Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Powerplant Notes
Powerplant Notes
A steam generator is a complex integration of furnace, superheater, reheater, boiler or evaporator, economizer and air
preheater along with various auxiliaries such as pulverizers, burners, fans, stokers, dust collectors and precipitators,
chimney or stack.
Economisers are basically heat exchangers, their tubes are commonly 45-70 mm in outside diameter and made in
vertical coils of continuous tubes connected between inlet and outlet headers and coils are installed at 45 to 50 mm
spacing. Temperature of feed water is raised to about saturation temperature by means of flue gases.
Superheaters
In modern utility high pressure boilers, more than 40% of heat is absorbed in generation of steam takes place inside
superheater. So, it requires large surface area for superheating of steam.
Superheaters are commonly classified as either convective superheaters, radiant superheaters or combined
superheaters, depending on how heat is transferred from the gases to steam.
Convective superheaters are located in convective zone of furnace, whereas radiant superheaters are located in radiant
zone. Steam leaving the radiant superheaters goes to desuperheater where highly pure water is directly sprayed on to
steam in such a quantity that the temperature of steam after the last stage of superheating in the pendant superheater
(combined super heater) does not exceed the rated value.
Reheaters
The design consideration for reheaters is same for those of superheaters, although the steam outlet temperature are
about the same as in superheater. The steam pressure is about 20-25% of those in superheater. So, the pressure
stresses are therefore lower.
Air-preheaters
The use of hot air makes the combustion process more efficient by making it more stable and lessening the energy
losses due to incomplete combustion and unburnt carbon. It causes a saving in the amount of fuel and consequent
increase in boiler efficiency. The hot air is also used for drying the coal in the pulverizers.
Boilers
Classification of steam generators can be made in different ways.
Depending upon the application, they can be
(a) Utility Steam generators (b) Industrial steam generator (c) Marine steam generators
Depending on whether the pressure of steam is below or above the critical pressure (222.1 bar), they can be either
subcritical or super-critical units.
Subcritical boilers usually operate between 130 and 180 bar steam pressure. Subcritical steam generators are water
tube-drum type.
Supercritical steam generators are drum-less once through type and operate at 240 bar pressure or higher.
Majority of utility steam generators are of the 170-180 bar water tube drum variety, which produce superheated steam
at about 540-560⁰C with one or two stages of reheating. The steam capacities of modern utility steam generators range
from 120 to 1300 kg/s.
Depending upon the movement of gas and water
(a) Fire tube (b) Water tube
Water tube boilers are divided into two types.
(a) Straight tube boilers (b) Bent tube boilers
Bent tube boilers offer few advantages over straight tube boilers. They are
(i) In bent tube boiler, the tubes are so bent that they enter and leave the drums radially.
(ii) They operate at high steam rate.
(iii) They have better accessibility for cleaning, inspection and maintenance.
Synthetic fuels
Synthetic fuels are gaseous and liquid fuels produced largely from coal in an economical and environmentally acceptable
manner.
Coal gasification
Basically in gasification, coal is blown with steam while also being heated. So during reaction oxygen and water molecules
oxidize the coal and produce a gaseous mixture like CO2, CO, H2O vapor and H2.
3C + H2 O + O2 → H2 + 3CO
For low grade coal (brown coal) which generally contains significant amounts of water, there are techniques in which no
steam is required, coal and O2 being only reactants. Some gasification techniques use direct blowing where coal and
oxidizer supply toward each other where as in reverse blowing they are supplied from same side. In all cases oxidizer
supplied is insufficient for complete combustion.
Coal liquefaction
The conversion of coal into liquid fuel requires the addition of hydrogen to the coal. There are three basic modes that
have been used to liquefy coal. These are direct process like hydrogenation and indirect process like catalytic conversion
and hydropyrolysis.
In the hydrogenation process, coal and catalyst are suspended as a slurry, which is reacted with hydrogen at high
pressure and moderate temperature to form liquid hydrocarbons.
In the indirect process, it requires indirect gasification of solid coal to form synthetic gas, which is then converted to
liquid by means of catalyst.
Combustion
In utility steam generators, percentage of excess air required for complete combustion of coal ranges between 15 to
30%.
Combustion of coal may occur in
(a) Fuel bed furnace
(b) Pulverized coal furnace
(c) Cyclone furnace
(d) Fluidized bed furnace
Fuel bed Combustion
A grate is used at the furnace bottom to hold a bed of fuel. There are two ways of feeding coal onto the grate:
(a) Overfeeding (b) Underfeeding
An overfed fuel bed section receives coal fresh coal on its top surface. In underfeeding, coal is fed from below the grate
by a screw conveyor or ram.
In small boilers, the grate is stationary and coal is fed manually by shovels. But for more uniform operating conditions
moving grates or stokers are used. They are power operated coal feeding system.
Boiler performance
Energy utilized H. H. V − losses
ηsteam,gen = =
Energy released H. H. V
The various losses have been listed as follows,
1. Energy lost due to unburnt carbon
2. Energy lost due to dry exhaust gases.
3. Energy lost due to moisture in fuel
4. Energy lost due to hydrogen in fuel
5. Energy lost due to moisture in air
6. Energy lost due to convection and radiation loss
7. Energy lost due to ash and slack
Pelton wheel
It’s a tangential flow impulse turbine. Its runner consists of a large circular disk on the periphery of which a number of
two-lobe ellipsoidal buckets are evenly mounted. Each bucket has a splitter which directs the jet of water into 2 equal
streams. The nozzle (fixed) directs the flow on wheel. It also directs the flows with the help of spear hull, controlled by
the governor. In its simple arrangement there is a single nozzle (jet) but for large discharge there are 6 jets that are
symmetrically arranged.
Francis turbine
This is an inward mixed flow reaction turbine in which entry is radial and the discharge is axial. Basically it comprises of
Scroll casing, guide vanes, runner vane and draft tubes.
Scroll casing-
It is generally a spiral case ad surrounds the runner and guide
mechanisms. Its basic function is to distribute water over the guide
vanes and prevent the formation of eddies.
Guide vanes
They are of aerofoil shape and are spaced evenly around the periphery
of the runner. It imparts a tangential velocity to water before entering
the runner.
Runner vanes
The runner consists of a series of vanes (12-24). The shape of vane is
such that water enters the vane radially at the outer periphery and
leaves axial direction at the inner periphery.
In Francis turbine, pressure of water at inlet is more than that of outlet, as such water is required to flow in closed conduit.
Unlike Pelton wheel where the water strikes only on a few buckets at a time, in Francis turbine runner is always full of
water.
Work done on the vane = U1 ∙ Vw1 (as Vw2 = 0)
work done U1 ∙ Vw1
ηh = =
energy supplied gH
U
Speed ratio(ρ) =
V1
Vf1
Flow ratio (ϕ) =
V1
𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞 (𝐐) = Area of flow × Flow velocity = πD1 B1 × Vf1 = πD2 B2 × Vf2
D1 → dia. of runner at inlet B1 → width of vane at inlet Vf1 → flow velocity at inlet
When the thickness of the value is to be considered,
Q = (πD1 − n × t)B1 × Vf1
t → thickness of vane n → no. of vanes attached to runner
B
Breadth ratio =
D
It might be noted from the figure that Qn is the minimum flow rate that will be available for all times (100% time). Area
under the curve would represent the average yield from the stream, this power is called as primary power.
Additional output available at high water flow is called secondary power. If the flow rate of Q m is required for all times
as indicated by area under the flow duration line (DEF) then it’s possible to make this uniform flow rate or power at all
times, only if the storage is equal to area (BEF) is power. In the absence of storage, net area (BCBE) represents the
secondary power that is available from the river.
Mass Curve
It’s a graph of cumulative values of water quantity against time. It’s an integral curve which expresses the area under
the hydro curve from one time to another. It’s a curvilinear curve to determine the determine the storage
requirements.
Nuclear Energy
Protons
Nucleus Nucleons
Atom Nuetrons
Electrons
Atomic number (Z) No. of Protons Mass number No. of protons + No. of neutrons
Isotopes
Isotopes are variants of a particular chemical element which differ in neutron number, and consequently in nucleon
number. All isotopes of a given element have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons in each
atom. 1H1 → Protium 2
1 H → Deuterium
2
1 H → Tritium
235 235 238
Naturally occurring Uranium has 3 isotopes 92 U 92 U 92 U
Radioactivity
The phenomena of spontaneous emission of powerful radiations exhibited by heavy elements such as uranium is called
radioactivity. It is essentially a nuclear phenomenon and is a drastic process because the element changes its kind. It is
spontaneous irreversible self-disintegrating activity because the element breaks up for good. This element which
exhibits such activity such called radioactive elements. Radiations emitted by this elements are found as follows,
α- particle or α rays
β- particles, γ rays, Neutrons etc..
Chemical and Nuclear reactions
Nuclear reactions involve a change in an atoms nucleus usually producing a different element. Chemical reactions on
the other hand involve only a rearrangement of electrons and do not involve changes in nuclei. Rates of chemical
reactions are influenced are influenced by temperature, pressure catalyst etc.. but the rates of nuclear reaction are
unaffected by this factors.
In nuclear reactions, mass us not strictly conserved. Some of the mass is converted to energy as per the equation E=mc2,
where c is the velocity of the light. Energy changes for nuclear reactions are much larger and this obviously comes from
the destruction of the mass.
Nuclear fission
It is a nuclear reaction or a radioactive decay process in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller and lighten
nuclei. It can be caused by bombarding with high energy α particles, protons or neutrons. However neutrons are most
suitable as they are electrically neutral and as such requires no high
Kinetic energy to overcome the electrical repulse from the positively
charged nuclei. It can be considered as a process that occurred when a
neutron collides with the nucleus of certain heavy atom causing the
original nucleus to split into two or more unequal fragments which
carry most of the energy of fission as Kinetic Energy. It is accomplished
by the emission of neutrons and γ rays.
It is the representation of fission of Uranium 235 which has been bombarded with neutron. The energy released as a
result of fission is the basis for the nuclear power generation. The release of about 2.5 neutrons per fission makes it
possible to produce sustained fissioning. The fission fragments that result from the fission process are radioactive and
decay by emission of β particles, γ rays and to a lesser extent α particles and neutrons. The neutrons that are emitted
after emission by decay of some fission fractions are called delayed neutrons. This are important as they permit fission
chain reaction to be easily controlled. The fission of uranium 235 yields on average about 193 MeV. The amount of
energy is prompt i.e., released during the fusion process. More energy is however produced due to slow decay of fusion
fragments. The total energy released per fission reaction per atom is about 200 MeV. The complete fission od 1g of U 235
thus produces
1 eV = 1.602 × 10−19 J
Avagadro constant 6.023 × 1023
× 200 Me V = × 200 Me V
Mass of U − 235 isotope 235.049
= 5.126 × 1023 Me V = 8.19 × 1010 J = 2.276 × 1024 kWh = 0.984 MW − day
Thus a nuclear reactor burning 1 gram of uranium 235 generates nearly 1 MW-day of energy. This is referred to by the
term “fuel burnup”.