NPTEL – Chemical Engineering – Nuclear Reactor Technology

Secondary Systems:
Condensate/Feedwater Cycle
K.S. Rajan

Professor, School of Chemical & Biotechnology

SASTRA University

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Table  of  Contents  

1  CONDENSATE/FEED  WATER  SYSTEM  ...................................................................................  3  
2  CONDENSER  ...................................................................................................................................  3  
3  COOLING  TOWER  ..........................................................................................................................  6  
4  OTHER  COMPONENTS  .................................................................................................................  7  
5  COMPARISON  OF  OPERATING  CONDITIONS  OF  THERMAL  AND  NUCLEAR  POWER  
PLANTS  ................................................................................................................................................  8  
6  REFERENCES/ADDITIONAL  READING  ...................................................................................  9  
 

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In this lecture we shall discuss components of condensate/feedwater cycle of

secondary system in a power plant utilizing steam from a typical water-cooled nuclear
reactor.

At the end of this session, learners will be able to

(i) understand the role of condenser in secondary system
(ii) appreciate the necessity of clean up system
(iii) understand the role of low-pressure and high-pressure heaters
(iv) differentiate the operating conditions of steam cycle of nuclear power plant
from that of a thermal power plant

In the previous lecture, the layout of secondary system of a typical nuclear power
plant was presented. During the course of previous lecture, two sub-systems viz. (i)
steam system and (ii) condensate/feedwater system in the secondary system were
identified. The discussion on steam system was completed in the previous lecture.
This lecture shall focus on the condensate/feed water system.

1 Condensate/feed water system

Let us recall the components of ‘condensate/feedwater system’ from the layout of
secondary system discussed in the previous lecture. The important components are (i)
condenser; (ii) cooling tower; (iii) condensate pump; (iv) cleanup system; (v) low
pressure heaters; (vi) main feedwater pump and (vii) high pressure heater.

2 Condenser
The condensate/feedwater system begins with the condensation of exhaust steam from
low-pressure turbines in a condenser operating under vacuum. Condenser is a shell
and tube heat exchanger with steam condensing on the outer surface of tubes, with
coolant supplied through the tubes. The schematic diagram of a typical condenser is
shown in Fig. 1.

The important components of the condenser are

(i) tube bundle

(ii) tube sheet
(iii) inlet nozzle for steam
(iv) hot well
(v) nozzle for condensate outlet
(vi) nozzle for coolant inlet
(vii) nozzle for coolant outlet

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(viii) pass partition

(ix) nozzle for ejector

Fig 1. Schematic diagram of shell & tube condenser

The condenser shown in Fig. 1 is a shell and tube heat exchanger, with two passes on
the tube side and one pass on the shell side. Cooling water enters the condenser
through inlet nozzle located near the bottom. The pass partition confines the cross
sectional area available for coolant flow to 50 % of total cross sectional area of all the
tubes. This arrangement ensures that the velocity of coolant flow inside the tubes is
high enough to promote turbulence and enhance the rate of heat transfer. The tubes
are arranged in a triangular pitch as shown in Fig. 2 and are held together at both ends
using tube sheets as shown in Fig.3. The centre-to-centre distance between two tubes
is called pitch, which is maintained between 1.25-1.5 times the outer diameter of the
tube. With the triangular pitch, more tubes can be accommodated per unit heat
exchanger volume. In other words, higher heat transfer area per unit heat exchanger
volume can be obtained with triangular pitch than that obtainable from a square pitch.
However, the accessibility of outer surface of the tubes for cleaning becomes difficult.
Tube sheets also provide physical barrier to prevent mixing of shell-side and tube-side
fluids. Steam enters the condenser through a nozzle located at the top. The nozzle for
steam inlet is larger in diameter compared to the nozzles for coolant inlet and outlet.
The density of steam is lower than that of water. Hence larger diameter nozzle is
required for steam inlet.

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Fig 2. Arrangement of tubes in triangular pitch

Fig 3. Tube sheets holding the tubes together at both ends

Steam is condensed on outer side of the tubes by thermal contact with cooling water
flowing inside the tubes. The tubes are generally made of stainless steel to overcome
corrosion. The condensate water is collected in the hot well from which the same is
pumped using a condensate pump for further chemical treatment and heating. The
pressure inside the condenser is maintained below atmospheric by steam ejectors that
remove non-condensibles. When steam condenses, its specific volume is reduced.
This creates vacuum that draws the exhaust steam from the low-pressure turbines.

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Lower temperature of cooling water is advantageous to achieve higher efficiency of

power plant.

The temperature of cooling water after passing through the condenser is increased by
around 10-15°C. When the cooling water for condenser is taken from a perennial
water source like sea or river, the same can be dumped in to the source. The large
volume of water in the source ensures rapid equilibration of temperature to ambient
level. In case of power plants that are located away from such perennial water
sources, cooling towers are employed to bring down the coolant temperature by
evaporative cooling.

3 Cooling tower
Cooling towers are available in several designs, configurations and sizes depending
on the cooling requirements. Among different types of cooling towers, natural draft
and induced draft cooling towers are widely used in industries.

Natural draft cooling towers rely on the difference in densities of hot and cold air for
flow of air through the tower. Cold air enters the tower at the bottom and is heated
due to direct contact with water to be cooled, which is supplied in the form of fine
sprays. The hot air, being denser rises upwards. This creates vacuum inside the tower.
The relatively cool, ambient air at atmospheric pressure enters the tower due to this
vaccum; gets heated upon direct contact with sprayed water and leaves at the top. The
major advantage of natural draft cooling towers are the reduction in operating cost
due to absence of mechanical equipment to induce the movement of air.

Hyperbolic natural draft towers shown in Fig. 4 are commonly used in power plants.
The shell of these cooling towers is hyperbolic in shape and hence called hyperbolic
natural draft towers. This geometry facilitates the rapid movement of hot air towards
the upper portions of the tower. These towers are fairly large in diameter as well as in
height. The cooling water from the condenser is sprayed across the cross section of
the tower at the bottom. The air entering the tower is unsaturated. In simple language,
the water vapor content of unsaturated air is lower than the maximum water vapor
carrying capacity of air at a given temperature. For instance, we often come across
weather reports where temperature and relative humidity are mentioned. Air with
relative humidity less than 100 % is unsaturated. When such unsaturated air comes
into contact with water, the difference between partial pressure of water vapor in air
and the vapor pressure of water at its temperature acts as the driving force for
evaporation of water. Since the temperature of air is lower than that of water, the heat
required for evaporation of water must be utilized from water itself. This causes
cooling of water and hence the term ‘evaporative cooling’ is used. The cooled water is

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collected at the bottom of tower in a tank and is pumped back to the condenser as
cooling water.

Fig 4. Hyperbolic natural draft towers used in power plants

Induced draft cooling towers use fan located at top of the cooling tower, to force the
flow of air across the cooling tower coming into direct contact with water sprayed as
droplets. The velocity of air at discharge is 3-4 times greater than air velocity at the
tower inlet. This ensures that recirculation of exhaust air towards the inlet is not
seriously high. These towers can be built with a wide range of sizes and are not as tall
as the hyperbolic natural draft towers. The major disadvantage of induced draft
cooling towers over the hyperbolic natural draft towers is the energy required for
operating the fans.

4 Other components
Having seen the major components of condensate/feedwater system, let us discuss the
role of other components.

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The condensate pump takes inlet from the hot well of condenser and increases its
pressure and pumps the condensate through clean up system and low-pressure heaters.
Clean up system essentially removes the impurities that can form hard scales inside
the tubes of steam generators. Such scales provide additional resistance to heat
transfer, causing reduction in rate of heat transfer between primary and secondary
coolants leading to reduction in steam generation. The condensate then passes through
low-pressure heaters where the condensate is heated using the ‘extraction steam’
obtained from low-pressure turbines. The condensate is then supplied to the suction
side of main feedwater pump, which increases the pressure high enough to permit
entry into the steam generator. Before water enters the steam generators, it is heated
in high-pressure heater using the ‘extraction steam’ obtained from high-pressure
turbines. The heating of feedwater supplied to steam generator using the extraction
steam increases the overall plant efficiency.

5 Comparison of operating conditions of thermal and

nuclear power plants
We shall compare some of the operation conditions of thermal and nuclear power
plants. The focus here is on the generation of electricity from steam or the
thermodynamic cycles, rather than the comparison of modes of steam generation and
the thermal hydraulic characteristics. Table 1 is a compilation of characteristics of
steam cycles of some water/heavy water colled nuclear power plants and thermal
power plants.

Table 1. Characteristics of steam cycles of some water/heavy water colled nuclear power plants and thermal
power plants

Characteristics Pressurized Boiling water Pressurized Thermal

water reactor reactor heavy water power plant
(Westinghouse (General reactor
Co. ) Electric Co.) (Atomic
Energy of
Canada Ltd.)
Steam pressure 5.7 MPa 7 MPa 4.7 MPa
(MPa)
Steam 273 °C 288 °C 260 °C 525 °C
temperature (°C)
Steam quality Wet steam Wet steam Wet steam Superheated
steam
Efficiency (%) 33.5 % 32.9 % 29.3 %
Power (MWe) 1148 1178 638

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The following observations can be made from the above table:

Ø Steam temperature: Higher for thermal power plant compared to nuclear power
plant

Ø Steam quality: Higher steam quality (superheated steam) in thermal power plant
compared to nuclear power plant

Ø Efficiency: Owing to higher steam temperature and better steam quality, thermal
power plants are more efficient compared to nuclear power plant

Ø Steam requirement: As a result of lower steam quality and steam temperature in

nuclear power plant, higher mass flow rate of steam required per MW of
electricity generated

6 References/Additional Reading
1. Nuclear Systems I: Thermal Hydraulic Fundamentals, N.E. Todreas, M.S. Kazimi,
Taylor & Francis, 1990.
2. Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) Systems, Reactor Concepts Manual, USNRC
Technical Training Centre Publications (Available at
http://mitnse.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/pwr_plant_04.pdf)

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