ATDCHB2

Learning Unit 2: Steam Plant

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 Carnot Vapour Cycle
It has been proven that Carnot cycle is most efficient cycle when operating
between two given temperature limits (TH and TC).
As such, it is fair to consider the Carnot cycle first as a prospective ideal
cycle for gas and vapour power plants.
However, the Carnot cycle is not a suitable model for power cycles with
steam as the working fluid.
• Consider a steady-flow Carnot cycle executed within
the saturation dome of a pure substance:

• The working fluid is heated reversibly and

isothermally in a boiler (step 1-2), expanded
isentropically in a turbine (step 2-3), condensed
reversibly and isothermally in a condenser (step 3-
4) and compressed isentropically by a compressor
to initial state (step 4-1)

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 Carnot Vapour Cycle (cont.)
There are difficulties associated with this cycle:
1. Isothermal heat transfer to or from a two-phase
system is not difficult to achieve in practice since
maintaining a constant-P in the device
automatically fixes Tsat.
Therefore, steps 1-2 and 3-4 can be approached
closely in actual boilers and condensers.

Limiting heat transfer processes to 2-phase systems, however, severely limits

the maximum-T (Tmax) that can be used in the cycle (T<Tcritical = 374°C for
water).
Limiting Tmax in the cycle also limits thermal efficiency and results in low
work ratio.

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 Carnot Vapour Cycle (cont.)
Any attempt to raise Tmax in the cycle involves heat transfer to working fluid in a single
phase, which is not easy to accomplish isothermally.
2. Isentropic expansion (step 2-3) can be approximated closely by a well-designed turbine
but steam quality decreases during this step.

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Carnot Vapour Cycle (cont.)
3. Thus, the turbine has to handle low quality
steam (steam with high moisture content).
Impingement of liquid droplets on turbine blades
causes erosion and is a major source of wear and
tear
(NB: steam with qualities less than about 90% is
not encouraged in power plant operations)
4. Isentropic compression (step 4-1) involves
compression of a liquid-vapour mixture to a
saturated liquid.
There are 2 difficulties associated with this
process:
◦ Firstly, it is not easy to control condensation
process so precisely as to end up with the desired
quality at state 4.
◦ Secondly, it is not practical to design a
compressor that handles 2 phases.
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Carnot Vapour Cycle (cont.)
Using Carnot cycle in a different way eliminates some of these problems (as
shown below):

However, this cycle presents other problems such as isentropic

compression to extremely high pressures and isothermal heat
transfer at variable pressures.

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 Carnot Vapour Cycle (cont.)
Conclusion from the discussion:
Carnot cycle cannot be approximated in actual devices and is not a realistic model
for vapour power cycles.
The Rankine Cycle is a way to avoid all of these problems.

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Rankine Cycle – Ideal cycle for vapour
power cycles

Consider the Carnot cycle, at step 3,

the steam is wet (mixture of steam
and liquid water) at step 2 but it is
difficult to stop condensation at step 3
and then compress it to just step 4

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Rankine Cycle – Ideal cycle for vapour
power cycles (cont.)
It is easier to allow condensation process to
proceed to completion:

Working fluid is water at the new step 3 and this

is easier to pump to boiler pressure to step 4.

The pump is smaller and economical than the

one used to pump wet steam as compression
process is carried out more efficiently.

Modifying the condensation process ensures

departure from Carnot cycle.

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 Rankine Cycle – Ideal cycle for vapour
power cycles (cont.)

At step 4, water is subcooled and it has to

be heated to its Tsat

We cannot pump water to its Tsat at the

boiler pressure.
This means that the efficiency of this
modified cycle is less than that for
Carnot cycle.
This modified cycle is known as the
Rankine cycle – it is still an idealised
cycle.

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Rankine Cycle – Ideal cycle for vapour
power cycles (cont.)
 It is integrated into the plant as shown below:
 Steam going into turbine maybe wet, dry, saturated or
superheated
 The individual steps are as follows:

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Rankine Cycle – Ideal cycle for vapour
power cycles (cont.)

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Rankine Cycle – Ideal cycle for vapour
power cycles (cont.)

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Rankine Cycle – Ideal cycle for vapour
power cycles (cont.)

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Rankine Cycle – Ideal cycle for vapour
power cycles (cont.)

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Rankine Cycle – Ideal cycle for vapour
power cycles (cont.)

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Example

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Solution

(Solution continues here)

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Solution (cont.)

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Solution (cont.)

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Solution (cont.)

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Solution (cont.)

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 How can we increase the efficiency of
Rankine cycles?
Steam power plants are responsible for production of most electric power in the
world.

As such, small increases in thermal efficiency can mean large savings from fuel
requirements.

The basic idea behind all modifications to increase thermal efficiency of a power
cycle is the same: increase average T at which heat is transferred to the
working fluid in the boiler, or decrease average T at which heat is rejected
from the working fluid in the condenser.

Or in other words: average fluid T should be as high as possible during heat

addition and as low as possible during heat rejection.

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How can we increase the efficiency of
Rankine cycles? (cont.)
Three ways of accomplishing this for simple ideal Rankine cycle:
1. Superheating steam to high T – increases T at heat addition.
2. Lowering condenser pressure –lowers T at heat rejection.
3. Increasing boiler-P –increases T at heat addition.
Increasing boiler-P increases thermal efficiency of Rankine cycle but it also
increases moisture content of steam to unacceptable levels at the final stages of
the turbine. This is rectified by:
◦ Superheating the steam to high-T before it enters the turbine. The
limitation here is that it requires raising the steam-T to metallurgically
unsafe levels.
◦ Expand the steam in the turbine in two stages and reheat it in
between.
◦ Reheating is a practical solution to the excessive moisture problem in
turbines and is commonly used in modern steam power plants.

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1. Rankine cycle with superheat
Average-T at which heat is transferred to steam can be increased without
increasing boiler-P by superheating steam to high-T.

Dry saturated steam (no entrained moisture present) from boiler drum is
passed through a second bank of smaller bore tubes within the boiler where hot
gases from furnace heat the steam until it reaches required T.

The effect of superheating on the performance of vapour power cycles is shown

on a T-S diagram (next slide).

The receiver is used to receive steam from other plants and the hot well is used
to receive condensate from the turbine(s).

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1. Rankine cycle with superheat (cont.)

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1. Rankine cycle with superheat (cont.)
Net work done (Wnet) and heat input (Q1) increase as a result of
superheating the steam to a higher-T.

Overall effect is an increase in thermal efficiency since T1 or TH is higher.

Superheating steam also decreases moisture content of steam at turbine exit,

check T-S diagram (the quality at state 2 is higher than previously).

Steam can only be superheated to certain temperature due to metallurgical

considerations – presently highest steam-T allowed at turbine inlet is about
620°C. Any increase in this value depends on improving the present materials
or finding new ones that can withstand higher temperatures.
For given boiler and condenser pressures, superheating steam increases
Rankine cycle efficiency while decreasing specific steam consumption
(SCC).

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Example

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Solution

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Solution (cont.)

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Solution (cont.)
For given boiler and condenser
pressure, as the superheat
temperature increases, Rankine cycle
efficiency increases, and the specific
steam consumption decreases.

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2. Rankine cycle with a reheat recycle (cont.)

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2. Rankine cycle with a reheat recycle (cont.)

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Example
Calculate the new cycle efficiency and specific steam consumption if
reheat is included in the previous example. Steam conditions at the inlet
to the turbine are 42 bar and 500oC and the condenser pressure is 0.035
bar. Assume that the steam is just dry saturated on leaving the first
turbine and is reheated to its initial temperature. Neglect the feed-pump
work

(Click here for solution)

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3. Rankine cycle with a
regenerative recycle
A Carnot cycle rejects and accepts heat at constant-T.

From the modified Rankine cycle, feedwater from the pump comes at
lower-T than the saturation-T corresponding to boiler-P.

This means that if this T is raised to Tsat then this improves thermal
efficiency and with a comparable work ratio.

This is the purpose of this section.

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3. Rankine cycle with a regenerative recycle
(cont.)
Feedwater is passed from pump through the turbine in counter-flow to
steam (as shown below)
Feedwater enters turbine at T3 and is heated to steam-T at inlet to turbine.
If there is a small T between Tsteam and Tfeedwater then this becomes an
isothermal and reversible process – an ideal process.

(a) Steam plant operating at regenerative cycle, (b) Cycle on a T-S diagram

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3. Rankine cycle with a regenerative recycle
(cont.)
Transferring heat to feedwater from expanding steam in a counter-flow heat
exchanger built into the turbine is not practical because it is difficult to design
such a heat exchanger and also it increases moisture content of the steam at the
final stages of the turbine.

A more practical regeneration process in steam power plants is accomplished by

extracting or “bleeding” steam from the turbine at various points.

This steam (which has produced more work by expanding further in the turbine)
is used to heat feedwater instead.

The device where the feedwater is heated by regeneration is called a

regenerator, or a feedwater heater (FWH).
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3. Rankine cycle with a regenerative recycle
(cont.)
Feedwater heater is a heat exchanger where heat is transferred from
steam to feedwater either by mixing the 2 fluid streams (open
feedwater heaters) or without mixing them (closed feedwater
heaters)

Regeneration has the following advantages:

1. It improves cycle efficiency.
2. It provides a way of deaerating feedwater (removing air that
leaks in at the condenser) to prevent corrosion in the boiler.
3. It helps control the large volume flowrate of steam at final
stages of turbine (due to large specific volumes at low pressures)

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3. Rankine cycle with a regenerative recycle
(cont.)
Regeneration has been used in all modern steam power plants since
its introduction in the early 1920s (as shown below)

(a) Steam plant with one open feed heater, (b) cycle on a T-S diagram

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3. Rankine cycle with a regenerative
recycle (cont.)

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Example

(Click here for solution)

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Solution

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Solution(cont.)

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Solution(cont.)

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Solution(cont.)

(Solution continues here)

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Solution(cont.)

(Solution continues here)

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Solution(cont.)

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