Vapor cycle

A thermodynamic cycle, operating as a heat engine or a heat pump, during which the working substanc

e is in, or passesthrough, the vapor state. A vapor is a substance at or near its condensation point. It may be w

et, dry, or slightly superheated.One hundred percent dryness is an exactly definable condition which is only tra

nsiently encountered in practice.

A steam power plant operates on a vapor cycle where steam is generated by boiling water at high pres

sure, expanding it in aprime mover, exhausting it to a condenser, where it is reduced to the liquid state at low p

ressure, and then returning thewater by a pump to the boiler.

In the customary vaporcompression refrigeration plant, the process is essentially reversed with the refri

gerant evaporating atlow temperature and pressure, being compressed to high pressure, condensed at elevate

d temperature, and returned asliquid refrigerant through an expansion valve to the evaporating coil.

The Carnot cycle, between any two temperatures, gives the limit for the efficiency of the conversion of h

eat into work. Thisefficiency is independent of the properties of the working fluid. The Rankine cycle is more re

alistic in describing the idealperformance of steam power plants and vapor-compression refrigeration systems.

Vapor Power Cycles

Vapor power cycles, as the name suggests, use vapor in one phase of the cycle for power generation

or for moving the prime mover in steam power plants or in steam powered ships. Water is used as a working

fluid in steam power plants because of its abundant supply, very low cost, and suitability. In this article we

discuss the various types of cycles that have been used in steam power plants over the years and their

modifications.

In countries where there are vast reserves of coal and oil, steam power plants are very popular

because they can be set up and started in a very short time as compared with other alternatives, like nuclear

power plants and hydro-electric plants.

The various vapor power cycles are the Rankine Cycle, the Regenerative Cycle, the Reheat Cycle, and

the Carnot Cycle among others. The Carnot cycle is the most efficient cycle theoretically, but practically, the

Rankine Cycle is best suited and more popular.

Power plants work on a cycle that produces network from a fossil fuel (natural gas, oil, coal) nuclear, or

solar input.

For Vapor power plants the working fluid, typically water, is alternately vaporized and condensed.

Consider the following Simple Vapor Power Plant.

Steam Power Plants

Steam power plants are used worldwide for the generation of electricity and for propulsion. The heat

energy from an energy source like the combustion of coal, or from nuclear fission is utilized to heat the water

which changes phase and becomes steam. This steam is superheated to avoid any possibility of water

carriage and to increase the enthalpy. This steam is passed to a steam turbine where it does work and is

expanded. The steam is finally cooled in a steam condenser, a change of phase occurs, and it enters the hot

well as hot water.

This process is called as a cycle because the working fluid, i.e. water, starts from the hot well and then

enters the boiler. After doing its work, it comes back to the hot well.

Popular Cycles

There are different types of vapor power cycles, most of them adapted from the Rankine cycle, which is

the theoretical cycle for a steam power plant. The Carnot cycle, being the most efficient cycle and defining the

Carnot limit, is not the theoretical cycle for the steam power plant because of the following reasons:

1. Steam is not fully condensed to water in the condenser, but to a water and steam mixture.

2. It is very difficult to manufacture and maintain a pump that can handle both steam and water and to convert

it to water at the outlet.

3. Super heating is problematic in the Carnot cycle and in practical working, some degree of super heating is

required to protect the turbine.

 The Rankine Cycle and its adaptations is very popular and is the theoretical cycle for the steam power

plants as the condensation of steam is complete and to water, which can be handled by the pumping system

and is easier to maintain.

Rankine Cycle and Carnot Cycle

The regenerative cycles are those that use system steam to heat the feed water entering the boiler in

the steam power plant. The reheat cycle is one in which the steam is reheated between the stages to reduce

the moisture content and avoid mechanical damage in a steam power plant.

Regenerative Feed Heating Cycles

The efficiency of the Rankine cycle is less than that of the Carnot cycle because irreversible mixing of

cold condensate with hot water reduces thermal efficiency. To cater to this, regenerative heating is used in

which the expanding steam from the turbine is used to heat the feed water. In the regenerative feed heating

cycle, the objective is to heat the feed water with the steam expanding in the turbine so that the feed water is

supplied to the boiler at a higher temperature than that of the condenser.

This system is also advantageous as the cold water entry into the boiler caused thermal shocks and

damages. Thus regenerative feed heating cycle is a safer and more efficient cycle.

However the ideal regenerative feed heating cycle is not practically achievable because of the following

reasons:

1. Water cannot be passed through the turbine casing because of the risk of thermal shocks.

2. If feed water for heating is passed through the turbine casing then it would reduce the super heating

of the steam and may cause the steam to become unsaturated and carrying water drops which is mechanically

not safe for the turbine.

Thus, in the practical regenerative cycle, the steam is taken out from a few points and fed to the

heaters to heat the feed water.

Regenerative Cycle

Reheat Cycle

When the steam is expanded in the turbine, it becomes unsaturated and if the water content exceeds

above 10%, it can cause extreme damage to the turbines. This presence of water can cause corrosion and

erosion problems and lead to mechanical damages. Needless to say, the nozzle efficiency, blade efficiency,

and the thermal efficiency also suffer.

Thus, to resolve all these problems, the steam is reheated and the thermal efficiency of the plant is

increased. In the reheat cycle, a part or whole of the steam is reheated using superheated steam until it is near

its initial temperature and then the steam is re-entered into the turbine and then expanded to the condenser

pressure to do work. Generally this cycle is a combination of the reheating and the regeneration.

Reheat Cycle Diagram

The Carnot cycle is the most efficient cycle theoretically and has set the Carnot limit for a steam power

plant. Studying the cycle, we find the ways to increase the plant efficiency. The working fluid must have some

desirable properties which are described in detail.

How to Increase the Thermal Efficiency of Steam Power Plants

As we know, the Carnot cycle limits the efficiency of a steam power plant – this is called the Carnot

limit. By studying the Carnot cycle, we learn that the plant efficiency is increased by heat addition at elevated

temperatures and heat rejection at lowest temperatures. Thus by modifying a cycle in such a way that the heat

addition is done at the highest temperature that is possible and the working fluid is so utilized that the

temperature at which the heat is rejected to the cycle is the lowest, we can increase the efficiency of the cycle.

The various methods based on the above two principle to increase the efficiency of steam power plants are as

follows:

1. The super heating temperature of the steam should be increased to maximum.

2. By increasing the working steam pressure, because temperature of the steam is

dependent on the pressure of the steam.

3. Reduce the pressure at which the steam is exhausted from the system as again the

exhausting temperature is dependent on the pressure of the steam exhausted.

4. Using regenerative feed heating – as the feed is heated again, the super heat will

increase and mechanical damage will be avoided.

5. Reheating of steam and by extraction of water from the steam.

Qualities Required from an Efficient Working Fluid

There are several compounds that can be used as the working fluid in the vapor power cycles and they

are steam, Mercury vapor, sulfur dioxide, and some hydrocarbons. However they must have some essential

characteristic before they can be used as a working fluid in a power plant.

1. Low cost

2. Large quantity available

3. Freezing temperature lower the normal ambient temperature.

4. Non Toxic

5. Non Corrosive to the components

6. Should decrease in volume upon condensation so that the handling pump can be small.

7. Chemically stable at maximum temperature

From all the above mentioned working fluids, water is widely used because it satisfies the maximum

requirements and, more importantly, it is available in abundance and is very cheap.

Gas Power Cycles

A thermodynamic cycle is a sequence or series of processes performed on a system that eventually

returns the system to its original state. Gas power cycles are thermodynamic cycles, which use air, as the

working fluid. A gas power cycle may consist of heat transfer, work transfer, pressure variations, temperature

variations, volume variations and entropy variations. In a gas power cycle, the source of heat supply and the

sink for heat rejection are considered to be external to the working fluid.

Gas Turbine Power Plants

Gas turbine power plants are lighter and compact when compared to power plants running on vapor

cycles. The power to weight ratios are generally high for high throughout Gas turbine power plants and hence

are favored for the aviation and also for power generation. A simple GT power plant is shown in the image

below. Air is first compressed.

The compressed air enters the combustion chamber where fuel is injected and burned, essentially at constant

pressure. The combustion products expand in turbine to the ambient pressure and thrown out to the

surroundings.

The combustion (gas) turbines being installed in many of today's natural-gas-fueled power plants are

complex machines, but they basically involve three main sections:

1. The compressor, which draws air into the engine, pressurizes it, and feeds it to the combustion

chamber at speeds of hundreds of miles per hour.

2. The combustion system, typically made up of a ring of fuel injectors that inject a steady stream of fuel

into combustion chambers where it mixes with the air. The mixture is burned at temperatures of more than

2000 degrees F. The combustion produces a high temperature, high pressure gas stream that enters and

expands through the turbine section.

 3. The turbine is an intricate array of alternate stationary and rotating aero foil-section

blades. As hot combustion gas expands through the turbine, it spins the rotating blades. The rotating blades

perform a dual function: they drive the compressor to draw more pressurized air into the combustion section,

and they spin a generator to produce electricity.

Land based gas turbines are of two types: (1) heavy frame engines and (2) aero derivative engines.

Heavy frame engines are characterized by lower pressure ratios (typically below 20) and tend to be physically

large. Pressure ratio is the ratio of the compressor discharge pressure and the inlet air pressure. Aero

derivative engines are derived from jet engines, as the name implies, and operate at very high compression

ratios (typically in excess of 30). Aero derivative engines tend to be very compact and are useful where smaller

power outputs are needed. As large frame turbines have higher power outputs, they can produce larger

amounts of emissions, and must be designed to achieve low emissions of pollutants, such as NOx.

One key to a turbine's fuel-to-power efficiency is the temperature at which it operates. Higher

temperatures generally mean higher efficiencies, which in turn, can lead to more economical operation. Gas

flowing through a typical power plant turbine can be as hot as 2300 degrees F, but some of the critical metals

in the turbine can withstand temperatures only as hot as 1500 to 1700 degrees F. Therefore, air from the

compressor might be used for cooling key turbine components, reducing ultimate thermal efficiency.

One of the major achievements of the Department of Energy's advanced turbine program was to break

through previous limitations on turbine temperatures, using a combination of innovative cooling technologies

and advanced materials. The advanced turbines that emerged from the Department's research program were

able to boost turbine inlet temperatures to as high as 2600 degrees F - nearly 300 degrees hotter than in

previous turbines, and achieve efficiencies as high as 60 percent.

Another way to boost efficiency is to install a recuperator or heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) to

recover energy from the turbine's exhaust. A recuperator captures waste heat in the turbine exhaust system to

preheat the compressor discharge air before it enters the combustion chamber. A HRSG generates steam by

capturing heat from the turbine exhaust. These boilers are also known as heat recovery steam generators.

High-pressure steam from these boilers can be used to generate additional electric power with steam turbines,

a configuration called a combined cycle.

A simple cycle gas turbine can achieve energy conversion efficiencies ranging between 20 and 35

percent. With the higher temperatures achieved in the Department of Energy's turbine program, future

hydrogen and syngas fired gas turbine combined cycle plants are likely to achieve efficiencies of 60 percent or
more. When waste heat is captured from these systems for heating or industrial purposes, the overall energy

cycle efficiency could approach 80 percent.

Air Standard Brayton Cycle

Brayton cycle is the air standard for GT power plant. Air is first compressed reversibly and adiabatically.

Heat is added to it reversibly at constant pressure. Air expands reversibly, adiabatically in the turbine. The heat

is removed from the system reversibly at constant pressure to bring it to original state.

P-V, T-S diagram of ideal Brayton Cycle

1-2 Isentropic compression

2-3 Constant pressure heat addition

3-4 Isentropic expansion

4-1 Constant pressure heat removal

Thermal efficiency:

The thermal efficiency of the ideal Brayton cycle is

Since processes 1-2 & 3-4 are isentropic between the same pressures:

Where rv is the pressure ratio

Hence, substituting in the efficiency expression

This is the efficiency for ideal Joule/Brayton Cycle.

Work Ratio

It may easily be shown from the expression,

Work ratio =

And a similar approach to that above, that work ratio =

What we deduce from the above equations above improvements that we might make?

h is increased by :

increasing T3

decreasing T4 or

increasing the pressure ratio

We also know that a high work ratio is desirable in order to minimize the effect of irreversibility’s in real

gas turbines. This depends on the temperature limits and the pressure ratio for constant gamma.

Consider the T-S diagram below for the ideal cycle & the dotted cycles.

T3 is usually fixed by metallurgical limits on turbine blading & T1 is the natural sink temperature for an

ideal cooler. The two dotted cycles show the limits of operation. Consider left hand dotted cycle. Here the

pressure ratio is large & the cycle efficiency approaches the Carnot Efficiency ie T2 has been raised.

Unfortunately the network output is approaching zero. The other dotted cycle has a reduced T2 & again

network output is approaching zero. It can be shown that for an ideal cycle with fixed T1 and T3, the value of

T2 for maximum work output is:

Irreversibility’s and isentropic efficiencies

We shall only consider the effect of irreversibility’s upon compression and expansion processes.

Irreversibility’s in heaters and coolers who up as pressure drops and are not considered here.

The two T-S diagrams, show the effect on compression and expansion processes in general from state 1 to

state 2. These are analogous to the similar diagrams for the Rankine cycle except that they are processes of a

perfect gas. Then for the steady flow compression process:

 For the steady flow compression process:

For the steady flow expansion process:

Note that Celsius temperatures may also be used in these expressions.

Inner workings of a combined-cycle power plant

A combined-cycle power plant uses both a gas and a steam turbine together to produce up to 50

percent more electricity from the same fuel than a traditional simple-cycle plant. The waste heat from the gas

turbine is routed to the nearby steam turbine, which generates extra power.

How a combined-cycle power plant produces electricity

This is how a combined-cycle plant works to produce electricity and captures waste heat from the gas

turbine to increase efficiency and electrical output.

1. Gas turbine burns fuel.

The gas turbine compresses air and mixes it with fuel that is heated to a very high temperature. The hot

air-fuel mixture moves through the gas turbine blades, making them spin.

The fast-spinning turbine drives a generator that converts a portion of the spinning energy into electricity.

2. Heat recovery system captures exhaust.

A Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) captures exhaust heat from the gas turbine that would

otherwise escape through the exhaust stack.

The HRSG creates steam from the gas turbine exhaust heat and delivers it to the steam turbine.

3. Steam turbine delivers additional electricity.

The steam turbine sends its energy to the generator drive shaft, where it is converted into additional

electricity.

References:

“Combined cycle power plant: how it works”. Retrieved from on December 6, 2017 from the website

https://www.gepower.com/resources/knowledge-base/combined-cycle-power- plant-how-it-works

“How Gas Turbine Power Plants Work”. Office of Fossil Energy. Retrieved from on December 6, 2017 from the

website https://energy.gov/fe/how-gas-turbine-power-plants-work

Sanguri, M & McDonough, M. (2010). Vapor Power Cycles Used in Steam Power Plants. Bright Hub

Engineering. Retrieved from on December 6, 2017 from the website

http://www.brighthubengineering.com/hvac/68322-vapor-power-cycles-used-in-steam-

power-plants/#imgn_1

Sankararaj, S. (n.d.). Introduction to Gas Power Cycles. The Mechanical Engineering Guide. Retrieved

from on December 6, 2017 from the website http://mechteacher.com/introduction-to-gas-power-

cycles/#ixzz50OahcCGo

“Vapor Cycle”. The Free Encyclopedia. The Mechanical Engineering Guide. Retrieved from on December 6,

2017 from the website https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/vapor+cycle