Steam Power Plants

Steam Boilers

A boiler, also referred to as a steam generator, is a major component in the plant

cycle.
It is a closed vessel that efficiently uses heat produced from the combustion of
fuel to convert water to steam. Efficiency is the most important characteristic of a
boiler since it has a direct bearing on electricity production.
Boilers are classified as either drum-type or once-through.
Major components of boilers include an economizer, superheaters, reheaters,
and spray attemperators.
 Drum-Type Boilers
Drum-type boilers depend on constant recirculation of water through some of the
components of the steam/water circuit to generate steam and keep the components
from overheating. Drum type boilers circulate water by either natural or controlled
circulation.
 Once-through Boilers

Once-through boilers convert water to steam in one pass through the system
Major Boiler Components
Economizer.
The economizer is the section of the boiler tubes where feedwater is first introduced
into the boiler and where flue gas is used to raise the temperature of the water.
Steam Drum (Drum Units Only).
The steam drum separates steam from the steam/water mixture and keeps the
separated steam dry.
Superheaters.
Superheaters are bundles of boiler tubing located in the flow path of the hot gases that
are created by the combustion of fuel in the boiler furnace. Heat is transferred from the
combustion gases to the steam in the superheater tubes.
Superheaters are classified as primary and secondary. Steam passes first through the
primary superheater (located in a relatively cool section of the boiler) after leaving the.
Thsteam drumere the steam receives a fraction of its final superheat and then passes
through the secondary superheater for the remainder.
Reheaters.
Reheaters are bundles of boiler tubes that are exposed to the combustion gases in the
same manner as superheaters.
Spray Attemperators.
Attemperators, also known as desuperheaters, are spray nozzles in the boiler tubes
between the two superheaters. These spray nozzles supply a fine mist of pure water
into the flow path of the steam to prevent tube damage from overheating.
Attemperators are provided for both the superheater and reheater.
Once-through Boilers
 Steam Turbines

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Heat Exchangers, Pumps, and Other Cycle Components
Heaters. There are two classifications of condensate and feedwater heaters: the
open or direct contact heater and the closed or tube-and-shell heater.
Open Heaters. In an open heater, the extraction or heating steam comes in direct
contact with the water to be heated. While open heaters are more efficient than
closed heaters, each requires a pump to feed the outlet water ahead in the cycle.
Closed Heaters. These employ tubes within a shell to separate the water from the
heating steam. They can have three separate sections where the heating of the
feedwater occurs.
OFWH
CFWH
Condenser.
The steam turbines employ surface-type condensers comprising large shell-and-tube
heat exchangers operating under vacuum.

The condenser reduces the exhaust pressure at the last-stage blade exit to extract more
work from the turbine and collects the condensed steam and returns it to the
feedwater-heating system.

Cooling water circulates from the cooling source to the condenser tubes by motor-
driven pumps, which may be centrifugal, propeller, or mixed-flow type. Multiple pumps,
each rated less than 100% of required pumping power, are used to allow to operation
with one or more pumps out of service and operate more efficiently at part load.

Cooling water is supplied from either a large heat sink water source, such as a river, or
from cooling towers. The cooling in the cooling tower is assisted by evaporation of 3 to
6% of the cooling water. Air flow is natural draft (hyperbolic towers) or forced draft.
Condenser.
Condenser.
Modern Steam Power Plant — An Example
The purpose of a power plant is to generate electric power. It does so by converting
chemical energy contained in fuel into thermal energy in steam; thermal energy in
steam into mechanical energy in the turbine/generator; and mechanical energy in the
turbine/generator into electrical energy.

Operating efficiency of a typical modern steam plant is about 35 to 45%. The primary
losses result from
(1) heat sink losses in the condenser,
(2) boiler losses,
(3) electrical losses.

Steam plant capacities have ranges from 50 to 1600 MW; however, modern plants are
being designed for more than 250 MW due to energy demands, system load
requirements, and economies of scale in the larger centralized stations.
Major Steam Plant Components
Steam plants comprise three major components (1) boiler, (2) turbine, and (3) main
steam condenser.
Condenser.

The condenser (also discussed earlier) is a large heat exchanger that takes the LP
turbine exhaust steam and converts it back to water. The steam passes over a
bundle of tubes located in the condenser and is cooled by the circulating water
which passes through the tubes. The steam is condensed into water drops and
collected in the condenser hotwell. The condensate is delivered from the
condenser hotwell through the condensate and feedwater systems and back to the
boiler where it becomes steam again.
Fuels.

Coal, oil, and gas are used to fuel fossil plants. Although coal possesses the highest
carbon content, it also possesses the highest sulfur, nitrogen, and ash content, thereby
requiring air pollution-control equipment.

Controlling these pollutants requires

• the installation of scrubbers for sulfur control; overfire air or gas recirculation for
in-furnace nitrous oxides (NOx) control;
• selective catalytic reduction (SCR) for post-combustion NOx control;
• electrostatic precipitators (ESP) or baghouse for fly ash control;
• pneumatic, hydraulic, or mechanical ash-handling systems for bottom ash removal.

Fuel oil and natural gas are chiefly composed of compounds of hydrogen and carbon
(hydrocarbons) with very low percentages of sulfur, nitrogen, and ash and do not
require pollution-control equipment.