Thermal ( Steam ) Power plants

mainly consists of 4 circuits

Coal and ash Circuit
Coal produced in the mining site is
transported to power plant site
Coal handling equipment for generation of
steam
The combustion of coal produces ash which
is collected and removed to ash storage
yard through ash handling equipments

Air and gas circuit

FD or ID fans are used for supply the air to

combustion chamber of the boiler through airpreheater
The air preheater is placed in the path of flue gases
to preheat the air
The flue gases produced by combustion of fuels in
the boiler furnaces after passing around boiler tubes
and super heater tubes
Pass through a dust collector or precipitator where
most of dust is removed before venting it of to
atmosphere through chimney

Feed water and steam circuit:

Prime mover develops power by utilizing steam

generated in the boiler
Then condenser is used to condense the steam
coming out of prime mover
A pump is used to feed the condensate to the boiler
The condensate leaving the condenser is heated in
feed heaters through extracted steam from lowest
pressure extraction point of the turbine
The feed water may also be supplied from external
source to compensate any loss of steam and water.
In the boiler shell and tubes water circulation is
setup due to density difference of water between
low and high temperature sections
A super heater is used to super heat the wet steam
from boiler drum and is then supplied to prime
movers

Cooling water circuit

In the condenser, quantity of cooling water
required to condense the steam is large and
is taken either from lake, river or sea
The cooling water is taken from upper side
of the river and then passed through the
condenser
The hot water is then discharged to lower
side of the river
The system is known as open system
Where water is not available in abundant
water from condenser is cooled either in
cooling pond or in cooling tower the system
is known as closed system

Main Components of Thermal

Power Plants
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Boiler
Super heater
Economizer
Air preheater
Reheater
Steam turbine
Generator
Condensers
Cooling towers
Pumps

11. Coal mills

12. FD and ID Fans
13. ASH Precipitators
14. Water treatment plant

Fuels used in thermal power plant

Combustion of fuel is accomplished by mixing
with air at elevated temperatures
Oxygen in the air chemically unites with Carbon,
Hydrogen of fuels and produce heat
In thermal power plants normally steam is
produced from water by using combustion heat of
fuels (Except in Gas turbines)
Various fuels were used in thermal power plants
Fossil fuels ( Coal, Oil & Gas)
Industrial waste gases
Synthetic fuels or SYNFUELS

Coal

Coal is the principal energy source for India because of its

large deposits and availability
Coal originated from vegetable matter, which grew millions
of years ago
Trees and plants falling into water decayed and later
produced peat bogs
Huge geological upheavals buried these bogs under layers
of silt
Subterranean heat, soil pressure and movement of earth's
crust distilled off some of the bog's moisture and hardened
it to form coal
Basically classification of coal is based on Physical and
chemical composition
Peat
Lignite and brown coal
Bituminous coal
Anthracite

Coal analysis

Two types of coal analysis

Proximate Analysis

Gives: Behavior of coal when heated

FC + VM + M + A = 100% by mass
Ultimate Analysis
Gives: chemical elements along with ash and
moisture
C + H + 0 + N + S + M + A = 100% by mass
based on
(a) as-received basis (useful for combustion calcu)
(b) dry or moisture free basis
(c) dry mineral-matter-free or combustible basis

Coal properties
There are certain properties of coal, which
are important in power plant applications
They are
sulphur content,
heating value
ash softening temperature
swelling index
grind ability,
weather ability,

Desirable properties of coal

High calorific value
Small sulphur content ( les than 1%)
Good burning characteristics for complete
combustion
High grind-ability index
High weather-ability

Grading of coal done on the basis

Heating value
Size
Ash content
Sulphur content
Ash softening temperature

Peat

Low grade coal

First stage coal formation
Contains 90% moisture
Small amount of volatile matter
Not suitable for power plants
Used in domestic purposes
Requires 1-2 months for drying in sunlight

Peat (20% water, Dried) has CV of 16 MJ / kg

Lignite (Brown coal)

Intermediate stage of coal development

High amount of moisture 30-40%
Brown in color
High heating value and carbon compared to
peat
Should be stored to avoid spontaneous
combustion
Used in pulverized form
Can be air dried easily
Suitable for local use instead of transporting

Bituminous coal

Containing 46-86% of fixed carbon and 20-40% of VM

Ash content may vary 6-12 %
High percentage of volatile matter CV of 32 MJ / Kg
Available in two forms CAKING and NON Caking
Sub-Bituminous is having less moisture, ash than
lignite and no CAKING power, used in briquette or
pulverized form
Semi-Bituminous coal high carbon and heating value,
contain less moisture, ash, sulphur, &VM, Has
tendency to break into pieces

Anthracite Coals
Contains more than 86% fixed carbon &VM
around 8%
Ignites slowly has high CV of 36 MJ / Kg
Low ash, zero CAKING power
Difficult to pulverize Anthracite coal

Liquid fuels

They are easy to handle, store and to burn

They have nearly constant heating values
They are primarily a mixture of hydrocarbon compounds, which
may also contain nitrogen, oxygen and sulphur
The bulk of the hydrocarbons belong to the paraffin series, like
methane (CH4), ethane (C2H6) propane (C3H8) and butane
(C4H10) which are gaseous, and pentane (C5H12) hexane
(C6H14) and octane (C8H18) which are liquid at STP
In addition, there can be isoparaffins, cycloparaffins and
aromatic compounds

Carbon: 83-87%, Hydrogen: 11-16%,

Oxygen + Nitrogen 0-7%, Sulphur 0-4%
There can also be some moisture and sediment
Crude oil distilled into a number of fractions
gasoline, aviation fuel, kerosene, light diesel oil,
heavy diesel oil, lubrication oil
The heavier fractions are used for boiler fuels
and chemical production
The required physical properties of fuel oil are
specific gravity,
viscosity, pour point,
flash point and heating value

Gaseous fuels
Transportation of natural gas is made through
pipelines
Natural gas is the cleanest of all fossil fuels
It is free from ash and mixes well with air to undergo
complete combustion producing very little smoke
It consists of a mixture of the most volatile paraffinsmethane to pentane
It has high hydrogen content and produces a
considerable amount of water vapour when burned
The heat of combustion varies from 33.5 to 40 MJ/m3
Since the major constituent of all natural gases is
methane
Liquid natural gas (LNG) is transported by special
tankers and stored in spherical pressure vessels to be
used when needed, particularly during peak load.

Other fuels
Industrial Wastes & Byproducts
blast furnace gas, coke oven gas, and refinery
gas sugar factory refuse (bagasse); saw mill
wood dust, rice husk
Synthetic fuels
Gaseous and liquid fuels from coal
economically and environment friendly manner
Liquid fuels using mixtures of fine coal in oil
have been known as colloidal fuel, coal-inoil and more recently, coal-oil mixtures
(COM)

Coal handling

Coal Crushers
1.Ring Type Coal Crusher
2.Hammer Mill Coal Crusher
3.Brad Ford Breaker

Ring Type Coal Crusher

Hammer Mill Coal Crusher

OPERATION
The coal is fed at the top
Is crushed by the action of rings that pivot
off centre on a rotor or by swinging
hammers attached to it
Adjustable screen bars determine the
maximum size of the discharged coal

Brad Ford Breaker

Brad Ford Breaker

Bradford breaker which is used for large
capacity work
It consists of a large cylinder made up of
perforated steel plates to which lifting
shelves are attached on the inside
The cylinder rotating slowly at about 20
rpm receives coal at one end
The shelves lift the coal up and then the
coal drops down by gravity

Combustion Equipments
for Lumped coal burning
1. Grate-fired furnaces
2. Chamber-type or flame
furnaces

Grate

Chamber type

Combustion Equipment For

Burning Coal

Fuel bed furnaces (coarse particles)

Pulverized coal furnaces (fine particles)
Cyclone furnaces (crushed particles)
Fluidized bed furnaces (crushed small
particles)

Fuel bed furnaces (coarse particles)

There are two ways of feeding coal on to the
grate
1. Overfeeding
2. Underfeeding

Overfeeding

Overfeeding
Receives fresh coal from top surface has
following distinct zones
Fresh or green coal
Coal losing moisture (Drying zone)
Coking layer (loosing of VM) Distillation zone
Incandescent coke ( Fixed carbon is
consumed) Combustion zone
Ash layer progressively cooled

Operations
Primary air gets warmed up as it flows through the ash
layer
As it passes through the incandescent coke
layer(1200 C) Carbon converted to Carbon dioxide
releasing heat continues till oxygen is consumed, if
layer is thick CO2 is converted to CO reducing layer
temperature water gas reaction also takes
The stream while passing through distillation zone VM
is added
In distillation zone moisture is added
Know stream contains N,CO2,CO,H2,VM&moisture

For combustion of this stream

A hot ignition point ( In the range of 1000-1300 oC
Done by providing a fire brick lined arch which stores
up the heat and remains at high temperature

Sufficient fresh air

Secondary air or over-fire air

Turbulence
Providing secondary air at right angles to up-flowing
gas stream emerging out of fuel bed

Results
Carbon is in CO, CO2 both are color less
Carbon with hydrogen in VM which will be
cracked to form free carbon at high
temperature suspended in gas stream
If Burner is not designed properly or
operated properly leads to unburnt carbon
particles this appears as black smoke on
chimney top

Underfeeding

Underfeeding
In underfeeding coal is fed from below
Primary air passing through holes in tuyeres
diffuses through spaces in the raw green coal
picking up moisture
In distillation zone to stream VM is added
In incandescent zone VM breaks readily burns
with secondary air present above it where it is
fed from top
VM burning is somewhat cooler need longer
time to ignite and burn

Mechanical Stokers
Overfeeding
1. Traveling grate stoker
2. Chain grate stoker
3. Spreader stoker
4. Vibrating grate stoker
Underfeed stoker
1. Single retort
2. Multiretort

Traveling grate stoker

Traveling grate stoker

Grate surface is made up of Cast Iron bars
joined together by links to form endless
belt
Belt wound around two sprockets
A coal gate regulates the depth of fuel bed
Simultaneous adjustment of Fuel bed
thickness, primary air flow controls the
burning rate so that at the end of its rear
ash only remains

Advantages & Disadvantages

Simple and Initial cost is low
Reliable in service and maintenance is low
Gives high rate of heat release per volume of the
furnace
Limited coal can be carried on grate
Clinker problems are common
Ignition arches are required
There is always some loss in the form of
particles

Spreader stoker

Spreader stoker
Coal from hopper is fed by rotating feeder
Feeder normally will have Blades fitted on the
drum
Fine particles burn in suspension
Speed of the feeder varies with the steam output
of boiler
Grate is made up of CI bars, Links underneath
the grate are connected to a lever
Fuels used may be Bituminous, lignite, wood
waste, baggase
Coal size used in 6-36 cm

Advantages and Disadvantages

A wide variety of fuels can be used

Clinker formation is reduced
High temperature preheated air can be used
Quick response to load variation
Gives equal pressure drop and proper air
distribution
Operation cost is low
Difficult to operate variable sized coal particles
Fly ash and entrapped carbon particles

Underfeed stokers

Multiple retort

Pulverized coal handling system

Bowl Mill

Bowl Mill

Ball and Race mill

Pulverization
Advantages

Low excess air requirement

Less fan power
Ability to use highly preheated air reducing exhaust losses
Higher boiler efficiency
Ability to bum a wide variety of coals
Fast response to load changes
Ease of burning alternately with, or in combination with gas and
oil
Ability to release large amounts of heat enabling it to generate
about 2000 t/h of steam or more in one boiler
Ability to use fly ash for making bricks etc.
Less pressure losses and draught need.

Disadvantages

1.
2.
3.
4.

Added investment in coal preparation unit

Added power needed for pulverizing coal
Investment needed to remove fly ash before ill fan
Large volume of furnaces needed to permit desired heat
release and to withstand high gas temperature

ASH HANDLING SYSTEM

Mechanical Handling System
Hydraulic Ash Handling System
Low Velocity System
High Velocity System
Pneumatic Ash Handling System
Steam Jet System

ASH HANDLING FLOW DIAGRAM

Mechanical Handling System

Hydraulic Ash Handling System

Low Velocity System

Hydraulic Ash Handling System

Low Velocity System

Hydraulic Ash Handling System

High Velocity
System

Pneumatic Ash Handling System