Course Title: Power Plant Engineering

Course Code: meng5211

9/19/2014 1
 Outlines

• General Introduction

• Energy Resources

• Direct energy conversion systems

• Indirect energy conversion systems

 Introduction
Power plant engineering: deals with the study of energy, its sources and utilization of energy for power generation.

Power plant: is a unit built for production and delivery of a flow of mechanical and electrical energy.

• Energy: is the capacity to do work and Energy can exist in various forms such as mechanical ,thermal ,electrical ,solar
…etc.

• Electricity: is the only form of energy ,which is easy To Produce, transport, use and control.

• Power: is defined as the rate of flow of energy. This is associated with the rate of production or consumption of useful
energy (mechanical, electrical and thermal energy).

 The Common measuring Unit of power are:

 Watt (W)

 horse power (hp)

 Kilo Calorie per hour (kcal/h)

…cont’d
Power plants Classification: Power plants are classified based on the
type of energy source or fuel they used.
• Steam Power Plant

• Gas Turbine Power plant

• Diesel Engine Power Plant

• Nuclear Power Plant

• Hydro-Electric Power Plant

Thermal Power Plant
• It is a unit that converts heat liberated by burning fuel into

mechanical work by means of a suitable working fluid.

• The mechanical work is converted into electrical energy by

the help of generator.

• The Steam Power Plant, Diesel Power Plant, Gas Turbine Power Plant and Nuclear

Power Plants are Generally called as thermal power plants.

• Because these power plants convert heat in to electric energy.

 Energy sources
Energy sources can be classified as Conventional and non-conventional
sources.

Known as non- renewable sources Known as renewable sources

Can’t be replaced in a short amount  Can be regenerated in a short amount

of time and it is limited of time or is basically unlimited

Examples include
Examples include
i. Solar energy
i. Petroleum
Energy Conversion systems
• Energy conversion is the process of changing one form of energy to another.

• There are two methods to convert heat energy into electricity:

Direct conversion: when heat energy is converted directly into electricity.

Indirect conversion: when heat energy is converted into mechanical energy first
and afterwards into electricity.
…cont’d
 Direct energy conversion
• Transformation of one type of energy (such as heat) to another (such as
electricity) without passing through an intermediate stage (such as steam to spin
generator turbines).

• The process of converting primary energy such as chemical, nuclear, solar, and
thermal energy to electricity with a minimum number of intermediate steps.
…cont’d
The Major direct energy conversion devices are:

• Magneto hydrodynamic power generation

• Thermionic power generation

• Fuel cell
…cont’d
 Magneto hydro-dynamic power generation:

• Is a devices that generate electric power by means of the interaction

of a moving fluid in an ionized gas or plasma form and a magnetic
field.

• Typically, an electrically conducting gas is produced at high pressure

by combustion of a fossil fuel.

• The system converts the heat energy directly into electrical energy,
without any intermediate mechanical energy conversion, as opposed
 …cont’d
 The schematic representation of the magneto hydro-dynamic system
is as follows.
…cont’d
 Thermionic power generation
 Fuel cell

• Fuel cells are Galvanic Cells in which the

See the Schematic
free energy of a chemical reaction is
diagram of the Fuel Cell
converted to electrical energy,

• The two electrodes of a fuel cell are

separated by an ion-conducting

electrolyte.
…cont’d
 Parts of a Fuel Cell
Anode
 Negative post of the fuel cell.
 Conducts the electrons that are freed from the hydrogen molecules so that they can be used in an
external circuit.
 Etched channels disperse hydrogen gas over the surface of catalyst.
Cathode
 Positive post of the fuel cell
 Etched channels distribute oxygen to the surface of the catalyst.
 Conducts electrons back from the external circuit to the catalyst
 Recombine with the hydrogen ions and oxygen to form water.
Electrolyte
 Proton exchange membrane.
 Specially treated material, only conducts positively charged ions.
 Membrane blocks electrons.
Catalyst
 Special material that facilitates reaction of oxygen and hydrogen
 Usually platinum powder very thinly coated onto carbon paper or cloth.
 Rough & porous maximizes surface area exposed to hydrogen or oxygen
…cont’d
Fuel Cell Operation
hydrogen gas (H2) enters cell on anode side.

Gas is forced through catalyst by pressure.

When H2 molecule comes contacts platinum catalyst, it splits into two H+

ions and two electrons (e-).

Electrons are conducted through the anode

Make their way through the external circuit (doing useful work such as
turning a motor) and return to the cathode side of the fuel cell.
…cont’d
Indirect Energy Conversion

• The Indirect energy conversion power plants are

Steam Power Plant

Gas Turbine Power plant

Diesel Engine Power Plant

Nuclear Power Plant

Hydro-Electric Power Plant

Solar energy power plant

Wind energy power plant

The Over view of indirect Energy conversion
power plants
Steam Power Plant
…cont’d
Gas Turbine Power Plant
…cont’d
Diesel Engine Power Plant
…cont’d
Nuclear Power Plant
…cont’d
…cont’d
Hydro-Electric Power Plant
…cont’d
Solar energy power plant
Solar energy used to heat up water - water turns to steam - steam spins the turbine
(fan blades) - turbine spins the generator (magnet) – and the generator produces
electricity.
 …cont’d
Wind energy power plant
Wind energy is used to - spins the turbine (fan blades) - turbine spins the
generator (magnet)- and then produces electricity.
 …cont’d
Geothermal power plant
Heat from the earth is used to - heat up water - water turns to steam - steam spins the
turbine (fan blades) - turbine spins the generator (magnet) - produces electricity.
…cont’d
How do steam generated from under Ground?

• Hot rocks underground heat water to produce steam.

• We drill holes down to the hot region, steam comes up, is purified and
used to drive turbines, which drive electric generators.

• There may be natural "groundwater" in the hot rocks anyway, or we may

need to drill more holes and pump water down to them
 …cont’d
Tidal power
• Tidal power works rather like a hydro-electric scheme, except that the dam is much bigger.

• A huge dam (called a "barrage") is built across a river estuary. When the tide goes in and out, the
water flows through tunnels in the dam.

• The ebb and flow of the tides can be used to turn a turbine