Steam Power Plant A thermal power station is a power plant in which the prime mover is steam driven.

. Water is heated, turns into steam and spins a steam turbine which either drives an electrical generator or does some other work. The steam power plant is a large-scale heat engine in which the working fluid (water) is in steady-state flow successively through a pump, a boiler, a turbine, and a condenser in a cyclic process.

How coal power plants produce electricity The conversion from coal to electricity takes place in three stages. Stage 1 The first conversion of energy takes place in the boiler. Coal is burnt in the boiler furnace to produce heat. Carbon in the coal and Oxygen in the air combine to produce Carbon Dioxide and heat. Stage 2 The second stage is the thermodynamic process. The heat from combustion of the coal boils water in the boiler to produce steam. In modern power plant, boilers produce steam at a high pressure and temperature. The steam is then piped to a turbine. The high pressure steam impinges and expands across a number of sets of blades in the turbine. The impulse and the thrust created rotates the turbine. The steam is then condensed to water and pumped back into the boiler to repeat the cycle. Stage 3 In the third stage, rotation of the turbine rotates the generator rotor to produce electricity based of Faradays Principle of electromagnetic induction.

Thermal Power Station

Parts of a power plant Boiler Steam Turbine Condenser Pam Electric generator

Boiler A boiler is an enclosed vessel that provides a means for combustion heat to be transferred into water until it becomes heated water or steam. The hot water or steam under pressure is then usable for transferring the heat to a process. Water is a useful and cheap medium for transferring heat to a process. When water is boiled into steam its volume increases about 1,600 times, producing a force that is almost as explosive as gunpowder. This causes the boiler to be extremely dangerous equipment that must be

treated with utmost care. The process of heating a liquid until it reaches its gaseous state is called evaporation. Heat is transferred from one body to another by means of Radiation - which is the transfer of heat from a hot body to a cold body without a conveying medium, Convection - the transfer of heat by a conveying medium, such as air or water and Conduction - transfer of heat by actual physical contact, molecule to molecule.

A. Boiler Systems The boiler system comprises of: feed water system, steam system and fuel system. The feed water system provides water to the boiler and regulates it automatically to meet the steam demand. Various valves provide access for maintenance and repair. The steam system collects and controls the steam produced in the boiler. Steam is directed through a piping system to the point of use. Throughout the system, steam pressure is regulated using valves and checked with steam pressure gauges. The fuel system includes all equipment used to provide fuel to generate the necessary heat. The equipment required in the fuel system depends on the type of fuel used in the system. The water supplied to the boiler that is converted into steam is called feed water. The two sources of feed water are: 1) Condensate or condensed steam returned from the processes and 2) Makeup water (treated raw water) which must come from outside the boiler room and plant processes. For higher boiler efficiencies, the feed water is preheated by economizer, using the waste heat in the flue gas. There are virtually infinite numbers of boiler designs but generally they fit into one of two categories: 1) Fire tube or "fire in tube" boilers; contain long steel tubes through which the hot gasses from a furnace pass and around which the water to be converted to steam circulates. Fire tube boilers, typically have a lower initial cost, are more fuel efficient and easier to operate, but they are limited generally to capacities of 25 tons/hr and pressures of 17.5 kg/cm2 .

2) Water tube or "water in tube" boilers in which the conditions are reversed with the water passing through the tubes and the hot gasses passing outside the tubes. These boilers can be of single- or multiple drum type. These boilers can be built to any steam capacities and pressures, and have higher efficiencies than fire tube boilers.

Turbine Rotary engine that converts the energy of a moving stream of water, steam, or gas into mechanical energy. The basic element in a turbine is a wheel or rotor with paddles, propellers, blades, or buckets arranged on its circumference in such a fashion that the moving fluid exerts a tangential force that turns the wheel and imparts energy to it. This mechanical energy is then transferred through a drive shaft to operate a machine, compressor, electric generator, or propeller. Turbines are classified as hydraulic, or water, turbines, steam turbines, or gas turbines. Today turbine-powered generators produce most of the world's electrical energy. Windmills that generate electricity are known as wind turbines. Large steam turbines are all of the axial-flow type. They may use single flow, double flow or reversed flow. Double flow avoids excessively long blades and can reduce axial thrust. Steam enters and leaves cylinder radially, so design must leave space for flow to turn to axial direction with minimum losses.

Turbine Stages An impulse stage consists of stationary blades forming nozzles through which the steam expands, increasing velocity as a result of decreasing pressure. The steam then strikes the rotating blades and performs work on them, which in turn decreases the velocity (kinetic energy) of the steam. The stream then passes through another set of stationary blades which turn it back to the original direction and increases the velocity

again though nozzle action. In impulse stage, most of the heat drop occurs in the stationary blading (acting as nozzles to increase velocity and kinetic energy). Driving force arises from change in momentum (direction) across the moving blades.

Ideal reaction stages would consist of rotating nozzles with stationary blades (buckets) to redirect the flow for the next set of rotating nozzles. The expansion in the rotating blades causes a pressure force (reaction) on them that drives them. However, it is impractical to admit steam to rotating nozzles. The expansion of steam in the stationary nozzles of a practical reaction turbine is an impulse action. Therefore, the reaction stage in actual turbine actions is a combination if impulse and reaction principles. A reaction stage has a higher blade aerodynamic efficiency than an impulse stage, but tip leakage losses are higher because of the pressure drop across the rotating stage. This is significant for short blades but becomes insignificant for long blades.

Impulse turbine 1. Steam expand in nozzle up to exit pressure and then constant. 2. Relative vel. Of steam constant in moving blade. 3. No. of stage is less. 4. Blades are profile type. 5. Steam & blade vel. High. 6. More compact. 7. Steam pressure is constant across the blades , so fine tip clearances are not necessary. 8. Suitable for efficient absorbing high vel. of high pressure steam. 9. No pressure drop , so no end thrust.

Reaction turbine 1. Steam expanded continuously in moving and fixed blade. 2. Relative vel. Of steam increases in moving blade due to expansion. 3. No of stage is more. 4. Blades are asymmetric and aerofoil section. 5. Steam & blade vel. High. 6. Less compact. 7. Fine blade tip clearances necessary to minimize leakage. Fine clearances can result in damage to blade tips. 8. Inefficient in high pressure stages due to (high velocity maintained

right down pressure leakages around the blade tips. 9. End thrust is generated wherever there is a pressure drop across the moving blades. This is also worst in high pressure stages.

Condenser The surface condenser is a shell and tube heat exchanger in which cooling water is circulated through the tubes. The exhaust steam from the low pressure turbine enters the shell where it is cooled and converted to condensate (water) by flowing over the tubes as shown in the adjacent diagram. Such condensers use steam ejectors or rotary motor-driven exhausters for continuous removal of air and gases from the steam side to maintain vacuum. For best efficiency, the temperature in the condenser must be kept as low as practical in order to achieve the lowest possible pressure in the condensing steam. Since the condenser temperature can almost always be kept significantly below 100 oC where the vapor pressure of water is much less than atmospheric pressure, the condenser generally works under vacuum. Thus leaks of non-condensable air into the closed loop must be prevented. Plants operating in hot climates may have to reduce output if their source of condenser cooling water becomes warmer; unfortunately this usually coincides with periods of high electrical demand for air conditioning. The condenser generally uses either circulating cooling water from a cooling tower to reject waste heat to the atmosphere, or oncethrough water from a river, lake or ocean.

Electrical generator In electricity generation, an electrical generator is a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy, generally using electromagnetic induction. The reverse conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy is done by a motor, and motors and generators have many similarities. A generator forces electric charges to move through an external electrical circuit, but it does not create electricity or charge, which is already present in the wire of its windings. It is somewhat analogous to a water pump, which creates a flow of water but does not create the water inside. The source of mechanical energy may be a reciprocating or turbine steam engine, water falling through a turbine or waterwheel, an internal combustion engine, a wind turbine, a hand crank, the sun or solar energy, compressed air or any other source of mechanical energy.

Pump It is a device that expends energy in order to raise, transport, or compress fluids. The earliest pumps were devices for raising water.

Features of Steam Turbines Advantages 1. Can give very high powers 2. Has good steam economy

3. Is very reliable 4. Has long life 5. Has few working parts - no vibration 6. Is small in size for its power Disadvantages 1. Is non-reversible 2. Has good steam economy Has poor starting torques