Power Generation in Typical Coal Based

Power Plant
- Er. Sandip De MBA, B.E. Mechanical

April 11, 2010

Different systems
 The Process
 Different Stages – Project, Commissioning, Operations and Maintenance.
 O&M vs. Non-O&M
 Coal systems
 Water systems
 Furnace systems
 TG systems
 Ash systems
 Power evacuation systems
 Support systems
--Technical and
--Non-technical
 Differences in Gas based and Hydro power projects
POWER STATION

3
1. Coal-how much and how 21. Rotor
2. CHP 22. Stator
3. Coal Conveyor 23. Generator Transformer
4. Boiler Coal Bunker 24. Condenser
5. Bucket Wheel Machine 25. Condensate Extraction Pump
6. Coal Feeder 26. Low Pressure Feed Heat
7. Pulverizing Mill 27. Deaerator
8. Primary Air Fan 28. Boiler Feed Pump
9. Boiler light-up 29. High Pressure Feed Heaters
10. Boiler 30. Economizer
11. Forced Draught Fan 31. Steam Drum
12. Air Heater 32. Cooling Tower
13. Electrostatic Precipitator 33. Circulating Water Pumps
14. Induced Draught Fan 34. Circulating Water Make-Up Pumps
15. Main Chimney 35. FGD
16. Super heater 36. Finally..
17. High Pressure Turbine
18. Boiler Reheater
19. Intermediate Pressure Turbine
20. Low Pressure Turbine
1. Coal- How much and how
• Coal required for a 100 MW plant per year
= Power Plant Wattage x Coal unit/ Hr x Hr/ Yr
= 100 x (Per unit Heat Required/ Coal Heat
Value) x (24 x 365)
= 100 x (10.765/ 20) x 8760 kg/ Yr
= 471.51 x 1000 kg/ Yr
= 471.51 mT/ Yr • Coal is transported from the mine to loading place
• Loading place into train
• Train to the location
• Unloaded at the location (Wagon Tripler)
• Transported through conveyors into bunkers
• From bunkers into mills (Pulverizes)
• Powdered, put into furnace and burnt
• The heat generated is used to heat water, steam, air

5
2. CHP – Coal handling plant
• At the receiving location stock yard
or sent to coal bunkers
• To make sure to generate electricity
when you want to, you have to make
sure the coal is in the right place at
the right time
• Typically 15 days stock is
maintained at site
• The stock yard stocks these and
helps in times of lean supply from
the mines or when transportation is
not available
3. Coal Conveyor
• Coal conveyors are used to move
coal around efficiently. Coal arriving
by train can be stocked for later use
or taken straight to the coal bunkers
• CHP control room with remote
control system helps to ensure that
the conveyors take the coal to the
right bunkers
4. Boiler Coal
• Coal bunker supplies coal to pulverizing
fuel mills. Each bunker can hold 1,000
tonnes of coal, and there may be six to eight
bunkers per unit

• Power station coal is not as lumpy as coal

used in the home. Typically around half of
it is less than 12.5 millimeters across and
95% is less than 50 millimeters

• This when powdered is called “200 mesh”

cleared. That is the powdered coal passes
through a sieve with so many holes in
square inch area. It is better than the face
powder in terms of size
5. Stack and Reclaim
• Machines are used to put coal out to the
stockpile and reclaim coal from the
stockpile
• Water is sprayed on coal to stop them
from getting burnt when in storage yard
due to internal heat up or sun heat
• Coal when powdered is heated and being
lifted by hot air that is sent into the
“mills”
• This goes and burns inside the furnace
producing ash and converting the water in
the pipelines into steam
6. Coal Feeder
• The variable speed coal feeder feeds
coal from the bunkers to the mill
• It uses a conveyor to move coal
through a fixed gap at a precisely
controlled speed
• Varying the speed controls the
amount of coal supplied to the
boilers
• These are precision bits of equipment
that have to move exact amounts of
coal.
• They can move 40 tonnes of coal in
an hour
7. Pulverisor or Mill
• Each of unit may have six to eight
pulverizing fuel mills, each capable
of pulverizing 40 tonnes of coal per
hour
• Inside the mills, ten giant hollow
steel rollers crush the coal into a fine
powder
• Crushing the coal into a fine powder
makes it easier to burn it more
completely
• In other words, “due to the increased
surface area, the combustion
efficiency increases”
8. Primary Air Fan
• Air to blow the coal from the mill to
the boiler, called the primary air, is
supplied by a large fan driven by a
variable speed motor
• When mixed with a stream of air the
powdered coal behaves more like a
gas than a solid
• Primary air does two jobs – heating
the coal powder and secondly lifting
it into the furnace through pipelines
9. Boiler light-up
• Spark plug provides the initial
ignition. Light Diesel oil is then fed
to the burner and it catches fire
• This is followed by heavy furnace oil
(HFO)
• Once a stable flame is established the
coal/air mix is blown through the
burner where it lights spontaneously
• The oil are then shut off. Burner
position, coal flow and air flow are
controlled to achieve desired output
of temperature, pressure and flow
and hence the electricity
• At full output 4,000 MW power
station can burn more than 50,000
tons of coal a day
10. Boiler
• To produce steam each boiler converts
energy, in the form of coal, into steam
• The boiler is lined with steel tubing in
which pure boiler feed water is turned to
steam by the heat created from the
burning of coal
• Each boiler is as high as 60 mts and
weighs about 40,00,000 kg (4000 T)
• Inside the boiler there is enough steel
tubing to stretch the 500 kilometres and
they are joined together by about 20,000
joints
• Pressure inside the tubes could be about
hundred times that of car‟s wheel
pressure
11. Forced Draught (FD) Fan
• Each unit shall have two forced
draught fans
• The fans draw warm air from the top
of the boiler house through large air
heaters becoming the primary and
secondary air used for the boiler
combustion process
• The air heater warms the incoming
air by transferring heat energy from
the outgoing flue gases
12. Air Pre-Heater (APH)
• The air heaters use the remaining
heat energy in the flue gas to heat up
the combustion air for the boiler
• Efficiency is increased by using this
heat that would otherwise go up the
chimney. The air temperature leaving
the air heaters is at 300 C
• The air heaters use the remaining
heat energy and efficiency is
increased by using this heat that
would otherwise go up the chimney
13. Electro-Static Precipitator
• Each boiler has 4 passes with 7 fields each
containing high voltage electrodes
• These attract the dust or ash from the flue
gases
• At regular intervals the electrodes are
rapped with motor-driven hammers and the
PFA falls into hoppers below
• In a year 1,000 MW station may generate
1.5 million ton of ash
• This is one of the ways to clean up the flue
gases or smoke sent up the chimney
• Secondly this ash is used by construction
industry for use in building materials
(bricks !!, Cement Fillers)
14. Induced Draught (ID) Fan
• Two induced draught fans draw
gases out of the boiler
• The gas has already passed through
the air heaters and precipitators
before it has reached these fans
• The heat from the flue gases or
smoke is used in the air heaters to
heat up the primary and secondary
air
15. Chimney
• The chimney is 275 meters' high and
50,000 tonnes of reinforced concrete
were used to make it
• It consists of flues each of which
serve typically two or three boilers
(two units)
16. Super heater
• The steam produced in the boiler
goes to the steam drum and is then
piped through the primary, platen
and final super-heaters where it
reaches the outlet temperature of
560 C and 160 ksc pressure
• At this point in the process they have
now turned the water into a very
powerful source of energy
• This rotates the turbine to which
generator is on the other end
• From rotating generator electricity is
produced
17. High Pressure Turbine
• High pressure steam at 560 C and
160 ksc pressure passes through the
high pressure turbine. The exhaust
steam from this section is returned to
the boiler for reheating before being
used in the next section of the turbine
set.
• The blades in the high pressure
turbine are the smallest of all the
turbine blades, this is because the
incoming steam has very high energy
and occupies a low volume. The
blades are fixed to a shaft and as the
steam hits the blades it causes the
shaft to rotate
18. Boiler Reheater
• After expanding through the high
pressure turbine the exhaust steam is
returned to the boiler at 360 C and
40 ksc pressure for reheating before
being used in the intermediate
pressure turbine
• The Reheater reheats the steam from
a temperature of 360 C back to
560 C
19. Intermediate Pressure Turbine
• On leaving the boiler Reheater,
steam enters the intermediate
pressure turbine at 560 C and 40 ksc
pressure (1 ksc = 14.22 psi )
• From here the steam goes straight to
the next section of the turbine set
• The steam has expanded and has less
energy when it enters this section, so
here the turbine blades are bigger
than those in the high pressure
turbine
• The blades are fixed to a shaft and as
the steam hits the blades it causes the
shaft to rotate
20. Low Pressure Turbine
• From the intermediate pressure
turbines, the steam continues its
expansion in the three low pressure
turbines. The steam entering the
turbines is at 300 C and 6 ksc
pressure
• To get the most work out of the
steam, exhaust pressure is kept very
low, just 50 mille-bar above a
complete vacuum
• The tip speed of the largest blades
with the shaft spinning at 3,000
revolutions per minute is 2,000 kmph
21. Rotor
• The shaft that runs through the
turbines is coupled to the rotor,
which is a large electromagnet inside
a cylinder of copper windings called
the stator
• The rotor weighs 100 tonnes and
rotates at 3,000 revolutions per
minute
22. Stator
• As the electromagnet rotates inside
the copper windings, a magnetic field
is created which induces a three
phase alternating electric current
(AC) in the stator windings
• Together the rotor and stator are
known as the generator. The stator
weighs 300 tonnes
• Electricity is generated at over 80
times the voltage in our homes
• This is “stepped up” to about
4,00,000 volts and then “transmitted”
23. Generator Transformer
• From the generator the electricity
then goes to a “transformer” where
the voltage is increased to 4,00,000
volts before sending it via cables to
the “Grid” for distribution
• Each 1 MW generates about 8
million units and gives about Rs 2
crores revenue every year
• This generates enough electricity to
power around 5,000 avg. homes
24. Condenser
• With its useful energy spent in the
turbines the steam then passes to
condensers
• Here it is condensed back into water
and pumped back to the boiler
• This happens via a series of low
pressure and high pressure feed
heaters

25. Condensate Extraction Pump

• The condensate water is drawn from
the condenser by the extraction pump
and sent to the low pressure feed
heaters
26. Low Pressure Feed Heaters
• Feedwater from the condensate
extraction pumps passes through low
pressure feed heaters. Steam is used
to heat the feedwater
• After the last feedheater, the
feedwater is at around 160°C.
27. Deaerator
• From the low pressure feed heaters
the water passes through the
deaerator before going to the high
pressure (HP) feed heaters.
28. Boiler Feed Pump
• The boiler feed pump pumps water
into the boiler, overcoming the boiler
pressure of 160 bar to achieve it
• The pump is driven by a steam
turbine or an electric motor
• It runs at 7,000 revolutions per
minute
29. High Pressure Feed Heaters
• With a similar purpose to the low
pressure feed heaters, the high
pressure feed heaters are the last
stage of feedwater heating before the
feedwater enters the boiler system at
the economizer
• Feedwater leaving these heaters is at
250°C
30. Economizer
• Flue gases leaving the superheater
and reheater still contain useful
energy
• Water from the high pressure feed
heaters is heated in the economiser
from 250°C to 290°C before it
continues to the steam drum
• Having given up its last heat in the
boiler, the flue gases move on to the
air heater
31. Drum
• After leaving the economizer, the
feedwater reaches the drum, which is
a cylindrical vessel at the top of the
boiler
• From here the water flows by natural
circulation through downpipes into
the boiler
• Saturated steam collects here ready
to go to the superheater
• “Drum” does the important function
of “separating steam from a mixture
of steam and water”
32. Cooling Tower
• The warm river water is taken from
the condenser tubes to about a
quarter of the way up the 100 metre
high cooling tower where it is
dropped through honeycombed
plastic packing
• This breaks the water up into a very
fine spray, increasing the surface
area of the water droplets making it
easier to cool
• The cooling tower is designed as a
natural draught chimney, drawing
cold air from outside through the
falling water
• Cool water is collected in pond at the
bottom of the cooling tower
• From here it is pumped back to the
condensers
33. Circulating Water Pumps
• The circulating water pumps are used
to circulate the water from the
cooling tower to the condenser and
back again
34. Circulating Water Make-Up
Pumps
• These pumps are used to supply
water for make-up purpose
• Before going to the cooling Tower
the silt is removed in large
sedimentation tanks
35. FGD
• After passing through the electrostatic precipitators, the boiler flue gas is
increased in pressure and then cooled from between 115°C-130°C to 80°C
• It enters the lowest part of the absorber and is further cooled by water used to
wash the inlet duct to prevent a build up of solids
• The main SO2 absorption process, and the washing out of any remaining
pulverised fuel ash, occurs as the gas is „scrubbed‟ by the re-circulating limestone
slurry
• This is taken from the bottom of the absorber and is sprayed downwards from
nozzles arranged at five separate levels in the absorber tower
• As a result of the process chemistry, the recirculating slurry becomes
predominantly gypsum and a portion is continuously pumped away for gypsum
separation and the removal of water using a hydro-cyclone system
• A waste water treatment plant ensures any water from the FGD process returned
to the river meets quality standards set by the regulatory authority
Finally..

• The cleaned flue gas is discharged up the 275 metre high chimney which has
been lined with steel plates/brick lining.

• The generated power stepped upto 4 lakh volts is transmitted and handed over to
distributors at lower voltages

• Finally it is supplied to households at 230 volts and to industries at little higher

voltages..
THANK YOU