7
Dry-Steam Power Plants 145

Fig. 7.14 Ideal turbine expansion processes for various wellhead pressures.

enthalpy drop. Thus the power vanishes at the two extreme positions for the
wellhead pressure, indicating there is some wellhead pressure for which the power
will be a maximum.
It is convenient computationally to solve for the power output per maximum steam
flow rate:
_ _ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
W W m_
5 3 5 ðh1 2 h2 Þ 3 1 2 ðP=Pci Þ2 ð7:18Þ
_ max
m m_ m_ max
where (h1 2 h2) is the isentropic enthalpy drop across the turbine (shown as Δh
in Fig. 7.14). It is not hard to solve this problem for a non-isentropic turbine; see
Problem 7.1.
For this illustration, we have selected the following parameters to define the problem
(note
all pressures are absolute):
closed-in pressure, Pci 5 300 lbf/in2; P2 5 Pc 5 2 lbf/in2; h1 5 1200.4 Btu/lbm.
The results of the calculations are shown in Table 7.1. These were obtained
graphically using the very large scale Mollier diagram that accompanies the Steam
Tables [13].
A graph of the power output per maximum steam flow is shown in Fig. 7.15. It can
be seen that the optimum operating point occurs at a wellhead pressure of 127 lbf/in2.
At that setting, the plant can produce a gross power of 247.4 Btu/lbm.
This optimum output is equivalent to 72.5 kW per maximum steam flow in
103 lbm/h. Thus, for a well capable of a maximum steam flow of 200 3 103 lbm/h,
the optimum turbine power generation would be 14.5 MW. Recall that the turbine is
assumed to be ideal; for a realistic turbine, this would drop to about 11.5 MW.