Steam power plants

• Introduction: Thermal energy is the major source of power generation in India .

• Nearly 60% of electrical power is produced by steam power plants in India.

Exhaust steam
+ Air Fig.1. Production of electrical energy by steam power plant

• In steam power plants ,the heat of combustion of fossil fuels ( coal, oil or gas ) is
utilized by the boilers to rise steam at higher pressure and temperature. The steam
so produced is used in driving the steam turbines or some times steam engines
coupled to generators and thus in generating electrical energy as illustrated in fig.1.
• Stem turbines or steam engines used in steam power plant not only act as prime
movers but also as drivers for auxiliary equipment, such as pumps ,stokers fans e.t.c.
Steam power plants are installed either to generate electrical energy only or to generate electrical
energy along with the generation of steam for industrial purposes such as in
A. Paper mills, Textile mills
B. Sugar mills ,Refineries
C. Chemical works, Breweries
D. Plastic manufacture ,food manufacture e.c.t

The steam for process purpose is extracted from a certain section of a turbine and remaining
steam is allowed to expand in the turbine. Alternatively the exhaust steam may be used for
process purposes.
Steam power plants may be either condensing or non condensing type.
In condensing type power plants the exhaust steam is discharged in to a condenser which creates
a suction (very low pressure ) and allowing the expansion of steam in the turbine to a very low
pressure and thus increasing the efficiency.
In non condensing type power plants, the steam exhausted from the turbine at atmospheric
pressure or at a pressure greater than atmospheric .
The advantage of condensing type plants are the increased amount of energy extracted per kg of
steam and the greater the amount of power developed by a given size of turbine or engine. More
over in non condensing type power plants , a continuous supply of fresh feed water is required
where as in condensing type power plants steam is condensed into water in the condenser , can
be recirculated to boilers with the help of pumps. This point becomes important at places where
there is a shortage of pure water
10-500MW
10 MW
 Working of steam power plant

• Steam power plant basically operates on Rankine cycle . Coal is burnt in a boiler,
which converts water in to steam. The steam so formed is expanded in a turbine ,
which produces mechanical power driving the alternator coupled to the turbine.
The steam after expansion in prime mover (turbine) is usually condensed to water
in a condenser and fed into the boiler again with the help of pump.
• In actual practice ,how ever , a large no of modifications and improvements have
been made so as to affect economy and improve the thermal efficiency of the
plant
• The working of a modern coal fired steam power plant can be studied conveniently
with the help of layout of steam power plant
• The entire arrangement for the sake of simplicity may be divided in to four main
circuits namely
1. Fuel and ash circuit
2. Air and flue gas circuit
3. Feed water and steam circuit
4. Cooling water circuit
 Schematic arrangement of a modern coal fired power plant

• as
Fig.3. Modern pulverized coal fueled electric generating unit
1. Fuel and ash circuit: coal is delivered from the supply point to the storage sight by road rail,
or water. By road coal is transported in trucks and for small stations such inland transport
may be enough. Where power plants are situated close to a water way ,such as canal ,river or
sea, transport by boat or ship may be effective. However ,in most cases transportation of
coal by rail ,road is the most common.
In case of small power plants the quantity of coal being small, manual unloading from rail
car may be used but for large power stations the unloading from the railway siding is done with
the help of wagon tipplers and then the coal is conveyed to the coal handling plant .
From the coal handling plant the coal having been good enough to be burnt in the boilers is
taken in to the boiler bunkers by means of bucket conveyors. The coal is thus stored in the
bunkers from where it falls into the hoppers by gravity and finally the requisite quantity of coal
either goes on falling directly on the grate or where the coal speeders are provided ,coal is spread
in the grate up to the rare end.
When use of speeders is made most of the coal burns in air and remaining falls at the rare
end of the grate .Any unburnt coal particles in the middle of the grate are collected in a pipe and
are again re fired by cinder- firing fan . The grate in such types of boilers , where use of spreaders
is made move from rare end to front end and without spreaders the movement of the grate is
from front end to rear end. Combustion is controlled by controlling the grate speed ,quantity of
coal entering the grate, the damper openings .

The ash resulting after combustion of fuel collects at the back of the boiler and is removed
to the ash storage by means of scrap conveyors.
2. Air and flue gas circuit:-
The air is drawn from the atmosphere by a forced draught fan or induced draught fan through
the air preheater , in such it is heated by the heat of flue gases passing to chimney and then
admitted to the furnace. The flue gases after passing around the boiler tubes and super heater
tubes are drawn by the induced draught fan through dust collector (precipitator) economizer and air
preheater and finally exhauster to the atmosphere through chimney.
3. Feed water and steam circuit:-
The steam coming out of the turbine is condensed and the condensate is extracted from the
condenser by the condensate extraction pump and is forced to the low pressure feed water heaters
(usually three in number) where its temperature is raised by the heat from bled steam extracted at
suitable point of the steam turbine . The function of the deaerator is to reduce the dissolved oxygen
content in the condensate . The feed water is then pumped in to the boiler through economizer in
which it is further heated by the heat of flue gas passing through it on the way to chimney.
A small part (about 1% ) of steam and water in passing through the different components of the
system is lost. There fore water is added in the feed water system as make-up water , as shown in
fig.
In boiler water is converted in to high pressure steam , which is wet, wet steam is passed through
super heater ,where it is dried and further super heated, and then supplied to steam turbine
through the main valve. after giving out its heat energy to the turbine it is exhausted to the
condenser where its latent heat is extracted and steam is converted into feed water. At one or more
stages a quantity of steam is bled or withdrawn for heating of feed water. Making up water for
boiler is taken through the evaporator, where it is heated by low pressure steam extracted at
suitable point of turbine
4.Cooling water circuit:-
Cooling water is supplied from a natural source of supply such as river , canal, sea or
lake or cooling towers through screens to remove the matter, that might choke the
condenser tubes. It is circulated through the condenser for condensing the steam and
finally discharged at the suitable position near the point of supply. During the passage
its temperature rises and in the case of cooling towers the heat must be extracted
before the water is again pumped to the condenser. The circulation of the cooling water
to the condenser help in maintain a low pressure in the condenser.
Main parts of a Modern steam power plant:

1. Boiler
i. Super heater
ii. Reheater
iii. Economizer and Air preheater
2. Steam turbine
3. Generator 4) Condenser, 5)Cooling towers, 6) circulating water pump
7)Boiler feed pump , (8) Wagon tippler, 9)Crusher house, 10) Coal mill
11) Induced draught fan, 12)Ash precipitators, 13)Boiler chimney,
14)Forced draught fans,15)Water treatment plant, 16) control room and
17)Switch yard
Fuel handling
 Coal handling

1. Coal delivery
From the supply point the coal may be delivered to power station through rail,
road, river or sea.
Plants situated near the river or sea make use of navigation facilities(boat or
ship.
Stations which cannot make use of navigation facilities may be supplied coal
either by rail or trucks. Transportation of coal by trucks is usually used in case
the mines are not too far off or when the necessary rail facilities are not
available.
In case rail transport is to be adopted , the necessary siding for receiving the
coal should be brought as near the station as possible.
4
It can be used in medium and large capacity power plants
Driving mechanism shaft
Bearing

Endless helicoid screw

The advantages and disadvantages of screw conveyor are
Advantages :
1. It requires minimum space and is cheap in the first cost
2.It is most simple and compact
3.It can be made dust tight
Disadvantages :
1. The power consumption per unit weight is considerably high
2. The length of feed hardly exceeds 30 m due to torsional strain
on the shaft.
3. The wear and tear is very high and there fore the life of the
conveyor is considerably short compared with belt conveyor.
Bucket elevators:-
This conveyor is used extensively used for vertical lifts . It consists of buckets
fixed to a chain which moves over two wheels as shown in fig 1 (a). The coal is
carried by the buckets from the bottom and discharged at the top. Another
continuous type bucket elevator shown in fig 1(b). carries more amount of
coal compared with first.
• Flight conveyor( scraper ) :-
It is generally used for transfer of coal when filling of number of storage bins
situated under the conveyor is required. It consists of one or two strands of
chain, to which steel scrapers are attached . The scraper scraps the coal
through a trough and the coal is discharged in the bottom of the trough as
shown in fig.
Capacity– 10 to 100 tones per hour. It is used extensively for conveying coal
horizontally and for inclinations up to 350

When filling no.of stations

 Flight conveyor( scraper )
• Advantages:
1. It has rugged construction.
2. Requires little operation care.
3. It can be used for transfer of coal as well as ash.
4. Its speed can be easily regulated.
5. Needs small head room.
Disadvantages :
6. Excessive war due to dragging action.
7. High maintenance cost.
8. Speed is limited to 30 m/min to reduce the abrasive action
of material handled.
9. Power consumption is more due to dragging action.
 Skip hoist
• It is used for high lifts and handling is non continuous.
• This arrangement is simple and cheap and operational costs including labor and
maintenance are low.
• The skip hoist is the oldest and simplest means of elevating coal or ash and is
favorite of engineers particularly in ash handling
 Storage of coal
• It is very essential that adequate quantity of coal should be stored .
• Storage of coal gives protection against the interruption of coal supplies
when there is delay in the transportation of coal or due to strikes in coal
mines.
• In regard to storage the following points should be considered
I. There should be no standing water near the storage area
II. At a place where a well drained area is not available , drainage
channels should be installed
III. Storage area should be solid and not loose or porous
IV. Piles should be build up in successive layers and as far as possible
compact
V. Conical poling should be avoided
VI. In order to protect against wind erosion, piles should be sealed
VII. Storage should be done in such a way that handling cost is minimum.
VIII.At storage site fire fitting equipment should be easily available.
Live storage:-
• Live storage is a covered storage provided in plants ,sufficient to meet one
day requirement of the boiler.
• Bunkers made of steel or reinforced concrete are used to store the coal ,
from here the coal is transferred to the boiler grates.
 In plant handling
It may refer to any one of the following
1. Coal handling between the final storage and the firing equipment
2. A conveying system to feed coal from any bunker section to any firing unit
and to move coal from one bunker section to another.
3. In plant handling may mean no more than chutes (a sloping channel for
moving things to a lower level) to direct flow into individual firing units and
gates or valves to control the flow.
4. In plant handling may include the equipment such as belt conveyors, screw
conveyors, bucket elevators etc. to transfer the coal .
5. Weigh lories , hoppers and automatic scales are used to record the quantity
of coal delivered to the furnace.
Weighing and measuring: To weigh the quantity of coal the following equipment
is used
1. Weigh bridge
2. Belt scale
3. Weigh lorry
4. Automatic scale.
 Lay out of fuel handling equipment
(Under ground
• Coal is supplied to the power plant in railway bunkers or hoppers)

wagons
• After weighing on wagon balance the coal is
then unloaded to under ground hoppers or
bunkers. The wagon can be unloaded either
manually or through a rotary wagon tipplers
• From the bunker coal is lifted by conveyor to
the transfer tower from where it can be
delivered either to the fuel store or by a
conveyor to a crusher.
• The coal is then passed through the
magnetic separators and screens and
crushed in crushers in to pieces 25 to 30 mm
in size for stoker firing and 10 to 20mm when
pulverized fuel is fired in boiler furnaces.
• The crushed coal in the later case is milled to
a fine powder and then it is carried through
automatic weigher to a transfer tower where
fuel is lifted and distributed between boiler
hoppers by a conveyor
 Ash handling :
A huge quantity of ash is produced in central stations ,some times as much as 10
to 20% of coal burnt in a day. Hundreds of tones of ash may have to be handled in
every day in large power stations and mechanical devices become necessary.
A station using low grade fuel has to deal with large quantity of ash.
Handling of ash includes
1. Its removal from the furnace
2. Loading on the conveyor and delivery it to the fill or dump from where it can be
disposed of by sale or otherwise.
Handling of ash is a problem because ash coming out the furnace is too hot , it is dusty
and irritating to handle and is accompanied by some poisonous gases. Ash needs to be
quenched before handling due to the following reasons.
1. Quenching reduces the corrosion action of ash
2. Dust
3. Temperature of ash
4. Ash forms clinkers(accumulate) by fusing in large lumps and by quenching clinkers will disintegrate
(break into pieces) .
Requirements of a good ash handling equipment
Outline of ash disposal equipment
The modern ash handling systems are mainly
classified in to four groups

1. Mechanical handling system

2. Hydraulic system
3. Pneumatic system
4. Steam jet system.
Mechanical handling system
• Generally employed for low capacity power plants using coal as fuel.
• The hot ash released from the boiler furnace is made to fall over the belt
conveyor after cooling it through water seal. This cooled ash is
transported to an ash bunker through the belt conveyor .
• From ash bunker the ash is removed to the dumping site through trucks.

Fig. Mechanical ash handling system

 Hydraulic system
• In this system ash is carried with the flow of water with high velocity through a channel and is
finally dumped in to the sump
• This system is sub divided as follows
1. Low pressure system
2. High pressure system
• Low pressure system: In this system a trough or drain is provided below the boilers and the water is made to
flow through the trough. The ash directly falls into the troughs and is carried by water to sumps
• In the sump the ash and water are made to pass through a screen so that water is separated from ash . This
water is pumped back to the trough for reuse and the ash is removed to the dumping yard.
• The ash carrying capacity of the system is 50 tones / hour and distance covered is 500 meters.
 High pressure system:
In this system , the hoppers bellow
the boiler are fitted with water
nozzles at the top and on the sides .
• The top nozzles quench the ash
while the side ones provide the
driving force for ash. The cooled
ash is carried to the sump through
the trough .
• The water is again separated from
the ash and recirculated.
• The ash carrying capacity of this
system is as large as 120 tones per
hour and the distance covered is
as large as 1000 meters.
 Pneumatic system Ash from furnace ash hopper

• This system can handle abrasive ash as well as fine dusty materials such as fly ash and soot. It is preferable
for the boiler plants from which ash and soot must be transported some for off distance for final disposal.
• The exhauster provided at the discharge end creates a high velocity stream which picks up ash and dust
from all discharge points and then these are carried in the conveying pipe to the point of delivery. Large ash
particles are generally crushed to small sizes through mobile crushing units which are fed from the furnace
ash hopper and discharged into the conveyor pipe which terminates into a separator at the delivery end.
• the separator working on the cyclone principle removes ash and dust , which pass out into the ash hopper
at the bottom while clean air is discharged from the top.
• The exhauster may be mechanical or it may use steam jet or water jet for its
operation
• When a mechanical exhauster is used it is usually essential to use a filter or washer
to ensure that the exhauster handles clean air. Such type of exhauster may be used
in a large station as the power requirements are less.
• Steam exhauster may be used in small and medium size stations .
• Where large quantities of water are easily and cheaply available water exhauster is
preferred.
• The ash carrying capacity of this system varies from 25 to 75 tones per hour.
Advantages :
1. No spillage and re handling
2. High flexibility
3. there is no chance of ash freezing or sticking in the storage bin and the material can be
discharge freely by gravity.
4. The dustless operation is possible as the materials are handled totally in an enclosed
conduit.
5. The cost of the plant per tone of ash discharged is less in comparison to other systems.
Disadvantages :
There is a large amount of wear in the pipe line there by high maintenance charges
More noisy than other systems.