Topic:

Complex Engineering Problem

Submitted To:

Zubair Afzal

Submitted By:

Malik Muhammad Usman

M Zain Ul Islam

Reg No:

2020-UET-NFC-FD-MECH-26

2020-UET-NFC-FD-MECH-28

Subject

Power Plant

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 4

Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 5

Types of Power Plant ................................................................................................................. 7

Nuclear Power Station ........................................................................................................... 7

Hydro-Electric Power Sation ................................................................................................. 8

Thermal Power Station .......................................................................................................... 9

Design Factor consideration for a power plant .......................................................................... 9

Supply of fuel......................................................................................................................... 9

Nature of land and its price .................................................................................................. 10

Availability of water ............................................................................................................ 10

Transportation facilities ....................................................................................................... 10

Cost & type of land .............................................................................................................. 10

Distance from populated areas ............................................................................................. 10

Nearness to load centers....................................................................................................... 10

EES Software ........................................................................................................................... 11

Simple Rankin Cycle ........................................................................................................... 11

Simple Brayton Cycle .......................................................................................................... 12

Combined Cycle................................................................................................................... 13

Comparison of Cycles: ............................................................................................................. 14

Rankine cycle ....................................................................................................................... 14

Brayton Cycle ...................................................................................................................... 14

The Ideal Regenerative Rankine Cycle................................................................................ 15

Combined Gas–Vapor Power Cycles................................................................................... 15

Cost Analysis: .......................................................................................................................... 16

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Impacts of Power Plant ............................................................................................................ 17

Environmental Impacts ........................................................................................................ 17

Air Pollution..................................................................................................................... 17

Water Pollution ................................................................................................................ 18

Land Degradation............................................................................................................. 18

Noise Pollution................................................................................................................. 18

Impact on Air, Water, Soil and People: ............................................................................... 18

Conclusion: .............................................................................................................................. 19

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Nuclear Power Station ................................................................................................ 8

Figure 2: Hydro Electric Power Station ..................................................................................... 8

Figure 3: Thermal Power Station ............................................................................................... 9

Figure 4: Equations for Simple Rankin Cycle ......................................................................... 11

Figure 5: Solution For Simple Rankin Cycle ........................................................................... 12

Figure 6: Equations for Brayton Cycle .................................................................................... 12

Figure 7: Solution for Brayton Cycle....................................................................................... 13

Figure 8: Equations for Combined Cycle ................................................................................ 13

Figure 9; Solution of Combined Cycle .................................................................................... 14

Figure 10: Cost Analysis.......................................................................................................... 17

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Abstract
Power plants are utilized extensively all over the world for the purpose of generating electricity,
and coal is frequently utilized as a fuel source for these power plants. The technique that is
primarily utilized today to generate power from coal has major detrimental effects on the
environment, even though the world's present coal reserves will be sufficient for around two
centuries. A valuable, convenient, and straightforward way for evaluating and upgrading
thermal generating stations, energy analysis is the most essential of the analytical techniques
that are accessible. This is because energy analysis is a method that is useful, convenient, and
straightforward. Energy analysis of plant performance yields insightful information that can be
used to improve plant performance. It is possible for the results of energy analysis to be of
assistance in the process of enhancing the efficiency of thermal generating stations, as well as
improving their economic and environmental performance. In this chapter, energy and energy
studies are applied to investigate and gain a better understanding of the performance of steam
power plants, as well as to identify and assess potential process improvements that could
increase the efficiency of the plant. In the following step, a few different process configurations
are suggested. Energy is helpful because it can provide a complete analysis of the losses, both
in terms of the emissions of waste energy and the irreversibility of those emissions, for the
facilities as a whole and for their individual components. The relevance of energy in the process
of improving the performance of steam power plants is demonstrated through the presentation
of a few instances that illustrate the point. It is important to consider the impact of other aspects
before implementing efficiency-enhancing measures, and to only do so when it is suitable to
do so.

Introduction
When it was discovered that alternating current power lines can transmit electricity at low costs
over long distances, centralized power generation became feasible. This was made possible by
the utilization of power transformers, which have the capability to raise and drop the voltage.
Since the year 1881, electricity has been produced from a variety of sources of energy with the
aim of providing power to human equipment and technologies. We rely primarily on coal,
nuclear, natural gas, hydropower, and petroleum for our power generation today, with a tiny
proportion coming from solar energy, tidal harnesses, wind generators, and geothermal sources.
The original power plants were powered by waterpower or coal. Most of the electricity that is
available for commercial use is generated by rotating turbines that are attached to electrical

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generators. The fuel that drives turbines is a fluid, which also serves as a carrier of energy in
the intermediate stage. Most utilized fluids are as follows:

➢ Steam turbines— Nuclear fission or fossil fuels boil water. Solar parabolic troughs and
power towers heat a heat transfer fluid to produce steam in modern facilities. Another
renewable heat source for turbines is geothermal. Steam under pressure from the ground or
hot water evaporating a low-boiling liquid spins a turbine.
➢ Water from hydroelectric dams or tidal pressures affects hydraulic turbine blades.
➢ Most turbines use natural wind to generate power. Wind Sunlight heating the chimney
creates wind for solar updraft towers.
➢ Turbines are powered by hot gases from natural gas or oil burning.
➢ Combined cycle gas turbines use steam and gas. Gas turbines burn natural gas to generate
power, while residual heat generates steam to generate more energy. Plants with 60%
efficiency.

Other power-generation technologies have been investigated and developed. Portable

applications favor solid-state generation without moving parts. Though thermionic (TI) and
thermo-photovoltaic (TPV) systems have been developed, thermoelectric (TE) devices
dominate this sector. TI and TPV systems operate at higher temperatures than TE devices.
Piezoelectric devices generate power from mechanical tension, especially in power harvesting.
Beta voltaic, another solid-state power generator, generates electricity from radioactive decay.
Fluid-based magneto hydrodynamic power generating has been researched for nuclear reactors
and fuel combustion power generation. Electrochemical electricity generation is crucial in
mobile applications. Most electrochemical power comes from closed electrochemical cells
(“batteries”), which are used more for storage than generation, but fuel cells have been
undergoing a lot of research and development. Depending on their function, fuel cells can
generate or store electricity from natural or synthetic fuels (primarily electrolytic hydrogen).
Steam power plant capacity and location selection factors:

1) Service type (base or peak).

2) Distance from water and fuel.
3) Available space (each power plant has a limited area/energy output).
4) Reliability: Extremely extended steam turbine life. Some steam turbines are almost 50 years
old. Time between overhauls is years. Steam turbines are reliable when properly

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 maintained, including boiler water chemistry control. Since the huge enclosure heats
slowly, thermal transients must be regulated to reduce part differential expansion.
5) Environment: Steam turbine emissions depend on steam supply. Steam turbines can be
utilized with a boiler burning any of many fuels or with a gas turbine in a combined cycle.
Fuel type and environment affect boiler emissions. NOx, Sox, PM, CO, and CO2 are boiler
emissions. NOx control has dominated boiler emission control research and development
recently. The main emission control methods are described below [2]. Industrial boiler NOx
management uses combustion control methods, which are cheaper than post-combustion
procedures. Boiler combustion process control has focused on temperature management.
High temperatures burn fuel completely and leave few residual hydrocarbons and CO, but
they also generate NOx. Lean combustion lowers combustion temperatures and NOx
production. If the mixture is excessively lean, incomplete combustion increases CO
emissions.
6) Capital and maintenance costs: Scientists agree fossil fuels are not going out. Despite this
abundance, political worries about supply security, global warming, and sustainability may
shift energy usage away from fossil fuels. Carbon emissions trading and green taxation
would undoubtedly squeeze the economy if the government phased out fossil energy. Some
countries are acting because of the Kyoto Protocol, and more is recommended. The
European Commission suggests setting a binding goal to increase the EU's renewable
energy mix from <7% to 20% by 2020.

Types of Power Plant

Nuclear Power Station

Many nuclear power plants resemble thermal stations. The exception is that uranium and
thorium replace coal as the major fuel. Nuclear reactors and heat exchanger tubes replace
furnaces and boilers in nuclear stations.

In nuclear reactors, radioactive fuels undergo fission reaction to generate power. The heat
exchanger tubes' water receives this heat. This produces super-heated steam at elevated
temperatures.

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 Figure 1: Nuclear Power Station

Hydro-Electric Power Sation

In Hydroelectric plants, the energy of the falling water is utilized to drive the turbine, which in
turn runs the generator to produce electricity. Rain falling upon the earth’s surface has potential
energy relative to the oceans towards which it flows. This energy is converted to shaft work
where the waterfalls go through an appreciable vertical distance.

Figure 2: Hydro Electric Power Station

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Thermal Power Station

A thermal power station or a coal fired thermal power plant is by far the most conventional
method of generating electric power with high efficiency. It uses coal as the primary fuel to
boil the water available to superheated steam

In coal fired thermal power plant, steam is obtained in very high pressure inside the steam
boiler by burning the pulverized coal. This steam is then allowed to enter the turbine, as the
turbine blades are rotated by the pressure of the steam.

After entering the turbine, the steam pressure suddenly falls leading to a corresponding increase
in the steam volume. In the condenser, cold water at ambient temperature is circulated with the
help of a pump, which leads to the condensation of the low-pressure wet steam.

Figure 3: Thermal Power Station

Design Factor consideration for a power plant

Supply of fuel

Steam Power Station must be placed close to coal mines to lessen the transportation cost of
fuel. Steam power plants using coal or oil as fuel need a very large amount of fuel per annum.
The steam power plant should be placed near the coal mines so that the transport cost of fuel
is at the lowest.
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Nature of land and its price

The chosen site should have a high bearing capability of at least 10 N/sq. mm to withstand the
dead weight of the plant. It would lessen the cost of the base of the plant.

Availability of water

The station must be positioned near a riverbank or canal for constant water supply. The steam
power plant utilizes water as a working solution throughout the year, which is regularly
evaporated and condensed. It also wants about 2% of the steam produced as makeup water due
to its loss.

Transportation facilities

The station must be well attached to important transport routes e.g. Rail or Road. A new steam
power plant often needs the transportation of material and machinery. Therefore, sufficient
transportation facilities must exist i.e. the plant should be well attached to other parts of the
land by rail, road. Etc.

Cost & type of land

The land must have a great bearing capacity for heavy machinery and yet be affordable enough
to purchase. The steam power plant should be located at a point where the property is cheap
and further expansion, if needed, is possible. Furthermore, the carriage capacity of the area
should be enough so that heavy machinery could be installed.

Distance from populated areas

The station must be established as far away from populated areas as possible due to air
contamination.

Nearness to load centers

To decrease the transmission cost, the plant should be placed near load centers. The location
of the factory at the center of loads lessens the cost of transmission channels and the losses
occurring in it.

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EES Software
Simple Rankin Cycle

Figure 4: Equations for Simple Rankin Cycle

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 Figure 5: Solution For Simple Rankin Cycle

Simple Brayton Cycle

Figure 6: Equations for Brayton Cycle

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Figure 7: Solution for Brayton Cycle

Combined Cycle

Figure 8: Equations for Combined Cycle

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 Figure 9; Solution of Combined Cycle

Comparison of Cycles:
Rankine cycle

Many of the impracticalities associated with the Carnot cycle can be eliminated by superheating
the steam in the boiler and condensing it completely in the condenser, as shown schematically
on a T-s The cycle that results is the Rankine cycle, which is the ideal cycle for vapor power
plants. The ideal Rankine cycle does not involve any internal irreversibility’s and consists of
the following four processes:

• 1-2 Isentropic compression in a pump

• 2-3 Constant pressure heat addition in a boiler
• 3-4 Isentropic expansion in a turbine
• 4-1 Constant pressure heat rejection in a condenser

Brayton Cycle

The Brayton cycle is a thermodynamic cycle used in some heat engines. Notably, it is used for
gas turbine engines and some jet engines. The cycle consists of compressing ambient air,
mixing the air with fuel, then igniting the mixture, which expands, doing work. In many
Brayton cycle engines, the hot air can then be recycled, heating the fresh air coming through.
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This increases efficiency, because less fuel is needed to heat the fresh air. In physics terms, the
cycle consists of adiabatic compression and expansion paired with isobaric heating and cooling,
and allows for increased efficiency over some other cycles.

• 1-2 Isentropic compression (in a compressor)

• 2-3 Constant-pressure heat addition
• 3-4 Isentropic expansion (in a turbine)
• 4-1 Constant-pressure heat rejection
• Ideal Reheat Rankine Cycle

The ideal reheat Rankine cycle differs from the simple ideal Rankine cycle in that the expansion
process takes place in two stages. In the first stage (the high-pressure turbine), steam is
expanded entropically to an intermediate pressure and sent back to the boiler where it is
reheated at constant pressure, usually to the inlet temperature of the first turbine stage. Steam
then expands entropically in the second stage (low-pressure turbine) to the condenser pressure.

The Ideal Regenerative Rankine Cycle

A practical regeneration process in steam power plants is accomplished by extracting, or

“bleeding,” steam from the turbine at various points. This steam, which could have produced
more work by expanding further in the turbine, is used to heat the feedwater instead. The device
where the feedwater is heated by regeneration is called a regenerator, or a feedwater heater
(FWH). Regeneration not only improves cycle efficiency, but also provides a convenient means
of redetermining the feedwater (removing the air that leaks in at the condenser) to prevent
corrosion in the boiler.

Combined Gas–Vapor Power Cycles

1) A power cycle, which is called the combined gas–vapor cycle, or just the combined cycle.
The combined cycle of greatest interest is the gas turbine (Brayton) cycle topping a steam
turbine.
2) (Rankine) cycle, which has a higher thermal efficiency than either of the cycles executed
individually. Gas-turbine cycles typically operate at higher temperatures than steam cycles.
The maximum fluid temperature at the turbine inlet is about 620°C (1150°F) for modern
steam power plants, but over 1425°C (2600°F) for gas-turbine power plants. It is over
1500°C at the burner exit of turbojet engines. The use of higher temperatures in gas turbines

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 is made possible by recent developments in cooling the turbine blades and coating the
blades with high-temperature-resistant materials such as ceramics.
3) The Brayton Cycle with Intercooling, Reheating, and Regeneration
4) As the number of stages is increased, the compression process becomes isothermal at the
compressor inlet temperature, and the compression work decreases. Likewise, the work
output of a turbine operating between two pressure levels can be increased by expanding
the gas in stages and reheating it in between—that is, utilizing multistage expansion with
reheating. This is accomplished without raising the maximum temperature in the cycle. As
the number of stages increases, the expansion process becomes isothermal. The working
fluid leaves the compressor at a lower temperature and the turbine at a higher temperature,
when intercooling and reheating are utilized. In addition, the gases leaving the compressor
can be heated to a higher temperature before they enter the combustion chamber because
of the higher temperature of the turbine exhaust. A schematic of the physical arrangement
and the T-s diagram of an ideal two-stage gas-turbine cycle with intercooling, reheating,
and regeneration are shown in Figs

Cost Analysis:
The total cost of the system includes initial investment costs plus the operating costs over the
15-year operating period of the plant. The initial costs of the power devices (turbines and
pumps) are dependent on their power levels, and the initial costs of the heat transfer equipment
are dependent on their physical size (which is related to the mass flow rate of the working fluids
that pass through them).

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 Figure 10: Cost Analysis

Impacts of Power Plant

Environmental Impacts

Following are the few most common environmental impacts of power plants on the
environment.

Air Pollution

There are several pollutants emitted into the air from a coal power plant. These include Sulphur
Dioxide (SO), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) and Ozone (O). Suspended
Particulate Matter (SPM), Lead and Non-Methane Hydrocarbons are also released.

Any combustion process is a source for production of NOx. They are formed during
combustion of the nitrogen present in the fuel and the oxygen present in the air. The formation
of NOx is greater with increase in the combustion temperature.

Further formations of major greenhouse gases Carbon Dioxide (CO) - formed by CO mixing
with atmospheric oxygen - and Nitrous Oxide (NO) - formed by NOx combing with
atmospheric oxygen – take place.

Similarly, Sox (Oxides of Sulphur) are the combination of Sulphur in the fuel and the oxygen
from the air. Sulphur Dioxide (SO) is a common pollutant from coal power plants. Sometimes,

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due to excess oxygen, SO is also formed, which mixes with the water in the atmosphere,
causing acid rain. SPM from coal power plants is soot, smoke and fine dust particles and these
cause asthma and respiratory illness.

Water Pollution

In a coal power plant, water is used for washing coal, circulating in the boiler furnace to
produce steam and cooling of equipment. The dust from coal-cleaned water contaminates
groundwater. The hot water, if let out into water bodies without cooling, causes a rise in
temperature and affects aquatic flora and fauna.

Land Degradation

Untreated air and water pollutants from coal power plants affect the water and the flora and
fauna of adjoining areas making them unfit for living or livelihood activities.

Noise Pollution

Regular exposure to such high noise levels emanating from power plants from the usage of
equipment like boilers, turbines and crushers affects people working in the plants.

Impact on Air, Water, Soil and People:

➢ Causes respiratory ailments

➢ Affects historic structures
➢ Causes climate change
➢ Affects water quality and thus reduces quantity available for human consumption
➢ Affects fishing as hot water let into sea kills or causes migration of marine species
➢ Limits crop cultivation due to increase in alkalinity of soil
➢ Limits crop cultivation as land available for agriculture reduced
➢ Affects plant growth
➢ Affects livelihood for farmers and fishermen
➢ Increases risk of accidents due to hazardous working conditions

Water used for washing coal, if directly let into water bodies, will contaminate them. Fly ash
from these plants will pollute the soil when it sets down on land. Air emission from these plants
that contain pollutants such as Sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, carbon

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monoxide, volatile organic compounds and other metals like mercury, affects health and
wellbeing.

There are four types of environment impacts based on the nature and features of the impacts:

1) Direct impact- e.g. Impact of untreated wastewater from the power plant discharged into a
river or stream impacting marine life.
2) Indirect impact - e.g. SO2 from power plant deposited as SO4 on the soil affects farming.
3) Cumulative impact - e.g. Combined impact of all emissions of existing and upcoming
projects in a region
4) Induced impact - e.g. Impact of change in land use patterns and population in the area
because of the plant on the existing natural resources like water, air.

Conclusion:
The steam turbine is high efficiency. The efficiency of a gas turbine is less. The operating (or
running) cost of a steam turbine is comparatively high. The running cost of a gas turbine is low.
So, efficiency of steam cycle is 31% and efficiency of gas cycle is 33%.Efficency of steam
powerplant is less than gas powerplant. It is due to Firstly; a huge amount of heat is lost in the
condenser. Secondly, heat losses occur at various Stages of the plant. We cannot avoid the heat
lost in the condenser.

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