1) Technology Used:

Steam Turbine Power Plant Using Gas

A steam cycle power plant is operated using the Rankine cycle. Water enters
a boiler where it is heated to create steam. The steam is then sent through a
steam turbine that rotates the shaft of a generator to create electricity. The
steam exits the turbine into a condenser, which converts the steam back into
saturated water. The saturated water is then pumped back into the boiler to
repeat the process.
It may seem strange that in the Rankine cycle the steam is first cooled down
so that it condenses into liquid water and then is heated back up to create
steam. This is done because liquid requires much less energy to move than
vapor. Because pumps are much more efficient than compressors, the
energy consumed by a pump to move the liquid water is negligible compared
to the overall amount of energy produced by the system.
There are many extra components that are added to the basic system which
are used to improve the cycles efficiency. Some of these components are as
follows:
1. Reheaters
With reheaters, the steam coming out of the high pressure turbine is
rerouted back to the boiler to be heated again before being routed through
subsequent lower pressure turbines. This requires a minimal amount of
additional heat while providing extra power through the low pressure
turbines.
2. Moisture separators
Water droplets in the steam can cause damage to the turbine blades.
Moisture separators take the wet steam and, as it passes through, filter out
the water droplets so that dry steam comes out.
3. Feedwater heaters
Feedwater heaters are essentially heat exchangers and it comes in a couple
main designs, open and closed. A portion of the steam is taken after the high
pressure turbine and routed to the feedwater heater where it is used to heat
the post-condenser water stream before it is sent to the boiler. This reduces
the amount of heat needed from the boiler to produce the required
temperature and pressure of the steam going to the turbines.

4. Boiler Fuel
There are several different types of fuel that can be used for the boilers in a
steam system. The three main fuel sources that are currently used are: fossil
fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas), nuclear, and solar. Each operates somewhat
differently, but they all serve the same purpose.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Because of the abundance of fuel (Gas), this kind of power station can be
used to produce large amounts of electrical energy.

In most countries these power stations are used as base load power stations.
This is because steam power stations are slow to start and cannot be used to
cater for peak loads that generally occur for a short duration.

Rankine Cycle:
It is the basic working cycle for steam turbine power plants. It consists of
following process:
1-2: Isentropic expansion of superheated steam in steam turbine
2-3: Constant process heat rejection in condenser
3-4: Pressurization of saturated liquid in the pump
4-5: Constant pressure heating in the economizer
5-6: Constant pressure heating in steam drum
6-1: Constant pressure superheating of saturated steam to super-heated
steam
2) Fuel Used
We are using natural gas as a fuel here. The turbines used in Rankine cycle
Plants are commonly fueled with natural gas and it is more versatile than
coal or oil and can be used in 90% of energy applications. Rankine cycle
plants are usually powered by natural gas, although fuel oil, synthesis gas or
other fuels can be used. Here we will use natural gas for our project.

3) Heat Balance Diagram:

Heat Balance Diagram or HBD for Thermal Power Station is the basically
schematic representation of the whole steam cycle from Boiler to High
Pressure (HP) Turbines Intermediate Pressure (IP) Turbines and Low Pressure
(LP) Turbines to condenser to pumps to re-heaters and again to boiler. This
diagram also contains some information of steam properties like Pressure
Temperature, enthalpy and mass of the steam at every junction of the line.
As mentioned above, Heat Balance Diagram or HBD has the heat equation at
points before and after every component. Considering the first point after the
boiler, knowing the steam properties, pressure and temperatures, other
properties like enthalpy of the steam can also be determined. Knowing the
efficiencies and considerations like pressure drop across the control valves,
these properties along the cycle can be determined, thus the heat rate of the
system. With help of heat rate, the mass of steam required can be
determined.
HBD helps to engineer the plant by way of providing the steam properties at
different point across the steam cycle, thus providing vital information,
helpful to design the whole system and supporting systems. HBD, in fact also
helps in estimating the cost of the plant as well as it provides the heat rate,
operational cost can also be estimated. Knowing the both costs, it is easier to
decide on refining the specifications of components.

Notations:

Boiler Motor
Condenser Cooling
Tower

Turbine Centrifugal
Pump

Control valve Shell and

Tube Heat

Conclusion:
Calculation of Mass Flow rate of Fuel ( m f )
For a total output power of 1000 MW and using natural gas as fuel we are
able to calculate the mass flow rate of fuel & assuming Rankine cycle
efficiency to be 35%.
We have,
Total Work Output
=
m f CV
 1000 103
0.35=
m f 43000

m f =66.445 kg/ sec

Conversion of units from kg/sec to million standard cubic feet of gas per
hour.
We know that, 1 kg/sec = 1.77 10-4 MMSCFD
So, for our mass flow rate,
66.445 kg/sec = 0.0117 MMSCFD
Calculated Mass Flow Rate of 0.0117 MMSCFD
Fuel