Thermal Power Plant

A steam power plant, also known as thermal power plant, is using steam as working fluid. Steam is
produced in a boiler using coal as fuel and is used to drive the prime mover, namely, the steam turbine. In
the steam turbine, heat energy is converted into mechanical energy which is used for generating electric
power. Generator is an electro-magnetic device which makes the power available in the form of electrical
energy.

Layout of steam power plant:

The layout of the steam power plant is shown in figure below. It consists of four main circuits. These are:
 Coal and ash circuit.
 Air and flue gas circuit
 Water and steam circuit and
 Cooling water circuit

Coal and ash circuit:

Coal from the storage yard is transferred to the boiler furnace by means of coal handling equipment like
belt conveyor, bucket elevator, etc., ash resulting from the combustion of coal in the boiler furnace collects
at the back of the boiler and is removed to the ash storage yard through the ash handling equipment.
Ash disposal :
The indian coal contains 30% to 40% ash. A power plant of 100MW 20 to 25 tonnes of hot ash per hour.
Hence sufficient space near the power plant is essential to dispose such large quantities of ash.

Air and flue gas circuit:

Air is taken from the atmosphere to the air preheater. Air is heated in the air preheater by the heat of flue
gas which is passing to the chimney. The hot air is supplied to the furnace of the bolier.
The flue gases after combustion in the furnace, pass around the boiler tubes. The flue gases then passes
through a dust collector, economizer and pre-heater before being exhausted to the atmosphere through
the chimney. By this method the heat of the flue gases which would have been wasted otherwise is used
effectively. Thus the overall efficiency of the plant is improved.

Air pollution:
The pollution of the surrounding atmosphere is caused by the emission of objectable gases and dust
through the chimney. The air pollution and smoke cause nuisance to people surrounding the planet.

Feed water and steam circuit:

The steam generated in the boiler passes through super heater and is supplied to the steam turbine. Work
is done by the expansion of steam in the turbine and the pressure of steam is reduced. The expanded
steam then passes to the condenser, where it is condensed.
The condensate leaving the condenser is first heated in a l.p. water heater by using the steam taken from
the low pressure extraction point of the turbine. Again steam taken from the high pressure extraction point
of the turbine is used for heating the feed water in the H.P water heater. The hot feed water is passing
through the economizer, where it is further heated by means of flue gases. The feed water which is
sufficiently heated by the feed water heaters and economizer is then fed into the boiler.

Cooling water circuit:

Abundant quantity of water is required for condensing the steam in the condenser. Water circulating
through the condenser may be taken from various sources such as river or lake, provided adequate water
supply is available from the river or lake throughout the year. If adequate quantity of water is not available
at the plant site, the hot water from the condenser is cooled in the cooling tower or cooling ponds and
circulated again.
Advantages of thermal power plants
 Initial cost is low compared with hydro-plant.
 The power plant can be located near load center, so the transmission losses are considerably reduced.
 The generation of power is not dependent on the nature’s mercy like hydro plant.
 The construction and commissioning of thermal plant requires less period of time than a hydro plant.
 High Pressure Boiler

A boiler which generates steam at a pressure of 85 kgf/sq.cm or above is termed as a “high

pressure boiler”. The present tendency is towards the use of high pressure boilers in power plants. The
modern high pressure boilers used for power generation have capacities of 40 to 1600 tonnes/hr of
superheated steam with a pressure upto 210 kgf/sq.cm and a temperature of about 650’C. One of the
largest modern steam power plants in the world is in japan with a steam capacity of 1600 Tonnes/hr. In
India, the trombay power plant has a steam generating capacity of 550 tonnes/hr, Ramagundampower
power plant with 320 tonnes/hr and bokaro plant with 160 tonnes/hr. Water tube boilers are generally
preferred for high pressure and high output whereas fire tube boilers for low pressure and low output.

Advantages of high pressure boilers:

Method of water circulation

Water circulation through the boiler may be either natural circulation due to density difference or by
forced circulation. In high pressure boilers, water circulation is made with the help of a centrifugal pump
which forces water through the boiler tubes. This is called “forced circulation of water”. The use of natural
circulation is limited upto 120 kgf/sq.cm. Steam pressure and forced circulation upto 210 kgf/sq.cm. Forced
circulation increases the rate of heat transfer and hence increases the steam generating capacity of boilers.

Size of drums
The high pressure boilers are characterized by the use of very small steam separating drums or by the
complete absence of any drum.

Type and arrangement of tubes

The heat of combustion is utilized more efficiently by the use of small diameter and light weight tubes in
large numbers. To avoid large resistance to the flow of water , the high pressure boilers have a parallel set
of arrangement of tubes.

Compactness
The boiler components can be arranged horizontally, giving greater accessibility and operational
convenience as high head required for natural circulation is eliminated by using forced circulation. The
space required is hence less and arrangement is compact.
Foundation cost
Due to the light weight tubes and small size drums required and the arrangement being compact, the cost
of foundation is reduced.
Efficiency
The efficiency of the power plant is increased upto 40%, by using high pressure superheated steam. Also
steam can be raised quickly after the boiler is fired.
Cost of electricity
Since efficiency of the plant is increased by using high pressure boilers, the cost of electricity production is
reduced.
Overheating
All the parts are uniformly heated; therefore the danger of overheating is reduced. Also thermal stress
probelm is avoided.
Scale formation
The tendency of scale formation is eliminated due to the high velocity of water through the boiler tubes.

Types of high pressure boilers

 La-Mont Boiler
 Loeffler Boiler
 Benson Boiler
 La-Mont Boiler

Working principle of La Mont Boiler

The image shows the flow circuit of La Mont Boiler.

Steam separator drum

The la Mont boiler consists of a steam separator drum which is placed wholly outside the boiler setting .
The drum receives a mixture of steam and water from the evaporator tubes and feed water from the
economizer. The steam is separated from water in the drum.

Circulating pump
The water from the drum is then drawn to the circulating (centrifugal) pump through the down-comer. The
pump circulates water (“forced circulation”) equal to 8 to 10 times the weight of steam evaporated. This
prevents the tubes from being overheated.

Distributing header
The circulating pump delivers the feed water to the distributing header with orifices at a pressure above
the drum pressure.

Evaporator
The header distributes water through orifices into the evaporator tubes acting in parallel. Orifice in the
header controls the flow of water to the evaporator tubes. Here part of the water is evaporated and a
mixture of steam and water from these tubes enters the drum.

Convection superheater
The steam produced in the boiler is nearly saturated. This steam as such should not be used in the steam
turbine. The presence of moisture in it will cause corrosion of turbine blades, etc. to raise the temperature
of steam and thereby to increase the turbine efficiency, superheater is used. The principle of convection
superheater is similar to steam generating tubes of the boiler. The hot flue gases at high temperature
sweep over convection superheated tubes and raise the temperature of steam. Convection superheater
thus receives heat from the flue gases flowing from the combustion chamber, entirely by convective heat
transfer. Such a superheater may be more conveniently located since it is not necessary for it to “see” the
furnace. Saturated steam from the top of the drum enters the convection superheater placed in the path of
the flue gases and is superheated.

Steam outlet
Superheated steam from the superheater passes out to the steam turbine through the steam outlet.

Economizer
The quantity of superheated steam thus delivered to turbine is continuously made up in the form of feed
water. Feed water supplied by the feed pump is heated in the economizer on its way to the steam
separator drum. The economizer is a device used to preheat the feed water using the hot gases leaving the
boiler. Before the gases are let off to the atmosphere, they are made to flow in a definite passage in the
economizer so that some of the heat in the hot gases, which otherwise gets wasted, can be used to
preheat the feed water. The preheated water requires only a small amount of heat to be supplied in the
boiler, resulting in some saving of the fuel burnt. This results in an increase in the boiler efficiency.

Air preheater
Since the heat of the exit gases cannot be fully extracted through the economizer, the air preheater is
employed to recover some of the heat escaping in these gases. These exit gases preheat the air from the
blower in the air preheater. The preheated air is supplied to the furnace for combustion.

Capacity
The capacity of la-mont boiler is about 50 Tonnes/hr of superheated steam at a pressure of 170 kgf/sq.cm.
and at a temperature of 500 0C.
 Benson Boiler

The presence of steam bubbles in contact with the surface of tubes seriously impairs heat
transmission from the flue gases to water. By rising the boiler pressure to the critical pressure of steam
(225 kgf/sq.cm.), this difficulty is overcome, as suggested by Mark Benson in 1922. At the critical pressure
water and steam have the same density and no bubbles are formed.

The first modern high pressure drumless boiler developed by benson was put into operation in 1927 in
west Germany power station.

Working principle of Benson Boiler:

This boiler has a unique characteristic of absence of steam separating drum. The entire process of heating,
steam generation and superheating is done in a single continuous tube.
Economiser
The feed water by means of the feed pump is circulated through the economiser tubes. Hot flue gases pass
over the economiser tubes and the feed water is preheated.
Radiant evaporator
The feed water from the economiser flows into the radiant evaporator with radiant parallel tube sections.
The radiant evaporator receives heat from the burning fuel through radiation process and majority of
water is converted into steam in it.
Convection Evaporator
The remaining water is evaporated in the convection evaporator, absorbing the heat from the hot gases by
convection. Thus the saturated high pressure steam at a pressure of 210 kg/sq.cm is produced.

Convection superheater
The saturated steam is now passed through the convection superheater where the saturated steam os
superheated to 650’C. The radiant evaporator, the convection evaporater and the convection superheater
are all arranged in the path of the flue gases.

Steam outlet
The superheated steam is supplied to the steam turbine through the steam outlet.

Capacity
Capacity of benson boiler is about 150 tonnnes/hr at a pressure of 210 kgf/sq.cm. and at a temperature of
650’C. (Efficiency may be improved by running the boiler at a pressure slightly lower than the critical
pressure).

Salient features of Benson Boiler

 As there are no drums, the total weight of benson bolier is 20% less than other boilers. This also
reduces the cost of the boilers.
 As no drums are required, the transfer of the benson parts is easy. Majority of the parts may be
carried to the site without pre-assembly.
 Since no drum is used, this is an once-through boiler and the feed water entering at one end is
discharged as superheated steam at the other end.
 Circulating pump and downcomers are dispensed with.
 Loeffler Boiler

This is also a modern high pressure water tube boiler using the forced circulation principle and named after
Prof.Loeffler.

Salient features of Loeffler Boiler

The novel feature of the Loeffler Boiler is to evaporate water solely by means of superheated steam. The
furnace heat is supplied only to economiser and superheater. In other words, steam is used as a heat
absorbing medium.

The major difficulty experienced in La-Mont boiler is deposition of salt and sediment on the inner surfaces
of water tubes. The deposition reduces the heat transfer, ultimately, the generating capacity. This difficulty
was solved in Loeffler boiler by preventing the flow of water into the boiler tubes. Feed water is vaporated
in the drum using part of the superheated steam coming out from the water-heater. Thus only the dry
saturated steam passes through the tubes. Poor feed water can, therefore, be used without any difficulty
in the boiler, which is great advantage of this boiler.

Working principle of Loeffler Boiler

The image shows the outline diagram of Loeffler Boiler.
Economiser
The feed water from the feed tank is supplied to the economiser by feed pump. In the economiser the feed
water is made to flow through a number of tubes surrounding which the hot gases leaving the furnace pass
over. There is a heat exchange from the hot gases to the feed water, which is preheated in the economiser.

Evaporated Drum
It is housed away from the furnace. It contains a mixture of steam and water. The feed water from the
economiser tubes enters the evaporator drum into which is also passed two-thirds of the superheated
steam generated by the boiler. The superheated steam gives its superheat to the water in the drum and
evaporates it to saturated steam.

Mixing Nozzles

The nozzles distribute and mix the superheated steam throughout the water in the evaporator drum.

Steam circulating pump

A steam circulating pump forces this saturated steam from the evaporator drum to the radiant superheater
through the tube of the furnace wall.

Radiant superheater
The radiant superheater is placed in the furnace. The hot gases in the furnace are used for superheating
the saturated steam from the drum. The radiant superheater receives heat from the burning fuel through
radiation process.

Convection superheater
Steam from the radiant superheater enters the convection superheater where it is finally heated to the
desired temperature of 500’C. The convection superheater receives heat from the flue gases entirely by
convective heat transfer. Both radiant and convection superheater are arranged in series in the path of the
flue gases.

Steam outlet
About one-third of the superheated steam from the convection superheater passes to the steam turbine
while the remaining two-thirds is passed on to evaporator drum to evaporated the feed water to saturated
steam.

Capacity
Capacity of the Loeffler boiler is about 100 Tonnes/Hr of superheated steam generated at a pressure of 140
kgf/sq.cm and at a temperature of 500’C.