Elements of steam/Thermal power plant

ELEMENTS OF STEAM OR THERMAL POWER PLANT

What is a Steam or thermal power plant? 

          High pressure steam leaves the boiler and enters the turbine. The steam expands in the turbine producing the work which drives  the electrical generator. Exhaust steam from turbine enters the condenser where heat is transferred from steam to the cooling water and stem is condensed. Since large quantity of cooling water is required, power plant are generally located near rivers and lakes. when  the supply of cooling water is limited, a cooling tower ma be used. The pressure of the condensate leaving the condenser is increased in the pump and used as feed water to boiler.

           The auxiliary equipment such as economiser ,air pre-heater and super heater are used to improve the efficiency of the plant.

BOILER:

                  Boiler is an important element of a power plant. Its function is to convert water into steam at required pressure and temperature. This is accomplished by transferring heat, produced by combustion of fuel to water.

                   A boiler unit consists of a auxiliary equipment such as economiser, air pre-heater and super-heater. A boiler unit with these equipment's is generally referred as a steam generator.

ECONOMISER: 

                    Economiser is a device to receive waste heat from the flue gases and  utilising heat to raise the temperature of feed water . Therefore it is also known as feed water heater. It is located in the path of flue gas just below the boiler.

TURBINE:

                    TURBINE is a mechanical device which is used to convert fluid kinematic energy into rotational energy, which is used to run the electric Dynamo or generator to produce electrical power.