Energy and Exergy Based

Thermodynamic Analysis of a 62.5 MWe

Coal-Based Thermal Power Plant A Case Study
M.V.J.J. Suresh, K. S. Reddy*, Ajit Kumar Kolar

Heat Transfer and Thermal Power Laboratory

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Chennai 600 036, India

*ksreddy@iitm.ac.in
Tel: +91-44-22574702, Fax: +91-44-22570509, 22574652

Keywords: Coal-based thermal power plant, Energy, Exergy

Abstract
Energy and exergy analysis provides insight to find out
efficiency improvement in various components of a power
generating system. The results of energy and exergy analysis
carried out on a 62.5 MWe coal-based thermal power plant
are presented in this paper. The performance of the plant was
estimated by a component-wise modeling followed by a
system simulation. A flow-sheet computer program, Cycle-
Tempo was used for this study. The detailed break-up of
exergy losses for the considered plant has been presented.
The maximum exergy loss was found to be in steam
generation unit followed by turbine. The variation of overall
energy and exergy efficiency with parameters such as
temperature gain of cooling water across the condenser,
excess air and condenser pressure are presented. The off-
design simulation resulted in an overall energy efficiency of
28.5% at 40% load factor compared to 31.5% at design rating.
Introduction
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by Habib et al. [2]. Rosen [3] has
compared the performance of operating coal-fired and nuclear
steam power plant located in Canada of unit size of
approximately 500 MWe using a process-simulator, Aspen
Plus. The most common unit size of power plants in India is
100 / 110 MWe or 200 / 210 MWe. Exergy analysis of coal-
fired power generating unit of 110 MWe at Panki Thermal
Power Station, Kanpur, India has been done by Asthana et al.
[4]. An exergy analysis of a coal-based thermal power plant
was reported recently by Sengupta et al. [5], using the design
data from a 210 MWe thermal power plant under operation.
The exergy analysis is not so popular among industrial
fraternity in India and it needs much more attention and
application so that the irreversibilities can be minimized and
thus the systems can be operated at much higher efficiency.
The present study is one such effort to show the application of
energy and exergy based analysis on a relatively smaller size
unit of 62.5 MWe capacity.

The rate of depletion of fossil fuel reserves has necessitated
the operation of power plants in the most efficient manner.
Energy and exergy analysis has increasingly attracted the
interest to achieve the above goal. Energy is always
conserved in every device or process. Unlike energy, exergy
is not generally conserved but is destroyed. The majority of
the causes of thermodynamic imperfection of thermal
processes are not accounted by energy or first law analysis. It
is the exergy or second law analysis that accounts the
irreversibilities like heat transfer through a finite temperature
difference, chemical reactions, friction, mixing, and
unrestrained expansion [1].
A detailed first- and second-law analysis has been carried out
on a 400 MWe unit of the Ghazlan thermal power plant,
India has huge coal reserves, about 10% of the worlds total
[6] and thus the coal-based thermal power plants dominate
source-wise mix with 55% installed capacity [7]. Due to
power shortage of about 7% [7], a large number of old coal-
fired units are still in use, operating on much lower thermal
efficiencies compared to their design values. One of the
important factors contributing to the lower overall efficiency
is the high ash content of about 40 - 50% in Indian coals. It is
emphasized here that in spite of high ash content, the Indian
coal is of high quality with regard to sulphur content which is
in general less than 0.6% [8] thus having minimal negative
environmental impact. The other factors responsible for the
lower operating performance are inadequate instrumentation,
mismatching of equipments and deteriorated performance of
associated equipments over a period of time [4].

Presented at International Conference on Energy and Environment, August 28-30, 2006, Malaysia 1
Process description of 62.5 MWe thermal power plant
A detailed process flow-sheet of a 62.5 MWe unit of
Ramagundam Thermal Power Station (RTPS) is shown in fig.
1. This unit employs regenerative feed water heating system.
Feed water heating is carried out in two stages of low
pressure heaters and two stages of high pressure heaters along
with one open de-aerating heat exchanger.
Saturated steam from the boiler drum is fed to the superheater
to heat it up to 510oC at a pressure of 86.2 bar. The extraction
pressures of steams (in bars) from the turbine are as follows:
High Pressure Heater -1 (HPH 1) :29.2
High Pressure Heater -2 (HPH 2) :14.3
De-aerator (DA) :6.2
Low Pressure Heater -1 (LPH 1) :2.3
Low Pressure Heater -2 (LPH 2) :0.72
The condenser pressure is taken as 10 kPa.
The composition of the coal used for the present study
represents that of the typical Indian Coal (Singareni Mines)
with lower heating value of 14.5 MJ/kg.
Component Mass (%)
Carbon 38.94
Hydrogen 2.62
Moisture 5.74
Nitrogen 0.74
Oxygen 6.69
Sulphur 0.61
Ash 44.66
Table 1: Composition of coal
System Analysis
The present study has been performed using a flow-sheet
program, Cycle-Tempo [9], which is a well-structured
program for the thermodynamic analysis of energy systems.
The ash content of Indian coal, as already mentioned is
around 40 - 50% as against 5 - 10% in the coal being used in
the western countries. This is one of the important factors
contributing to the lower overall efficiency of the plant.
Being a tropical country, the cooling water temperature in
majority of the parts in India throughout the year is around
25oC. In Europe and other western countries the cooling
water temperatures are lower in the range of 5 10oC, which
enables the operation of the condenser at much lower vacuum
pressures (5 kPa), thus resulting in higher operating
efficiencies. Since, both the above factors are natures
limitation; though coal can be beneficiated to a small extent,
designers / plant operators focus should shift to other major
sites of potential improvement. Thus, the goal of this paper is
to identify such sites so that the overall efficiency of the
system can be improved.
The following assumptions were made to carry out the
simulation:
Presented at International Conference on Energy and Environment, August 28-30, 2006, Malaysia
1. The kinetic and potential exergies have been neglected.
2. The reference state for water / steam is saturated liquid at a
temperature of 25oC.
3. The incoming fuel temperature is 25oC.
4. In order to calculate exergy, the following reference
environment model has been considered:
Pressure : 1.01325 bar
Temperature : 25oC
The composition of the environment (mole %) is as follows
(Environment of Baehr) [9] :
Ar : 0.90
CO2 : 0.03
H2O (g) : 3.12
N2 : 75.65
O2 : 20.30
5. Isentropic efficiency of turbine: 80%.
6. Isentropic efficiency of pumps / fans: 75%.
7. Generator efficiency: 97%.
8. Excess air: 20%.
For the overall unit, the energy efficiency is evaluated as:
= net electricity produced / energy content (Lower Heating
Value) of fuel
and the exergy efficiency is evaluated as:
= net electricity produced / exergy content of fuel
where, exergy content of fuel is calculated by Cycle-Tempo
[9].
Results and discussion
A detailed parametric study has been carried out as a part of
this work, in order to account the performance of the overall
system. The parameters which have been considered are gain
in cooling water temperature across the condenser, excess air,
inlet air temperature, and the condenser pressure. The
variation of overall energy and exergy efficiencies with the
gain in cooling water temperature across the condenser is
shown in fig. 2. The obtained variation is about 0.2 0.25%
for the temperature variation of 10oC. The importance of
proper design / maintenance of the heat exchanging devices is
evident from the above noted variation. The results in fig. 3
shows that both the overall energy and exergy efficiencies
increase initially, reaches maximum at about the excess air
level of 20% and then starts decreasing for the further
variation of excess air. Fig. 4 shows the variation of both the
efficiencies with inlet air temperature. The study shows that
the above parameter affects both the efficiencies in a more
dominant way when compared with the temperature gain of
cooling water across the condenser. The effect of one of the
most important parameter, the condenser pressure variation
on the overall energy and exergy efficiency is presented in
fig. 5. It is seen that the overall efficiencies, both energy and
exergy increases by 1.1 1.3% with the reduction in
condenser pressure from 10 kPa to 5.5 kPa. The increase in
the overall energy efficiency can be accounted to the decrease
in the mean temperature of heat rejection, whereas the
increase in overall exergy efficiency is due to the decreased
mass flow rate of the steam. The variation of overall
efficiencies is highest with respect to this parameter. Off-
2
design simulation studies have also been performed for
different loads up to 40% of full load capacity and the results
are shown in figs. 6 - 9. The off-design simulation shows a 33
drop in overall energy and exergy efficiencies of 3% and
2.6% respectively at 40% load factor when compared with the 32
design rating of 62.5 MWe. Off-design operation increases

Efficiency (%)
31
the irreversibility rate in the system and the effect is more
pronounced with the reduction in load. The effect of off- 30 Overall energy efficiency
design operation on the fuel flow rate is shown in fig. 7 and Overall exergy efficiency
the variation of overall energy efficiency and irreversibility 29
rate (as a percent of input exergy) is represented in fig. 8. It is
evident from fig. 8 that operation of the plant below 50% of 28
the designed capacity results in the significant increase of
irreversibilities. The analysis shows an increase in overall 27
energy efficiency and decrease in irreversibility rate with 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
0
increase in load percentage. The decrease in irreversibility Temperature ( C)
rate is attributed to the decrease in irreversibilities in the
steam generation unit and turbine. Figure 4: Variation of efficiencies with inlet air temperature

33
34
32 33
Efficiency (%)

31 32
Efficiency (%)

31
30 Overall energy efficiency Overall energy efficiency
Overall exergy efficiency 30 Overall exergy efficiency
29
29
28 28

27 27
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
0
Temperature ( C) Pressure (kPa)

Figure 2: Variation of efficiencies with gain in cooling water Figure 5: Variation of efficiencies with condenser pressure
temperature across condenser

34
33
32
32
30
Efficiency (%)

31
Efficiency (%)

28
Overall energy efficiency
30
Overall exergy efficiency 26
29
24
Overall energy efficiency
28 22 Overall exergy efficiency

27 20
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65
Excess air (%) Power output (MWe)
Figure 3: Variation of efficiencies with excess air Figure 6: Off-design variation of efficiencies

Presented at International Conference on Energy and Environment, August 28-30, 2006, Malaysia 3
 Air

Economiser

Superheater

H H
Stack
Air Preheater Turbine
Evaporator

Generator
H Drum

Cooling Water

Condenser
DA

Coal
F F

F F LPH1 LPH2

HPH1 HPH2

Figure 1: Schematic diagram of 62.5 MWe Ramagundam Thermal Power Station (RTPS)

Presented at International Conference on Energy and Environment, August 28-30, 2006, Malaysia 4
 1 40
62.5 MWe Design

0.9 60 MWe
35 55 MWe
0.8
Fuel flow rate ratio

30 50 MWe
0.7
45 MWe
0.6 25

Loss (%)
40 MWe
0.5
20 35 MWe
0.4
0.3 15
0.2 10
0.1
5
0
0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 0
Combustor Evaporator Turbine
Fraction of full load

Figure 7: Effect of off-design operation on fuel flow rate Figure 9: Percentage exergy variation

The detailed analysis carried out shows that the dominant loss
take place in steam generating unit on account of carrying out
combustion and heat transfer with a large temperature
33 78 difference. Figs. 10 and 11 show the detailed energy and
Overall energy efficiency exergy balance of the considered system at the operating load
Ireversibility
32 77 of 62.5 MWe. There is a striking difference in the
composition of the represented energy and exergy balances.
Irreversibility rate (%)

31 76 It is noted that the exergy analysis has enabled the

Efficiency (%)

identification of the causes of process inefficiencies in detail

30 75 when compared to the energy analysis.

29 74
Other losses,
Heat rejected
28 73 0.3%
through stack,
8%
27 72
0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 Overall
Energy
Fraction of full load efficiency,
Figure 8: Variation of overall energy efficiency and 32%
irreversibility rate with load Heat rejected
in cooling
water, 60%

The variation of percentage exergy losses in major sections of

the system with respect to the off-design operation is shown
in fig. 9. It shows that variation of irreversibilities is more in
evaporator when compared to combustor and turbine with the
decrease in load. Figure 10: Energy balance of 62.5 MWe thermal power plant

Presented at International Conference on Energy and Environment, August 28-30, 2006, Malaysia 5
 licensing a copy of Cycle-Tempo and Ir. Theo Woudstra,
Other losses,
10%
Delft University of Technology for providing the technical
Exergy loss in support.
stack, 5%
References
Exergy loss in Overall exergy
turbine, 7% efficiency, 1. Y. A. Cengel and M. A. Boles, Thermodynamics: An
28% Engineering Approach, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing
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Exergy loss in 2. M. A. Habib, S. A. M. Said and J. J. Al-Bagawi,
evaporator, Thermodynamic performance analysis of the ghazlan
15% Exergy loss in
combustor,
power plant, Energy, vol. 20, no. 11, pp. 1121-1130, 1995.
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heat transfer in coal fired power stations using exergy
Figure 11: Exergy balance of 62.5 MWe thermal power plant analysis, Proceedings of the 18th National and 7th
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1766-1773, January 4-6, 2006.
In the case of exergy balance, substantial losses under the 5. S. Sengupta, S. D. Gupta and A. Datta, Exergy analysis
head of other losses (10%) are accounted by the condenser of a 210 MW thermal power plant cycle at different
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Conclusions 2006. www.cycle-tempo.nl

In the present work, an energy and exergy based

thermodynamic analysis of a 62.5 MWe coal-based thermal
power plant has been carried out. The power plant system was
simulated and a detailed parametric study was undertaken
involving parameters like the temperature gain of cooling
water across the condenser, excess air, inlet air temperature
and condenser pressure. It was noted that the influence of
variation of condenser pressure was highest on the overall
energy and exergy efficiencies. A detailed off-design study
has also been carried out to account the components having
maximum exergy destruction rates. Finally, an energy and
exergy balance of the complete system was also made. It has
been observed that the energy losses are associated mainly
with heat rejection in condenser and stack whereas exergy
losses are dominated by the losses in the steam generation
unit and turbine. The present study has enabled us to identify
sites where loss of useful energy takes place in a relatively
smaller unit of 62.5 MWe capacity.

Acknowledgements
One of the authors, Suresh MVJJ thanks Energy Technology
Section, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands for

Presented at International Conference on Energy and Environment, August 28-30, 2006, Malaysia 6