CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 GENERAL
NTPC Limited (formerly National Thermal Power Corporation) is the largest state-owned power generating company in India. Forbes Global 2000 for 2010 ranked it 34th in the world. It is an Indian public sector company listed on the Mumbai stock exchange although at present the government of India holds 84.5% of its equity. With a current generating capacity of 34,894 MW, NTPC has embarked on plans to become a 75,000MW capacity by 2017. It was founded on November, 7, 1975. NTPCs core business is engineering, construction & operation of power generating plants & providing consultancy to power utilities in India & aboard. The total installed capacity of the company is 34,894MW with 15 coal based & 7 gas based stations, located across the country. In addition JVs, 5 stations are coal based & another station uses naphtha/LNG as fuel. By 2017, the power generation portfolio is expected to have a diversified fuel mix with coal based capacity of around 000MW, 0000MW through gas, 000MW through Hydro generation, about 000MW from nuclear sources & around 1000MW from renewable sources (RES). NTPC has adopted a multi-pronged growth strategy which includes capacity addition through green field projects, expansion of existing stations, joint ventures, subsidiaries & takeover of stations. NTPC has been operating its plants at high efficiency levels. Although the company has 18.79% of the total national capacity it contributes 28.60% of total power generation due to its focus on high efficiency. NTPCs share at 31 Mar 2001 of the total installed capacity of the country was 24.51% and it generated 29.68% of the power of the country in 200809. Every fourth home in India is lit by NTPC. As at 31 Mar 2011 NTPC's share of the country's total installed capacity is 17.75% and it generated 27.4% of the power generation of the country in 201011. NTPC is lighting every third bulb in India. 170.88BU of electricity was produced by its stations in the financial year 2005 2006. The Net Profit after Tax on March 31, 2006 was INR 58,202 million. Net Profit after Tax for the quarter ended June 30, 2006 was INR 15528 million, which is 18.65% more than for the same quarter in the previous financial year. 2005). Pursuant to a special resolution passed by the Shareholders at the Companys Annual General Meeting on September 23, 2005 and the approval of the Central Government under section 21 of the Companies Act, 1956, the name of the Company "National Thermal Power Corporation Limited" has

been changed to "NTPC Limited" with effect from October 28, 2005. The primary reason for this is the company's foray into hydro and nuclear based power generation along with backward integration by coal mining. (NTPC) is in the 138th position in Fortune 500 in 2009. 10 Indian companies make it to FT's top 500.

1.2 Future Goals

The company has also set a serious goal of having 50000 MW of installed capacity by 2012 and 75000 MW by 2017. The company has taken many steps like step-up its recruitment, reviewing feasibilities of various sites for project implementations etc. and has been quite successful till date. NTPC will invest about Rs 20,000 crore to set up a 3,960-megawatt (Mw) coal-based power project in Madhya Pradesh. Company will also start coal production from its captive mine in Jharkhand in 201112, for which the company will be investing about Rs 1,800 crore.

1.3 Power Burden

India, as a developing country is characterized by increase in demand for electricity and as of moment the power plants are able to meet only about 6075% of this demand on a yearly average. The only way to meet the requirement completely is to achieve a rate of power capacity addition (implementing power projects) higher than the rate of demand addition. NTPC strives to achieve this and undoubtedly leads in sharing this burden on the country.

1.4 NTPC Plants Table 1.1 Thermal-Coal based Plants

Sr. No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Singrauli Korba Ramagundam Farakka Vindhyachal Rihand Kahalgaon Dadri Talcher Unchahar Talcher Thermal Simhadri Tanda Badarpur Sipat Sipat (erection phase) City State Uttar Pradesh Chhattisgarh Inst. Capacity 2,000 2,600

Andhra Pradesh 2,600 West Bengal 2,100

Madhya Pradesh 3,260 Uttar Pradesh Bihar Uttar Pradesh Orissa Uttar Pradesh Orissa 2,000 2,340 2,310 3,000 1,050 460

Andhra Pradesh 1,500 Uttar Pradesh Delhi Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh 440 705 1660 1980 750 1000 (2x500 MW) Total 25,815

Bongaigaon (erection phase) Assam Mouda (erection phase) Maharashtra

Table 1.2 Coal Based Plants(Owned by JVs)

Sr. No. Name of the JV City State West Bengal Orissa Inst. Capacity

1 2 3 4 5 Total

NSPCL NSPCL NSPCL Nabinagar Power Generating Co. Pvt. Ltd. (NPGC)

Durgapur Rourkela Bhilai

120 120

Chhattisgarh 574 1980 110 2904

Aurangabad Bihar Kanti Bihar

Table 1.3 GAS based Plants

Sr. No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total City Anta Auraiya Kawas Dadri Jhanor State Rajasthan Inst.Capacity 413

Uttar Pradesh 652 Gujarat 645

Uttar Pradesh 817 Gujarat 648 350 430 3995

Kayamkulam Kerala Faridabad Haryana

1.5 NTPC HYDEL

The company has also stepped up its hydroelectric power (hydel) projects implementation. Currently the company is mainly interested in the North-east India wherein the Ministry of Power in India has projected a hydel power feasibility of 3000 MW. There are few run of the river hydro projects are under construction on tributory of the Ganges. In which three are being made by NTPC Limited. These are: Loharinag Pala Hydro Power Project by NTPC Ltd: In Loharinag Pala Hydro Power Project with a capacity of 600 MW (150 MW x 4 Units). The main package has been awarded. The present executives' strength is 100+. The project is located on river Bhagirathi (a tributory of the Ganges) in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand state. This is the first project downstream from the origin of the Ganges at Gangotri(Project stopped by GoI). Tapovan Vishnugad 520MW Hydro Power Project by NTPC Ltd: In Josh math city Lata Tapovan 130MW Hydro Power Project by NTPC Ltd: Also in Josh math (under environmental revision) Koldam Hydro Power Project 800 MW in Himachal Pradesh (130 km from Chandigarh) Amochu in Bhutan Rupasiyabagar Khasiabara HPP, 261 MW in Uttarkashi, near China Border.

1.6 BTPS
Badarpur Thermal Power Station has an installed capacity of 705 MW. The First unit was commissioned in July 1973. The coal for the plant is derived from the Jharia Coal Fields. This was constructed under ownership of Delhi Vidyut Board. Latter it were transferred to NTPC.

Table 1.4 Installed Capacity

Stage First First First First First Unit Number 1 2 3 4 5 Installed Capacity (MW) 95 95 95 210 210 Date of Comisioning July, 1973 August, 1974 March, 1975 December, 1978 December, 1981 Status Running Running Running Running Running

CHAPTER-2 INTRODUCTION TO TYPICAL THERMAL POWER PLANT

2.1 Thermal power station
A thermal power station is a power plant in which the prime mover is steam driven. Water is heated, turns into steam and spins a steam turbine which drives an electrical generator. After it passes through the turbine, the steam is condensed in a condenser and recycled to where it was heated; this is known as a Rankine cycle. The greatest variation in the design of thermal power stations is due to the different fuel sources. Some prefer to use the term energy center because such facilities convert forms of heat energy into electricity[1]. Some thermal power plants also deliver heat energy for industrial purposes, for district heating, or for desalination of water as well as delivering electrical power. A large part of human CO2 emissions comes from fossil fueled thermal power plants; efforts to reduce these outputs are various and widespread.

2.2 Introductory overview

Almost all coal, nuclear, geothermal, solar thermal electric, and waste incineration plants, as well as many natural gas power plants are thermal. Natural gas is frequently combusted in gas turbines as well as boilers. The waste heat from a gas turbine can be used to raise steam, in a combined cycle plant that improves overall efficiency. Power plants burning coal, fuel oil, or natural gas are often called fossil-fuel power plants. Some biomass-fueled thermal power plants have appeared also. Non-nuclear thermal power plants, particularly fossil-fueled plants, which do not use co-generation are sometimes referred to as conventional power plants. Commercial electric utility power stations are usually constructed on a large scale and designed for continuous operation. Electric power plants typically use three-phase electrical generators to produce alternating current (AC) electric power at a frequency of 50 Hz or 60 Hz. Large companies or institutions may have their own power plants to supply heating or electricity to their facilities, especially if steam is created anyway for other purposes. Steam-driven power plants have been used in various large ships, but are now usually used in large naval ships.

Shipboard power plants usually directly couple the turbine to the ship's propellers through gearboxes. Power plants in such ships also provide steam to smaller turbines driving electric generators to supply electricity. Shipboard steam power plants can be either fossil fuel or nuclear. Nuclear marine propulsion is, with few exceptions, used only in naval vessels. There have been perhaps about a dozen turbo-electric ships in which a steam-driven turbine drives an electric generator which powers an electric motor for propulsion. Combined heat and power (CH&P) plants, often called co-generation plants, produce both electric power and heat for process heat, space heating, or process heat. Steam and hot water lose energy when piped over substantial distance, so carrying heat energy by steam or hot water is often only worthwhile within a local area, such as a ship, industrial plant, or district heating of nearby buildings.

Figure 2.1 Diagram of a typical coal-fired thermal power station

2.3 Efficiency
The energy efficiency of a conventional thermal power station, considered as salable energy as a percent of the heating value of the fuel consumed, is typically 33% to 48%. This efficiency is limited as all heat engines are governed by the laws of thermodynamics. The rest of the energy must leave the plant in the form of heat. This waste heat can go through a condenser and be disposed of

with cooling water or in cooling towers. If the waste heat is instead utilized for district heating, it is called co-generation. An important class of thermal power station is associated with desalination facilities; these are typically found in desert countries with large supplies of natural gas and in these plants, freshwater production and electricity are equally important co-products.

Figure 2.2 A Rankine cycle with a two-stage steam turbine and a single feed water heater. Since the efficiency of the plant is fundamentally limited by the ratio of the absolute temperatures of the steam at turbine input and output, efficiency improvements require use of higher temperature, and therefore higher pressure, steam. Historically, other working fluids such as mercury have been used in a mercury vapor turbine power plant, since these can attain higher temperatures than water at lower working pressures. However, the obvious hazards of toxicity, high cost, and poor heat transfer properties, have ruled out mercury as a working fluid. Above the critical point for water of 705 F (374 C) and 3212 psi (22.06 MPa), there is no phase transition from water to steam, but only a gradual decrease in density. Boiling does not occur and it is not possible to remove impurities via steam separation. In this case a super critical steam plant is required to utilize the increased thermodynamic efficiency by operating at higher

temperatures. These plants, also called once-through plants because boiler water does not circulate multiple times, require additional water purification steps to ensure that any impurities picked up during the cycle will be removed. This purification takes the form of high pressure ion exchange units called condensate polishers between the steam condenser and the feed water heaters. Subcritical fossil fuel power plants can achieve 3640% efficiency. Super critical designs have efficiencies in the low to mid 40% range, with new "ultra critical" designs using pressures of 4400 psi (30.3 MPa) and dual stage reheat reaching about 48% efficiency. Current nuclear power plants operate below the temperatures and pressures that coal-fired plants do. This limits their thermodynamic efficiency to 3032%. Some advanced reactor designs being studied, such as the Very high temperature reactor, Advanced gas-cooled reactor and Super critical water reactor, would operate at temperatures and pressures similar to current coal plants, producing comparable thermodynamic efficiency.

2.4 Cost of electricity

The direct cost of electric energy produced by a thermal power station is the result of cost of fuel, capital cost for the plant, operator labour, maintenance, and such factors as ash handling and disposal. Indirect, social or environmental costs such as the economic value of environmental impacts, or environmental and health effects of the complete fuel cycle and plant decommissioning, are not usually assigned to generation costs for thermal stations in utility practice, but may form part of an environmental impact assessment. For units over about 200 MW capacity, redundancy of key components is provided by installing duplicates of the forced and induced draft fans, air preheaters, and fly ash collectors. On some units of about 60 MW, two boilers per unit may instead be provided.

2.5 Boiler and steam cycle

2.5.1 Feed water heating and deaeration The feed water used in the steam boiler is a means of transferring heat energy from the burning fuel to the mechanical energy of the spinning steam turbine. The total feed water consists of recalculated condensate water and purified makeup water. Because the metallic materials it contacts are subject to corrosion at high temperatures and pressures, the makeup water is highly purified before use. A system of water softeners and ion exchange demineralizers produces water so pure that

it coincidentally becomes an electrical insulator, with conductivity in the range of 0.31.0 micro Siemens per centimeter.

Figure 2.3 Diagram of boiler feed water deaerator (with vertical, domed aeration section and horizontal water storage section

2.5.2 Boiler operation

The boiler is a rectangular furnace about 50 feet (15 m) on a side and 130 feet (40 m) tall. Its walls are made of a web of high pressure steel tubes about 2.3 inches (58 mm) in diameter. Pulverized coal is air-blown into the furnace from fuel nozzles at the four corners and it rapidly burns, forming a large fireball at the center. The thermal radiation of the fireball heats the water that circulates through the boiler tubes near the boiler perimeter. The water circulation rate in the boiler is three to four times the throughput and is typically driven by pumps. As the water in the boiler circulates it absorbs heat and changes into steam at 700 F (371 C) and 3,200 psi (Template Convert/MP). It is separated from the water inside a drum at the top of the furnace. The saturated steam is introduced into superheat pendant tubes that hang in the hottest part of the combustion gases as they exit the furnace. Here the steam is superheated to 1,000 F (500 C) to prepare it for the turbine. Plants that use gas turbines to heat the water for conversion into steam use boilers known as heat recovery steam generators (HRSG). The exhaust heat from the gas turbines is used to make superheated steam that is then used in a conventional water-steam generation cycle, as described in gas turbine combined-cycle plants section below.

2.5.3 Boiler furnace and steam drum

Once water inside the boiler or steam generator, the process of adding the latent heat of vaporization or enthalpy is underway. The boiler transfers energy to the water by the chemical reaction of burning some type of fuel. The water enters the boiler through a section in the convection pass called the economizer. From the economizer it passes to the steam drum. Once the water enters the steam drum it goes down to the lower inlet water wall headers. From the inlet headers the water rises through the water walls and is eventually turned into steam due to the heat being generated by the burners located on the front and rear water walls (typically). As the water is turned into steam/vapor in the water walls, the steam/vapor once again enters the steam drum. The steam/vapor is passed through a series of steam and water separators and then dryers inside the steam drum. The steam separators and dryers remove water droplets from the steam and the cycle through the water walls is repeated. This process is known as natural circulation. The boiler furnace auxiliary equipment includes coal feed nozzles and igniter guns, soot blowers, water lancing and observation ports (in the furnace walls) for observation of the furnace interior. Furnace explosions due to any accumulation of combustible gases after a trip-out are avoided by flushing out such gases from the combustion zone before igniting the coal. The steam drum (as well as the super heater coils and headers) have air vents and drains needed for initial start up. The steam drum has internal devices that removes moisture from the wet steam entering the drum from the steam generating tubes. The dry steam then flows into the super heater coils.

2.5.4 Super heater

Fossil fuel power plants can have a super heater and/or re-heater section in the steam generating furnace. In a fossil fuel plant, after the steam is conditioned by the drying equipment inside the steam drum, it is piped from the upper drum area into tubes inside an area of the furnace known as the super heater, which has an elaborate set up of tubing where the steam vapor picks up more energy from hot flue gases outside the tubing and its temperature is now superheated above the saturation temperature. The superheated steam is then piped through the main steam lines to the valves before the high pressure turbine. Nuclear-powered steam plants do not have such sections but produce steam at essentially saturated conditions. Experimental nuclear plants were equipped with fossil-fired super heaters in an attempt to improve overall plant operating cost.

2.5.5 Steam condensing

The condenser condenses the steam from the exhaust of the turbine into liquid to allow it to be pumped. If the condenser can be made cooler, the pressure of the exhaust steam is reduced and efficiency of the cycle increases.

Figure 2.4 Diagram of a typical water-cooled surface condenser. The surface condenser is a shell and tube heat exchanger in which cooling water is circulated through the tubes. The exhaust steam from the low pressure turbine enters the shell where it is cooled and converted to condensate (water) by flowing over the tubes as shown in the adjacent diagram. Such condensers use steam ejectors or rotary motor-driven exhausters for continuous removal of air and gases from the steam side to maintain vacuum. For best efficiency, the temperature in the condenser must be kept as low as practical in order to achieve the lowest possible pressure in the condensing steam. Since the condenser temperature can almost always be kept significantly below 100 C where the vapor pressure of water is much less than atmospheric pressure, the condenser generally works under vacuum. Thus leaks of noncondensable air into the closed loop must be prevented. Typically the cooling water causes the steam to condense at a temperature of about 35 C (95 F) and that creates an absolute pressure in the condenser of about 27 kPa. The limiting factor is the temperature of the cooling water and that, in turn, is limited by the prevailing average climatic conditions at the power plant's location. Plants operating in hot climates may have to reduce output if their source of condenser cooling water becomes warmer; unfortunately this usually coincides with periods of high electrical demand for air conditioning.

The condenser generally uses either circulating cooling water from a cooling tower to reject waste heat to the atmosphere, or once-through water from a river, lake or ocean. The heat absorbed by the circulating cooling water in the condenser tubes must also be removed to maintain the ability of the water to cool as it circulates. This is done by pumping the warm water from the condenser through either natural draft, forced draft or induced draft cooling towers (as seen in the image to the right) that reduce the temperature of the water by evaporation, by about 11 to 17 C (20 to 30 F) expelling waste heat to the atmosphere. The circulation flow rate of the cooling water in a 500MW unit is about 14.2 m/s (500 ft/s or 225,000 US gal/min) at full load. The condenser tubes are made of brass or stainless steel to resist corrosion from either side. Nevertheless they may become internally fouled during operation by bacteria or algae in the cooling water or by mineral scaling, all of which inhibit heat transfer and reduce thermodynamic efficiency. Many plants include an automatic cleaning system that circulates sponge rubber balls through the tubes to scrub them clean without the need to take the system off-line. The cooling water used to condense the steam in the condenser returns to its source without having been changed other than having been warmed. If the water returns to a local water body (rather than a circulating cooling tower), it is tempered with cool 'raw' water to prevent thermal shock when discharged into that body of water.

2.6 Re heater
Power plant furnaces may have a re heater section containing tubes heated by hot flue gases outside the tubes. Exhaust steam from the high pressure turbine is rerouted to go inside the re heater tubes to pick-up more energy to go drive intermediate or lower pressure turbines.

2.7 Air path

External fans are provided to give sufficient air for combustion. The forced draft fan takes air from the atmosphere and, first warming it in the air preheater for better combustion, injects it via the air nozzles on the furnace wall. The induced draft fan assists the FD fan by drawing out combustible gases from the furnace, maintaining a slightly negative pressure in the furnace to avoid backfiring through any opening.

2.8 Steam turbine generator

Figure 2.5 Rotor of a modern steam turbine, used in a power station The turbine generator consists of a series of steam turbines interconnected to each other and a generator on a common shaft. There is a high pressure turbine at one end, followed by an intermediate pressure turbine, two low pressure turbines, and the generator. As steam moves through the system and loses pressure and thermal energy it expands in volume, requiring increasing diameter and longer blades at each succeeding stage to extract the remaining energy. The entire rotating mass may be over 200 metric tons and 100 feet (30 m) long. It is so heavy that it must be kept turning slowly even when shut down (at 3 rpm) so that the shaft will not bow even slightly and become unbalanced. This is so important that it is one of only five functions of blackout emergency power batteries on site. Other functions are emergency lighting, communication, station alarms and turbo generator lube oil. Superheated steam from the boiler is delivered through 1416-inch (360410 mm) diameter piping to the high pressure turbine where it falls in pressure to 600 psi (4.1 MPa) and to 600 F (320 C) in temperature through the stage. It exits via 2426-inch (610660 mm) diameter cold reheat lines and passes back into the boiler where the steam is reheated in special reheat pendant tubes back to 1,000 F (500 C). The hot reheat steam is conducted to the intermediate pressure turbine where it falls in both temperature and pressure and exits directly to the long-bladed low pressure turbines and finally exits to the condenser. The generator, 30 feet (9 m) long and 12 feet (3.7 m) in diameter, contains a stationary stator and a spinning rotor, each containing miles of heavy copper conductorno permanent magnets here. In operation it generates up to 21,000 amperes at 24,000 volts AC (504

MWe) as it spins at either 3,000 or 3,600 rpm, synchronized to the power grid. The rotor spins in a sealed chamber cooled with hydrogen gas, selected because it has the highest known heat transfer coefficient of any gas and for its low viscosity which reduces windage losses. This system requires special handling during startup, with air in the chamber first displaced by carbon dioxide before filling with hydrogen. This ensures that the highly explosive hydrogenoxygenenvironment is not created. The power grid frequency is 60 Hz across North America and 50Hz in Europe, Oceania, Asia (Korea and parts of Japan are notable exceptions) and parts of Africa.) The electricity flows to a distribution yard where transformers step the voltage up to 115, 230, 500 or 765 kV AC as needed for transmission to its destination. The steam turbine-driven generators have auxiliary systems enabling them to work satisfactorily and safely. The steam turbine generator being rotating equipment generally has a heavy, large diameter shaft. The shaft therefore requires not only supports but also has to be kept in position while running. To minimize the frictional resistance to the rotation, the shaft has a number of bearings. The bearing shells, in which the shaft rotates, are lined with a low friction material like Babbitt metal. Oil lubrication is provided to further reduce the friction between shaft and bearing surface and to limit the heat generated.

2.9 Stack gas path and cleanup

As the combustion flue gas exits the boiler it is routed through a rotating flat basket of metal mesh which picks up heat and returns it to incoming fresh air as the basket rotates, This is called the air preheater. The gas exiting the boiler is laden with fly ash, which are tiny spherical ash particles. The flue gas contains nitrogen along with combustion products carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. The fly ash is removed by fabric bag filters or electrostatic precipitators. Once removed, the fly ash byproduct can sometimes be used in the manufacturing of concrete. This cleaning up of flue gases, however, only occurs in plants that are fitted with the appropriate technology. Still, the majority of coal fired power plants in the world do not have these facilities. Where required by law, the sulfur and nitrogen oxide pollutants are removed by stack gas scrubbers which use a pulverized limestone or other alkaline wet slurry to remove those pollutants from the exit stack gas. Other devices use catalysts to remove Nitrous Oxide compounds from the flue gas stream.

The gas travelling up the flue gas stack may by this time have dropped to about 50 C (120 F). A typical flue gas stack may be 150180 meters (490590 ft) tall to disperse the remaining flue gas components in the atmosphere. The tallest flue gas stack in the world is 419.7 meters (1,377 ft) tall at the GRES-2 power plant in Ekibastuz, Kazakhstan.

2.10 Fly ash collection

Fly ash is captured and removed from the flue gas by electrostatic precipitators or fabric bag filters (or sometimes both) located at the outlet of the furnace and before the induced draft fan. The fly ash is periodically removed from the collection hoppers below the precipitators or bag filters. Generally, the fly ash is pneumatically transported to storage silos for subsequent transport by trucks or railroad cars.

2.11 Bottom ash collection and disposal

At the bottom of the furnace, there is a hopper for collection of bottom ash. This hopper is always filled with water to quench the ash and clinkers falling down from the furnace. Some arrangement is included to crush the clinkers and for conveying the crushed clinkers and bottom ash to a storage site.

2.12 Auxiliary systems

Some of the auxiliary systems used in thermal power station are: Boiler make-up water treatment plant and storage, Fuel preparation system, Barring gear, Oil system, Generator cooling, Generator high voltage system, Monitoring and alarm system, Battery supplied emergency lighting and communication, Transport of coal fuel to site and to storage.

CHAPTER-3 WATER TREATMENT PLANT

3.1 Treatment of water for boiler feed
Boiler feed water treatment for high pressure boilers is almost standard. Raw water is clarified and filtered for removal of un-dissolved impurities and demineralized for removal of dissolved salts. Dissolved oxygen is removed in a thermal DE aerator. Residual dissolved oxygen is removed by hydrazine. Trisodium phosphate is added into the boiler drum for pH conditioning and to precipitate hardness if any introduced inadvertently into the boiler drum due to mal operation. Condensate corrosion is controlled by addition of ammonia or neutralizing amine such as morphine or cyclo hexylamine. We shall discuss two contaminants which are of particular interest in high pressure boiler water treatment. Presence of silica in boiler feed water is harmful as silica tends to volatilize along with steam and get deposited as glassy and hard deposits on the turbine blades. Silica deposition is usually controlled by maintaining its concentration in the boiler drum within limits specified by boiler manufacturers. It has been established that concentrations of silica in excess of 0.03 mg/l invariably causes problems in turbine operation. Suitable lower silica level should be maintained boiler water to maintain silica less than 0.02 mg/l in steam leaving the drum.

Figure 3.1 Layout of Water treatment Plant

3.2 Pretreatment of water

Difficulties in removing non-reactive silica from the fact that it is not present as a simple colloidal particle and is not amenable for coagulation under normal conditions. It is mostly present as hydrated silica associated with organic matter naturally present in soil and hydrated oxides of iron & aluminum. A multipronged attack is therefore called for when one wants to remove non-reactive silica in pre-treatment plant. Experience has shown that optimum removal of non-reactive silica can be achieved if all of the following conditions are met.

a) Effective pre-chlorination of water to oxidise organic matter associated with colloidal particles.

b) Maintaining optimal pH conditions and dosing of a primary coagulant like alum and a polyelectrolyte for flocculation, in dosages determined by jar tests.

c) A solids contact type clarifier, with solids recirculation, provides ideal conditions for coagulation of non-reactive silica. As it is present in small quantities, recirculation of solids ensures adequate contact between the colloidal particles and the coagulant.

d) Coagulation at best is a physical process and one can therefore expect to remove upto 80 to 90% of non-reactive silica presents in water under ideal conditions.

Figure 3.2 Cross sectional view of a solid contact type Clarifier.

3.3 Ultrafiltration
Ultra-filtration (UF), a pressure activated process and employs a semi permeable membrane with asymmetric structure (see fig 3 ) and can be effectively employed for removal of non-reactive silica. Membranes with a molecular weight cut off of 100,000 remove upto 99% of non-reactive silica present in feed while a tighter membrane with a molecular weight cut off of 10,000 removes upto 99.8%

Figure 3.3 Asymmetric structure of ultrafiltration

Removes colloidal silcates, aluminum and organics (humic, fluvic acids). Reduce silica deposition on turbine blades. Reduce corrosion potential of high molecular weight organics. Reduce turbine maintenance down time. Reduced boiler feed chemicals. Fewer make-up water upsets means more on-line time. Less power purchased from other utilities.

The best way of ensuring maximum removal of non-reactive silica will be to remove the bulk of it in the pretreatment plant and polish it with an ultrafiltration system installed at the outlet of the mixed bed unit. The effectiveness of the system can be seen from the results obtained from an ultrafiltration unit at New York State Electric & Gas, Millkaen Station in New York, USA. A number of similar installations are in operation in the US and other countries. In a developing country like India, where the plant load factor is an important consideration, the additional investment in ultrafiltration is quite justified since it reduces the number of shut downs caused by turbine failure due to silica deposits.

3.4 Matter
Organic matter present in surface water is mostly of vegetable and animal origin and consists essentially of large molecular weight carboxylic acids collectively termed as humic and fulvic acids. These carry a negative charge and therefore are adsorbed by a strong base resin in a DM plant. Organic matter is harmful if present in boiler feed water as it often breaks down in the boiler drum, depresses the pH and causes corrosion. A lower pH increases the risk of silica carry-over in steam. Recent specifications for cogen boilers require organics in boiler feed water to less than 20 ppb.

3.4.1 Removal of organic matter

Organic matter can either be in colloidal or dissolved form or both. Here again, removal of organics by proper pretreatment is the most logical and economical way. Pre-chlorination of water oxidises dissolved organic matter and colloidal organic is best removed by proper coagulation and clarification. Ion exchange resins resistant to fouling by organics present in water should be used. Any residual organic matter can be removed by Nano-filtration (NF) membranes. UF membranes are not very effective due to the low molecular weight of organic matter present in surface waters.

3.4.2 Treatment of water for condenser cooling

The present generation power plants employ open recirculation cooling water treatment to conserve water. Scaling, corrosion and fouling are the three problems in operating these systems. A few power stations operate at very low cycles of concentration to avoid scaling and do not use any treatment. Most of the power stations in Maharashtra , however ,use softened water as CT makeup. Corrosion is minimised by the choice of corrosion resistant material of construction. Bio-fouling is controlled by chlorination of recirculating water. When softened water is used as make-up, disposal of regeneration waste is a major environmental problem. Besides the scheme involve a high capital and operating costs. Cold lime softening would be a better option as this will involve only solid sludge disposal. A few plants use zinc and ortho-phosphate treatment and operate the cooling tower at high cycles of concentration. While zinc phosphate treatment gives maximum corrosion and scale control, the treatment scheme is expensive and requires stringent pH control. In addition, discharge of orthophosphate containing effluent has become an environmental concern. The presence of orthophosphate in effluent is known to cause algal blooms in receiving water bodies. Ion Exchange (India) Ltd. has developed an alternate treatment that overcomes these limitations namely the Zinc Organic treatment. This treatment programmed operates at alkaline and

scaling conditions. The use of high efficiency dispersants and phosphate controls scaling even upto Ryzner Saturation Index (RSI) of 4.0. Corrosion control is achieved by controlled use of zinc only and this treatment avoids Ortho- Phosphate completely. As a result, not only is the effluent more environment friendly, but algae growth in cooling water is also lesser. This was tried at a power plant in Andhra Pradesh. The power station was commissioned in the middle of 1997. Initially, no treatment was employed and instead the system was operated at low COC ( < 1.3). The plant is located in an area with water scarcity. As a result, the plant management decided to go in for chemical treatment that would blow down and reduce water consumption. Basic advantage of operating the cooling tower at high cycles of concentration are reduced quantity of make-up water to minimal treatment cost.

3.5 Treatment of wastewater and its disposal or recovery and reuse of water:
Water is a scarce resource and Thermal Power stations are today being compelled to minimize consumption of water to the extent possible. It is possible to recover and reuse water from most of the waste streams generated in a thermal power station. The main waste streams are : Gravity filter backwash water Wastewater generated from the DM plant Ash pond overflow water Boiler blow down and turbine drains. Recovery of water from treated sewage

3.6 Gravity filter backwash water

Gravity sand filters require to be backwashed once a day and in the process generate a large volume of wastewater during backwash. The entire quantity of backwash water can be collected in a sump and pumped back to the clarifier.

3.7 Waste water generated from the DM plant

Regeneration of DM plant produces two streams - a lean stream with low TDS and a concentrated stream with high TDS. The lean stream consists of water generated during backwash and fast rinse stages and can be recovered and recycled back to the clarifier. The strong stream consists of water generated during regenerate injection and slow rinse stages and can be routed to the solar pond.

3.8 Ash pond overflow water

A large quantity of water is required to pump ash slurry to the ash pond. It is not uncommon for power stations to deliberately operate the cooling tower at low cycles of concentration and pump water from the cooling tower sump to the ash handling system. Water from ash pond overflow can be recovered and reused after treatment through a solids recirculation type clarifier. This step will ensure that there is no discharge from the ash handling system.

3.9 Boiler blow down and turbine drains

These are fairly clearly streams and can be recovered and reused.

3.10 Recovery of water from treated sewage

Water can be recovered from treated sewage for reuse for low end uses. The tertiary treatment plant will generally consists of a chlorination step followed by filtration through a sand filter and carbon filter. The treated water may be used as CT make-up or for gardening.

CHAPTER 4 TURBINE SUPERVISORY INSTRUMENT

This lab takes of all the instruments, which are part of the turbo supervisory system to allow safe and proper operation of the turbine. Some of the turbine parameters that have to be monitored are as follows:-

4.1 Turbine Speed :The speed of the turbine is to be kept constant so that the frequency of the generated electricity is close to 50 Hz. The indicator of the speed gives us a remote indication of the speed when barring gear rotates the rotor. It gives a local and remote digital indication of the turbine speed, which in turn is given by the photoelectric pick up system. There is a white dot on the turbines, which reflect the light given by the photoelectric pick up device. The rate at which light is sensed is use to calculate the speed of turbine. There is indicator, which also set up alarm signal at 10% and 16% over speed.

4.2 Axial Shift Of Rotor: During the rotation of the turbine at high speeds where there is the wearing down of bearing, there is axial shift. Depending on the bearing which have become worn, thrust collar is given with respect to working pads, if this parameter is not monitored properly, then severe bubbling and mechanical interfaces can take place. The position of the thrust collar is taken by detector, which has two elements. There is variable type transducer and a bridge configuration.

4.3 Shaft Eccentricity:Eccentricity is the deviation of the mass centre from the geometrical centre of the bearing case. It usually occurs in the rotor when there is a shut down. If it becomes large, then there will be a variation, which can be dangerous. To measure the eccentricity a passive and active magnetic reluctance type transducer in combination with bridge circuit in balance condition is used. In this case tolerance is of the order of 10 to 500 microns.

4.4 BEARING VIBRATIONS:This vibration is to and fro motion of the machine under the influence of oscillatory force caused by unbalanced masses in the rotating system. This is one of the most vital parameter of the turbine and it has to be monitored continuously.

CHAPTER 5 MANOMETRY LAB

5.1 INSTRUMENTS
Various instruments used in this lab are:-

1 . MANOMETER:It is a tube, which is bent, in the U shape. It is filled with a liquid. This device corresponds to a difference in the pressure across the two limbs.

2. BOURDON PRESSURE GUAGE :It is an oval section of tube. Its one end is fixed. It is provided with a pointer to indicate the pressure on a calibrated scale. It is of two types.

a. Spiral type-: It is used for measuring low pressure. It is more sensitive and is used where
compactness is necessary.

b. Helical type-: It is used for measuring high pressure. It is most sensitive and compact. Pointer
may be mounted direct on end of helix which rotates, thus eliminating backlash error and lost motion.

5.2 Furnace Safety Supervisory System

This lab has the responsibility of starting the fire in the furnace to enable the burning of coal. For first stage coal burners are in the front and rear of the furnace and for the second and third stage corner firing is employed. Unburnt coal is removed using forced draft fan. The temperature inside the boiler is 1100 degree Celsius and its height is 18 to 40m. It is made up of mild steel. An ultra violet sensor is employed in the furnace to measure the intensity of the ultra violet rays inside the furnace and according to it, signal in the same order of same mV is generated, which directly indicates the temperature of the furnace.

For firing the furnace a 10 KV spark plug is operated for 10 seconds over a spray of diesel fuel and pre- heated air along each of the feeder mills. The furnace has six feeder mills each separated by warm air pipes fed from forced draft fans. In first stage indirect firing is employed that is feeder mills are not fed directly from coal but are fed from pulverized coal from bunkers. The furnace can operate on the minimum feed from three feeders but under no circumstances should any one of the intermediate mills be left out under operation, to prevent creation of pressure difference with in the furnace, which theaters to blast it.

CONCLUSION

The company has also set a serious goal of having 50000 MW of installed capacity by 2012 and 75000 MW by 2017. The company has taken many steps like step-up its recruitment, reviewing feasibilities of various sites for project implementations etc. and has been quite successful till date. NTPC will invest about Rs 20,000 crore to set up a 3,960-megawatt (Mw) coal-based power project in Madhya Pradesh. Company will also start coal production from its captive mine in Jharkhand in 201112, for which the company will be investing about Rs 1,800 crore. India, as a developing country is characterized by increase in demand for electricity and as of moment the power plants are able to meet only about 6075% of this demand on a yearly average. The only way to meet the requirement completely is to achieve a rate of power capacity addition (implementing power projects) higher than the rate of demand addition. NTPC strives to achieve this and undoubtedly leads in sharing this burden on the country.