Brief introduction to:

 Coal Conversion to Electricity

 Coal Gasification

 Coal Liquefaction

QA 2
A Ty p i c a l C o a l - F i re d T h e r m a l P o we r S t a t i o n
  A Thermal Power Plant converts the heat energy
of coal into electrical energy
 Coal is burnt in a boiler which converts water
into steam.
 The expansion of steam in turbine produces
mechanical power which drives the alternator
coupled to the turbine.
 Thermal Power Plants contribute maximum to the
generation of Power for any country .
 In thermal generating stations coal, oil, natural
gas etc. are employed as primary sources of
energy.
QA 5
 1. Coal handling plant
2. Pulverizing plant
3. Draft fans
4. Boiler
5. Ash handling plant
6. Turbine
7. Condenser
8. Cooling towers and ponds
9. Feed water heater
10. Economizer
11. Superheater and Reheater
12. Air preheater
QA 6
 • The function of coal handling plant is the automatic feeding of
coal to the boiler furnace.
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  The coal is pulverized i.e. ground to dust-like size,
and carried to the furnace in a stream of hot air.

 Pulverizing exposes large surface area to oxygen and

consequently improves combustion.

 Pulverising mills are classified as:

 Contact mill
 Ball mill
 Impact mill

QA 8
  Draft is the differential pressure between atmosphere
and inside the boiler.

 It is necessary to promote the flow of gases through

boiler

 Draft may be:

 Natural draft
 Mechanical draft

QA 9
  A boiler or steam generator
is a closed vessel in which
water (under pressure) is
converted into steam.
 It is always designed to
absorb the maximum
amount of heat released in
the process of combustion
 Boilers are of two types:
 Fire tube boiler
 Water tube boiler

QA 10
 The steam (after it has left the boiler drum) is heated above its
saturation temperature.
 The amount of superheat added to the steam is influenced by:
 Location
 Arrangement
 Amount of super heater surface installed
 Rating of the boiler.
 The super heater may consist of one or more stages of tube banks
arranged to effectively transfer heat from the products of
combustion.
 Super heaters are classified as convection, radiant or combination of
these.
  Some of the heat of superheated steam is used to
rotate the turbine where it loses some of its
energy.
 Reheater is also steam boiler component in which
heat is added to this intermediate-pressure steam,
which has given up some of its energy in
expansion through the high-pressure turbine.
 The steam after reheating is used to rotate the
second steam turbine where the heat is converted
to mechanical energy.

QA 12
 A steam turbine converts heat energy of
steam into mechanical energy and drives
the generator.
 It uses the principle that steam, when
issuing from a small opening, attains a
high velocity.
 This velocity attained during expansion
depends on the initial and final heat
content of the steam. This difference b/w
initial and final heat content represents
the heat energy converted into kinetic
energy.
 These are of two types:
 Impulse turbine
 Reaction turbine
Turbine
  The percentage of ash in coal varies from 5% in
good quality coal to about 40% in poor quality
coal
 Power plants generally use poor quality of coal,
thus the amount of ash produced is large
 A modern 2000MW plant produces about 5000 tons of
ash daily
 The stations use some conveyor arrangement to
carry ash to dump sites directly or for carrying
and loading it to trucks and wagons which
transport it to the site of disposal

QA 16
  The condensers are heat exchangers which
convert steam from its gaseous state to liquid
state.

 The purpose is to condense the outlet (or

exhaust) steam from steam turbine and to get
the condensed steam in the form of pure water,
(otherwise known as condensate) back to
steam generator or (boiler) as boiler feed
water.
QA 17
  Cooling tower is a steel or concrete hyperbolic
structure having a reservoir at the base for storage
of cooled water
 Typically a 2000MW plant needs about 1500MGallon
of water for cooling purposes.
 Most plants use a closed cooling system where warm
water coming from condenser is cooled and reused
 Small plants use spray ponds and medium and large
plants use cooling towers.
 Height of the cooling tower may be 150m or so and
diameter at the base is 150m
QA 18
  Advantages of heating water before feeding to the
boiler:-
 Feed water heating improves overall plant efficiency.
 The dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide which would
otherwise cause boiler corrosion are removed in feed
water heater
 Thermal stresses due to cold water entering the boiler
drum are avoided.
 Quantity of steam produced by the boiler is increased.
 Some other impurities carried by the steam and
condensate, due to corrosion of boiler and condenser
are precipitated outside the boiler.
QA 19
 Flue gases coming out of the boiler carry lot of
heat. An economizer extracts a part of this
heat from flue gases and uses it for heating
feed water.
 The use of economizer results in saving the
consumption of coal and improving the boiler
efficiency
  After flue gases leave the economiser, some
further heat can be extracted from them and
used to heat incoming heat.
 Cooling of flue gases by 20°C increases the plant
efficiency by 1%.
 Air preheaters can be of three types
 Plate type
 Tubular type
 Regenerative type
QA 22
  Gasification is a process to upgrade a solid
feedstock, which is difficult to handle, by
removing undesirable impurities and
converting it into a gaseous form that can be
purified and used directly as a fuel or further
reacted to produce other gaseous or liquid
fuels, or chemicals

QA 24
QA 25
  Liquid and gaseous fuels are easier to handle
and use than coal

 Shipping coal can be difficult and labor

intensive and can have negative environmental
impacts

 Impurities in coal can be more readily

removed through gasification than when
utilized directly
QA 26
  Synthetic fuels burn more cleanly than coal, and
fewer sulfur and nitrogen oxides are formed
during combustion
 Carbon capture and sequestration is easier in a
gasification system than in a combustion system
 Gasification of coal reduces the concerns of
volatile swings in availability and cost of gaseous
or liquid fuels that are experienced with
petroleum or natural gas

QA 27
QA 28
  Gasification processes are classified on the
basis of the method used to bring the coal into
contact with the gasifying medium (air or
oxygen).

 Fixed-bed
 Fluidized-bed
 Entrained-flow systems
QA 29
 CO2 and H2O react with carbon in the solid phase
to produce CO and H2:

2𝐶 + 𝑂2 ⇋ 2𝐶𝑂

2𝐶𝑂 + 𝑂2 ⇋ 2𝐶𝑂2

𝐶 + 𝐶𝑂2 ⇋ 2𝐶𝑂

𝐶 + 𝐻2 𝑂 ⇋ 𝐻2 + 𝐶𝑂
QA 30
  At the same time, the produced gases react
among themselves, leading to further changes
in the gas phase composition. One of the most
important of these is known as the shift
reaction:

𝐶𝑂 + 𝐻2 𝑂 ⇋ 𝐻2 + 𝐶𝑂2

QA 31
  The gas stream also receives products from the
devolatilization of the solid phase.

𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑠 → 𝑇𝑎𝑟

𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑠 → 𝐺𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑠

𝑇𝑎𝑟 + 𝑂2 → 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑏𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝐺𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑠

𝑇𝑎𝑟 → 𝐺𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑠

𝑇𝑎𝑟 → 𝐶𝑜𝑘𝑒
QA 32
  Liquefaction is the conversion of coals into
liquid products.

 Methods:
 Direct liquefaction
 Indirect liquefaction

QA 34
  In direct liquefaction, also referred to as coal
hydrogenation, coal is mixed with a hydrogen-
donor solvent

 The resultant mixture is reacted with hydrogen

or syngas under elevated pressures and
temperatures to produce a liquid fuel

QA 35
  A chemical reaction that results in the addition
of hydrogen (H2)
 Usually done to reduce or saturate the organic
compounds
 At high temperatures the addition of hydrogen
to hydrocarbons does not require a catalyst
 Under 480°C the catalyst employed are
platinum, palladium, rhodium and ruthenium

QA 37
  Converting organic substance into carbon or
residue by pyrolysis (heating)

 Convert coal to coal gas or tar

 Also used to convert biomass to coal/

biodiesel

QA 38
  In indirect liquefaction, the coal is gasified into a
mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen (i.e.,
syngas)
Coal + Oxygen + Steam 𝐶𝑜𝑎𝑙 + 𝑂𝑥𝑦𝑔𝑒𝑛 + 𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑚 →
𝑆𝑦𝑛𝑔𝑎𝑠 (𝐻2 + 𝐶𝑂)

 The syngas is then processed into liquid products using

Fischer–Tropsch synthesis.

𝐻2 + 𝐶𝑂
→ 𝐿𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑟𝐻𝑦𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑏𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝐶𝑥 𝐻𝑦 𝑜𝑟 𝐶ℎ𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑠
QA 39
  Underground coal gasification is an industrial
process which converts coal into product gas.
 Gasification process is carried out in non-
mined coal seams using injection of oxidants,
and bringing the product gas to surface
through production wells drilled from the
surface.
 The product gas can be used as a chemical
feedstock or as Fuel for power generation.
QA 41
  The technique can be applied to resources that
are otherwise unprofitable or technically
complicated to extract by traditional methods,
and it also offers an alternative to conventional
coal mining methods

QA 42
  Miller, B. G., Coal Energy Systems, Elsevier
Academic Press. 2005
 Chapter no. 5

 M. L. de Souza-Santos, Solid Fuels Combustion and

Gasification, Marcel Dekker, Inc. 2004
 Chapter no. 2

QA 43