Lecture 06

Steam Power Plants

Dr Waqas Khalid
waqaskhalid@smme.nust.edu.pk
 Problem 2 (practice)
Consider a 210 MW steam power plant that operates on a simple ideal
Rankine cycle. Steam enters the turbine at 10MPa and 500°C and is
cooled in the condenser at a pressure of 10kPa. Show the cycle on a T-s
diagram with respect to saturation lines and determine a) quality of the
steam at the turbine exit, b) thermal efficiency of the cycle, and c) mass
flow rate of steam. Assuming an isentropic efficiency of 85 percent for
both the turbine and the pump.
Answers: (a) 0.874, (b) 34.1 percent, (c) 194 kg/s

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HOW CAN WE INCREASE THE EFFICIENCY OF THE RANKINE
CYCLE?
• The basic idea behind all the modifications to increase the
thermal efficiency of a power cycle is the same, i.e:
• Increase the average temperature at which heat is transferred to
the working fluid in the boiler, or
• Decrease the average temperature at which heat is rejected from
the working fluid in the condenser.
• This purpose can be achieved by any one of the following THREE
methods:
• Lowering the Condenser Pressure (Lowers Tlow,avg)
• Superheating the Steam to High Temperatures (Increases Thigh,avg)
• Increasing the Boiler Pressure (Increases Thigh,avg)

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HOW CAN WE INCREASE THE EFFICIENCY OF THE RANKINE
CYCLE?
1. Lowering the Condenser Pressure (Lowers Tlow,avg)
• Condenser contains saturated steam so
that P4 = f (T4).
• Hence lowering the condenser pressure
automatically lowers the heat rejection
temperature.
• For increased efficiencies at low
pressures, the condensers of steam
power plants usually operate well below
the atmospheric pressure.
• However, this pressure can not be lower
than saturation pressure corresponding Fig 3: Effect of lowering the condenser
to temperature of the cooling medium. pressure on the ideal Rankine cycle.

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HOW CAN WE INCREASE THE EFFICIENCY OF THE RANKINE
CYCLE?
1. Lowering the Condenser Pressure (Lowers Tlow,avg)
• Through this technique an increase in
wnet is achieved as shown by colored
area (4-1-1’-4’) in the diagram.
• The increase in the heat input (area
under 2-2’) is relatively small.
• Overall effect – increased efficiency!
• Side effects:
• Possibility of air leakage into the
condenser
• Increase in the moisture content of the
Fig 4: Effect of lowering the condenser
steam at the final stages of the turbine. pressure on the ideal Rankine cycle.

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2. Superheating the Steam to High Temperatures (Increases
Thigh,avg)
Fig 5: The effect of superheating the
steam to higher temperatures on the
ideal Rankine cycle.
• Advantages:
• Thigh,avg is increased without increasing
the boiler pressure.
• Both wnet and Qin are increased.
• Overall effect: Thermal efficiency
increases because of higher average
temperature at which heat is added.
• Moisture content of the steam at the
turbine exit are decreased.
• Limitation:
• The temperature is limited by
metallurgical considerations.
• Presently the highest steam
temperature allowed at the turbine inlet
is about 620°C.
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3. Increasing the Boiler Pressure (Increases Thigh,avg)
• Increasing the operating pressure of the boiler automatically raises
the temperature at which boiling (heat addition) takes place [Psat =
f (Tsat)]
• Resultantly, cycle thermal
efficiency is increased.
• Note that for a fixed turbine inlet
temperature:
• the cycle shifts to the left
• the moisture content of steam
at the turbine exit increases
• This side effect can be corrected
by reheating the steam.
Fig 6: The effect of increasing the boiler
pressure on the ideal Rankine cycle.

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 3. Increasing the Boiler Pressure (Increases Thigh,avg)

• Today many modern steam power plants

operate at supercritical pressures (P > 22.06 MPa)
as shown
• They have thermal efficiencies of about:
• 40% for fossil-fuel plants and
• 34% for nuclear plants
• The large steam power plants can now operate
over 30 MPa pressure and produce net power
output of more than 1000 MW.

Fig 7: A supercritical Rankine cycle.

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 THE IDEAL REHEAT RANKINE CYCLE
How can we take advantage of the increased efficiencies at higher boiler pressures
without facing the problem of excessive moisture at the final stages of the turbine?
1. Superheat the steam to very high temperatures. It is limited metallurgically.
2. Expand the steam in the turbine in two stages, and reheat it in between (reheat)
In the first stage:
Steam is expanded isentropically to an intermediate pressure and
sent back to the boiler where it is reheated at constant pressure
Steam then expands isentropically in the second stage to the condenser pressure

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 THE IDEAL REHEAT RANKINE CYCLE
Total heat input and the total turbine work output for a reheat cycle become:

Incorporation of the single reheat in a modern power plant improves the cycle
efficiency by 4 to 5 percent by increasing the average temperature at which
heat is transferred to the steam.

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THE IDEAL REHEAT RANKINE CYCLE
• Average temperature during reheat
process can be increased by increasing
the number of expansion and reheat
stages.
• By increasing reheat stages, the
expansion and reheat processes
approach an isothermal process at
maximum temperature, as shown.
• Use of more than two reheat stages,
however, is not practical.
• Theoretical improvement in efficiency from the second reheat is about half
of that which results from a single reheat.
• Reheat temperatures are very close or equal to the turbine inlet
temperature.
• Optimum reheat pressure is about one-fourth of the maximum cycle
pressure.
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Problem: Consider a steam power plant that operates on a reheat Rankine cycle
and has a net power output of 80MW. Steam enters the high–pressure turbine at 10
MPa and 500°C and low pressure turbine at 1 Mpa and 500°C. Steam leaves the
condenser as a saturated liquid at a pressure of 10kPa. The isentropic efficiency of the
turbine is 80%, and that of the pump is 95%. Show the cycle on a T-s diagram with
respect to saturation lines, and determine (a) the quality (or temperature, if
superheated) of the steam at the turbine exit. b) thermal efficiency of the cycle, and c)
mass flow rate of the steam assuming both pump and turbine are isentropic.
• Answers

𝒙 = 𝟎. 𝟗𝟖𝟕, 𝜼𝒕𝒉 = 𝟑𝟒. 𝟏%, 𝒎ሶ = 𝟔𝟐. 𝟕𝒌𝒈/𝒔

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Problem: Consider a steam power plant that operates on a reheat Rankine cycle
and has a net power output of 80MW. Steam enters the high–pressure turbine at 10
MPa and 500°C and low pressure turbine at 1 Mpa and 500°C. Steam leaves the
condenser as a saturated liquid at a pressure of 10kPa. The isentropic efficiency of the
turbine is 80%, and that of the pump is 95%. Show the cycle on a T-s diagram with
respect to saturation lines, and determine (a) the quality (or temperature, if
superheated) of the steam at the turbine exit. b) thermal efficiency of the cycle, and c)
mass flow rate of the steam assuming both pump and turbine are isentropic.
• Assumptions
• Steady operating conditions exist
• Kinetic and potential energy changes are negligible
From steam table A4, A5 and A6

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 Mean Temperature of Heat addition

5 4’
Tm 6

3’

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 Regeneration/feed water heating

• Extracting /bleeding steam from turbine to raise temperature of liquid leaving

the pump (feed water) before it enters the boiler
• Device is called Regenerator/ Feed water heater
• Improves cycle efficiency
• Deaerate feed water (removes air that leaks in at condenser) to prevent corrosion in
boiler
• Helps controlling large volume flow rate of steam at final stages of turbine
• FWH-heat exchanger where heat transferred from steam to feed water either by mixing (OFWH) or
without mixing (CFWH)

Regeneration raises average temperature at which

heat is transferred to steam in boiler by raising
temperature of water entering boiler

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 Open Feedwater Heaters: Analysis
• Consider (y) kg of steam expands partially in the turbine and extracted at station 6
• Remaining (1-y) expands completely to condenser pressure (P7 = P1)
• Energy balance of Rankine cycle with one feedwater heater:

y
The cycle efficiency increases further as the 1-y
number of feedwater heaters is increased.

September 19, 2019 Fig 10-16 25

 Open Feed Water Heater Cut-out

Called direct contact and deaerating (DA) unit: heats feed water by direct
mixing bled steam from turbine

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 Problem 3.1

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 Practice Problems
(To be practiced before OHT-1)

• Book: Thermodynamic An Engineering Approach by Yunus A. Cengel,

Michael A. Boles (Eighth Edition in SI Units)
• Simple Rankine and Reheat Cycle
10-21 10-22 10-26 10-30 10-36
• Regenerative Rankine Cycle
10-47 10-53 10-55 10-57

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