Steam Power Plants

 Basic Steam Plant

 Rankine Cycle
 Steam Boiler
 Steam Turbine
 Steam Condenser
 Water Pump
Generation Efficiency
 Time-Entropy Curve
Advanced Rankine Cycle
Gas Power Plants
Combined Cycle Systems
Type of Fuel used
 Steam Power Plants
Steam power plants play a key role in electric power generation.
Therefore the Rankine steam power cycle is one of the most
important cyclic processes used in industry.
The efficiency of electrical power generation has been increased
in the last few years due to process optimization. Nowadays a
total efficiency of approximately 45% can be reached

1 --2: Steam generator (or Boiler)
2 -- 3: Steam Turbine
3 --4: Condenser
4 --1: Feed pump
In order to return the steam to
the high-pressure of the steam
generator to continue the cycle,
the low- pressure steam leaving
the turbine at state 3 is first
condensed to a liquid at state 4
and then pressurized in a pump
to state 1.
The high pressure liquid water
is then ready for its next pass
through the steam generator to
state 2 and around the Rankine
cycle again.
The steam generator and
condenser both may be thought
of as types of heat exchangers,
the former with hot combustion
gases flowing on the outside of
water-
Steam Generator The purpose of the boiler is to convert
water (pumped into it under pressure)
or Boiler to steam. The steam may emerge wet,
dry saturated, or superheated
depending on the boiler design

Enthalpy (h): Is the amount of heat released

or absorbed when a chemical reaction occurs
at constant pressure.
Q: heat flow rate to or from the system
m: mass flow rate
LCV: lower heating value
Turbine

The Turbine will

simply receive steam
and produce
mechanical power to
Generator
Condenser
The condenser brings the
exhaust steam into contact
with a cool medium (usually
cold water) in order to remove
heat and condense it back to
water known as condensate.
Thermodynamically it behaves
in the same way as the boiler,
but in reverse
Water Pump

The feed pump is needed to pump water back into the boiler. In
order to do this it has to raise the pressure to at least boiler
pressure

It requires mechanical energy to achieve this, but in

comparison to the energy produced by the turbine the amount
required is very small, and can normally be ignored in plant
efficiency calculations.
 Qin = Wpump+WTurbine+Qout

Process 1-2: The working fluid is pumped from low to high pressure, as the fluid is a
liquid at this stage the pump requires little input energy.
Process 2-3: The high pressure liquid enters a boiler where it is heated at constant
pressure by an external heat source to become a dry saturated vapor.
Process 3-4: The dry saturated vapor expands through a turbine, generating power.
This decreases the temperature and pressure of the vapor, and some condensation may
occur.
Process 4-1: The wet vapor then enters a condenser where it is condensed at a constant
pressure and temperature to become a saturated liquid.
 A: Boiler
B: Super-heater
C: Turbine
D: Condenser

E: Condenser Pump
F: Pre-heater
G: Feed Water pump
Gas turbine engines derive their power from burning fuel in a combustion
chamber and using the fast flowing combustion gases to drive a turbine in
much the same way as the high pressure steam drives a steam turbine .
1. A gas turbine consists of three main components: a compressor, a
combustion chamber and the turbine itself.
2. The turbine sucks the surrounding air into the compressor, where the
pres-sure is increased by a factor of 15–30.
3. The compressed air is then fed into a combustion chamber where gas is
added and the mixture burned. The temperature inside the combustion
chamber is around 1 400°C. The exhaust gas is led out of the combustion
chamber onto the turbine blades, expanding as it does so and making the
turbine revolve
As the gas turbine speeds up, it also causes the compressor to speed up forcing
more air through the combustion chamber which in turn increases the burn
rate of the fuel sending more high pressure hot gases into the gas turbine
increasing its speed even more. Uncontrolled runaway is prevented by
controls on the fuel supply line which limit the amount of fuel fed to the
turbine thus limiting its speed
Combined Cycle Systems which are designed for maximum efficiency in
which the hot exhaust gases from the gas turbine are used to raise steam to
power a steam turbine with both turbines being connected to electricity
generators.
The production of electricity in 2009 was 20,053TWh, which was 11% of the solar
energy the earth receives in one hour (174,000TWh). Sources of electricity were
fossil fuels 67%, renewable energy 16% (mainly hydroelectric, wind, solar and
biomass), and nuclear power 13%, and other sources were 3%. The majority of fossil
fuel usage for the generation of electricity was coal and gas. Oil was 5.5%, as it is the
most expensive common commodity used to produce electrical energy.

Coal Oil Natural Nuclear Hydro Other Total

Gas
TWh/year 8.263 1.111 4.301 2.731 3.288 568 20.261

GW 942.6 126.7 490.7 311.6 375.1 64.8 2311.4

Proportion 41% 5% 21% 13% 16% 3% 100%