This figure depicts the parts of a Coal-Fired Power Plant

OPERATION

A large scale coal fired power plant going to its full load capacity burns a thousand tons

of coal for an hour or 30,000 pounds of coal per minute. It generates billion watts of electricity

which supplies a large number or million households. These inputs and outputs are the

considerable features of the plant. On one side, you will see long trains or trucks unloading coal

which is gained through mining. It is heaped up in mountainous black stockpiles. While on the

other side is a high voltage switchyard with transmission lines connected which disappears over

the horizon. Another one that can be seen is the output of the plant which is obvious, a tall

smokestack, surrounded at its base by pollution-control equipment.

 Whats not seen outside is explained further in this research from the burning of the coal

to the generation of electricity. The following paragraphs explain the basic operation of power

plant. First, the ignition of the fuel or coal pile through the furnace to the exhaust plume and the

ash pit. Following the circulation of water and steam and finally, the flow of electricity from the

generator to the transmission lines.

Coal Handling

Large scale power plants do not use shovel, trucks or even bulldozers in transporting coal

to the combustion chamber. Most of the large power plants uses conveyor systems in transporting

coal from one place to another; one of the major characteristic of coal fired power plant is its

conveyor slanting across the skyline. Aside from these, another thing to consider in coal handling

are the stackers that pile coal into storage heaps and the unstackers that eventually retrieve it

from those heaps.

From the storage pile, the coal moves by a conveyor to a bunker or silo, and then another

conveyor carries it into the plant. Big lumps are broken into smaller lumps by going into a

crusher which looks like a drum of giant clothes drier. For most coal-fired power plants, coal is

prepared for use by first crushing the delivered coal less than 5 cm in size. These smaller lumps

is sent through another drum, pulverizer, which is a drum consists of steel balls or hammers

which in turn pulverized this smaller lumps of coal. Therefore, the result of this process is a coal

powder that is as fine as the beach sand.

However, in plants that do not burn pulverized coal, the crushed coal may be directly fed

into cyclone burners, a specific kind of combustor that can efficiently burn larger pieces of coal.

While on plants fueled with slurried coal, the slurry is fed directly to the pulverizers and then
mixed with air and fed to the steam generator. The slurry water is therefore removed and

sepoarated during the pulverizing of the coal.

The Firebox

The firebox is the coal-burning furnace in which the pulverized coal is being brought. The

powdered or pulverized coal is treated like a fluid, not a solid and is being brought to the firebox.

Therefore burning the coal inside the firebox. The ideal is to burn it all, every single particle due

to the fact that every single particle that is not burnt contributes as a waste and to the pollution

problems. Anything that doesnt burn will eventually be hauled away.

One of the keys to attain full combustion is to maintain the right ratio of fuel to air and to

make sure that they are mixed well. In most large furnaces, there are two air streams. A big fan

that blows the powdered coal into the combustion chamber and starts the process and another

one that adds a secondary air. Plants of this kind run 24 hours a day not because of the demand

for relectricity but because shutting them down and starting them again takes several hours.

Flue Gases

In order not to waste the heat emitted by the fire inside the furnace, the pathway of the

combustion gases is arc-shaped: up through the boiler, then horizontally across the top of the

furnace building, then partway back down again. This route that gas passes by extracts heat in

various ways. First is the boiler, the heat is used to boil water and make steam. Then near the top

of the arch is the superheater which raises the temperature of the steam above the boiling point to

apply more pressure to the steam that is created. Farther along, there is a reheater which adds

more heat to the steam that already passed through the first stages of the turbine. Then comes to
economizer which water is preheated on its way to the boiler. And after all this superheating and

reheating, the flue gases is used to preheat the air that blows the fuel into the firebox.

Air Pollution Control

In order to get rid of the pollution that the flue gases contributes, there is an equipment

which is employed at the base of the smoke stack which is called the electrostatic precipitator.

They rely on subtler physics than a vacuum-cleaner bag; they work on the principle of static

cling, the force that makes toy balloon stick to the wall after you rub it into your clothes.

Inside the precipitator are many parallel rows of vertical metal plates, with flue gas

flowing horizontally through the lanes between them. Hanging down into the spaces between

plates are fine wires energized with thousand volts of electricity. This therefore cleans the smoke

passing through the precipitator through static electric charge.

Stack

The function of the stack is like that of a chimney where warm air rose, creating a natural

draft to draw fresh air to the furnace. The height of the stack is determined through the

requirement of releasing the effluents high in the air where they will be dispersed and diluted.

The stack of a power plant mainly depends on the number of firebox boiler - turbine

units. However, a single stack plant does not necessarily mean that the plant has only one unit.

Feedwater heating and deaeration

Feedwater heating is done through the boilers of the power plant. The feedwater used in

this process is the combination of the recirculated condensate water and the makeup water. It is

important to note that the makeup water goes through highly purifying system of water softeners
and ion exchange demineralizers. This combination of water flows through feedwater heater with

which the steam is generated and extracted. This combination of water also flows through

deaerator which removes dissolved air from water further purifying and reducing its corrosivity.

Deaeration therefore removes the possibility of having corrosion between the metal plates

of the tubes and turbines of the generator. It is also dosed with pH control agents such

as ammonia or morpholine to keep the residual acidity low and thus non-corrosive.

Diagram of a tray-type boiler feed water deaerator (with vertical, domed aeration section

and horizontal water storage section) is shown below.

The steam generator

Simplified diagram of a conventional coal-fired steam generator.

 A typical coal-fired steam generator is a rectangular furnace with about 15 meters on a

side and about 40 meters tall. Its walls are made up of insulated steel with high pressure steel

boiler tubes which is attached to the inner surface of the walls. This therefore generates steam

that flows through the steam turbine.

This houses several equipments in the power plants and involves some process. When the

deaerated boiler feedwater enters the economizer, it is preheated by the hot combustion flue

gases and then flows into the boiler steam drum at the top of the furnace. Water from that drum

circulates through the boiler tubes therefore generating steam.

When pulverized coal is brought into the furnace by means of air blowing, it rapidly

burns which forms a large fire at the center. This thermal radiation heats the water that circulates

through the boiler tube that is mounted on the furnace walls. As the water circulates through the

boiler tubes, it absorbs heat and partially changes to steam with about 362 C and with a pressure

of 190 bar. Meanwhile, in the boiler stteam drum, the steam is extracted from the circulating

water. The steam then flows through the superheater tubes which provides more heating and

pressure before being routed into the high pressure steam turbine.

The steam turbine

Rotor of a large modern steam turbine, used in a power plant.

 Steam turbines in a coal fired power plant includes a high pressure turbine, an

intermediate pressure turbine and two low pressure turbines. The series of turbines are connected

to each other and on a common shaft, with the electrical generator also being on that common

shaft is one of the common configuration.

As the steam moves through the system, it loses pressure and thermal energy and expands

in volume, which requires increasing turbine diameter and longer turbine blades at each

succeeding stage. This therefore turns the turbine and in turn turns the generator. The entire

rotating mass may weigh over 180 metric tons and be 30 meters long. It is so heavy and the

internal clearances are so close that it must be kept turning slowly at 3 rpm (which is done

through the use of gearing mechanism).

Another essential system is the turbine lubricating oil system which supplies oil to all

turbine bearings in order to avoid metal-to-metal contact between the turbine shaft and the shaft

bearings. The turbine shaft is filled with oil at this bearing points. And other important or vital

auxiliary in this system is the governor which regulates turbine speed. It is important in order to

protect the rotation of the turbine and regulate its speed.

Superheated steam from the steam generator flows through a control valve which

regulates the steam flow in accordance with the power output needed from the plant into the high

pressure turbine. Then, the exhaust steam that comes from the high pressure turbine returns to the

steam generator's reheating tubes where it is reheated back to 540 C before it flows into the

intermediate pressure turbine. The exhaust steam from the intermediate pressure turbine flows

directly into the two low pressure turbines and the exhaust steam from the low pressure turbines

flows into the surface condenser. A small fraction of steam from the turbines is used to heat the

deaerator and/or the boiler feedwater preheater.

Electrical Generator

The electrical generator is coupled to the shaft of the steam turbine so that as the turbine

rotates, the generator also rotates therefore producing electricity. In the type of generator used

with a steam driven turbine, each turn of the magnetic rotor produces one cycle of alternating

current in the stator coils. The current flows first one way through the coil and the other, like a

tide sloshing in and out. A rotor turning 60 revolutions per second generates alternating current at

a frequency of 60 cycles per second or 60 hertz. This frequency is usually employed with

machines with 3600 revolutions per minute. In U.S., the standard frequency is 60 Hz while on

Europe, the standard frequency is 50 Hz.

Steam Condensing and Cooling Towers

Lowering the pressure and temperature at the outlet port is the job of the condenser. This

is also where the steam gives up all of its heat. As the steam condenses, the volume and the

pressure diminishes. The pressure in the condenser is less than that of the atmospheric pressure.

It actually has a partial vacuum in which the steam is being sucked out of the turbine.

The water that is collected by the condenser is actually a distilled water which is the

standard of purity in water. However, the water needs further treatment called polishing before it

can be returned to the boiler. This is done to prevent small particles to enter the boiler because

once it happens, the boiler tubes and the other equipment might be damaged. In order to remove

suspended solids, the water is filtered through sand or charcoal and magnetic separators which

extract particles of rust. A water softener is used to eliminate magnesium and calcium which is

corrosive in nature. Other chemical treatments adjust the acidity, or alkalinity and removes

dissolved oxygen which can be corrosive in nature.

Summary of Operation

Briefly summarizing the above processes, it is therefore concluded that the operation of

coal fired power plant is summarized by the diagram and the statements below:

1. Heat is Generated

- Before the burning of coal, it is pulverized into fine particles. It is then mixed with hot air

and blown into the firebox of the boiler. Burning in suspension, the coal and air mixture

provides the most complete combustion and maximum heat possible depending upon the

ratio of coal and air.

2. Water turns to steam

- Highly purified water which is pumped through the pipes inside the boiler is turned to

steam through the heat created by the firebox. The steam created also undergoes series of
processes like the superheating in which there is additional heat applied through the steam

increasing its temperature and pressure before being piped in to turbines.

3. Steam turns the turbine

- The enormous pressure of the steam pushes the giant blades of the turbine shaft. This

turbine shaft is coupled to a generator so that as the turbine rotates, the generator also rotates

cutting flux through the stator coils and generating electricity.

4. Steam turns back into water

- After turning the turbine, the steam is drawn into large chamber in the basement of the

power plant in which the condenser is attached. In this step, millions of gallons pf cool water

from a nearby source such as river or lake is pumped through the network of tubes through

the condenser. The cold water in the tubes converts the steam back into the water that can be

used over and over again.