ENERGY CONVERSION

1(a) State four advantages and disadvantages of a steam turbine generator

advantages

1. Since the steam turbine is a rotary heat engine, it is particularly suited to drive an
electrical generator.
2. The thermal efficiency of a steam turbine is usually higher than that of a reciprocating
engine.
3. The very high power-to-weight ratio, compared to reciprocating engines.

4. Steam turbines have greater reliability, particularly in applications where sustained

high-power output is required.

Disadvantages

1. Relatively high overnight cost.

2. Steam turbines are less efficient than reciprocating engines at part load operation.
3. They have longer startup than gas turbines and surely than reciprocating engines.
4. Less responsive to changes in power demand compared with gas turbines and with
reciprocating engines.

(b)State two efficiency improvement methods for steam turbine generator

1. Combustion to improve fuel utilization and minimize environmental impact.

2. Heat transfer and aerodynamics to improve turbine blade life and performance.
3. Water pre-heater

(c) Explain one of the two methods of improving efficiency stated above

With the water pre-heater, the expanded steam is extracted from the turbine under certain
parameters, which is then used to heat the water before pumping it into the turbine, such a
system, energy from extracted steam is transferred back into the system, where the cold
source loss would be much smaller than a simple Rankine cycle. Furthermore, the extraction
consists of several stages, The longer the extraction from the turbine takes, the lower the
the temperature of water for heating. In this way, steam could do more work on the turbine
before getting extracted, thus increasing the thermal efficiency of the turbine. Each turbine
has a distinct set of optimum steam extraction parameters. Theoretically, the more stages
involved in steam extraction inside the power plant, the higher the total efficiency of the
power plant would be. However, in a real-world scenario, more stages would also lead to an

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increase in the construction cost of thermal power plants. Modern high-parameter-high-power
thermal power plants usually have 7-9 stages of steam extraction

2(a) During one cycle the working fluid in an engine engages in two work interactions
20KJ to the fluid and 42KJ from the fluid and three heat interactions: two of which are
85KJ to the fluid and 50KJ from the fluid. Calculate the magnitude and direction of the
third heat interaction.

Step - By - Step - Solution

Q1+Q2+Q3 = W1+ W2

85 - 50 +Q3 = -20 + 42

Q3 = -13 KJ

The 3rd heat interaction is =13

3A pump is required to circulate a high volume of cooling water a low pressure of 3 bar from
a cooling tower to the processing plants of an oil refinery.

(a) State the kind of pump that is suitable for this operation

The mechanical Draft Cooling Tower pump is suitable for this kind of operation

(b) Explain the reason for the choice of the pump.

Reason for the choice of the pump: When air is entered the cooling tower, the air is
moved by high-power driver motors from the cooling tower towards the processing
plant it takes care of the pressure and didn't alter the value of pressure. So, this type of
pump is satisfying the following condition that is our requirement.

(c) What are the energy changes involved in pumping the cooling water?

Electrical Energy is converted to Mechanical Energy because initially, we use high-

power motors that run using electricity, and then these motors help in the movement
of the cooling air from one place to other so that movement is called Mechanical
Energy. So, in this process, Electrical Energy is converted to Mechanical Energy.