Thermal power plants

In the most basic form, any thermal power plant comprises of the blocks as given in Figure 1. The role
of different components are briefly discussed below.
i. Boiler: Conversion of water to steam by using the heat source.
ii. Turbine: Conversion of heat energy to kinetic energy of the shaft driving the generator
(alternator).
iii. Condenser: Conversion of steam to water by cooling it so that it can be fed back to the boiler.
iv. Pump: The water output of the condenser will be in low temperature and in low pressure. Since
it is to be fed to the boiler operating at high temperature and pressure, a pump is required to
serve the purpose.

Turbine

Boiler Condenser

Pump

Figure 1. Basic block diagram of a thermal generating station

NOTE: The turbine will take the steam at high pressure (at high temperature) where it is expanded
to low pressure (at low temperature). In contrast, pump will do the reverse i.e. pumping water (having
much reduced volume than steam) at low temperature to the boiler at high temperature. Since the
nature of fluid is different for the two, work output of the turbine will be higher than the work input
of the pump. If the pump have to handle steam (even at low temperature and pressure) instead of
water, work output of the turbine and work input of the pump should be same.

Rankine cycle for a practical thermal power plant

In the practical thermal power plant, some additional components were included in the basic structure
and the modified structure will be as given in Figure 2 based on which the Rankine cycle of the power
plant is developed. The superheater is primarily used to heat the steam much over the boiling point of
the water. On the other hand, economizer is used to increase the temperature of the cold water to be fed
to the boiler (having high temperature and pressure) so that the thermal stress can be avoided which
may result in the formation of cracks in the boiler structure.

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 Thermal power plants

c
b Superheater Turbine d

Boiler Condenser

a Economizer Pump
e
f

Figure 2. Block diagram of a practical thermal generating station

Temperature-entropy diagram (T-S) can be drawn for any fluid where the characteristics of the fluid
(water or steam) is described. The T-S diagram of water is given in Figure 3 which will indicate the
various states and the solid lines will indicate the boundaries between different media.

Figure 3. Temperature-entropy diagram (T-S) diagram of water

Rankine cycle can be developed over the T-S diagram while considering all the components mentioned
in Figure 2. The Rankine cycle for any thermal generating station is as given in Figure 4 and is
developed while considering the following points.

 In the boiler, temperature will remain constant. But as the energy is fed into the steam, dQ will
be non-zero and therefore S will increase until the steam is just at the boundary of wet and
superheated steam. This is shown by the path a-b in Figure 4.
 The steam is heated further in the superheater so that the wet steam can be converted to the
superheated steam. This will not only increases the temperature of the steam, but the entropy
will also increase. The upper limit of the temperature is restricted by the maximum pressure the
system can sustain. This is shown by the path b-c in Figure 4.

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 The energy present in the steam is extracted by the turbine while not allowing much heat to
escape (no heat ideally). Since dQ will be zero (ideally), S will remain constant during the
process and temperature falls so that water droplets start forming and the steam becomes wet.
This is shown by the path c-d in Figure 4.
 The heat is taken out in the condenser and therefore dQ will be non-zero and therefore S will
decrease. But during the process, temperature will remain constant as the latent heat is only
taken out. This is shown by the path d-e in Figure 4.
 The operation of the pump will be similar to that of the turbine and therefore do not allow any
heat transfer. This implies that dQ will be zero and therefore S will remain constant. Since some
work is done for pumping, there will have some rise in the temperature as shown by the path e-
f in Figure 4.
 As the water is heated in the economizer, temperature as well as the entropy will also increase
as shown by the path f-a in Figure 4. This cycle a-b-c-d-e-f-a is referred to as the Rankine cycle
of any thermal generating station.

a
b

e d

Figure 4. Rankine cycle of thermal generating station

Actual thermal power plant

A thermal power plant is a very complicated structure and contains several blocks/equipment in addition
to the components shown in the Figure 2. Figure 5 shows the structure of the thermal power plant which
can be helpful to describe the operation of such plant. The description of the different components
(except power generation and transmission system) are done in the subsequent sections.

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Figure 5. Operational diagram of a thermal generating station

Coal management
Generally coal reaches the power plant in railway wagons. Therefore, wagon tippler is used for
unloading the coal and often stored it in the coal bunker. The coal are in the large chunks which can’t
be burned completely in the boiler. Therefore it need to be pulverised (break them in dust form) before
feeding to the boiler along with the heated air. The typical structure of the coal management system in
given in Figure 6.

Figure 6. Coal handling in a thermal generating station

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Ash management
In a thermal power plant, the following two types of ash is generated:
i. Bottom ash: As the name suggests, it is generated below the furnace and is about 20% of the
total ash. Since it is mostly course in nature, it is often crushed before transporting it to the ash
handling system. It is generally used as a construction material in artificial reefs, roads, liners,
and daily covers for landfills, concrete masonry blocks, and lightweight and partial replacement
of aggregate.
ii. Fly ash: It is often in the form of very fine particles collected from the flue gas in the
economiser hopper, air-preheater hopper & electrostatic precipitator (ESP). Of them, ESP is
responsible for producing the maximum amount of fly ash (about 98%). It is used in cement
industry and building products manufacturing units.
The objective of the ash handling system is to cool down the ash to the manageable temperature and
then transfer it to a disposal area or storage which then can be utilized by the other industries. Ash
handling system can be under the following three categories:
i. Fly ash handling system: Fly ash being gathered is transported pneumatically (using gas like
air or wind) to the storage silo from which it is transported by trucks.
ii. Bottom ash handling system: Due to its course nature, it is treated through clinkers and grinders
for normalisation. It is then transported to the bottom ash silo for temporary storage or to ash
pond in slurry form.
iii. Ash slurry disposal system: Bottom ash present in the bottom ash silo may be mixed with water
to form a slurry which can be transported to the ash disposal area by any of the following two
methods:
a. High concentration ash slurry disposal system: Slurry pump is used to transport the ash
slurry to the ash disposal area through ash slurry transportation pipes.
b. Lean ash slurry disposal system: Slurry is initially transported to the de-watering bin
by using a jet-pump and then the de-watered residue is carried to the ash dump by
trucks.

Figure 7. Different ash handling system

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Boiler
It is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated up to high-pressure steam and are mostly
used in power plants where steam turbines are used for the generation of electricity. Based on the nature
of heat transfer between the flue gas and water, it can be either fire tube or water tube boiler. In fire
tube boiler, fire or hot gas is present inside the tubes and water surrounds these fire tubes. In contrast,
water is present inside the tubes and fire or hot gases surround these tubes in case of the water tube
boiler. The difference between the two can be understood from Table 1. Cornish Boiler and Lancashire
Boiler are the examples of fire tube boilers whereas Babcock and Wilcox Boiler is the example of water
tube boiler.

Figure 8. Different types of boilers

Table 1: Comparison of water and fire tube boiler

Sl. Feature Water tube boiler Fire tube boiler

No.
1 Characteristics
2 Firing
3 Boiler pressure
4 Rate of steam
production
5 Floor space
6 Repair and
cleaning
7 Maintenance cost
8 Inspection
9 Efficiency
10 Operator skill
Water flows inside the tube and
hot flue gases outside the tube
Externally
High (100 bar) and therefore
higher possibility of explosion
High and therefore suitable for
large capacity plants
Smaller for a given power
Easier
Cheaper
Less frequent
Higher
High
Hot flue gases flow inside the tube
and the water outsides the tubes
Internally
Lower (20 bar) and therefore less
possibility of explosion
Low and therefore suitable for
lower capacity plants
Larger for a given power
Difficult
Costly
Frequent
Reasonably lower
Lesser

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Superheater
Its role is to superheat the steam generated by the boiler and increases the temperature of the steam
above saturation temperature at constant pressure. They are placed in the path of flue gases to recover
some of their heat. Superheater can be radiant or convective type and are arranged in series in the path
of flue gases. Radiant superheater, as the name suggests, receives heat from the burning fuel through
radiation. On the other hand, convective superheater receives heat by convection and is placed adjacent
to the furnace wall in the path of flue gases.

Figure 9. Superheater in thermal generating stations

Turbines
It is a mechanical device used for the conversion of the kinetic and pressure energy of steam into useful
work. The superheated steam is expanded in it and loses its kinetic and pressure energy and rotates the
turbine blade which in turn rotates the turbine shaft connected to its blades. The shaft then rotates the
generator which converts this kinetic energy into electrical energy. Generally turbines are divided into
multiple sections dealing with different steam pressures. For low capacity plants, it can be combination
of LP (Low pressure) – HP (High pressure) turbine. But for high capacity plants, it can be combination
of LP (Low pressure) – IP (Intermediate pressure) - HP (High pressure) turbine.

Figure 10. Turbines in thermal generating stations

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In case of supercritical thermal generating stations, it is important to extract the maximum possible heat
which in turn requires increased area under the Rankine cycle. It is visible from Figure 10 that the output
steam of HP turbine is reheated before entering to the IP-LP turbine set. While doing so, the Rankine
cycle will be modified as given in Figure 11 and thereby increasing the area under the Rankine cycle
(modified).

Rankine cycle
without reheater
Rankine cycle
with reheater

Figure 11. Rankine cycle with and without reheater

Air cycle
Since burning of fuel (coal) requires oxygen, it is important to deliver air into the furnace along with
the fuel. But while doing so, it is to be ensured that the sufficient amount of the air (oxygen) must be
present in the furnace so that the complete combustion can be ensured. If lesser amount of air is available
for combustion then there can be incomplete combustion which may results in unburnt coal particles in
bottom ash hopper and generation of CO instead of CO2 (which is undesirable). Similarly if excess
amount of air is given, then there is a chance of heat loss. As the air is to be moved from the furnace to
the chimney (or atmosphere), a pressure difference is to be maintained by means of proper fans. It is
also ensured that the furnace pressure should be below the atmospheric pressure so that possibility of
furnace burst can be avoided.
The atmospheric air is bought inside any furnace by the Forced Draft (FD) fan and is often passed
through the air-preheated. It is then injected to the furnace along with the pulverised coal particles and
a turbulence is created which will carry the fly ash produced after the burning of coal. This is referred
to as flue gas which will then move through the superheater, economizer, reheater and air preheater to
reach Electro-Static Precipitator (ESP) where almost all of the fly-ash is captured. Induced Draft (ID)
fan is placed after the ESP after which the air is guided to move through the chimney and dissipated to
the atmosphere. Generally a slightly negative draft in the furnace is maintained so as to avoid the flame
outgoing from the furnace. This is achieved by starting the ID fan first and then the FD fan for balancing
the draft. The capacity of ID fan is higher than the FD fan as ID fan not only have have to handle hot
flue gases (having higher entropy) and it is also responsible for creating a negative pressure in the
furnace along with the FD fan.
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FD
Atmosphere Furnace
Fan

Air Air
Flue preheater Superheater

ESP Economizer

Chimney

Reheater
ID
Fan

Figure 12. Air cycle in a thermal power plant

Water cycle
Two types of water is required in any thermal power plant. The water heated in the boiler to convert
into steam must be free of any dissolved gases and therefore must be purified before feeding to the
boiler. This purification is done by the water treatment plant. There is a gradual loss in the steam with
time and therefore fresh water (pure form) must be taken from the system at regular intervals. The water
required for cooling the steam in the condenser can be raw water with or without minimal filtering
which is cooled in the cooling tower and used continuously.

Boiler Superheater Turbine

Condensate
Economizer extraction
pump

Condenser

Feed water
pump Circulating Cooling
water tower
Water
pump
treatment plant

Natural water body

Fresh
Raw
purified Water Steam
water
water
Figure 13. Water cycle in a thermal power plant

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