Coal Fired Power Plants

Background Thermodynamics and Introduction

Souvik Bhattacharyya
[email protected]
Thermodynamics:
Recapitulation
Energy, not mass, crosses closed-system boundries
Closed System with Moving Boundry
Crossing Control Volume Boundaries

Mass and Energy Cross Control Volume Boundaries

Constant-Pressure Phase-Change Process
T-v Diagram of a Pure Substance
The First Law of Thermodynamics:
Closed Systems
Heat and Work
Energy Change for a Cycle
Closed-Systems, First-Law
 First Law of Thermodynamics: Control Volumes
Steady-Flow Devices Operate Steadily for Long Periods
• The mass and energy balances for any system
undergoing any process can be expressed as
• Taking heat transfer to the system and work done
by the system to be positive quantities, the
conservation of mass and energy equations for
steady-flow processes are expressed as:
•

for each exit for each inlet

where subscript i stands for inlet and e for exit.

These are the most general forms of the equations
for steady-flow processes.
Carnot Vapour Cycle

Heat Source
TH > TL

QH

Heat
Wnet
Engine

QL
Heat Sink
TL
 Heat Engine Components

Steam Power Cycle

Boiler Turbine
3 Wturb
QI n
4

Pump Condenser
2 Qout

1
Wp

The working fluid, water, undergoes a thermodynamic

cycle 1-2-3-4-1.
 Carnot Vapor Cycle Using Steam
700

600

500

6000 kPa
T [C] 400

300 2 100 kPa

3
200

100 1 4
0
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0

s [kJ/kg-K]

Thermal efficiency of this cycle :

Wnet Q
 th , Carnot   1  out
Qin Qin
TL
 1
TH
 Effect of TH and TL on th, Carnot

•The larger TH the larger th, Carnot

•The smaller TL the larger th, Carnot

To increase the thermal efficiency in any

power cycle, we try to increase the maximum
temperature at which heat is added.
 Reasons why Carnot cycle is not used

•Pumping process 1-2 requires the pumping of a

mixture of saturated liquid and saturated vapor
at state 1 and the delivery of a saturated liquid
at state 2

•To superheat the steam to take advantage of

higher temperature, elaborate controls are
required to keep TH constant while the steam
expands and does work

To resolve these difficulties, Rankine cycle was devised.

Schematic of Steam Power Plant
Thermal efficiency of a heat engine :

Wnet,out : net work output of the heat engine

QH : amount of heat supplied to the engine
QL : amount of heat rejected by the engine
Vapour and Combined Power Cycles
9-1

Simple Ideal Rankine Cycle

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.,1998

9-2
Actual Rankine Cycle: Deviation & Pump
and Turbine Irreversibilities
(a) Deviation of actual vapour power cycle from the ideal Rankine cycle.
(b) The effect of pump and turbine irreversibilities on the ideal Rankine cycle.

(Fig. 9-4)
9-3
Effect of Lowering Condenser Pressure
on the Ideal Rankine cycle

(Fig. 9-6)
9-4
Effect of Increasing Boiler Pressure on
the Ideal Rankine cycle
(Fig. 9-8)
9-5
Ideal Reheat Rankine Cycle

(Fig. 9-11)
9-6
Ideal Regenerative Rankine Cycle with
Open Feedwater Heater

(Fig. 9-15)
9-7
Ideal Regenerative Rankine Cycle with
Closed Feedwater Heater

(Fig. 9-16)
A Steam Power Plant With One Open and
Three Closed Feedwater Heaters

(Fig. 9-17)
9-12

Combined Gas-Steam Power Plant

9-13

Summary
• The Carnot cycle is not a suitable model for vapour
power cycles because it cannot be approximated in
practice.
• The model cycle for vapour power cycles is the
Rankine cycle which is composed of four internally
reversible processes: constant-pressure heat addition
in a boiler, isentropic expansion in a turbine, constant-
pressure heat rejection in a condenser, and isentropic
compression in a pump. Steam leaves the condenser
as a saturated liquid at the condenser pressure.
9-15

Summary
 th of the Rankine cycle can be increased by increasing
the average temperature at which heat is added to the
working fluid and/or by decreasing the average
temperature at which heat is rejected to the cooling
medium.
 Average temperature during heat rejection can be
decreased by lowering the turbine exit pressure.
Consequently, the condenser pressure of most vapour
power plants is well below the atmospheric pressure. The
average temperature during heat addition can be increased
by raising the boiler pressure or by superheating the fluid to
high temperatures limited by a metallurgically safe value.
9-16

Summary
• Superheating has the added advantage of decreasing the
moisture content of the steam at the turbine exit. Lowering
the exhaust pressure or raising the boiler pressure,
however, increases the moisture content.
 Summary
• To take advantage of the improved efficiencies at higher
boiler pressures and lower condenser pressures, steam is
usually reheated after expanding partially in the high-
pressure turbine.
• This is done by extracting the steam after partial
extraction in the HP turbine, sending it back to the boiler
where it is reheated at constant pressure, and returning
it to the LP turbine for complete expansion to the
condenser pressure.
• The average temperature during the reheat process, and
thus the cycle hth, can be increased by increasing the
number of expansion and reheat stages.
• As the number of stages is increased, the expansion and
reheat processes approach an isothermal process at
maximum temperature. Reheating also decreases the
moisture content at the turbine exit.
9-17

Summary
• Another way of increasing the thermal efficiency of the
Rankine cycle is by regeneration.
• During a regeneration process, liquid water (feedwater)
leaving the pump is heated by some steam bled off the
turbine at some intermediate pressure in devices called
feedwater heaters.
• The two streams are mixed in open feedwater heaters, and
the mixture leaves as a saturated liquid at the heater
pressure.
• In closed feedwater heaters, heat is transferred from the
steam to the feedwater without mixing.
9-18

Summary
• The production of more than one useful form of energy
(such as process heat and electric power) from the same
energy source is called cogeneration.
• Cogeneration plants produce electric power while meeting
the process heat requirements of certain industrial
processes. This way, more of the energy transferred to the
fluid in the boiler is utilized for a useful purpose.
• The faction of energy that is used for either process heat
or power generation is called the utilization factor of the
cogeneration plant.
 9-19

Summary
• The overall thermal efficiency of a power plant can be
increased by using binary cycles or combined cycles.
• A binary cycle is composed of two separate cycles, one at high
temperatures (topping cycle) and the other at relatively low
temperatures (bottoming).
• Most common: gas-steam combined cycle
• Gas turbine topping cycle, steam turbine bottoming cycle.
• Steam is heated by the high-temperature exhaust gases
leaving the gas turbine.
• Combined cycles have a higher thermal efficiency than the
steam- or gas-turbine cycles operating alone.
=      
1. Cooling tower. 2. CW pump. 3. Tr. line 4. Unit transformer. 5. Electric generator 6. LP
turbine. 7. Condensate extraction pump. 8. Condensor. 9. IP turbine. 10. Steam governor
valve. 11. HP turbine. 12. Deaerator. 13. FWH. 14. Coal conveyor. 15. Coal hopper. 16.
Pulverised fuel mill. 17. Boiler drum. 18. Ash hopper. 19. Superheater. 20. FD fan. 21.
Reheater. 22. Air intake. 23. Economiser. 24. Air preheater. 25. ESP. 26. ID fan. 27. Chimney.
4 main circuits of a thermal power plant :

1. Coal & Ash Circuit

2. Air & Gas Circuit – Combustion air is supplied using

FD/ID fans. The exhaust gases from the combustion
are in turn used to heat the ingoing air through a
heat exchanger before being let off in the
atmosphere.

3. Feed Water & Steam Circuit

4. Cooling Water Circuit

Acknowledgements:
Thermodynamics: Cengel & Boles
Steam: Its Generation & Use