ENERGY CONVERSION A

2017-18
Name/Lastname:__________________________________________ Code n.___________
Exam 25/06/2018
Exercise 1 (10 points)
A geothermal well provides a two-phase water flow at: temperature of 150°C, liquid quality of 60% and total mass
flow rate of 100 kg/s. The flow pressure is reduced by 2 bar employing a throttling valve and, subsequently, the
vapor phase is separated from the liquid phase. The separated vapor is expanded in a turbine and condensed in a
condenser. The previously-separated liquid and the condensed liquid are pumped to the well pressure, mixed
together and injected underground.

Please:
i. motivate clearly the solution procedure and highlight neatly the assumptions (1 point);
ii. sketch the overall plant layout and the cycle on the Ts diagram (2 points);
iii. compute the maximum obtainable power from the two-phase flow as well as the lost fraction due to not ex-
ploiting the liquid phase (1 point);
iv. determine the net electric power assuming adequate performance parameters for the equipment (2 points);
v. list all the irreversible processes occurring within the system and compute exclusively the lost power due
to the throttling of the flow and to the mixing of the liquids (2 points);
vi. calculate the volume ratio of the expansion across the steam turbine and sketch the velocity triangles of the
last stage at the mean diameter for a turbine rotating at 3000 rpm (2 points).

Exercise 2 (12 points)

A 250-MW subcritical steam power plant is fired by low-Sulphur fuel oil, which is characterized by a lower heat-
ing value of 35 MJ/kg. In order to favor oil atomization as well as to reduce NOx emission during the combustion
process within the boiler, the oil is pumped to 0.6 MPa and, in addition, steam is bled from the turbine and mixed
with the pumped oil prior entering the boiler. The mass flow rate of bled steam is 10% of that of fuel oil.

Assuming for simplicity that the steam at the turbine outlet is saturated, please:
i. motivate clearly the solution procedure and highlight neatly the assumptions (1 point);
ii. sketch a possible plant layout including the boiler and showing the bled steam for atomization (1.5 points);
iii. compute the mass flow rate of the bled steam for atomization (1 point);
iv. estimate the lost enthalpy drop of the bled steam in the turbine and, hence, the loss of electric power gener-
ation (2 points);
v. estimate the second-law efficiency loss due to such bleeding (3 points);
vi. explain why the bled steam reduces the NOx emissions (1.5 points);
vii. describe a conceptual way for recovering as much as possible the lost power (2 points).

Questions (2.5 points each)

1. Sketch and motivate the qualitative trend of the isentropic efficiency, the enthalpy drop and the load coefficient
along a large-scale steam turbine.

2. Considering the constant-pressure heating of a complex-molecule fluid from saturated vapor at the reduced tem-
perature of 0.8 to a high temperature, sketch and motivate the trend of the constant-pressure specific heat along
the process.

3. Through an open gas cycle, where a pressure drop of 0.1 bar has the largest negative effect? why?

4. Explain the most effective method of governing a modern gas turbine at partial load and compare the nominal
and the partial-load cycles on the T-s diagram.