Unit 1 Brief survey of methods of power generation: 1. Hydro power plant: Hydroelectricity is electricity generated by hydropower, i.e.

, the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowi ng water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy. Once a hydroelect ric complex is constructed, the project produces no direct waste, and has a cons iderably lower output level of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) than fo ssil fuel powered energy plants. Worldwide, an installed capacity of 777 GWe sup plied 2998 TWh of hydroelectricity in 2006. This was approximately 20% of the wo rld's electricity, and accounted for about 88% of electricity from renewable sou rces. Electricity generation: Most hydroelectric power comes from the potential energy of dammed water driving a water turbine and generator. In this case the energy extracted from the water depends on the volume and on the difference in height between the source and th e water's outflow. The amount of potential energy in water is proportional to th e head. To deliver water to a turbine while maintaining pressure arising from th e head, a large pipe called a penstock may be used. Calculating the amount of available power: A simple formula for approximating electric power production at a hydroelectric plant is: P = h gk, Where P is Power in watts, 1 is the density of water (~1000 kg/m3 ), h is height in meters, r is flow rate in cubic meters per second, g is acceleration due to gravity of 9.8 m/s2 , and k i s a coefficient of efficiency ranging from 0 to 1. Efficiency is often higher (t hat is, closer to 1) with larger and more modern turbines. Advantages: 1. The major advantage of hydroelectricity is elimination of the cost of fuel. 2 . Hydroelectric plants also tend to have longer economic lives than fuel- fired generation, with some plants now in service which were built 50 to 100 years ago . 3. Operating labour cost is also usually low, as plants are automated and have few personnel on site during normal operation. 4. Since hydroelectric dams do n ot burn fossil fuels, they do not directly produce carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas). 5. According to a study, hydroelectricity produces the least amount of gre enhouse gases and externality of any energy source. Coming in second place was w ind, third was nuclear energy, and fourth was solar photovoltaic. Disadvantages: 1. Dam failures have been some of the largest man- made disasters in history. Al so, good design and construction are not an adequate guarantee of safety. 2. Alm ost all rivers convey silt. Dams on those rivers will retain silt in their catch ments, because by slowing the water, and reducing turbulence, the silt will fall to the bottom. Siltation reduces a dam's water storage so that water from a wet season cannot be stored for use in a dry season. 3. Large reservoirs required f or the operation of hydroelectric power plants result in submersion of extensive areas upstream of the dams, destroying biologically rich and productive lowland and reverie valley forests, marshland and grasslands. 4. Lower positive impacts are found in the tropical regions, as it has been noted that the reservoirs of power plants in tropical regions may produce substantial amounts of methane and carbon dioxide. This is due to plant material in flooded areas decaying in an an aerobic environment, and forming methane, a very potent greenhouse gas. 5. Anoth er disadvantage of hydroelectric dams is the need to relocate the people living where the reservoirs are planned.

2 2. Nuclear power plant: Nuclear powe r is power (generally electrical) produced from controlled (i.e., n on-explosive) nuclear reactions. Electric utility reactors heat water to produce steam, which is then used to generate electricity. In 2009, 15% of the world's electricity came from nuclear power, despite concerns about safety and radioacti ve waste management. Nuclear fusion reactions are widely believed to be safer th an fission and appear potentially viable, though technically quite difficult. Use Historical and projected world energy use by energy source, 1980-2030. As of 200 5, nuclear power provided 2.1% of the world's energy and 15% of the world's elec tricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for 56.5% of nucle ar generated electricity. Many military and some civilian (such as some icebreak er) ships use nuclear marine propulsion, a form of nuclear propulsion. A few spa ce vehicles have been launched using full- fledged nuclear reactors: the Soviet RORSAT series and the American SNAP-10A. Nuclear reactor technology: Just as many conventional thermal power stations generate electricity by harness ing the thermal energy released from burning fossil fuels, nuclear power plants convert the energy released from the nucleus of an atom, typically via nuclear f ission. When a relatively large fissile atomic nucleus (usually uranium-235 or p lutonium-239) absorbs a neutron, fission of the atom often results. Fission spli ts the atom into two or more smaller nuclei with kinetic energy (known as fissio n products) and also releases gamma radiation and free neutrons. A portion of th ese neutrons may later be absorbed by o ther fissile atoms and create more fissi ons, which release more neutrons, and so on. 3 This nuclear chain reaction can be controlled by using neutron poisons and neutr on moderators to change the portion of neutrons that will go on to cause more fi ssion. A cooling system removes heat from the reactor core and transports it to another area of the plant, where the thermal energy can be harnessed to produce electricity or to do other useful work. Typically the hot coolant will be used a s a heat source for a boiler, and the pressurized steam from that boiler will po wer one or more steam turbine driven electrical generators. Breeding: As opposed to current light water reactors which use uranium-235 (0.7% of all na tural uranium), fast breeder reactors use uranium-238 (99.3% of all natural uran ium). Another alternative would be to use uranium-233 bred from thorium as fissi on fuel in the thorium fuel cycle. Thorium is about 3.5 times as common as urani um in the Earth's crust, and has differe nt geographic characteristics. This wou ld extend the total practical fissionable resource base by 450%. Nuclear wastes: 1. Solid waste: The safe storage and disposal of nuclear waste is a significant challenge and ye t unresolved problem. The most important waste stream from nuclear power plants is spent fuel. A large nuclear reactor produces 3 cubic metres (2530 tonnes) of s pent fuel each year. It is primarily composed of unconverted uranium as well as significant quantities of transuranic actinides (plutonium and curium, mostly). The actinides (uranium, plutonium, and curium) are responsible for the bulk of t he long term radioactivity, whereas the fission products are responsible for the bulk of the short term radioactivity.

2. High-level radioactive waste: Spent fuel is highly radioactive and needs to be handled with great care and for ethought. However, spent nuclear fuel becomes less radioactive over the course o f thousands of years of time. Spent fuel rods are stored in shielded basins of w ater (spent fuel pools), usually located on-site. The water provides both coolin g for the still-decaying fission products, and shielding from the continuing rad ioactivity. The amount of waste can be reduced in several ways, particularly rep rocessing. 4 3. Low-level radioactive waste: The nuclear industry also produces a huge volume of low-level radioactive waste in the form of contaminated items like clothing, hand tools, water purifier resi ns, and (upon decommissioning) the materials of which the reactor itself is buil t. 3. Solar power plant: Solar ene rgy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar powered electrical generation relies on heat engines and photovoltaics. To harvest the s olar energy, the most common way is to use solar panels. Solar technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on the w ay they capture, convert and distribute solar energy. Active solar techniques in clude the use of photovoltaic panels and solar thermal collectors to harness the energy. Passive solar techniques include orienting a building to the Sun, selec ting materials with favourable thermal mass or light dispersing properties, and designing spaces that naturally circulate air. Energy from the Sun: The Earth receives 174 petawatts (PW) of incoming solar radiation at the upper a tmosphere. Approximately 30% is reflected back to space while the rest is absorb ed by clouds, oceans and land masses. The spectrum of solar light at the Earth's surface is mostly spread across the visible and near- infrared ranges with a sm all part in the near- ultraviolet. Earth's land surface, oceans and atmosphere a bsorb solar radiation, and this raises their temperature. 5 Warm air containing evaporated water from the oceans rises, causing atmospheric circulation or convection. When the air reaches a high altitude, where the tempe rature is low, water vapour condenses into clouds, which rain onto the Earth's s urface, completing the water cycle. Sunlight absorbed by the oceans and land mas ses keeps the surface at an average temperature of 14 C. By photosynthesis green plants convert solar energy into chemical energy, which produces food, wood and the biomass from which fossil fuels are derived. The total solar energy absorbed by Earth's atmosphere, oceans and land masses is approximately 3,850,000 exajoules (EJ) per year. Solar energy can be harnessed in different levels around the world. Depending on a geographical location the c loser to the equator the more "potential" solar energy is available. Applications of solar technology: Solar energy refers primarily to the use of solar radiation for practical ends. However, all renewable energies, other than geothermal and tidal, derive their e nergy from the sun. Solar technologies are broadly characterized as either passi

ve or active depending on the way they capture, convert and distribute sunlight. Active solar techniques use photovoltaic panels, pumps, and fans to convert sun light into useful outputs. Passive solar techniques include selecting materials with favourable thermal properties, designing spaces that naturally circulate ai r, and referencing the position of a building to the Sun. Active solar technolog ies increase the supply of energy and are considered supply side technologies, w hile passive solar technologies reduce the need for alternate resources and are generally considered demand side technologies. 4. Wind power plant: Wind powe r is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, wind mills for mechanical power, win d pumps for pumping water or drainage, or sails to propel ships. Several countri es have achieved relatively high levels of wind power penetration (with large go vernmental subsidies), such as 19% of stationary electricity production in Denma rk, 13% in Spain and Portugal, and 7% in Germany and the Republic of Ireland in 2008. Large-scale wind farms are connected to the electric power transmission ne twork; smaller facilities are used to provide electricity to isolated locations. Wind energy as a power source is attractive as an alternative to fossil fuels, because it is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean, and produces no g reenhouse gas emissions. 6 The Earth is unevenly heated by the sun, such that the poles receive less energy from the sun than the equator; along with this, dry land heats up (and cools do wn) more quickly than the seas do. The differential heating drives a global atmo spheric convection system reaching from the Earth's surface to the stratosphere which acts as a virtual ceiling. Most of the energy stored in these wind movemen ts can be found at high altitudes where continuous wind speeds of over 160 km/h (99 mph) occur. Electricity generation: In a wind farm, individual turbines are interconnected with a medium voltage (of ten 34.5 kV), power collection system and communications network. At a substatio n, this medium- voltage electrical current is increased in voltage with a transf ormer for connection to the high voltage electric power transmission system. The ratio of actual productivity in a year to this theoretical maximum is called th e capacity factor. Typical capacity factors are 2040%, with values at the upper e nd of the range in particularly favourable sites. Turbine placement: Good selection of a wind turbine site is critical to economic development of win d power. Aside from the availability of wind itself, other factors include the a vailability of transmission lines, value of energy to be produced, cost of land acquisition, land use considerations, and environmental impact of construction a nd operations. Small-scale wind power: Small-scale wind powe r is the name given to wind generation systems with the ca pacity to produce up to 50 kW of electrical power. Wind turbines have been used for household electricity generation in conjunction with battery storage over ma ny decades in remote areas. 5. Thermal power plant: A thermal power station is a power plant in which the prime mover is steam drive n. Water is heated, turns into steam and spins a steam turbine which either driv es an electrical generator or does some other work, like ship propulsion. After it passes through the turbine, the steam is condensed in a condenser and recycle d to where it was heated. The greatest variation in the design of thermal power

stations is due to the different fuel sources. 7

Introduction: Almost all coal, nuclear, geothermal, solar thermal electric, and waste incinera tion plants, as well as many natural gas power plants are thermal. The waste hea t from a gas turbine can be used to raise steam, in a combined cycle plant that improves overall efficiency. Power plants burning coal, oil, or natural gas are often referred to collectively as fossil-fuel power plants. Efficiency: The power output or capacity of an electric plant can be expressed in units of m egawatts electric (MWe). The electric efficiency of a conventional thermal power station is typically 33% to 48%. This efficiency is limited as all heat engines are governed by the laws of thermodynamics. The rest of the energy must leave t he plant in the form of heat. This waste heat can go through a condenser and be disposed of with cooling water or in cooling towers. Diagram of a typical coal-fired thermal power station: Typical diagram of a coal-fire d thermal power station 1. Cooling tower 2. Cooli ng water pump 3. transmission line (3-phase) 4. Step-up transformer (3-phase) 5. Electrical generator (3-phase) 10. Steam Control valve 11. High pressure steam turbine 12. Deaerator 13. Feed water heater 14. Coal conveyor 8 19. Super heater 20. Forced draught (draft) fan 21. Reheater 22. Combustion air intake 23. Economiser 6. Low pressure steam turbine 7. Condensate pump 8. Surface condenser 9. Interme diate pressure steam turbine 15. Coal hopper 16. Coal pulverizer 17. Boiler steam drum 18. Bottom ash hopper 24. Air pre heater 25. Precipitator 26. Induced draught (draft) fan 27. Flue gas stack Structural representation of power plant: Steam generator: In fossil- fuelled power plants, steam generator refers to a furnace that burns the fossil fuel to boil water to generate steam. 9 A fossil fuel steam generator includes an economizer, a steam drum, and the furn ace with its steam generating tubes and super heater coils. Necessary safety val ves are located at suitable points to avoid excessive boiler pressure. Boiler furnace and steam drum: Once water gets inside the boiler or steam generator, the process of adding the latent heat of vaporization is underway. The boiler transfers energy to the wate r by the chemical reaction of burning some type of fuel. The water enters the bo iler through a section in the convection pass called t he economizer. From the e conomizer it passes to the steam drum. Once the water enters the steam drum it g

oes down to the down comers to the lower inlet water wall headers. From the inle t headers the water rises through the water walls and is eventually turned into steam due to the heat being generated by the burners located on the front and re ar water walls. As the water is turned into steam/vapour in the water walls, the steam/vapour once again enters the steam drum. The steam/vapour is passed throu gh a series of steam and water separators and then dryers inside the steam drum. The steam separators and dryers remove water droplets from the steam and the cy cle through the water walls is repeated. This process is known as natural circul ation. The boiler furnace auxiliary equipment includes coal feed nozzles and ign iter guns, soot blowers, water lancing and observation ports for observation of the furnace interior. The steam drum (as well as the super heater coils and head ers) have air vents and drains needed for initial start-up. The steam drum has i nternal devices that remove moisture from the wet steam entering the drum from t he steam generating tubes. The dry steam then flows into the super heater coils. Cooling towers: Cooling towers are heat removal devices used to transfer process waste heat to t he atmosphere. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat and cool the working fluid to near the wet-bulb air temperature or rely solely on air to cool the working fluid to near the drybulb air temperature . Common applications include cooling the circulating water used in oil refineri es, chemical plants, power stations and building cooling. 10 The towers vary in size from small roof- top units to very large hyperboloid str uctures that can be up to 200 metres tall and 100 metres in diameter, or rectang ular structures that can be over 40 metres tall and 80 metres long. Smaller towe rs are normally factory-built, while larger ones are constructed on site. Condenser: The function of the condenser is to condense exhaust steam from the steam turbin e by rejecting the heat of vaporisation to the cooling water passing through the condenser. Once the steam has passed through the turbine, it enters the condens er where heat is removed until it condenses back into liquid water. This is done by passing the wet steam around thousands of small cold water tubes. The cold w ater is usually supplied from a nearby sea, lake, river, or from a cooling tower . The condensed steam is collected at the bottom of the condenser and returned t o the boiler using feed water pumps, to begin the water-to-steam, Steam- to-wate r cycle again. Classification: As single pressure or multi-pressure, depending on whether the cooling water flo w path creates one or more turbine backpressures; By the number of shells (which is dependent on the number of low-pressure turbine casings); and As either single pass or two-pass, depending on the number of parallel water flo w paths through each shell. 11 Types of cooling systems: Some power plants have an open cycle (once through) cooling water system where w ater is taken from a body of water, such as a river, lake or ocean, pumped throu gh the plant condenser and discharged back to the source. Power plants in remote dry areas without economic water supplies use closed cycle dry cooling systems that do not require water for cooling. Hybrid cooling systems are used in partic ular circumstances.

Open cycle cooling systems: In the open system, water pumped from intakes on one side of the power plant pas ses through the condensers and is discharged at a point remote from the intake ( to prevent recycling of the warm water discharge). Open cycle with auxiliary cooling tower: In this system, cooling towers are installed on the discharge from open systems in order to remove part of the waste heat, so that the load on the receiving wat ers is contained within pre set limits. The auxiliary cooling towers are used in the warmer summer periods to limit the temperature of the discharged cooling water, usually to less than 30C. 12 Closed cycle wet cooling systems: In closed cycle wet cooling systems, the waste energy that is rejected b y the t urbine is transferred to the cooling water system via the condenser. The waste h eat in the cooling water is then discharged to the atmosphere by the cooling tow er. In the cooling tower, heat is removed from the falling water and transferred to the rising air by the evaporative cooling process. The falling water is brok en up into droplets or films by the extended surfaces of the tower 'fill'. The major components of a closed cycle wet cooling water system are: Cooling tow ers - two types are commonly used, concrete natural draught towers and mechanica l draught towers; and Pumps and pipes. Natural draught towers: Natural draft, which utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney. Warm, moist air natur ally rises due to the density differential to the dry, cooler outside air. Warm moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure. This moist air buoy ancy produces a current of air through the tower. 13 Natural draught towers are only economic in large sizes, which justify the cost of the large concrete shell. The cooling towers have two basic configurations fo r the directions of the flow of air in relation to the falling water through the tower fill: The counter- flow tower where the air travels vertically up through the fill. The cross- flow tower where the air travels horizontally through the fill. Categorization by air-to-water flow: Cross flow: Cross flow is a design in which the air flow is directed perpendicular to the wa ter flow. Air flow enters one or more vertical faces of the cooling tower to mee t the fill material. Water flows (perpendicular to the air) through the fill by gravity. The air continues through the fill and thus past the water flow into an open plenum area. Gravity distributes the water through the nozzles uniformly a cross the fill material. Counter flow: In a counter flow design the air flow is directly opposite of the water flow. Ai r flow first enters an open area beneath the fill media and is then drawn up ver tically. The water is sprayed through pressurized nozzles and flows downward thr ough the fill, opposite to the air flow.

14 Common to both designs: The interaction of the air and oration of water. The air, now he cooling tower. A collection after its interaction with the water flow allows a partial equalization and evap saturated with water vapour, is discharged from t or cold water basin is used to contain the water air flow.

Both cross flow and counter flow designs can be used in natural draft and mechan ical draft cooling towers. Mechanical draught cooling towers: In mechanical draught cooling towers, large axial flow fans provide the airflow. While fans have the disadvantage of requiring auxiliary power, typically 1.0MW t o 1.5MW for a 300MW steam turbine-generator unit, but they have the advantage of being able to provide lower water temperatures than natural draught towers, par ticularly on hot dry days. Mechanical draft, which uses power driven fan, motors to force or draw air throu gh the tower. o Induced draft : A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the discharge which pulls air through tower. The fan induces hot moist air out the discharge. o Forced draft: A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at the intake. The fan forces air into the tower, creating high entering and low exiting air veloc ities. Another disadvantage is that a forced draft design typically requires mor e motor horsepower than an equivalent induced draft design. Dry cooling systems: In the dry cooling system, heat transfer is by air to finned tubes. The steam co ndensing pressures and temperatures of a dry cooled unit are significantly highe r than a wet cooled unit, due to the low transfer rates of dry cooling and opera tion at the dry bulb temperature. 15 There are two basic types of dry cooling systems: The direct dry cooling system; and The indirect dry cooling system. Direct dry cooling system: In the direct dry system, the turbine exhaust steam is piped directly to the air -cooled, finned tube, condenser. The finned tubes are usually arranged in the fo rm of an 'A' frame or delta over a forced draught fan to reduce the land area. Indirect dry cooling system: With indirect dry cooling, known as HELLER System, cooled water from the cooling tower flows through recovery hydraulic turbines connected in parallel and is us ed in preferably a direct contact (DC) jet condenser to condense steam from the steam turbine. The major part of the flow, discharged by the circulating water p umps, is returned to the tower for cooling. The cooling deltas (water-to-air-hea

t exchangers) dissipate the heat from the cycle. Hybrid systems: 16 There are two common hybrid systems, which have been developed to overcome some of the disadvantages of the full wet and full dry systems. 1. Wet with part dry: One of the problems with wet towers is that in cold and humid climates the tower s plume can create fog. In the part dry or plume abatement tower, a dry section above the wet zone provides some dry cooling to the exhaust plume to remove the condensing water vapour. 2. Dry with part wet: Problems with full dry towers are centred on loss of performance in hot weather. With the part wet towers, there is provision for water sprays to evaporative co ol the finned tubes for short periods of extreme temperature. Surface condenser: Surface condenser is the commonly used term for a water-cooled shell and tube he at exchanger installed on the exhaust steam from a steam turbine in thermal powe r stations. These condensers are heat exchangers which convert steam from its ga seous to its liquid state at a pressure below atmospheric pressure. Where coolin g water is in short supply, an air-cooled condenser is often used. 17 In thermal power plants, the primary purpose of a surface condenser is to conden se the exhaust steam from a steam turbine to obtain maximum efficiency and also to convert the turbine exhaust steam into pure water so that it may be reused in the steam generator or boiler as boiler feed water. Why is it required? The steam turbine itself is a device to convert the heat in steam to mechanical power. The difference between the heat of steam per unit weight at the inlet to the turbine and the heat of steam per unit weight at the outlet to the turbine r epresents the heat which is converted to mechanical power. Therefore, the more t he conversion of heat per pound or kilogram of steam to mechanical power in the turbine, the better is its efficiency. By condensing the exhaust steam of a turb ine at a pressure below atmospheric pressure, the steam pressure drop between th e inlet and exhaust of the turbine is increased, which increases the amount of h eat available for conversion to mechanical power. Most of the heat liberated due to condensation of the exhaust steam is carried away by the cooling medium (wat er or air) used by the surface condenser. For the convenience of cleaning and ma intenance, cooling water flows through the tubes and steam condenses outside the tubes. At each end there are tube sheets into which the water tubes are rolled. This prevents leakage of circulating water into the steam. An expansion joint a llows for the d ifferent rates of expansion between the tubes and shells. There are vertical plates at intermediate points between the two tube sheets to provid e support to the long tubes and to prevent tube vibration. In a single pass cond enser, cooling water flows through the tubes once, from one end to another. Steam turbine: A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressur ized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Because the turbine generates ro tary motion, it is particularly suited to be used to drive an electrical generat

or about 80% of all electricity generation in the world is by use of steam turbi nes. Principle of Operation and Design: An ideal steam turbine is considered to be an isentropic process, or constant en tropy process, in which the entropy of the steam entering the turbine is equal t o the entropy of the steam leaving the turbine. No steam turbine is truly isentro pic, however, with typical isentropic efficiencies ranging from 20%-90% based on the application of the turbine. The interior of a turbine comprises several sets of blades, or buckets as they are more commonly referred to. One set of stationar y blades is connected to the casing and one set of rotating blades is connected to the shaft. Deaerator: 18 A deaerator is a device that is widely used for the removal of air and other dis solved gases from the feed water to steam- generating boilers. In particular, di ssolved oxygen in boiler feed waters will cause serious corrosion and forming ox ides (rust). Water also combines with any dissolved carbon dioxide to form carbo nic acid that causes further corrosion. There are two basic types of deaerators, the tray-type and the spray-type: The tray-type (also called the cascade-type) includes a vertical domed deaeratio n section mounted on top of a horizontal cylindrical vessel which serves as the deaerated boiler feed water storage tank. The spray-type consists only of a hori zontal (or vertical) cylindrical vessel which serves as both the deaeration sect ion and the boiler feed water storage tank.

Tray-type deaerator: Boiler feedwater enters the vertical dearation section above the perforated tray s and flows downward through the perforations. Low-pressure dearation steam ente rs below the perforated trays and flows upward through the perforations. The ste am strips the dissolved gas from the boiler feedwater and exits via the vent at the top of the domed section. The vent line usually includes a valve and just en ough steam is allowed to escape with the vented gases to provide a small and vis ible telltale plume of steam. The deaerated water flows down into the horizontal storage vessel from where it is pumped to the steam generating boiler system. 19 Spray-type deaerator: The typical spray-type deaerator is a horizontal vessel which has a preheating s ection (E) and a deaeration section (F). The two sections are separated by a baf fle(C). Low-pressure steam enters the vessel through a sparger in the bottom of the vessel.The boiler feedwater is sprayed into section (E) where it is preheate d by the rising steam from the sparger. The purpose of the feedwater spray nozzl e (A) and the preheat section is to heat the boiler feedwater to its saturation temperature to facilitate stripping out the dissolved gases in the following dea eration section. The preheated feedwater then flows into the dearation section ( F), where it is deaerated by the steam rising from the sparger system. The gases

stripped out of the water exit via the vent at the top of the vessel. The deaer ated boiler feedwater is pumped from the bottom of the vessel to the steam gener ating boiler system. Feed water heater: 20 A feedwater heater is a power plant component used to pre-heat water delivered t o a steam generating boiler. Preheating the feedwater reduces the irreversibilit y involved in steam generation and therefore improves the thermodynamic efficien cy of the system. In a steam power plant, feedwater heaters allow the feedwater to be brought up to the saturation temperature very gradually. Feedwater heaters can also be open and closed heat exchangers. An open feedwater heater is merely a direct-contact heat exchanger in which extracted steam is al lowed to mix with the feedwater. This kind of heater will normally require a fee d pump at both the feed inlet and outlet since the pressure in the heater is bet ween the boiler pressure and the condenser pressure. A deaerator is a special ca se of the open feedwater heater which is specifically designed to remove noncond ensable gases from the feedwater. Closed feedwater heaters are typically shell a nd tube heat exchangers where the feedwater passes throughout the tubes and is h eated by turbine extraction steam. These do not require separate pumps before an d after the heater to boost the feedwater to the pressure of the extracted steam as with an open heater.Feedwater heaters are used in both fossil- and nuclear-f uelled power plants. An economiser serves a similar purpose to a feedwater heate r, but is technically different. Instead of using actual cycle steam for heating , it uses the lowest-temperature flue gas from the furnace (and therefore does n ot apply to nuclear plants) to heat the water before it enters the boiler proper . Pulverizer: A pulverize r is a mechanical device for the grinding of many different types of materials. For example, they are used to pulverize coal for combustion in the s team- generating furnaces of fossil fuel power plants. Types of pulverizer: Ball mill: A ball mill is a pulverizer that consists of a horizontal rotating cylinder, up to three diameters in length, containing a charge of tumbling or cascading steel balls, pebbles, or rods 21 . There are three stages in the pulverization process: A. feeding B. drying C. gri nding The feeding system controls the fuel feed rate according to boiler demand and the required air rate (primary air) for drying, and then transporting the pu lverized fuel and primary stream to the burner. Since coals have varying amount of moistures and in order that lower rank coals can be used, dryers are an integ ral part of the pulverizing equipment. Part of the hot air from the air preheate r (primary air) is forced into the pulverizer at about 350 0 C by the primary ai r fan. There it is mixed with the coal as it is being circulated and ground. The heart of the equipment is, however, the pulverizer or the tube mil. Grinding is performed by crushing. Pulverizers, commonly used , are classified by speed: (A) : low speed (below 75 rpm), the ball tube mill; (B): medium speed (75 to 225 rpm ), the ball and race mill (C): high speed (above 225 rpm), the impact or hammer

mill. The figure is shown above: The ball tube mill is a hollow horizontal cylin der with conical ends and wear resistance liners revolving slowly at about 20-30 rpm with 20-35% of its volume being filled with forged steel balls of mixed siz e 30-60 mm. Coal is pulverized by attrition and impact as the steel balls and co al rise up and fall down with cylinder position. Primary air is blown over the c harge to carry the pulverized coal to classifiers, which feedback the coarser pa rticles for regrinding. The ball mill is reliable and requires low maintenance, but it is bulky and heavy in construction. Bottom ash: Bottom ash refers to the non-combustible constituents of coal with traces of com bustibles embedded in forming clinkers and sticking to hot side walls of a coalburning furnace during its operation. The portion of the ash that escapes up the chimney or stack is, however, referred to as fly ash. The clinkers fall by them selves into the water or sometimes by poking manually, and get cooled. 22 Superheater: A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into dry steam used for power generation or processes. There are three types of superheat ers namely: radiant, convection, and separately fired. A radiant superheater is placed directly in the combustion chamber. A convection superheater is located i n the path of the hot gases. A separately fired superheater, as its name implies , is totally separated from the boiler. Whatever type of boiler is used, steam w ill leave the water at its surface and pass into the steam space. Steam formed a bove the water surface in a shell boiler is always saturated and cannot become s uperheated in the boiler shell, as it is constantly in contact with the water su rface. If superheated steam is required, the saturated steam must pass through a superheater. This is simply a heat exchanger where additional heat is added to the saturated steam. Super heater temperature limitations: Though thermodynamically there is no limit on superheating steam, the maximum te mperature to which can be heated in a boiler is dictated by the metallurgy of th e super heater tubes, which have withstand the high temperature. Considering ava ilability economy in initial cost and maintenance cost generally ferrite, pearli te and very limited amount of austenite steels only can be chosen for superheate r and reheater tubes. Because of this reason the present trend is to limit the s team temperature value at 5400C both in superheater as well in reheater. Reheater: Development of large capacity steam turbines with more number of stages posed a problem of retaining the steam within vapour phase till the last stage. It is be cause even with a larger steam turbine the inlet steam temperature is kept at 54 00C only due to superheater limitations. To overcome this problem it becomes nec essary to raise the temperature of steam after part of its energy is extracted f rom it in the 23 steam turbine. This is called the reheating of the steam which increases the cyc le efficiency. This reheating of the steam is done in the boiler which supplies super heated steam to the turbine itse lf at the heating surfaces called reheate r. Power plant furnaces may have a reheater section containing tubes heated by h ot flue gases outside the tubes. Exhaust steam from the high pressure turbine is rerouted to go inside the reheater tubes to pickup more energy to go drive inte rmediate or lower pressure turbines. Economizer:

In simple terms, an economizer is a heat exchanger. In boilers, economizers are heat exchange devices that heat fluids, usually water, up to but not normally be yond the boiling point of that fluid. They are a device fitted to a boiler which saves energy by using the exhaust gases from the boiler to preheat the cold wat er used to fill it (the feed water). Flue gases from large boilers are typically 450 - 650F.Stack Economizers recover some of this heat for pre-heating water. Th e water is most often used for boiler make-up water or some other need that coin cides with boiler operation. Stack Economizers should be considered as an effici ency measure when large amounts of make-up water are used or there is a simultan eous need for large quantities of hot water for some other use. Working: Boiler stack economizers are simply heat exchangers with hot flue gas on one sid e and water on the other. Economizers must be sized for the volume of flue gas, its temperature, the maximum pressure drop allowed through the stack, what kind of fuel is used in the boiler, and how much energy needs to be recovered. 24 Electrostatic precipitator: An electrostatic precipitator (ESP), or electrostatic air cleane r is a collecti on device that removes particles from a flowing gas (such as air) using the forc e of an induced electrostatic charge. Electrostatic precipitators are highly eff icient filtration devices that, and can easily remove fine particulate matter su ch as dust and smoke from the air stream. Flue gas stacks: A flue gas stack is a type of chimney, a vertical pipe, channel or similar struc ture through which combustion product gases called flue gases are exhausted to t he outside air. Flue gases are produced when coal, oil, natural gas, wood or any other fuel is combusted in an industrial furnace, a power plant's steam-generat ing boiler, or other large combustion device. Flue gas is usually composed of ca rbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and water vapour as well as nitrogen and excess oxygen rema ining from the intake combustion air. It also contains a small percentage of pol lutants such as particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides. The flue gas stacks are often quite tall, up to 400 meters (1300 feet) o r more, so as to disperse the exhaust pollutants over a greater area and thereby reduce the concentration of the pollutants to the levels required by government al environmental policy and environmental regulation. Flue gas stack draft (or draught): The combustion flue gases inside the flue gas stacks are much hotter than the am bient outside air and therefore less dense than the ambient air. That causes the bottom of the vertical column o f hot flue gas to have a lower pressure than th e pressure at the bottom of a corresponding column of outside air. That higher p ressure outside the chimney is the driving force that moves the required combust ion air into the combustion zone and also moves the flue gas up and out of the c himney. That movement or flow of combustion air and flue gas is called "natural draft (or draught)", "natural ventilation", "chimney effect", or "stack effect". The taller the stack, the more draft (or draught) is created. The equation belo w provides an approximation of the pressure difference, P, (between the bottom an d the top of the flue gas stack) that is created by the draft: where: P = available pressure difference, in Pa 25 C = 0.0342 a = atmospheric pressure, in Pa h = height of the flue gas stack, in

m To = absolute outside air temperature, in K Ti = absolute average temperature of the flue gas inside the stack, in K Draught (or draft ) system: Large amount of air are needed for combustion of the fuel. The gaseous combustio n products in huge quantity have also to be removed continuously from the boiler furnace. To produce the required flow of air or combustion gas, a pressure diff erential is needed. The term draft or draught is used to define the static pressure in the furnace, in the various ducts, and the stack. The function of the draught system is basically twofold: 1. To supply to the furnace the required quantity of air for complete combustion of fuel. 2. To remove the gaseous products of com bustion from the furnace and throw these through chimney or stack to the atmosph ere. There are two ways of producing draught: 1. Natural draught 2. Mechanical d raught 1. Natural draught: The natural draught is produced by a chimney or a stack. It is caused by the den sity difference between the atmospheric air and the hot gas in the stack. P = g H (a g) Where: a = density of atmospheric air, kg/m3 26 g = average gas density in the chimney, kg/m3 g = acceleration due to gravity, 9. 81m/s2 In modern boilers, the fuel burning rate is high, and the rate of air sup ply as well as the flue gar removal is high. There are also various heat exchang ers like superheater, reheater, economizer, and air preheater on the way to caus e large pressure losses for which stacks alone are insufficient and fans are add ed for producing mechanical draught. Stacks have thus two functions: 1. To assis t the fans in overcoming pressure losses. 2. to help disperse the gas effluent i nto the atmosphere at a sufficient he ight to cause minimum atmospheric pollutio n. 2. Mechanical draught: Mechanical draught is produced by fans. There are two types of fans in use today : forced draught (FD) and induced draught (ID) fans. When either one is used alo ne, it should overcome the total air and gas pressure losses within the steam ge nerator. Forced draught fans are installed at inlet to the air preheater. They h andle cold air. So they have less maintenance problems, consumes less power and therefore, their operating costs are lo wer. For good reliability, two forced dr aught fans operating in parallel are normally used, each capable of undertaking at least 60% of full load air flow when the other is out of service. The forced draught fan if used alone, as in many large steam genera tors and almost all mar ine applications, maintains the entire system up to the stack entrance under pos itive gauge pressure. Induced draught fans are normally located at the foot of t he stack. They handle hot combustion gases. Their power requirements are, theref ore, greater than FD fans. In addition they must cope with corrosive combustion products and fly ash. When both FD and ID fans are used in a steam generator, th e FD fans push atmospheric air through the air preheater, dampers, various air d ucts, and burners into the furnace, and the ID fan sucks out the flue gases thro ugh the heat transfer surfaces in the superheater, reheater, economizer, gas-sid e air preheater and dust collectors and discharge into the stack. The stack beca use of its height, adds a natural driving pressure of its own. Air preheater: 27 An air preheater (APH) is a general term to describe any device designed to heat

air before another process (for example, combustion in a boiler) with the prima ry objective of increasing the thermal efficiency of the process. The purpose of the air preheater is to recover the heat from the boiler flue gas which increas es the thermal efficiency of the boiler by reducing the useful heat lost in the flue gas. As a consequence, the flue gases are also sent to the flue gas stack ( or chimney) at a lower temperature, allowing simplified design of the ducting an d the flue gas stack. It also allows control over the temperature of gases leavi ng the stack (to meet emissions regulations, for example). Types of Boilers: Boiler systems are classified in a variety of ways. They can be classified accor ding to the end use, such as for heating, power generation or process requiremen ts. Or they can be classified according to pressure, materials of construction, size tube contents (for example, waterside or fireside), firing, heat source or circulation. Boilers are also distinguished by their method of fabrication. Some times boilers are classified by their heat source. For example, they are often r eferred to as oil- fired, gas- fired, coal- fired, or solid fuel fired boilers. L et us take a look at some typical types of boilers. Fire tube boilers: Firetube boilers consist of a series of straight tubes that are housed inside a water-filled outer shell. The tubes are arranged so that hot combustion gases fl ow through the tubes. As the hot gases flow through the tubes, they heat the wat er surrounding the tubes. The water is confined by the outer shell of boiler. To avoid the need for a thick outer shell firetube boilers are used for lower pres sure applications. Generally, the heat input capacities for firetube boilers are limited to 50 mbtu per hour or less, but in recent years the size of firetube b oilers has increased. Firetube boilers are subdivided into three groups. 28 Horizontal return tubular (HRT) boilers typically have horizontal, self-containe d firetubes with a separate combustion chamber. Scotch, Scotch marine, or shell boilers have the firetubes and combustion chambe r housed within the same shell. Firebox boilers have a water-jacketed firebox and employ at most three passes of combustion gases. These boilers contain long steel tubes through which the hot gases from the furn ace pass and around which the hot gases from the furnace pass and around which t he water circulates. Firetube boilers typically have a lower initial cost, are m ore fuel efficient and are easier to operate, but 2 they are limited generally to capacities of 25 tonnes per hour and pressures of 17.5 kg per cm . Watertube boiler: Watertube boilers are designed to circulate hot combustion gases around the outs ide of a large number of water filled tubes. In the older designs, the tubes wer e either straight or bent into simple shapes. Newer boilers have tubes with comp lex and diverse bends. Because the pressure is confined inside the tubes, water tube boilers can be fabricated in larger sizes and used for higher-pressure appl ications. Small water tube boilers, which have one and sometimes two burners, ar

e generally fabricated and supplied as packaged units. Because of their size and weight, large water tube boilers are often fabricated in pieces and assembled i n the field. In water tube or water in tube boilers, the conditions are reversed w ith the water passing through the tubes and the hot gases passing outside the tu bes. These boilers can be of a single- or multiple-drum type. They can be built to any steam capacity and pressures, and have higher efficiencies than firetube boilers. Almost any solid, liquid or gaseous fuel can be burnt in a water tube b oiler. The common fuels are coal, oil, natural gas, biomass and solid fuels such as municipal solid waste (MSW), tire-derived fuel (TDF) and RDF. Coal- fired wa ter tube boilers are classified into three major categories: stoker fired units, PC fired units and FBC boilers. Package water tube boilers come in three basic designs: A, D and O type. The nam es are derived from the general shapes of the tube and drum arrangements. 29 All have steam drums for the separation of the stea m from the water, and one or more mud drums for the removal of sludge. Fuel oil- fired and natural gas-fired water tube package boilers are subdivided into three classes based on the geome try of the tubes. The A design has two small lower drums and a larger upper drum f or steam- water separation. In the D design, which is the most common, the unit ha s two drums and a large- volume combustion chamber. The orientation of the tubes in a D boiler creates either a left or right-handed configuration. For the O design , the boiler tube configuration exposes the least amount of tube surface to radi ant heat. Rental units are often O boilers because their symmetry is a benefit in transportation. Electric boilers: Electric boilers can use electric resistance heating coils immersed in water and are normally very lowcapacity units. Other types of electric boilers are electr ode-type units that generate saturated steam by conducting current through the w ater itself. Boiler water conductivity must be monitored and controlled. If the conductivity is too low, the boiler will not reach full operating capacity. When the conductivity is too high, over-current protection will normally shut off th e power. Proper conductivity and high-quality water as well as effective water t reatment is required. Solids from the saturated steam tend to accumulate slowly on the insulators supporting the electrodes from the grounded shell. The unit mu st be shut down periodically so that the insulators can be washed off to prevent arcing. Finally, voltages of up to 16 kV may be used. Protection is needed for ground faults, over-current and, for three-phase systems, loss of phase. The mai n electrical disconnect switch must be locked out before performing maintenance on the boiler. 30 31