Power Generation

PE-241

Lecture [1-5] : Coal-Fired Power Plants

Engr. Rab Nawaz

(Assistant Professor)

Date: May 10, 2020

 Introduction

I The economics of electricity production

1. Cost of any loans needed to finance the construction
2. Cost of operating and maintaining it over its lifetime (typically 30 years)
3. Cost of fuel.
4. If all these numbers are added up and divided by the number of units of
electricity the plant produces over its lifetime, then this is the basic unit
cost of electricity.
I Life cycle assessment: An important tool for establishing the relative
performance of power generation technologies is an approach called life
cycle assessment.
1. Energy payback ratio: The energy payback ratio examines the total
lifetime energy production from a power plant and compares it to the total
amount of energy needed to make the components and construct the plant,
to recover any fuel used such as coal or natural gas and to decommission
the plant (See Table 2.6).

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 About Coal

I Cost-effective
I Secure source of electricity.
I Lower energy density than other fossil fuels(see Table 3.2), therefore
expensive to transport.
I The major disadvantage of coal is that it is the dirtiest of the fossil fuels.
I There are a number of distinct types of coal, each with different physical
properties.
I Anthracite
I Bituminous
I Sub-bituminous
I Lignite
I Brown

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 Coal Cleaning and Processing

Coal Cleaning
Coal cleaning offers a way of improving the quality of a coal, both
economically and environmentally. The most well-established methods of
coal cleaning focus on

I Removing excess moisture by drying and heating.

I Reducing the amount of incombustible material.
I Crushing the coal into small particles

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 Traditional Coal-Fired Power Generation
Technologies

Principle
The traditional method of producing electricity from coal is to burn the fuel
in air and capture the heat released during the combustion in a boiler where it
is used to raise steam, the latter driving a steam turbine generator.

Key Components
A power plant of this type is made up of several key components, as shown
in Figure 3.1.

I Fuel handling system

I Combustion System
I Boiler

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Pulverised Coal-Fired Power Station

Figure: Schematic of a pulverised coal-fired power station.

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 Working of PC Plant

Emissions
How PC power plants works?
I Sulphur dioxide
I Nitrogen oxides
I Heavy metals
I Organic compounds
I Tiny ash particles
.

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 Working of PC Plant

Efficiency
Efficiency is the key to modern coal-burning technology. Higher efficiency
also means lower emissions per unit of electricity produced.

I Conversion efficiency depends on the temperature and pressure of the

steam. maximum efficiency of around 43-45% can be achieved
I A plant that utilizes all emission control strategies is called zero
emission plant

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 Boiler Technology

Coal-fired power station boiler steam cycles

The boiler in a coal-fired power plant converts chemical energy contained
within the coal into heat energy that is captured and carried away in hot,
high-pressure steam (Figure 3.2).
I Subcritical steam cycle (Figure 3.2)
I Supercritical steam cycle (Figure 3.3)

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 Boiler Technology

Figure: Cross-section of a pulverized coal plant boiler.

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 Boiler Steam Cycles

Steam Cycles
A steam temperature of 540 C and a steam pressure of 17.5 MPa.

Figure: typical subcritical steam cycle.

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 Boiler Steam Cycles

Steam Cycles
Supercritical power plants operate at steam exit temperatures of 540–600 C
and at exit pressures of 23–30 MPa.

Figure: typical supercritical steam cycle.

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 Working of PC Plant

Flexibility and Working

I Expensive than steel
I Nickel-based alloys
I Operate at steam temperatures of 700C750C.
I Electrical conversion efficiency as high as 55%
Coal-fired power plants have traditionally operated as base load power
stations operating essentially at full output all the time.

I Sliding pressure operation: Steam pressure is allowed to fall as output

falls but steam temperature is maintained.
I Possible to maintain relatively high efficiency at part load.

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 Steam Turbine Design

Design
Steam turbine’s job is to convert the heat energy contained in the steam
exiting the boiler into mechanical energy, rotary motion.

I Impulse turbines: extract the energy from a fast moving jet of fluid.
I Reaction turbines: Designed to exploit the pressure of a fluid rather than
its motion.
I Single multiple-stage turbine
I Multiple turbines HP, IP and LP turbines(see Figure 3.4).
I Single reheat design
I Multiple reheat design

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 Steam Turbine Design

A cross-section of a modern steam turbine is shown in Figure 3.5.

Figure: Schematic of a large steam turbine for a coal-fired power plant.

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 Alternate Coal Burning Strategies

Strategies
Although the pulverised coal-fired boiler represents the most efficient type of
coal-fired power plant, there are alternatives. A fluidised bed used for power
generation contains only around 5or fuel within the actual bed. The
remainder of the bed is primarily an inert material such as ash or sand. The
temperature in a fluidised bed is around 950C, significantly lower than the
temperature in the heart of a pulverised coal furnace. This low temperature
helps minimise the production of nitrogen oxides.

I Fluidised bed combustion (FBC)

I Bubbling fluidised bed plants
I Circulating fluidised bed plant
I Pressurised fluidised bed
I Integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC)

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 About Alternate Coal Burning Strategies

Strategies
This has made them attractive for a range of projects where low-grade fuels,
fuel waste or biomass are to be burnt.

I Capable of burning a much wider range of fuels than a PC plant.

I Lower temperature, making the production of nitrogen oxides less of a
problem.
I Incorporation of sulphur dioxide capture
I Easier emission control

Gasification
Gasification normally takes place by heating the coal with a
mixture of steam and oxygen (or, in some cases, air). This
can be carried out in a variety of gasifier designs including fixed bed,
fluidised bed and entrained flow gasifiers.

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 Fluidised bed combustion (FBC)

A typical boiler design is shown in Figure 3.7

Figure: Circulating fluidised bed boiler

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 Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC)

A typical boiler design is shown in Figure 3.9.

Figure: Flow diagram of an IGCC plant.

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 Emission Control For Coal-Fired Power Plants

Emission Control
Different techniques for emission control from coal-fired power plants have
been developed for the most important of these:

I Coal Treatment
I Low Nox Combustion Strategies
I Sulphur Dioxide Removal
I Nox Capture
I Particulate (Dust) Removal
I Mercury Removal
I Carbon Dioxide
I Biomass Cofiring
I Postcombustion Capture
I Oxyfuel Combustion
I Coal Gasification
I Carbon Dioxide Sequestration
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 Low Nox Combustion Strategies

When coal is burnt, oxides of nitrogen including nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen

oxide and nitrous oxide can be generated. The amount produced depends on
two factors, the temperature at which the combustion takes place and the
amount of oxygen available.Overall reductions of up to 70% can be
achieved when all three strategies are applied. Low NOx pulverised-coal
boiler with reburning is shown in Figure.

Figure: Low NO x pulverised-coal boiler with reburning.

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 Sulphur Dioxide Removal

One of the simplest methods of capturing sulphur dioxide is to inject one of

these sorbent materials into the flue gas stream as it exits the furnace.
Reaction then takes place in the hot gas stream and the resultant particles of
calcium sulphate, and of excess sorbent, are captured in a filter downstream
of the injection point. Maximum removal efficiency may reach up to 99% for
most efficient scrubbers.

Figure: Schematic of a flue gas desulphurisation tower.

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 Nox Capture

As with sulphur dioxide, it is possible to remove nitrogen oxides after they

have been formed in the flue gas of a power plant. The process involves the
injection of either ammonia gas or urea into the flue gas stream. Either
chemical reacts with the nitrogen oxides present, converting them into
nitrogen and water. The system is generally capable of removing 70% - 90%
of the nitrogen oxide emissions from a flue gas stream

Figure: Coal-fired power plant with SCR reactor

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 Particulate (Dust) Removal

There are two principal systems for removing particulates from the flue gas
of a coal-fired power station, ESPs and fabric (baghouse) filters. They are
generally less cost effective than ESPs for collection efficiencies up to 99.5%.
Operating principle of an electrostatic precipitator is shown in Figure.

Figure: Operating principle of an electrostatic precipitator.

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 Carbon Dioxide

Limiting or completely removing carbon dioxide from the flue gases of a

coal-fired power plant may become necessary on new power plants. There
are two ways:
I Capture
I Storage
For carbon capture, there are three main approaches available.
I Post-combustion capture
I Pre-combustion capture
I Oxyfuel combustion
I Biofuel cofiring

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 Biomass Cofiring

Biomass as a power plant fuel is generally considered to be carbon dioxide

neutral. With this technique, up to 20% biomass can be introduced into a
modern supercritical PC plant without adversely affecting its operation.

Torrefaction: This involves heating the fuel to around 200300C in an

oxygen-free atmosphere for 1 hour. Torrefaction alters the properties of the
biomass, making it more like coal in its properties so that it can be burnt in
large quantities in a conventional coal-fired plant without significant plant
modification.

Biomass Gasifier: Generating a low-calorific value fuel that can also be

burnt in a furnace. Expensive and technically more complex than simple
biomass cofiring.

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 Post-Combustion Capture

The most straightforward approach to eliminating the carbon emissions

resulting from coal combustion in a power station is to capture the carbon
dioxide produced in a chemical absorption plant. This concept is shown in
Figure.

Figure: Postcombustion carbon dioxide capture system using absorption tower.

The regeneration process is extremely energy intensive, taking around 23%

of the power output of the power station. A further 8% of the output is then
needed to compress
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 Pre-Combustion Capture

As noted above, coal gasification is another well-established industrial

technique, used both as a source of domestic gas in the past and in the
chemical industry to convert coal into a gas called synthesis gas or syngas
that can be used as a precursor for a variety of chemical processes.

Figure: Schematic of a power plant with pre-combustion capture

An alternative to an IGCC plant is to use the hydrogen produced by the

gasification process a fuel for a fuel cell.
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 Oxyfuel Combustion

The carbon dioxide accounts for only around 14% of the mixture, and
removing this low concentration is relatively difficult. If, on the other hand,
coal is burnt in pure oxygen, then the flue gases resulting will be almost pure
carbon dioxide. This is the concept behind oxyfuel combustion. Figure
shows a schematic of such a plant.

Figure: Schematic of an oxy-fuel combustion power plant.

Exhaust Recycling: When coal burns in oxygen the flame temperature can
reach 2500C, far higher than current materials can stand. In order to
overcome this, some of the carbon dioxide-rich flue gas from the exhaust of
the boiler must be fed back and mixed with the oxygen, diluting it and
reducing the flame temperature in the process.
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 Carbon Dioxide Sequestration

If carbon dioxide is to be captured during the use of coal (or any other fossil
or carbon-based fuel) for electricity generation, then it must also be stored in
such a way that it cannot ever enter the atmosphere. Various methods are
being explored for achieving this:
I Underground Storage
I Exhausted oil and gas fields
I Aquifers

Figure: Carbon sequestration.

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 The Cost of Coal-Fired Power Plant Technology

Table shows the estimated cost of coal-fired power plants.

Figure: The Cost of Coal-Fired Power Plant Technology.

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