Thermal Power
Plants
Thermal Power Plant
▧ In Steam power plants, heat of combustion of fossil fuels is utilized by
boilers to raise steam at high temperature & pressure.
▧ The steam produced drives the turbine or sometimes steam engines
coupled to generators.
Thermal Power Plant
▧ Overall, efficiency of power plant, defined as the ratio of heat equivalent of
electrical output to heat of combustor, is about 29%.
▧ The thermal efficiency of plant depends on:
○ Pressure
○ Temperature of steam entering turbine
○ Pressure in condenser.
Working of thermal power plant
▧ It operates Rankine Cycle.
▧ Coal is burnt in a boiler which
converts water to steam.
▧ This steam is expanded in a
turbine which produces
mechanical power to drive
alternator.
▧ The steam is then condensed
to be fed into boiler again.
Fuel and Ash Circuit
▧ Coal is delivered by rail, road or water.
▧ Transportation by road is most common.
▧ The coal is then taken to bucket boilers
by means of bucket conveyers.
▧ Then, coal stored in bunkers falls into
hoppers by gravity.
▧ Combustion is controlled by controlling
the great speed, quantity of coal
entering grate, the damper openings.
▧ Ash after completion of combustion is
collected at back of boiler.
Air & Fuel Gas circuit
▧ Air is drawn from atmosphere
by a forced draught fan or
induced draught fan through air
preheater.
▧ Air is heated in preheater by
flue gases.
▧ The flue gases are finally
discharged through chimney.
Feed water and steam circuit
▧ The steam coming out of turbine is
condensed and condensate is
extracted from condenser.
▧ This condensate is forced to low
pressure feed water heater where its
temperature is raised by heat from
bled steam.
▧ In boiler water is converted to high
pressure steam which is wet.
▧ This wet steam is superheated and
then supplied to main valve to the
turbine.
▧ After coming out of turbine, steam is
condensed into feed water.
Cooling water circuit
▧ Cooling water is supplied from
a natural source such as river,
canal, sea or take or cooling
tower through screens to
remove matter that might
choke condenser tubes.
Components of
steam Power Plant
Boilers
▧ Fire tube boilers, the tubes
containing hot gases of
combustion inside are surrounded
with water.
▧ Water tube boilers, the water is
inside the tube while gases are
outside.
▧ Water tube boilers are used where
large amounts of steam are to be
produced at high temperature &
pressure.
▧ Also weight and space occupied
are less for water tube boilers.
Boiler Furnace
▧ A boiler furnace is a chamber in
which fuel is burnt to liberate the
heat energy.
▧ The boiler furnace walls are made
of refractory materials, such as fire
day, silica, kaolin etc.
▧ These materials resist change in
shape, physical properties.
Super heaters and repeaters
▧ A super heater is a device which removes
the last traces of moisture from the steam
leaving the boiler tubes and also increases
the temperature above saturation
temperature.
▧ Steam is superheated to highest
economical temperature for following
advantages.
○ Reduction in requirement of steam
quantity for given output energy.
○ Superheated steam being dry,
turbine blades remain dry so high
efficiency.
○ No corrosion at turbine blades.
Economizer and Air Preheaters
▧ When combustion gases leave the ▧ The temperature of feed water
boiler after giving most of their heat entering the economizer should be
to water tubes, super heater tubes high enough so that moisture does
and reheated tubes they still have a not condense on economizer tube.
lot of heat which if unrecovered ▧ Air preheaters are employed to
would go waste. recover the heat from the flue
▧ Economizer and air preheater are gases leaving the economizer &
such devices which recover the heat heat the incoming air for
from flue gases on their way to combustion.
chimney and raise the temperature
of feed water and are supplied for
combustion.
▧ Economizer raises boiler efficiency,
causes saving in fuel consumption.
Economizer and Air Preheaters
Condensers
▧ Steam after expansion through the
prime mover goes through the
condensers which condenses the
exhaust steam & also removes air and
other non-condensable gases form
steam while passing through them.
Evaporators
▧ In an evaporator, raw water is
evaporated by using extracted
steam and the vapors so produced
may be condensed to give supply
of pure distilled water.
Feed water heaters
▧ These heaters are used to heat the
feed water by means of bled steam
before it is supplied to boiler.
Spray Ponds
▧ It consists of water tank in which
hot water is distributed by pipes
throughout & is sprayed in air.
Through nozzles at suitable
pressure.
▧ Mostly the water is cooled by
evaporation as the heat for
evaporation is withdrawn from
water itself.
Cooling Towers
▧ The hot water is taken to tower top
and falls through tower and is broken
into small particles while passing over
baffling devices.
▧ Air enters tower from bottom and
flows upward. The air vaporizes small
amount of water and thereby cooling
the remaining water.
▧ The air gets heated and leaves tower
at top and cooled water collects at
bottom in a tank from where it is fed
to condenser and cycle is repeated.
Control Room
▧ The control room consists of
the main control desk and
auxiliary panels, is the point in
a thermal power plant where all
of the information required for
its efficient control and
management converges.
Switchyard
▧ Switchyard is the point in the
power network where transmission
lines and distribution feeders or
generating units are connected
through circuit breakers and other
switchgears via bus bars and
transformers. Switchyard acts as
interface between the power plant
electrical system and electrical
grid.
Steam Turbine
▧ A steam turbine is a device that
extracts thermal energy from
pressurized steam and uses it to
do mechanical work on a rotating
output shaft.
▧ Classification of steam Turbine
○ Impulse turbine,
○ Reaction turbine
Electrostatic Precipitator
▧ It has two set of electrodes which are ▧ The dust practices become
completely insulated from each other negatively charged and are
and high voltage electrostatic field is attracted to positive electrode.
maintained across them.
▧ The first electrode is called as
emitting or discharge electrode and
other is called as collecting
electrode.
▧ High electrostatic field is created
between both which creates corer
discharge and ionizes the gas
molecules as flue gases flows
through the tube.
Fuels used
Fuels used in Steam Power Plant
▧ Fuels may be classified as solid, liquid and gases and as
natural or prepared.
▧ The fuels used generally are coal, oil and gas.
Classification of coal
▧ Peat:
○ Enthalpy of combustion: 3000 KJ/kg
○ High moisture content: 60-90 %
▧ Lignite
○ 30-50 % moisture and 40 % carbon
○ Enthalpy: 13, 800 – 17,600 KJ/kg
▧ Sub-bituminous coal
○ Volatile matter: 35-45%
○ Enthalpy 18,000 – 23,000 KJ/kg
▧ Bituminous Coal
○ Enthalpy : 23000-34000 KJ/kg
○ Low moisture content
Classification of coal
▧ Semi-Bituminous Coal
○ Volatile matter between 14% – 22%
○ Enthalpy: 27,000-35,000 J/kg
▧ Semi-anthracite Coal
○ Enthalpy : 33,500 – 34,750 kJ/kg
○ Highest carbon content and highest calorific value.
▧ Super-anthracite Coal
○ Very hard with a shiny black surface.
Selection of Coal
▧ Calorific value
▧ Weatherability: ability of coal to withstand exposure to environment without
crumbling.
▧ Sulphur: most combustible element of coal but produces SiO2 which is a health
hazard.
▧ Ash: Impurity but produces no heat and is to be removed from furnace to be
disposed.
Liquid Fuels
▧ Oil can be used in a boiler furnace for generating steam.
▧ The fuel oil has a much higher percentage of hydrogen as compared to coal,
therefore high moisture loss in flue gases resulting in low overall 𝜂.
Gaseous Fuels
▧ Natural Gas can be used for Power Generation.
▧ Major limitation for using natural gas as fuel for power generation is location
of power plant near natural gas fields.
