Thermal power plant

Thermal power plant components operated at high temperatures (>500°C) and pressures, such as superheater headers, steamline sections and Y-junctions, deserve great attention for both operation safety and plant availability concerns. In particular, during plant operation transients -startups, shutdowns or load transients - the above components may undergo high rates of temperature / pressure variations and, consequently, non-negligible time-dependent stresses which, in turn, may locally destabilize existing cracks and cause the release of acoustic emission. 

Assessing the effectiveness and reliability of Acoustic Emission (AE) in continuous, on-line monitoring of the structural integrity of critical thermal power plant components, such as steam headers and steamline sections, is the main objective of the work reported in this paper. This is part of the work carried within the BRITE - EURAM 6056 "SIMON" Project from 10.1993 to 9.1997 with the support of the EU Commission. The "SIMON" Project Consortium included CISE [I, coordinator], MITSUI BABCOCK ENERGY [UK] HERIOT WATT University [UK], PROET / EDP[P]andENEL[I],... 

For the secondary side of nuclear and thermal power plants, we provide inspections on turbines, alternators, heat exchangers and piping. 

The largest consumers of water in the United States are thermal power plants (eg, steam and nuclear power plants) and the iron and steel, pulp and paper, petroleum refining, and food-processing industries. They consume >60% of the total industrial water requirements (see also Power generation Wastes, industrial). 

Data for determining the size of natural-draft towers have been presented by Chilton [Proc. Inst. Elec. Eng., 99,440 (1952)] and Rish and Steel (ASCE Swuposium on Thermal Power Plants, October 19.58). Chilton showed that the duty coefficient Df of a tower is approximately constant over its normal range of operation and is related to tower size by an efficiency factor or performance coefficient as follows ... 

FIG. 12-22 Universal performance chart for natural-draft cooling towers. (Risk and Steel, ASCE Symposium on Thermal Power Plants, October 1958. )... 

ENERGY IN HARMONY WITH ENVIRONMENT INITORING AND REDUCTION OF NO, SO, AND CO IN THERMAL POWER PLANTS... 

A. Chambeiiand, S. Levesque Hydroeleetrieity, an option to reduee greenhouse gas emissions from thermal power plants . Energy Conversion and Management 37(6-8) 885-890 1996. 

Thermal power plant auxiliaries such as flow control of primary air fan, ID fan and forced-draught fans, boiler feed pumps circulating water pumps and condensate pumps, coal handling plant (e.g. ball mill, wagon tippler, and stacker reclaimer)... 

Most ships are powered by thermal power plants, including diesel engines, gas turbines, and nuclear systems. Merchant ships usually have diesel engines, while gas turbines or a combination of diesel engines and gas turbines often power naval vessels. Some of the larger ships in the U.S. Navy have nuclear power plants. 

Thermal power plant is more commonly associated with very large central power stations. The capital cost for thermal power plant, in terms of cost per installed kilowatt of electrical generating capacity, rises sharply for outputs of less than some 15 MW. It is for this reason that thermal power plant is not usually considered for industrial applications unless it is the combined cycle or combined heat and power modes. However, for cases where the fuel is of very low cost (for example, a waste product from a process such as wood waste), then the thermal power plant, depending on output, can offer an excellent choice, as its higher initial capital cost can be offset against lower running costs. This section introduces the thermal power cycle for electrical generation only. 

Table 15.2 gives performance data for typical industrial type schemes using thermal power plant in a condensing steam cycle. These do not operate strictly in the simple cycle mode as varying degrees of feed heating are employed. However, overall they convey the basic cycle conditions that the industrial user would encounter and give efficiencies that can be expected. 

The thermal power plant uses a fired boiler for conversion of fuel to heat. It can be said that there is a design of fired boiler to suit almost all types of fuels, including wastes and vegetable and industrial byproducts. Generally, for oils and gases these can be more readily converted to power in diesels or gas turbines and would not be considered for thermal power plant, unless the station was of significant size. 

The preceding section reviewed the application of popular prime movers for the generation of electrical power only. In the conversion of fuel energy to electricity it is shown that heat is rejected, either in the exhaust of a diesel or gas turbine or, alternatively, in the condenser of a thermal power plant. It can be seen that by applying these machines to provide both heat and electricity the total energy recovery can be much greater and efficiency thereby improved. Combined heat and power (CHP) schemes of this nature are well-established methods of producing both heat and power efficiently and economically. 

Gas turbine and combined cycle (gas and light fuel oils) Thermal power plant (coal, lignite, wood and biomass)... 

For industrial or commercial applications the straightforward condensing thermal power plant cannot compete... 

Chemical consumption Chemical consumption will be associated with boiler feed make-up water-treatment plant, dosing systems for feedwater and boiler system, treatment of cooling water circuits and effluent treatment. Typical chemical requirements for a thermal power plant are given in Table 15.9. 

Electrochemical power sources differ from others, such as thermal power plants, by the fact that the energy conversion occurs without any intermediate steps for example, in the case of thermal power plants fuel is first converted in thermal energy, and finally electric power is produced using generators. In the case of electrochemical power sources this otherwise multistep process is achieved directly in only one step. As a consequence, electrochemical systems show some advantages, such as energy efficiency. 

Casas M, Garcias F, Serra L, et al. 1992. Analysis for metal elements and radioactive isotopes in fly ash produced in lignite combustion at a thermal power plant. J Environ Sci Health Part A 27(2) 419-432. 

Siddhartha M and Rajkumar N (1999) Performance Enhancement in Coal Fired Thermal Power Plants Part II Steam Turbines, Int J Energy Res, 23 489. 

Alberto and Arrue [22] also used data from the COCA (years 1972-1982) and data provided by private companies to study the thermal regime of streams in the Ebro River basin. Using data from the thermal power plant at Escatron from years... 

Conversion efficiencies in primary energy conversion are somewhat better in countries with high shares of hydropower (like Norway or Switzerland), but the extensive losses of thermal power plants generally determine the high energy losses in the conversion sector. The efficiency of the conversion from final to useful energy is determined, to a large extent, by the enormous conversion losses in road vehicles... 

The organisational structure of the energy efficiency community and the related research and innovation system obviously have to be much improved when compared to energy supply communities - whether thermal power plants, renewables,... 

Fig. 1.7 Plot for electricity costs from solar thermal power plants...

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