BS MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

ASSIGNMENT#2
Name: Waleed Naseem
ID: (3010-2016)
Subject: Power Plant
Teacher: ENGR: Aftab Ahmed
Semester ( 8th)
Bs Mechanical

Submission Date: 31 -5-2020

What is Power Plant?
A power plant or a power generating station, is basically an industrial
location that is utilized for the generation and distribution of electric
power in mass scale, usually in the order of several 1000 Watts. These
are generally located at the sub-urban regions or several kilometers
away from the cities or the load centers, because of its requisites like
huge land and water demand, along with several operating constraints
like the waste disposal etc.

For this reason, a power generating station has to not only take care of
efficient generation but also the fact that the power is transmitted
efficiently over the entire distance and that’s why, the transformer
switch yard to regulate transmission voltage also becomes an integral
part of the power plant.

Basics OF Power plants:

A power plant's a bit like an energy production line. Fuel feeds in at one
end, and electricity zaps out at the other. What happens in between? A
whole series of different steps, roughly along these lines:

 Fuel: The energy that finds its way into your TV, computer,
or toaster starts off as fuel loaded into a power plant. Some
power plants run on coal, while others use oil, natural gas, or
methane gas from decomposing rubbish.

 Furnace: The fuel is burned in a giant furnace to release heat

energy.

 Boiler: In the boiler, heat from the furnace flows around pipes full
of cold water. The heat boils the water and turns it into steam.
 Turbine: The steam flows at high-pressure around a wheel that's a
bit like a windmill made of tightly packed metal blades. The blades
start turning as the steam flows past. Known as a steam turbine,
this device is designed to convert the steam's energy into kinetic
energy (the energy of something moving). For the turbine to work
efficiently, heat must enter it at a really high temperature and
pressure and leave at as low a temperature and pressure as
possible.

 Cooling tower: The giant, jug-shaped cooling towers you see at

old power plants make the turbine more efficient. Boiling hot
water from the steam turbine is cooled in a heat exchanger called
a condenser. Then it's sprayed into the giant cooling towers and
pumped back for reuse. Most of the water condenses on the walls
of the towers and drips back down again. Only a small amount of
the water used escapes as steam from the towers themselves, but
huge amounts of heat and energy are lost.

 Generator: The turbine is linked by an axle to a generator, so the

generator spins around with the turbine blades. As it spins, the
generator uses the kinetic energy from the turbine to make
electricity.

 Electricity cables: The electricity travels out of the generator to

a transformer nearby.

 Step-up transformer: Electricity loses some of its energy as it

travels down wire cables, but high-voltage electricity loses less
energy than low-voltage electricity. So the electricity generated in
the plant is stepped-up (boosted) to a very high voltage as it
leaves the power plant.
 Pylons: Hugh metal towers carry electricity at extremely high
voltages, along overhead cables, to wherever it is needed.

 Step-down transformer: Once the electricity reaches its

destination, another transformer converts the electricity back to a
lower voltage safe for homes to use.

 Homes: Electricity flows into homes through underground cables.

 Appliances: Electricity flows all round your home to outlets on the

wall. When you plug in a television or other appliance, it could be
making a very indirect connection to a piece of coal hundreds of
miles away!
 Classification of Power plants
Power plants are classified by the type of fuel and the type of prime
mover installed. By fuel
• In Thermal power stations, mechanical power is produced by a heat
engine, which transforms thermal energy, often from combustion of a
fuel, into rotational energy
• Nuclear power plants use a nuclear reactor's heat to operate a steam
turbine generator.
• Fossil fuel powered plants may also use a steam turbine generator or
in the case of Natural gas fired plants may use a combustion turbine.
• Geothermal power plants use steam extracted from hot underground
rocks.
Renewable energy plants may be fuelled by waste from sugar cane,
municipal solid waste, landfill methane, or other forms of biomass.
• In integrated steel mills, blast furnace exhaust gas is a low-cost,
although low-energy-density, fuel.
• Waste heat from industrial processes is occasionally concentrated
enough to use for power generation, usually in a steam boiler and
turbine. By prime mover.
• Steam turbine plants use the pressure generated by expanding steam
to turn the blades of a turbine.
• Gas turbine plants use the heat from gases to directly operate the
turbine. Natural-gas fuelled turbine plants can start rapidly and so are
used to supply "peak" energy during periods of high demand, though at
higher cost than base-loaded plants.
• Combined cycle plants have both a gas turbine fired by natural gas,
and a steam boiler and steam turbine which use the exhaust gas from
the gas turbine to produce electricity.
This greatly increases the overall efficiency of the plant, and most new
baseload power plants are combined cycle plants fired by natural gas.
• Internal combustion Reciprocating engines are used to provide power
for isolated communities and are frequently used for small
cogeneration plants. Hospitals, office buildings, industrial plants, and
other critical facilities also use them to provide backup power in case of
a power outage. These are usually fuelled by diesel oil, heavy oil,
natural gas and landfill gas..
• Microturbines, Stirling engine and internal combustion reciprocating
engines are low cost solutions for using opportunity fuels, such as
landfill gas, digester gas from water treatment plants and waste gas
from oil production. Other sources of energy : Other power stations use
the energy from wave or tidal motion, wind, sunlight or the energy of
falling water, hydroelectricity. These types of energy sources are called
renewable energy.
 Difference between Renewable and Non-renewable
Power plant
Renewable Non-renewable

It cannot be used again and again as

It can be used again and again
it is limited which can be depleted
throughout its life.
one day.

They are the energy resources which They are the energy resources which
cannot be exhausted. can be exhausted one day.

It is environment-friendly as the It is not environment-friendly as the

amount of carbon emission is low. amount of carbon emission is high.

These resources are present in These resources are present in a

unlimited quantity. limited quantity only.

The total cost of these resources is The total cost of these resources is
low. comparatively high.

These resources are not pollution

These resources are pollution free.
free.

The maintenance cost of the The maintenance cost of the

renewable resources is very high. renewable resources is low.

Requires large land area for the Requires less land area for the
installation of the power plant. installation of the power plant.
It is sustainable It is exhaustible

The rate of renewal is greater than The rate of renewal is lower than the
the rate of consumption. rate of consumption.

Adversely affect the health of

humans by emitting smoke,
Causes no harm to life existing on
radiations, carcinogenic or cancer
the planet earth.
causing elements into the
environment.

Coal, petroleum, natural gases,

Sunlight, are the examples of
batteries, are the examples of non-
renewable resources.
renewable resources