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International Conference on Recent Advances in Interdisciplinary Trends in Engineering & Applications

Exergy Analysis of a Thermal Power Plant

Gajendra Kumar Gaurav, Neetu Singh, BijoFrancis
Ujjain Engineering College, Ujjain Pin-456010, Madhya Pradesh, India

Abstract

In this paper exergy analysis of thermal power plant is presented. The primary objectives of the paper are to identify and quantify
the reactions having maximum exergy losses. Exergy analysis is based on the second law of thermodynamics which gives
maximum potential work and also characterizes the irreversibility of the process. It is found that the most significant source of
exergy destruction as well as irreversibility in the plant. The heat losses through the boiler and condenser are considered here. The
energy balance and exergy destruction are performed around the different equipment of the plant. The total energy losses around
the boiler are 6%while maximum energy losses occur in condenser about 66% of total energy loss. The major source of exergy loss
is boiler where around 77% of the fuel exergy was destroyed, in the turbine it is 13% of total fuel exergy was destroyed. It shows
that the boiler is the major source of the irreversibility in the plant. The exergy destruction losses are expressed by. Moreover, the
performance of different techniques for PAH removal is also compared and discussed for a better understanding of the treatment
processes.

Key words: Exergy loss, Exergy analysis, Thermal power plant

*Correspondence: gajendragaurav@gmail.com

Graphical Abstract

Highlights
The highlights of this wrok are as follows:
(i) To carry out exergy analysis of a chemical process to identify the modification
(ii) To compare the results with existing process as well as published work.
(iii) To perform profitability analysis of the modified process

1. Introduction
Exergy or availability is derived from the combination of the first and second laws of the thermodynamics.
Exergy is defined as the maximum theoretical useful work obtained if a system, S, is brought into
thermodynamic equilibrium with the environment by means of processes in which S interacts only with this
environment. Exergy has the characteristic that it is conserved only when all processes occurring in a system
and the environment are reversible. Exergy is destroyed whenever an irreversible process occurs. Thus,
thermodynamic imperfections can be quantified as exergy destructions, which represent losses in energy quality
or usefulness. That is, when energy loses its quality, exergy is destroyed. Exergy analyses are the first step in
understanding where the weak points of the processes are. Exergy is always destroyed, partially or totally,

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according to the second law of thermodynamics. Thus, by performing an exergy analysis, it is possible to know
how the destruction of exergy is distributed over the engineering system of interest and which processes destroy
more exergy. This analysis tells us from the start how to allocate engineering effort and resources. A step
further can be given by trying to minimize the exergy destruction (or entropy generation). It is here where the
exergy and process intensification concepts can be associated. Process intensification consists in the
development of innovative apparatuses and techniques that offer drastic improvements in chemical
manufacturing and processing, substantially decreasing equipment volume, energy consumption, or waste
formation, and ultimately leading to cheaper, safer, sustainable technologies. Chemical engineers are expected
to design a system to achieve the highest technical efficiency at the lowest cost under the prevailing technical,
economic, and legal conditions, and accounting for ethical, environmental and social aspects, and always
aiming at an intensified (drastically improved) process. Exergy analyses and further process optimization by
minimization of entropy generation (or exergy destruction) are tools that can orientate this task.

Figure 1 Schematic diagram of power plant

2. Methodology
To analysis different component of system, we should first calculate exergy associated with different type of
energy.
2.1 The exergy of heat
For calculation of exergy of heat (at temperature T):
We are using reversible thermal power cycle
Heat is discharged only to environment (at T0)
Maximum theoretical work from reversible power cycle-

With TH = T and TC = T0 (1)

2.2 The Exergy of an amount of matter

Wrev=Exergy

Po, To
P, T
Reversible Process

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Q at temperature T0

Defined as the amount of work that will be obtained when system bring that matter into equilibrium with
environment by reversible process. (Kinetic and potential energy is not taken into account) applying first law on
above system-
(2)
For reversible process

for a system which can exchange only heat with its environment
(3)
Combining (1) and (2)

This is the work obtained when a system reversibly bring an amount of matter into equilibrium with its
surrounding known as Exergy of matter, so specific exergy of amount of matter defined as
Ψ= (4)
Here Ho and So are enthalpy and entropy at environmental temperature and pressure.
For flow of mass it will be X=m×Ψ

2.3 Calculation of Exergy Destruction of an open, Steady state, Constant Volume System

Irreversible Process

When irreversibility is present in system exergy loss takes place, exergy balance for irreversible process-

For the above system

But from above equation it is clear that

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So can be write as

Applying first law of Thermodynamics to above system

Then becomes

Mass, energy balance on any control volume

Ʃ m i= Ʃ m e ; Q – W= Ʃ me he – Ʃ mi hi

Table 1Energy balance of the power plant components and percent ratio to fuel energy input
Component Heat loss (kW) Percent ratio
Condenser 133,597 65.97
Net power 53,321 26.33
Boiler 12,632 6.24
Piping 1665 0.82
Heaters 856 0.42
Turbine 452 0.22
Total 202,523 100

Exergy destruction rate and exergy efficiency equation for different pant component defined as-
For Boiler
Destruction Iboiler = Xfuel+ Xin –Xout; Efficiency ȵ boiler = (Xout–Xin )/ Xfuel

For pump
Destruction Iboiler = Xin –Xout+ Wpump; Efficiency ȵ pump = 1–Ipump/ Wpump

For Heaters
Destruction Iheater = Xin –Xout; Efficiency ȵ heater = 1–Iheater/ Xin

For Turbine
Destruction Iboiler = Xin –Xout– Welec; Efficiency ȵ pump = 1–Iturbine/ Xin –Xout

For condenser
Destruction Iboiler = Xin –Xout+ Wf; Efficiency ȵ pump = Xout / (Xin + Wf)

For cycle
Destruction Icycle=ƩallcomponantIi; Efficiency ȵ pump = Wnet out/ Xfuel

Pump work done = For boiler =1.255190058 MW; For CRT = 0.460590643 MW

Table 2 Exergy destruction and exergy efficiency of the power plant components when To=298.15 and Po=101.3 kPa
Component of power plant Exergy destruction(MW) Exergy destruction (%) Exergy efficiency (%)
Boiler 120.5403883 76.44604285 43.84963505
Turbine 21.02735516 13.33543152 72.70144468
Condenser 13.73808153 8.712614784 26.40351282
Boiler pumps 0.219909399 0.139465316 82.47999199
CRT pump 0.330740209 0.209753598 28.19215638
HPH1 0.438165514 0.277882128 97.41009097
HPH2 0.359225482 0.2278188 97.210416
Deaerator 0.35531244 0.225337171 95.29845344
LPH4 0.376595143 0.238834542 89.54084986
LPH5 0.294577317 0.186819294 82.30520328
Power Cycle 157.6803505 100 24.54892164

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Table 3 For Reference Temperature =283.15 K

point temperature pressure enthalpy entropy M Ψ X
(K) (MPa) (kJ/kg K) (kJ/kg K) (ton/h) (kJ/kg) (MW)
1 618.55 2.4231 3118.1 6.8419 17.8 1181.475317 5.841739067
2 547.85 1.3244 2986.9 6.8835 14.92 1038.496277 4.303990126
3 463.65 0.569 2831.4 6.951 16.4 863.883652 3.93546997
4 394.35 0.206 2707.7 7.1173 13.96 693.095807 2.687671518
5 360.45 0.0628 2655.2 7.5168 6.39 527.477382 0.936272353
6 343.15 0.0272 2626.9 7.8193 204.9 413.524507 23.53643652
7 339.95 0.0272 279.66 0.91588 204.9 20.98788 1.19456017
8 339.75 0.027 278.82 0.91342 226 20.844429 1.308566932
9 341.15 1.3734 285.79 0.92986 226 23.159443 1.453898366
10 337.6 0.0245 269.81 0.88684 21.1 19.360556 0.11347437
11 356.15 0.0536 347.61 1.1111 226 33.661337 2.113183934
12 362.45 0.0687 374.09 1.1848 13.96 39.273182 0.152292672
13 390.15 0.1815 491.08 1.4954 226 68.316792 4.288776387
14 428.15 0.6867 653.88 1.8922 275 118.762872 9.072163833
15 430.15 12.263 669.49 1.8991 275 132.419137 10.11535074
16 436.15 0.6671 688.52 1.9725 32.7 130.665927 1.18688217
17 461.45 10.791 804.43 2.2056 275 180.573662 13.7938214
18 466.15 2.3544 821.28 2.2626 17.8 181.284112 0.89634922
19 494.15 10.301 950.46 2.5124 275 239.733242 18.31295599
20 793.15 9.1233 3436.3 6.7168 275 1535.097382 117.2643833
output air 318.15 0.1013 444.68 3.9468 23,900 .6792 4.509
dead states water 283.15 0.1013 42.119 0.15108 0 0

Table 4 Exergy destruction (MW) for Boiler, condenser and Turbine for different reference Temperature
Temperature Boiler Turbine Condenser
283.2 115.723 20.023 19.417
288.2 117.329 20.358 17.526
293.2 118.935 20.692 15.634
298.2 120.54 21.027 13.738
303.2 122.146 21.362 11.84
308.2 123.752 21.697 9.9409
313.2 125.358 22.032 8.0383
318.2 126.96 22.37 6.135
283.2 115.723 20.023 19.417

Figure 2 Effect of reference environment temperature on total exergy destruction rate in major plant components

Figure 3 Effect of reference environment temperature on the exergy efficiency of major plant component

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3. Results and Discussion

The thermal power plant was analysed with the equation presented in model development section, initially
environment temperature and pressure was 298.15 K and 101.3kPa, respectively. Thermodynamics properties of
different stream at indicated nodes in Fig. 1 were calculated using mini-REFPROP 9.1 software and
summarized in table 6. Energy balance presented in table 3, shows that two third of fuel energy lost in
condenser and carried out into the environment while there is only 6% lost in boiler but efficiencies based on
energy can be misleading because it does not provide a measure of ideality, also losses of energy can be large
but it may be thermodynamically in significant if it is not low quality, like in case of heat energy higher the
temperature it has, higher will be the work potential. Exergy based efficiencies provide measure of approach to
ideality. Exergy and percent exergy destruction provided in table 5 and it became clear the maximum exergy
destruction takes place in boiler, so it contains maximum irreversibility in the cycle while the exergy destruction
rate of condenser is only 9% which was source of maximum energy losses (66% of total energy input) but
exergy analysis showed that only 9% of exergy lost in the condenser so real losses occur in boiler, after doing
exergy analysis it became clear that boiler needs significant improvements rather than condenser. Exergy values
depend upon properties of environment when a system is at same temperature, pressure, elevation, velocity and
chemical composition so there will be no potential that would allow the extraction of useful work. Dead state
does not have any effect on energy analysis but it has effect on exergy analysis, to find out how significant it is
the dead state temperature changes from 283.15 K to 323.15 K while keeping the pressure at 101.3 kPa. Result
of exergy analysis are presented in Fig 5, for three main components (boiler, condenser and turbine), it shows
that no matter what dead state we choose maximum exergy destruction source will remain boiler. Fig 6 shows
that variation in exergy efficiencies of boiler, turbine and condenser with reference temperature, efficiencies for
boiler and turbine did not change too much but efficiency for condenser at 323.15 K is almost twice as much
when reference temperature is 283.15 K, it is because temperature difference is reducing between steam and
cooling air.

4. Conclusion
In this case study, energy and exergy analysis of a power plant is done with a varying reference temperature. In
this power plant maximum energy loss takes place in condenser it is about 66% of total energy input and it is
6% for boiler and less than 2% for the remaining components. But it is exergy analysis which showed that this
condenser loss is thermodynamically insignificant due to its low quality, Exergy analysis tells us that major
source of exergy loss is boiler where around 77% of the fuel exergy was destroyed, in turbine it is 13% of total
fuel exergy was destroyed. It may be mentioned that so far only a few studies have been done on exergy
analysis in a coal-fired thermal power plant. It is observed that in most of the cases, the major portion of exergy
is lost in the combustor of a boiler. That causes the internal irreversible process. So, it should be taken into
considerations for minimizing the losses in the combustion chamber.

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