M. Power Plant Technology. Tata McGraw Hill 1984.

• B & W Company. Steam – its generation and use.

• Google images.
Thank you