Coal prepation plant

A coal preparation plant (CPP) is a facility that washes coal of soil and rock, crushes it into graded
sized chunks (sorting), stockpiles grades preparing it for transport to market, and more often than
not, also loads coal into rail cars, barges, or ships. A CPP may also be called a coal handling and
preparation plant (CHPP), coal handling plant, prep plant, tipple orwash plant.

The more of this waste material that can be removed from coal, the lower its total ash content, the
greater its market valueand the lower its transportation costs.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Run-of-mine (ROM) coal

 2 Coal handling
o 2.1 Stockpiles
o 2.2 Stacking
o 2.3 Reclaiming
 3 Coal sampling
 4 Washability
 5 Crushing
 6 Screening
 7 Gravity separation
o 7.1 Jigs
o 7.2 Dense medium process
o 7.3 Dense medium baths (DMBs)
o 7.4 Dense medium cyclones
 8 Fine coal methods
 9 Dewatering
o 9.1 Dewatering product coal
o 9.2 Dewatering tailings (reject)
 9.2.1 Thickeners
 10 Control and instrumentation
 11 See also
 12 References
 13 External links

Run-of-mine (ROM) coal[edit]

The coal delivered from the mine that reports to the coal preparation plant is called run-of-mine, or
ROM, coal. This is the raw material for the CPP, and consists of coal, rocks, middlings, minerals and
contamination. Contamination is usually introduced by the mining process and may include machine
parts, used consumables and parts of ground engaging tools. ROM coal can have a large variability
of moisture and maximum particle size.

Coal handling[edit]
Coal stockpile.

Coal stacker.

Coal reclaimer.

Coal needs to be stored at various stages of the preparation process, and conveyed around the CPP
facilities. Coal handling is part of the larger field of bulk material handling, and is a complex and vital
part of the CPP.

Stockpiles[edit]
Main article: Stockpile

Stockpiles provide surge capacity to various parts of the CPP. ROM coal is delivered with large
variations in production rate of tonnes per hour (tph). A ROM stockpile is used to allow the
washplant to be fed coal at lower, constant rate.

A simple stockpile is formed by machinery dumping coal into a pile, either from dump trucks, pushed
into heaps with bulldozers or fromconveyor booms. More controlled stockpiles are formed
using stackers to form piles along the length of a conveyor, and reclaimers to retrieve the coal when
required for product loading, etc.
Taller and wider stockpiles reduce the land area required to store a set tonnage of coal. Larger coal
stockpiles have a reduced rate of heat loss, leading to a higher risk of spontaneous combustion.

Stacking[edit]
Main article: Stacker

Travelling, luffing boom stackers that straddle a feed conveyor are commonly used to create coal
stockpiles.

Reclaiming[edit]
Main article: Reclaimer

Tunnel conveyors can be fed by a continuous slot hopper or bunker beneath the stockpile to reclaim
material. Front-end loaders and bulldozers can be used to push the coal into feeders. Sometimes
front-end loaders are the only means of reclaiming coal from the stockpile. This has a low up-front
capital cost, but much higher operating costs, measured in dollars per tonne handled.

High-capacity stockpiles are commonly reclaimed using bucket-wheel reclaimers. These can
achieve very high rates

Coal sampling[edit]
Sampling of coal is an important part of the process control in the CPP. A grab sample is a one-off
sample of the coal at a point in the process stream, and tends not to be very representative. A
routine sample is taken at a set frequency, either over a period of time or per shipment. Coal
sampling consists of several types of sampling devices. A "cross cut" sampler mimics the "stop belt"
sampling method specified by a standard originally published by the American Society for Testing
and Materials (ASTM). A cross cut sampler mounts directly on top of the conveyor belt, the falling
stream sampler is placed at the head section of the belt. There are several points in the wash plant
that many coal operations choose to sample. The raw coal, before it enters the plant. The refuse, to
see what the plant missed. Then the clean coal, to see exactly what is being shipped. The sampler is
set according to Tons per hour, Feet per minute and top size of the product on the actual belt. A
sample is taken then crushed, then sub sampled and returned to the main belt. The sample is sent
to an Independent lab for testing where the results will be shared with the buyer as well as the
supplier. The buyer in many cases will also sample the coal again once it is received to "double
check" the results. Continuous measurement of ash, moisture, kCal (BTU), sulfur Fe, Ca, Na, and
other element constituents of the coal are reported by cross belt elemental analyzers. This
information can be calibrated periodically to the lab data per ASTM methods.

Washability[edit]
The washability characteristics of a coal reserve are provided by obtaining liberation data on the raw
coal sample. Liberation refers to the amount of physical breakage required to separate material of
different material densities. Low density material is clean coal whereas high density material is reject
(rock). The intermediate density material is calledmiddlings.

Liberation data is commonly obtained by float and sink analysis. The procedures for this analysis are
detailed in Australian Standard AS 4156.1 – 1994 “Coal preparation - Higher rank coal - Float and
sink testing”.

Crushing[edit]

Coal crusher plant.

Main article: Crusher

Crushing reduces the overall topsize of the ROM coal so that it can be more easily handled and
processed within the CPP. Crushing requirements are an important part of CPP design and there
are a number of different types.

Screening[edit]
Screens in screening plant are used to group process particles into ranges by size. These size
ranges are also called grades. Dewatering screens are used to remove water from the product.
Screens can be static, or mechanically vibrated. Screen decks can be made from different materials
such as high tensile steel, stainless steel, or polyethelene.

Gravity separation[edit]
Gravity separation methods make use of the different relative densities of different grades of coal,
and the reject material.

Jigs[edit]
Jigs are a gravity separation method for coarse coal. Different types of jig include:

Dense medium process[edit]

Dense medium gravity separation methods use a material such as magnetite to form a medium
denser than water to assist in separation.
A cyclone is a conical vessel in which coal along with finely ground magnetite (media) is pumped
tangentially to a tapered inlet and short cylindrical section followed by a conical section where the
separation takes place. The higher specific gravity fractions being subject to greater centrifugal
forces pull away from the central core and descend downwards towards the apex along the wall of
cyclone body and pass out as rejects/middlings. The lighter particles are caught in an upward stream
and pass out as clean coal through the cyclone overflow outlet via the vortex finder.

Fluid on entry commences in the outer regions of the cyclone body. This combined with rotational
motion to which it is constrained creates an outer spiral. The existence of a top central outlet and
inability for all the fluid to leave at the cone apex outlet, assist the inward migration of some of the
fluid from the external moving mass. The amount of inward migration increases as the apex is
neared, i.e. the radius decreased and the fluid which flows in this migratory stream, ultimately
reverses its vertical velocity direction and flows upward to the cyclone over flow outlet, i.e. vortex
finder. Since it is at the same time rotating, the result is an inner spiral.

The Heavy Media Cyclone may be lined with very high quality ceramic tiles or manufactured from Ni-
hard (a very hard alloy of cast iron containing nickel) with a specially designed helical profile. A
cyclone is the heart of the washing unit in a Heavy Media Washery. It is a non moving part and
hence requires very low maintenance. However, the pressure at the inlet of the cyclone is a very
important factor and it is suggested to maintain a minimum pressure of around D x 9 x 9.81 x
density/100 (in bars), where D = the inner diameter of the cyclone in mm. It is important to note that
the pressure at which pulp (mixture of coal and magnetite) is introduced in the cyclone is the
principal means of controlling the forces within the cyclone. With the decrease in pressure more coal
shall report to the discard/middlings, thus impairing the efficiency of separation.

If due to some reason the cyclone feed pump is not being able to deliver the required pressure at the
inlet of the cyclone, feed should immediately be stopped and the pipelines, tank and pump should be
properly checked for any jamming and any jamming should be properly cleaned before starting the
circuit or the feed.

Dense medium baths (DMBs)[edit]

Different types of DMB include:

 Teska bath
 Daniels bath
 Leebar bath
 Tromp shallow bath
 Drewboy bath
 Barvoys bath
 Chance cone
 Wemco drums
Dense medium cyclones[edit]
A mixture of raw coal and dense medium enters the cyclone at a predetermined flowrate and
pressure. A vortex is formed, and the high density reject forced to the outside to the underflow orifice
discharge, also called the spigot. The cleaned coal goes longitudinally down the axis of the cyclone
and leaves the cyclone through the overflow orifice, also called the vortex finder. From the overflow
orifice, the coal goes into the overflow chamber, and is discharged to the next stage of the process.

Fine coal methods[edit]

Fine coal is cleaned using froth flotation methods. Denver cells and Jameson Cells are two flotation
methods used. Spirals perform a simple, low cost and reasonably efficient separation of finer sized
material, based on particle density and size.

Dewatering[edit]
Dewatering product coal[edit]
Water is removed from the product to reduce the mass, and runoff on the stockpile. Different
methods of dewatering exist, including:

 Coarse coal centrifuges

 Screen bowl centrifuges
 Slurry screens
 Dewatering cyclones
 Horizontal belt filters
Dewatering tailings (reject)[edit]
Water is removed from tailings to recycle water. Filters, centrifuges and thickeners are used in this
part of the process. The blackwater which is produced as a by-product is typically placed in a coal
slurry impoundment.

Thickeners[edit]
Dorr thickener

Thickeners are used for dewatering slurries of either tailings or product. A thickener is a large
circular tank that is used to settle out the solid material from the water in the feed slurry. The
separated water is clarified and reused as process water in the CPP.

Thickeners are sized according to the volume of feed slurry to be processed. Typical size ranges are
from 13 to 40m in diameter and 3-4m high.[1] The floor of the thickener is conical, sloping gently down
toward the centre.
The feed is pumped into the feedwell, at the centre of the thickener, near the top. The feed is
normally dosed with flocculant before delivery to the thickener.

The thickened mass is moved toward the bottom centre of the thickener by large rakes that rotate
around the tank. Rotation speed is very slow, and drive torques can be high, especially for larger
diameter thickeners. Drive torque is usually monitored continuously, as high densities could cause
failure of the rakes and drive equipment. Rakes may have the capacity to be raised to reduce drive
torque.

The thickened slurry, also called thickener underflow, is pumped out of the bottom of the thickener.
In the case of product coal, further dewatering is usually required before shipment. Thickened
tailings can be pumped to a tailings dam, combined with larger sized rejects for disposal (co-
disposal), or dewatered further before disposal.

Control and instrumentation[edit]

Control and instrumentation is a very important part of a CPP. Measurement of flow, density, levels,
ash and moisture are inputs to the control system. PLCs are used extensively in plant
design. SCADA systems are typically used to control the process. Other instrumentation found in
plants include density gauges and online elemental coal analyzers.

Boiler

A portable boiler
(preserved, Poland).
 A stationary boiler
(United States).

A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil.
(In North America the term "furnace" is normally used if the purpose is not actually to boil the fluid.)
The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating
applications,[1][2] including water heating, central heating, boiler-based power generation, cooking,
and sanitation.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Materials
 2 Energy
 3 Configurations
 4 Safety
 5 Superheated steam boilers
o 5.1 Supercritical steam generator
 6 Accessories
o 6.1 Boiler fittings and accessories
o 6.2 Steam accessories
o 6.3 Combustion accessories
o 6.4 Other essential items
o 6.5 Gas safe check
 7 Draught
 8 See also
 9 References
 10 Further reading

Materials[edit]
The pressure vessel of a boiler is usually made of steel (or alloy steel), or historically of wrought
iron. Stainless steel, especially of the austenitic types, is not used in wetted parts of boilers due to
corrosion and stress corrosion cracking.[3] However, ferritic stainless steel is often used in
superheater sections that will not be exposed to boiling water, and electrically-heated stainless steel
shell boilers are allowed under the European "Pressure Equipment Directive" for production of steam
for sterilizers and disinfectors.[4]

In live steam models, copper or brass is often used because it is more easily fabricated in smaller
size boilers. Historically, copper was often used for fireboxes (particularly forsteam locomotives),
because of its better formability and higher thermal conductivity; however, in more recent times, the
high price of copper often makes this an uneconomic choice and cheaper substitutes (such as steel)
are used instead.

For much of the Victorian "age of steam", the only material used for boilermaking was the highest
grade of wrought iron, with assembly by rivetting. This iron was often obtained from
specialist ironworks, such as at Cleator Moor (UK), noted for the high quality of their rolled plate and
its suitability for high-reliability use in critical applications, such as high-pressure boilers. In the 20th
century, design practice instead moved towards the use of steel, which is stronger and cheaper,
with welded construction, which is quicker and requires less labour. It should be noted, however, that
wrought iron boilers corrode far slower than their modern-day steel counterparts, and are less
susceptible to localized pitting and stress-corrosion. This makes the longevity of older wrought-iron
boilers far superior to those of welded steel boilers.

Cast iron may be used for the heating vessel of domestic water heaters.[5] Although such heaters are
usually termed "boilers" in some countries, their purpose is usually to produce hot water, not steam,
and so they run at low pressure and try to avoid actual boiling. The brittleness of cast iron makes it
impractical for high-pressure steam boilers.

Energy[edit]
The source of heat for a boiler is combustion of any of several fuels, such as wood, coal, oil,
or natural gas. Electric steam boilers use resistance- or immersion-type heating elements. Nuclear
fission is also used as a heat source for generating steam, either directly (BWR) or, in most cases, in
specialised heat exchangers called "steam generators" (PWR). Heat recovery steam
generators (HRSGs) use the heat rejected from other processes such as gas turbine.

Configurations[edit]
Boilers can be classified into the following configurations:

 Pot boiler or Haycock boiler: a primitive "kettle" where a fire heats a partially filled water
container from below. 18th century Haycock boilers generally produced and stored large
volumes of very low-pressure steam, often hardly above that of the atmosphere. These could
burn wood or most often, coal. Efficiency was very low.
 

Diagram of a fire-tube boiler

Fire-tube boiler: Here, water partially fills a boiler barrel with a small volume left above to
accommodate the steam (steam space). This is the type of boiler used in nearly all steam
locomotives. The heat source is inside a furnace or firebox that has to be kept permanently
surrounded by the water in order to maintain the temperature of the heating surface below
the boiling point. The furnace can be situated at one end of a fire-tube which lengthens the path
of the hot gases, thus augmenting the heating surface which can be further increased by making
the gases reverse direction through a second parallel tube or a bundle of multiple tubes (two-
pass or return flue boiler); alternatively the gases may be taken along the sides and then
beneath the boiler through flues (3-pass boiler). In case of a locomotive-type boiler, a boiler
barrel extends from the firebox and the hot gases pass through a bundle of fire tubes inside the
barrel which greatly increases the heating surface compared to a single tube and further
improves heat transfer. Fire-tube boilers usually have a comparatively low rate of steam
production, but high steam storage capacity. Fire-tube boilers mostly burn solid fuels, but are
readily adaptable to those of the liquid or gas variety.
 

Diagram of a water-tube boiler.

Water-tube boiler: In this type, tubes filled with water are arranged inside a furnace in a number
of possible configurations, often the water tubes connect large drums, the lower ones containing
water and the upper ones, steam and water; in other cases, such as a mono-tube boiler, water is
circulated by a pump through a succession of coils. This type generally gives high steam
production rates, but less storage capacity than the above. Water tube boilers can be designed
to exploit any heat source and are generally preferred in high-pressure applications since the
high-pressure water/steam is contained within small diameter pipes which can withstand the
pressure with a thinner wall.

 Flash boiler: A flash boiler is a specialized type of water-tube boiler in which tubes are close
together and water is pumped through them. A flash boiler differs from the type of mono-tube
steam generator in which the tube is permanently filled with water. In a flash boiler, the tube is
kept so hot that the water feed is quickly flashed into steam and superheated. Flash boilers had
some use in automobiles in the 19th century and this use continued into the early 20th century. .
1950s design steam locomotive boiler, from a Victorian Railways J class

 Fire-tube boiler with Water-tube firebox. Sometimes the two above types have been combined in
the following manner: the firebox contains an assembly of water tubes, called thermic siphons.
The gases then pass through a conventional firetube boiler. Water-tube fireboxes were installed
in many Hungarian locomotives, but have met with little success in other countries.
 Sectional boiler. In a cast iron sectional boiler, sometimes called a "pork chop boiler" the water is
contained inside cast iron sections. These sections are assembled on site to create the finished
boiler.

Safety[edit]
See also: Boiler explosion

To define and secure boilers safely, some professional specialized organizations such as
the American Society of Mechanical Engineers(ASME) develop standards and regulation codes. For
instance, the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code is a standard providing a wide range of rules
and directives to ensure compliance of the boilers and other pressure vessels with safety, security
and design standards.[6]

Historically, boilers were a source of many serious injuries and property destruction due to poorly
understood engineering principles. Thin and brittle metal shells can rupture, while poorly welded or
riveted seams could open up, leading to a violent eruption of the pressurized steam. When water is
converted to steam it expands to over 1,000 times its original volume and travels down steam pipes
at over 100 kilometres per hour. Because of this, steam is a great way of moving energy and heat
around a site from a central boiler house to where it is needed, but without the right boiler feed water
treatment, a steam-raising plant will suffer from scale formation and corrosion. At best, this increases
energy costs and can lead to poor quality steam, reduced efficiency, shorter plant life and unreliable
operation. At worst, it can lead to catastrophic failure and loss of life. Collapsed or dislodged boiler
tubes can also spray scalding-hot steam and smoke out of the air intake and firing chute, injuring the
firemen who load the coal into the fire chamber. Extremely large boilers providing hundreds of
horsepower to operate factories can potentially demolish entire buildings. [7]

A boiler that has a loss of feed water and is permitted to boil dry can be extremely dangerous. If feed
water is then sent into the empty boiler, the small cascade of incoming water instantly boils on
contact with the superheated metal shell and leads to a violent explosion that cannot be controlled
even by safety steam valves. Draining of the boiler can also happen if a leak occurs in the steam
supply lines that is larger than the make-up water supply could replace. The Hartford Loop was
invented in 1919 by the Hartford Steam Boiler and Insurance Company as a method to help prevent
this condition from occurring, and thereby reduce their insurance claims.[8]
Superheated steam boilers[edit]

A superheated boiler on a steam locomotive.

Main article: Superheater

Most boilers produce steam to be used at saturation temperature; that is, saturated steam.
Superheated steam boilers vaporize the water and then further heat the steam in a superheater.
This provides steam at much higher temperature, but can decrease the overall thermal efficiency of
the steam generating plant because the higher steam temperature requires a higher flue gas
exhaust temperature. There are several ways to circumvent this problem, typically by providing
aneconomizer that heats the feed water, a combustion air heater in the hot flue gas exhaust path, or
both. There are advantages to superheated steam that may, and often will, increase overall
efficiency of both steam generation and its utilization: gains in input temperature to a turbine should
outweigh any cost in additional boiler complication and expense. There may also be practical
limitations in using wet steam, as entrained condensation droplets will damage turbine blades.

Superheated steam presents unique safety concerns because, if any system component fails and
allows steam to escape, the high pressure and temperature can cause serious, instantaneous harm
to anyone in its path. Since the escaping steam will initially be completely superheated vapor,
detection can be difficult, although the intense heat and sound from such a leak clearly indicates its
presence.

Superheater operation is similar to that of the coils on an air conditioning unit, although for a different
purpose. The steam piping is directed through the flue gas path in the boiler furnace. The
temperature in this area is typically between 1,300 and 1,600 °C (2,372 and 2,912 °F). Some
superheaters are radiant type; that is, they absorb heat by radiation. Others are convection type,
absorbing heat from a fluid. Some are a combination of the two types. Through either method, the
extreme heat in the flue gas path will also heat the superheater steam piping and the steam within.
While the temperature of the steam in the superheater rises, the pressure of the steam does not and
the pressure remains the same as that of the boiler.[9] Almost all steam superheater system designs
remove droplets entrained in the steam to prevent damage to the turbine blading and associated
piping.

Supercritical steam generator[edit]

Boiler for a power plant.

Main article: Supercritical steam generator

Supercritical steam generators are frequently used for the production of electric power. They
operate at supercritical pressure. In contrast to a "subcritical boiler", a supercritical steam generator
operates at such a high pressure (over 3,200 psi or 22 MPa) that the physical turbulence that
characterizes boiling ceases to occur; the fluid is neither liquid nor gas but a super-critical fluid.
There is no generation of steam bubbles within the water, because the pressure is above the critical
pressure point at which steam bubbles can form. As the fluid expands through the turbine stages, its
thermodynamic state drops below the critical point as it does work turning the turbine which turns
electrical generator from which power is ultimately extracted. The fluid at that point may be a mix of
steam and liquid droplets as it passes into the condenser. This results in slightly less fuel use and
therefore less greenhouse gas production. The term "boiler" should not be used for a supercritical
pressure steam generator, as no "boiling" actually occurs in this device.

Accessories[edit]
Boiler fittings and accessories[edit]

 Pressuretrols to control the steam pressure in the boiler. Boilers generally have 2 or 3
pressuretrols: A Manual-Reset Pressuretrol, which functions as a safety by setting the upper
limit of steam pressure, the Operating Pressuretrol, which controls when the boiler fires to
maintain pressure, and for boilers equipped with a modulating burner, a Modulating Pressuretrol
which controls the amount of fire.
 Safety Valve: It is used to relieve pressure and prevent possible explosion of a boiler.
 Water Level Indicators: They show the operator the level of fluid in the boiler, also known as
a sight glass, water gauge or water column.
 Bottom Blowdown Valves: They provide a means for removing solid particulates
that condense and lie on the bottom of a boiler. As the name implies, this valve is usually
located directly on the bottom of the boiler, and is occasionally opened to use the pressure in the
boiler to push these particulates out.
 Continuous Blowdown Valve: This allows a small quantity of water to escape continuously. Its
purpose is to prevent the water in the boiler becoming saturated with dissolved salts. Saturation
would lead to foaming and cause water droplets to be carried over with the steam - a condition
known as priming. Blowdown is also often used to monitor the chemistry of the boiler water.
 Flash Tank: High-pressure blowdown enters this vessel where the steam can 'flash' safely and
be used in a low-pressure system or be vented to atmosphere while the ambient pressure
blowdown flows to drain.
 Automatic Blowdown/Continuous Heat Recovery System: This system allows the boiler to
blowdown only when makeup water is flowing to the boiler, thereby transferring the maximum
amount of heat possible from the blowdown to the makeup water. No flash tank is generally
needed as the blowdown discharged is close to the temperature of the makeup water.
 Hand Holes: They are steel plates installed in openings in "header" to allow for inspections &
installation of tubes and inspection of internal surfaces.
 Steam Drum Internals, A series of screen, scrubber & cans (cyclone separators).
 Low-Water Cutoff: It is a mechanical means (usually a float switch) that is used to turn off the
burner or shut off fuel to the boiler to prevent it from running once the water goes below a certain
point. If a boiler is "dry-fired" (burned without water in it) it can cause rupture or catastrophic
failure.
 Surface Blowdown Line: It provides a means for removing foam or other lightweight non-
condensible substances that tend to float on top of the water inside the boiler.
 Circulating Pump: It is designed to circulate water back to the boiler after it has expelled some
of its heat.
 Feedwater Check Valve or Clack Valve: A non-return stop valve in the feedwater line. This
may be fitted to the side of the boiler, just below the water level, or to the top of the boiler.[10]
 Top Feed: In this design for feedwater injection, the water is fed to the top of the boiler. This can
reduce boiler fatigue caused by thermal stress. By spraying the feedwater over a series of trays
the water is quickly heated and this can reduce limescale.
 Desuperheater Tubes or Bundles: A series of tubes or bundles of tubes in the water drum or
the steam drum designed to cool superheated steam, in order to supply auxiliary equipment that
does not need, or may be damaged by, dry steam.
 Chemical Injection Line: A connection to add chemicals for controlling feedwater pH.
Steam accessories[edit]

 Main steam stop valve:

 Steam traps:
 Main steam stop/Check valve: It is used on multiple boiler installations.
Combustion accessories[edit]

 Fuel oil system:fuel oil heaters

 Gas system:
 Coal system:
 Soot blower
Other essential items[edit]

 Pressure gauges:
 Feed pumps:
 Fusible plug:
 Inspectors test pressure gauge attachment:
 Name plate:
 Registration plate:
Gas safe check[edit]

 It is essential to carry out gas safe check each year:

Draught[edit]
A fuel-heated boiler must provide air to oxidize its fuel. Early boilers provided this stream of air,
or draught, through the natural action of convection in a chimney connected to the exhaust of the
combustion chamber. Since the heated flue gas is less dense than the ambient air surrounding the
boiler, the flue gas rises in the chimney, pulling denser, fresh air into the combustion chamber.

Most modern boilers depend on mechanical draught rather than natural draught. This is because
natural draught is subject to outside air conditions and temperature of flue gases leaving the furnace,
as well as the chimney height. All these factors make proper draught hard to attain and therefore
make mechanical draught equipment much more reliable and economical.

Types of draught can also be divided into induced draught, where exhaust gases are pulled out of
the boiler; forced draught, where fresh air is pushed into the boiler; andbalanced draught, where
both effects are employed. Natural draught through the use of a chimney is a type of induced
draught; mechanical draught can be induced, forced or balanced.
There are two types of mechanical induced draught. The first is through use of a steam jet. The
steam jet oriented in the direction of flue gas flow induces flue gasses into the stack and allows for a
greater flue gas velocity increasing the overall draught in the furnace. This method was common on
steam driven locomotives which could not have tall chimneys. The second method is by simply using
an induced draught fan (ID fan) which removes flue gases from the furnace and forces the exhaust
gas up the stack. Almost all induced draught furnaces operate with a slightly negative pressure.

Mechanical forced draught is provided by means of a fan forcing air into the combustion chamber.
Air is often passed through an air heater; which, as the name suggests, heats the air going into the
furnace in order to increase the overall efficiency of the boiler. Dampers are used to control the
quantity of air admitted to the furnace. Forced draught furnaces usually have a positive pressure.

Balanced draught is obtained through use of both induced and forced draught. This is more common
with larger boilers where the flue gases have to travel a long distance through many boiler passes.
The induced draught fan works in conjunction with the forced draught fan allowing the furnace
pressure to be maintained slightly below atmospheric.

Turbine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Turbine (disambiguation).

 A steam turbine with the case opened.

A turbine, from the Greek τύρβη, tyrbē, ("turbulence"),[1][2] is a rotary mechanical device that
extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. A turbine is a turbomachine with at
least one moving part called a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or drum with blades attached. Moving
fluid acts on the blades so that they move and impart rotational energy to the rotor. Early turbine
examples are windmills and waterwheels.
Gas, steam, and water turbines have a casing around the blades that contains and controls the
working fluid. Credit for invention of the steam turbine is given both to the British engineer Sir
Charles Parsons (1854–1931), for invention of thereaction turbine and to Swedish engineer Gustaf
de Laval (1845–1913), for invention of the impulse turbine. Modern steam turbines frequently employ
both reaction and impulse in the same unit, typically varying the degree of reaction and impulse from
the blade root to its periphery.
The word "turbine" was coined in 1822 by the French mining engineer Claude Burdin from
the Latin turbo, or vortex, in a memo, "Des turbines hydrauliques ou machines rotatoires à grande
vitesse", which he submitted to the Académie royale des sciences in Paris.[3] Benoit Fourneyron, a
former student of Claude Burdin, built the first practical water turbine.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Operation theory
 2 Types
 3 Uses
 4 See also
 5 Notes
 6 Further reading
 7 External links

Operation theory[edit]
Schematic of impulse and reaction turbines, where the rotor is the rotating part, and the stator is the stationary
part of the machine.

A working fluid contains potential energy (pressure head) and kinetic energy (velocity head). The
fluid may becompressible or incompressible. Several physical principles are employed by turbines to
collect this energy:
Impulse turbines change the direction of flow of a high velocity fluid or gas jet. The resulting impulse
spins the turbine and leaves the fluid flow with diminished kinetic energy. There is no pressure
change of the fluid or gas in the turbine blades (the moving blades), as in the case of a steam or gas
turbine, all the pressure drop takes place in the stationary blades (the nozzles). Before reaching the
turbine, the fluid's pressure head is changed to velocity head by accelerating the fluid with
a nozzle. Pelton wheels and de Laval turbines use this process exclusively. Impulse turbines do not
require a pressure casement around the rotor since the fluid jet is created by the nozzle prior to
reaching the blades on the rotor. Newton's second law describes the transfer of energy for impulse
turbines.
Reaction turbines develop torque by reacting to the gas or fluid's pressure or mass. The pressure of
the gas or fluid changes as it passes through the turbine rotor blades. A pressure casement is
needed to contain the working fluid as it acts on the turbine stage(s) or the turbine must be fully
immersed in the fluid flow (such as with wind turbines). The casing contains and directs the working
fluid and, for water turbines, maintains the suction imparted by the draft tube.Francis turbines and
most steam turbines use this concept. For compressible working fluids, multiple turbine stages are
usually used to harness the expanding gas efficiently. Newton's third law describes the transfer of
energy for reaction turbines.
In the case of steam turbines, such as would be used for marine applications or for land-based
electricity generation, a Parsons type reaction turbine would require approximately double the
number of blade rows as a de Laval type impulse turbine, for the same degree of thermal energy
conversion. Whilst this makes the Parsons turbine much longer and heavier, the overall efficiency of
a reaction turbine is slightly higher than the equivalent impulse turbine for the same thermal energy
conversion.
In practice, modern turbine designs use both reaction and impulse concepts to varying degrees
whenever possible.Wind turbines use an airfoil to generate a reaction lift from the moving fluid and
impart it to the rotor. Wind turbines also gain some energy from the impulse of the wind, by
deflecting it at an angle. Turbines with multiple stages may utilize either reaction or impulse blading
at high pressure. Steam turbines were traditionally more impulse but continue to move towards
reaction designs similar to those used in gas turbines. At low pressure the operating fluid medium
expands in volume for small reductions in pressure. Under these conditions, blading becomes strictly
a reaction type design with the base of the blade solely impulse. The reason is due to the effect of
the rotation speed for each blade. As the volume increases, the blade height increases, and the
base of the blade spins at a slower speed relative to the tip. This change in speed forces a designer
to change from impulse at the base, to a high reaction style tip.
Classical turbine design methods were developed in the mid 19th century. Vector analysis related
the fluid flow with turbine shape and rotation. Graphical calculation methods were used at first.
Formulae for the basic dimensions of turbine parts are well documented and a highly efficient
machine can be reliably designed for any fluid flow condition. Some of the calculations are empirical
or 'rule of thumb' formulae, and others are based on classical mechanics. As with most engineering
calculations, simplifying assumptions were made.

Turbine inlet guide vanes of a turbojet

Velocity triangles can be used to calculate the basic performance of a turbine stage. Gas exits the
stationary turbine nozzle guide vanes at absolute velocity Va1. The rotor rotates at velocity U.
Relative to the rotor, the velocity of the gas as it impinges on the rotor entrance isVr1. The gas is
turned by the rotor and exits, relative to the rotor, at velocity Vr2. However, in absolute terms the rotor
exit velocity is Va2. The velocity triangles are constructed using these various velocity vectors.
Velocity triangles can be constructed at any section through the blading (for example: hub, tip,
midsection and so on) but are usually shown at the mean stage radius. Mean performance for the
stage can be calculated from the velocity triangles, at this radius, using the Euler equation:

Hence:

where:
 specific enthalpy drop across stage
turbine entry total (or stagnation) temperature
turbine rotor peripheral velocity
change in whirl velocity

The turbine pressure ratio is a function of and the turbine

efficiency.
Modern turbine design carries the calculations further. Computational fluid
dynamics dispenses with many of the simplifying assumptions used to
derive classical formulas and computer software facilitates optimization.
These tools have led to steady improvements in turbine design over the last
forty years.
The primary numerical classification of a turbine is its specific speed. This
number describes the speed of the turbine at its maximum efficiency with
respect to the power and flow rate. The specific speed is derived to be
independent of turbine size. Given the fluid flow conditions and the desired
shaft output speed, the specific speed can be calculated and an appropriate
turbine design selected.
The specific speed, along with some fundamental formulas can be used to
reliably scale an existing design of known performance to a new size with
corresponding performance.
Off-design performance is normally displayed as a turbine map or
characteristic.

Types[edit]
 Steam turbines are used for the generation of electricity in thermal
power plants, such as plants using coal, fuel oil or nuclear fuel. They
were once used to directly drive mechanical devices such as
ships' propellers (for example the Turbinia, the first turbine-
powered steam launch,[4]) but most such applications now use reduction
gears or an intermediate electrical step, where the turbine is used to
generate electricity, which then powers an electric motor connected to
the mechanical load. Turbo electric ship machinery was particularly
popular in the period immediately before and during World War II,
primarily due to a lack of sufficient gear-cutting facilities in US and UK
shipyards.
 Gas turbines are sometimes referred to as turbine engines. Such
engines usually feature an inlet, fan, compressor, combustor and
nozzle (possibly other assemblies) in addition to one or more turbines.
 Transonic turbine. The gas flow in most turbines employed in gas
turbine engines remains subsonic throughout the expansion process. In
a transonic turbine the gas flow becomes supersonic as it exits the
nozzle guide vanes, although the downstream velocities normally
become subsonic. Transonic turbines operate at a higher pressure ratio
than normal but are usually less efficient and uncommon.
 Contra-rotating turbines. With axial turbines, some efficiency advantage
can be obtained if a downstream turbine rotates in the opposite
direction to an upstream unit. However, the complication can be
counter-productive. A contra-rotating steam turbine, usually known as
the Ljungström turbine, was originally invented by Swedish
EngineerFredrik Ljungström (1875–1964) in Stockholm, and in
partnership with his brother Birger Ljungström he obtained a patent in
1894. The design is essentially a multi-stageradial turbine (or pair of
'nested' turbine rotors) offering great efficiency, four times as large heat
drop per stage as in the reaction (Parsons) turbine, extremely compact
design and the type met particular success in back pressure power
plants. However, contrary to other designs, large steam volumes are
handled with difficulty and only a combination with axial flow turbines
(DUREX) admits the turbine to be built for power greater than ca 50
MW. In marine applications only about 50 turbo-electric units were
ordered (of which a considerable amount were finally sold to land
plants) during 1917-19, and during 1920-22 a few turbo-mechanic not
very successful units were sold.[5]Only a few turbo-electric marine plants
were still in use in the late 1960s (ss Ragne, ss Regin) while most land
plants remain in use 2010.
 Statorless turbine. Multi-stage turbines have a set of static (meaning
stationary) inlet guide vanes that direct the gas flow onto the rotating
rotor blades. In a stator-less turbine the gas flow exiting an upstream
rotor impinges onto a downstream rotor without an intermediate set of
stator vanes (that rearrange the pressure/velocity energy levels of the
flow) being encountered.
 Ceramic turbine. Conventional high-pressure turbine blades (and
vanes) are made from nickel based alloys and often utilise intricate
internal air-cooling passages to prevent the metal from overheating. In
recent years, experimental ceramic blades have been manufactured
and tested in gas turbines, with a view to increasing rotor inlet
temperatures and/or, possibly, eliminating air cooling. Ceramic blades
are more brittle than their metallic counterparts, and carry a greater risk
of catastrophic blade failure. This has tended to limit their use in jet
engines and gas turbines to the stator (stationary) blades.
 Shrouded turbine. Many turbine rotor blades have shrouding at the top,
which interlocks with that of adjacent blades, to increase damping and
thereby reduce blade flutter. In large land-based electricity generation
steam turbines, the shrouding is often complemented, especially in the
long blades of a low-pressure turbine, with lacing wires. These wires
pass through holes drilled in the blades at suitable distances from the
blade root and are usually brazed to the blades at the point where they
pass through. Lacing wires reduce blade flutter in the central part of the
blades. The introduction of lacing wires substantially reduces the
instances of blade failure in large or low-pressure turbines.
 Shroudless turbine. Modern practice is, wherever possible, to eliminate
the rotor shrouding, thus reducing the centrifugal load on the blade and
the cooling requirements.
 Bladeless turbine uses the boundary layer effect and not a fluid
impinging upon the blades as in a conventional turbine.
 Water turbines
 Pelton turbine, a type of impulse water turbine.
  Francis turbine, a type of widely used water turbine.
 Kaplan turbine, a variation of the Francis Turbine.
 Turgo turbine, a modified form of the Pelton wheel.
 Cross-flow turbine, also known as Banki-Michell turbine, or
Ossberger turbine.
 Wind turbine. These normally operate as a single stage without nozzle
and interstage guide vanes. An exception is the Éolienne Bollée, which
has a stator and a rotor.
 Velocity compound "Curtis". Curtis combined the de Laval and Parsons
turbine by using a set of fixed nozzles on the first stage or stator and
then a rank of fixed and rotating blade rows, as in the Parsons or de
Laval, typically up to ten compared with up to a hundred stages of a
Parsons design. The overall efficiency of a Curtis design is less than
that of either the Parsons or de Laval designs, but it can be
satisfactorily operated through a much wider range of speeds, including
successful operation at low speeds and at lower pressures, which
made it ideal for use in ships' powerplant. In a Curtis arrangement, the
entire heat drop in the steam takes place in the initial nozzle row and
both the subsequent moving blade rows and stationary blade rows
merely change the direction of the steam. Use of a small section of a
Curtis arrangement, typically one nozzle section and two or three rows
of moving blades, is usually termed a Curtis 'Wheel' and in this form,
the Curtis found widespread use at sea as a 'governing stage' on many
reaction and impulse turbines and turbine sets. This practice is still
commonplace today in marine steam plant.
 Pressure compound multi-stage impulse, or "Rateau", after its French
inventor, fr:Auguste Rateau. The Rateau employs simple impulse rotors
separated by a nozzle diaphragm. The diaphragm is essentially a
partition wall in the turbine with a series of tunnels cut into it, funnel
shaped with the broad end facing the previous stage and the narrow
the next they are also angled to direct the steam jets onto the impulse
rotor.
 Mercury vapour turbines used mercury as the working fluid, to improve
the efficiency of fossil-fuelled generating stations. Although a few power
plants were built with combined mercury vapour and conventional
steam turbines, the toxicity of the metal mercury was quickly apparent.

Uses[edit]
Almost all electrical power on Earth is generated with a turbine of some
type. Very high efficiency steam turbines harness around 40% of the
thermal energy, with the rest exhausted as waste heat.
Most jet engines rely on turbines to supply mechanical work from their
working fluid and fuel as do all nuclear ships and power plants.
Turbines are often part of a larger machine. A gas turbine, for example,
may refer to an internal combustion machine that contains a turbine, ducts,
compressor, combustor, heat-exchanger, fan and (in the case of one
designed to produce electricity) an alternator. Combustion turbines and
steam turbines may be connected to machinery such as pumps and
compressors, or may be used for propulsion of ships, usually through an
intermediate gearbox to reduce rotary speed.
 Reciprocating piston engines such as aircraft engines can use a turbine
powered by their exhaust to drive an intake-air compressor, a configuration
known as a turbocharger(turbine supercharger) or, colloquially, a "turbo".
Turbines can have very high power density (i.e. the ratio of power to weight,
or power to volume). This is because of their ability to operate at very high
speeds. The Space Shuttle main engines used turbopumps (machines
consisting of a pump driven by a turbine engine) to feed the propellants
(liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen) into the engine's combustion chamber.
The liquid hydrogen turbopump is slightly larger than an automobile engine
(weighing approximately 700 lb) and produces nearly 70,000 hp (52.2 MW).
Turboexpanders are widely used as sources of refrigeration in industrial
processes.
Military jet engines, as a branch of gas turbines, have recently been used
as primary flight controller in post-stall flight using jet deflections that are
also called thrust vectoring.[6]The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has
also conducted a study about civilizing such thrust vectoring systems to
recover jetliners from catastrophes.

Superheater
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See superheating for the physics process.

General arrangement of a superheater installation in a steam locomotive.

 Superheater viewed from the smokebox. Top centre is the superheater header, with pipes leading to
cylinders. Tubes below feed steam into and out of the superheater elements within the flues. The stack
and the damper have been removed for clarity.

A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into dry steam used
in steam engines or in processes, such as steam reforming. There are three types of
superheaters namely: radiant, convection, and separately fired. A superheater can vary in size
from a few tens of feet to several hundred feet (a few metres to some hundred metres).

Contents
[hide]

 1 Types
 2 Steam engines
 3 Locomotive use
o 3.1 Damper and snifting valve
o 3.2 Front-end throttle
o 3.3 Cylinder valves
 4 Applications
o 4.1 Urie's "Eastleigh" superheater
 5 Advantages and disadvantages
 6 References
o 6.1 Bibliography
 7 External links

Types[edit]
 A radiant superheater is placed directly in the combustion chamber.
 A convection superheater is located in the path of the hot gases.
 A separately fired superheater, as its name implies, is totally separated from the boiler.

Steam engines[edit]
In a steam engine, the superheater re-heats the steam generated by the boiler, increasing
its thermal energy and decreasing the likelihood that it will condense inside the
engine.[1][2] Superheaters increase the thermal efficiency of the steam engine, and have been
widely adopted. Steam which has been superheated is logically known as superheated steam;
non-superheated steam is called saturated steam or wet steam. Superheaters were applied
to steam locomotives in quantity from the early 20th century, to most steam vehicles, and to
stationary steam engines. This equipment is still used in conjunction with steam turbines in
electrical power generating stations throughout the world.

Locomotive use[edit]
In steam locomotive use, by far the most common form of superheater is the fire-tube type. This
takes the saturated steam supplied in the dry pipe into a superheater headermounted against
the tube sheet in the smokebox. The steam is then passed through a number of superheater
elements—long pipes which are placed inside special, widened fire tubes, called flues. Hot
combustion gases from the locomotive's fire pass through these flues just like they do the
firetubes, and as well as heating the water they also heat the steam inside the superheater
elements they flow over. The superheater element doubles back on itself so that the heated
steam can return; most do this twice at the fire end and once at the smokebox end, so that the
steam travels a distance of four times the header's length while being heated. The superheated
steam, at the end of its journey through the elements, passes into a separate compartment of
the superheater header and then to the cylinders as normal.
Damper and snifting valve[edit]
The steam passing through the superheater elements cools their metal and prevents them from
melting, but when the throttle closes this cooling effect is absent, and thus a damper closes in
the smokebox to cut off the flow through the flues and prevent them being damaged. Some
locomotives (particularly on the London and North Eastern Railway) were fitted with snifting
valves which admitted air to the superheater when the locomotive was coasting (drifting). This
kept the superheater elements cool and the cylinders warm. The snifting valve can be seen
behind the chimney on many LNER locomotives.
Front-end throttle[edit]
A superheater increases the distance between the throttle and the cylinders in the steam circuit
and thus reduces the immediacy of throttle action. To counteract this, some later steam
locomotives were fitted with a front-end throttle—placed in the smokebox after the superheater.
Such locomotives can sometimes be identified by an external throttle rod that stretches the
whole length of the boiler, with a crank on the outside of the smokebox. This arrangement also
allows superheated steam to be used for auxiliary appliances, such as the dynamo and air
pumps. Another benefit of the front end throttle is that superheated steam is immediately
available. With the dome throttle, it took quite some time before the super heater actually
provided benefits in efficiency. One can think of it in this way: if one opens saturated steam from
the boiler to the superheater it goes straight through the superheater units and to the cylinders
which doesn't leave much time for the steam to be superheated. With the front-end throttle,
steam is in the superheater units while the engine is sitting at the station and that steam is being
superheated. Then when the throttle is opened, superheated steam goes to the cylinders
immediately.[3]
Cylinder valves[edit]
Locomotives with superheaters are usually fitted with piston valves or poppet valves. This is
because it is difficult to keep a slide valve properly lubricated at high temperature.
Applications[edit]
The first practical superheater was developed in Germany by Wilhelm Schmidt during the 1880s
and 1890s. The first superheated locomotive Prussian S 4 series, with an early form of
superheater, was built in 1898, and produced in series from 1902.[4] The benefits of the invention
were demonstrated in the U.K. by the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1906. The GWR Chief
Mechanical Engineer, G. J. Churchward believed, however, that the Schmidt type could be
bettered, and design and testing of an indigenous Swindon type was undertaken, culminating in
the Swindon No. 3 superheater in 1909.[5] Douglas Earle Marsh carried out a series of
comparative tests between members of his I3 class using saturated steam and those fitted with
the Schmidt superheater between October 1907 and March 1910, proving the advantages of the
latter in terms of performance and efficiency.[6]
Other improved superheaters were introduced by John G. Robinson of the Great Central
Railway at Gorton locomotive works, by Robert Urie of the London and South Western
Railway (LSWR) at Eastleigh railway works, and Richard Maunsell of the Southern Railway
(Great Britain), also at Eastleigh.
Urie's "Eastleigh" superheater[edit]
Robert Urie's design of superheater for the LSWR was the product of experience with his H15
class 4-6-0 locomotives. In anticipation of performance trials, eight examples were fitted with
Schmidt and Robinson superheaters, and two others remained saturated.[7] However, the First
World War intervened before the trials could take place, although an LSWR Locomotive
Committee report from late 1915 noted that the Robinson version gave the best fuel efficiency. It
gave an average of 48.35 lb (21.9 kg) coal consumed per mile over an average distance of
39,824 mi (64,090.5 km), compared to 48.42 lb (22.0 kg) and 59.05 lb (26.8 kg) coal for the
Schmidt and saturated examples respectively.[7]
However, the report stated that both superheater types had serious drawbacks, with the Schmidt
system featuring a damper control on the superheater header that caused hot gases to
condense into sulphuric acid, which caused pitting and subsequent weakening of the
superheater elements.[7] Leakage of gases was also commonplace between the elements and
the header, and maintenance was difficult without removal of the horizontally-arranged
assembly. The Robinson version suffered from temperature variations caused by saturated and
superheated steam chambers being adjacent, causing material stress, and had similar access
problems as the Schmidt type.[7]
The report's recommendations enabled Urie to design a new type of superheater with separate
saturated steam headers above and below the superheater header.[8] These were connected by
elements beginning at the saturated header, running through the flue tubes and back to the
superheater header, and the whole assembly was vertically arranged for ease of
maintenance.[8] The device was highly successful in service, but was heavy and expensive to
construct.[8]

Advantages and disadvantages[edit]

The main advantages of using a superheater are reduced fuel and water consumption but there
is a price to pay in increased maintenance costs. In most cases the benefits outweighed the
costs and superheaters were widely used. An exception was shunting locomotives (switchers).
British shunting locomotives were rarely fitted with superheaters. In locomotives used for mineral
traffic the advantages seem to have been marginal. For example, the North Eastern
Railway fitted superheaters to some of its NER Class P mineral locomotives but later began to
remove them.
 Without careful maintenance superheaters are prone to a particular type of hazardous failure in
the tube bursting at the U-shaped turns in the superheater tube. This is difficult to both
manufacture, and test when installed, and a rupture will cause the superheated high-pressure
steam to escape immediately into the large flues, then back to the fire and into the cab, to the
extreme danger of the locomotive crew.

Turbines

by Chris Woodford. Last updated: February 23, 2015.

Q uestion: What does a windmill standing on a sandcastle have in

common with a massive ocean liner, a hydroelectric dam, or a transatlantic

jet? Answer: They all use turbines—machines that capture energy from a
moving liquid or gas. In a sandcastle windmill, the curved blades are designed
to catch the wind's energy so they flutter and spin. In an ocean liner or a jet,
hot burning gas is used to spin metal blades at high speed—capturing energy
that's used to power the ship's propeller or push the plane through the sky.
Turbines also help us make the vast majority of our electricity: turbines driven
by steam are used in virtually every major power plant, while wind and water
turbines help us to produce renewable energy. Wherever energy's being
harnessed for human needs, turbines are usually somewhere nearby. Let's
take a closer look at these handy machines and find out how they work!

Photo: A cutaway model of a steam turbine used to generate electricity in a power plant. This one is an exhibit
at the Think Tank science museum in Birmingham, England.
What is a turbine?

A windmill is the simplest kind of turbine: a machine designed to capture some

of the energy from a moving fluid (a liquid or a gas) so it can be put to use. As
the wind blows past a windmill's sails, they rotate, removing some of the
wind's kinetic energy (energy of movement) and converting it into mechanical
energy that turns heavy, rotating stones inside the mill. The faster the wind
blows, the more energy it contains; the faster the sails spin, the more energy
is supplied to the mill. Adding more sails to the windmill or changing their
design so they catch the wind better can also help to capture more of the
wind's energy. Although you may not realize it, the wind blows just a bit more
slowly after it's passed by a windmill than before—it's given up some of its
energy to the mill!

The key parts of a turbine are a set of blades that catch the moving fluid, a
shaft or axle that rotates as the blades move, and some sort of machine that's
driven by the axle. In a modern wind turbine, there are typically three
propeller-like blades attached to an axle that powers an electricity generator.
In an ancient waterwheel, there are wooden slats that turn as the water flows
under or over them, turning the axle to which the wheel is attached and
usually powering some kind of milling machine.

Photo: A prototype gas turbine produced for a high-efficiency power plant. Each of the metal wheels is a
separate turbine stage designed to extract a bit more energy from a high-speed gas. You can see how big this
turbine is by looking at the little man dressed in white sitting on the middle of the machine. Photo taken at the
National Energy Technology Laboratory, Morgantown courtesy of US Department of Energy.

Impulse and reaction turbines

Turbines work in two different ways described as impulse and reaction—terms
that are often very confusingly described (and sometimes completely muddled
up) when people try to explain them. So what's the difference?

Impulse turbines

In an impulse turbine, a fast-moving fluid is fired through a narrow nozzle at

the turbine blades to make them spin around. The blades of an impulse
turbine are usually bucket-shaped so they catch the fluid and direct it off at an
angle or sometimes even back the way it came (because that gives the most
efficient transfer of energy from the fluid to the turbine). In an impulse turbine,
the fluid is forced to hit the turbine at high speed. Imagine trying to make a
wheel like this turn around by kicking soccer balls into its paddles. You'd need
the balls to hit hard and bounce back well to get the wheel spinning—and
those constant energy impulses are the key to how it works. Water turbines
are often based around an impulse turbine (though some do work using
reaction turbines).

Photo: Left: A Pelton water wheel is an example of an impulse turbine. It spins as one or more high-pressure
water jets fire into the buckets around the edge. This one was originally used in a power plant. Photo courtesy
of Wonderferret, published on Flickr under a Creative Commons licence.

Artwork: Right: An impulse turbine like this works when the incoming fluid hits the buckets and bounces back
again. The exact shape of the buckets and how the fluid hits them makes a big difference to how much energy
the turbine can capture.

Reaction turbines
In a reaction turbine, the blades sit in a much larger volume of fluid and turn
around as the fluid flows past them. A reaction turbine doesn't change the
direction of the fluid flow as drastically as an impulse turbine: it simply spins
as the fluid pushes through and past its blades. Wind turbines are perhaps the
most familiar examples of reaction turbines.

If an impulse turbine is a bit like kicking soccer balls, a reaction turbine is

more likeswimming—in reverse. Let me explain! Think of how you do freestyle
(front crawl) by hauling your arms through the water, starting with each hand
as far in front as you can reach and ending with a "follow through" that throws
your arm well behind you. What you're trying to achieve is to keep your hand
and forearm pushing against the water for as long as possible, so you transfer
as much energy as you can in each stroke. A reaction turbine is using the
same idea in reverse: imagine fast-flowing water moving past you so it makes
your arms and legs move and supplies energy to your body! With a reaction
turbine, you want the water to touch the blades smoothly, for as long as it can,
so it gives up as much energy as possible. The water isn't hitting the blades
and bouncing off, as it does in an impulse turbine: instead, the blades are
moving more smoothly, "going with the flow."

Photo: Left: A typical reaction turbine from a geothermal power plant. Water or steam flows past the angled
blades, pushing them around and turning the central shaft to which they're attached. The shaft spins a
generator that makes electricity. Photo by Henry Price courtesy of US Department of Energy/National
Renewable Energy Laboratory (DOE/NREL).

Artwork: Right: A reaction turbine like this is much more like a propeller. The main difference is that there are
more vanes in a turbine (I've just drawn four blades for simplicity) and often multiple sets of vanes (multiple
stages), as you can see in the photos of the steam and gas turbines at the top of this page.

Thinking backwards
You might have noticed that wind turbines look just like giant propellers—and
that's another way to think of turbines: as propellers working in reverse. In
an airplane, the engine turns the propeller at high speed, the propeller creates
a backward-moving draft of air, and that's what pushes—propels—the plane
forward. With a propeller, the moving blades are driving the air; with a turbine,
the air is driving the blades.

Turbines are also similar to pumps and compressors. In a pump, you have a
spinning paddle wheel that sucks water in through one pipe and throws it out
from another so you can move water (or another liquid) from one place to
another. If you take a water pump apart, you can see the internal paddle
wheel (which is called an impeller) is very similar to what you'd find inside a
water turbine. The difference is that a pump uses energy to make a fluid
move, while a turbine captures the energy from a moving fluid.

Photo: Turbines and propellers work in exactly opposite ways. Propellers use energy to make a fluid move (air,
in the case of a plane, or water, in a ship or submarine); turbines harness energy when a moving fluid flows
past them. Left: Propeller photo by Tech. Sgt. Justin D. Pyle courtesy of US Air Force. Right: Turbine blades
are shaped in a similar way to propeller blades but are typically made from high-performance alloys because
the fluid flowing past them can be very hot. Photo of a turbine blade exhibited at Think Tank, the science
museum in Birmingham, England.

Turbines in action
Broadly speaking, we divide turbines into four kinds according to the type of
fluid that drives them: water, wind, steam, and gas. Although all four types
work in essentially the same way—spinning around as the fluid moves against
them—they are subtly different and have to be engineered in very different
ways. Steam turbines, for example, turn incredibly quickly because steam is
produced under high-pressure. Wind turbines that make electricity turn
relatively slowly (mainly for safety reasons), so they need to be huge to
capture decent amounts of energy. Gas turbines need to be made from
specially resilient alloys because they work at such high temperatures. Water
turbines are often very big because they have to extract energy from an
entire river, dammed and diverted to flow past them. They can turn relatively
slowly, because is water is heavy and carries a lot of energy (because of its
high mass) even when it flows at low speeds.

Water turbines
Photo: A giant Francis reaction turbine (the orange wheel at the top) being lowered into position at the Grand
Coulee Dam in Washington State, USA. Water flows past the angled blades, pushing them around and turning
the shaft to which they're attached. The shaft spins an electricity generator that makes power. Photo by
courtesy of US Bureau of Reclamation.

Water wheels, which date back over 2000 years to the time of the ancient
Greeks, were the original water turbines. Today, the same principle is used to
make electricity in hydroelectric power plants. The basic idea of hydroelectric
power is that you dam a river to harness its energy. Instead of the river flowing
freely downhill from its hill or mountain source toward the sea, you make it fall
through a height (called a head) so it picks up speed (in other words, so its
potential energy is converted to kinetic energy), then channel it through a pipe
called a penstock past a turbine and generator. Hydroelectricity is effectively
a three-step energy conversion:

 The river's original potential energy (which it has because it starts from
high ground) is turned into kinetic energywhen the water falls through a
height.
 The kinetic energy in the moving water is converted into mechanical
energy by a water turbine.
 The spinning water turbine drives a generator that turns the mechanical
energy into electrical energy.

Different kinds of water turbine are used depending on the geography of the
area, how much water is available (the flow), and the distance over which it
can be made to fall (the head). Some hydroelectric plants use bucket-like
impulse turbines (typically Pelton wheels); others use Francis, Kaplan, or
Deriaz reaction turbines. The type of turbine is chosen carefully to extract the
maximum amount of energy from the water.

Wind turbines

These are covered in much more detail in our separate article on wind
turbines.

Photo: A typical wind turbine, in Staffordshire, England. The tower is ~50m (~150ft) off the ground because the
wind moves faster when it's clear of ground-level obstructions. The rotor blades are ~15m (50ft) in diameter
and, with a huge sweep, capture up to 225kW (kilowatts) of energy.

Steam turbines

Steam turbines evolved from the steam engines that changed the world in the
18th and 19th centuries. A steam engine burns coal on an open fire to release
the heat it contains. The heat is used to boil water and make steam, which
pushes a piston in a cylinder to power a machine such as a railroad
locomotive. This is quite inefficient (it wastes energy) for a whole variety of
reasons. A much better design takes the steam and channels it past the
blades of a turbine, which spins around like a propeller and drives the
machine as it goes.
Steam turbines were pioneered by British engineer Charles Parsons (1854–
1931), who used them to power a famously speedy motorboat
called Turbinia in 1889. Since then, they've been used in many different ways.
Virtually all power plants generate electricity using steam turbines. In a coal-
fired plant, coal is burned in a furnace and used to heat water to make steam
that spins high-speed turbines connected to electricity generators. In a nuclear
power plant, the heat that makes the steam comes from atomic reactions.

Unlike water and wind turbines, which place a single rotating turbine in the
flow of liquid or gas, steam turbines have a whole series of turbines (each of
which is known as a stage) arranged in a sequence inside what is effectively
a closed pipe. As the steam enters the pipe, it's channeled past each stage in
turn so progressively more of its energy is extracted. If you've ever watched a
kettle boiling, you'll know that steam expands and moves very quickly if it's
directed through a nozzle. For that reason, steam turbines turn at very high
speeds—many times faster than wind or water turbines.

Read more in in main article on steam turbines.

Gas turbines

Airplane jet engines are a bit like steam turbines in that they have multiple
stages. Instead of steam, they're driven by a mixture of the air sucked in at the
front of the engine and the incredibly hot gases made by burning huge
quantities of kerosene (petroleum-based fuel). Somewhat less powerful gas
turbine engines are also used in modern railroad locomotives and industrial
machines. See our article on jet engines for more details.

Turbines for kids?

How do you explain something as complex as a turbine to a young child? All

that stuff up above about reaction versus impulse turbines, stages, swimming
backwards, and so on is bound to confuse... isn't it?
Actually it's easy to explain turbines very simply—and here's how you do it.
Take your child into a bathroom or kitchen and get them to hold their hand
under a cold tap. Turn on the water a little bit (just a trickle). Now, to their
surprise, turn it on really hard and get them to keep their hand there.

"Can you feel the force of the water hitting your hand? The moving water has
a lot of energy and power in it. Imagine you are a machine that could catch
the energy and use it to do something useful, like making electricity. That's
what a turbine is. It's a machine that catches energy from a moving liquid (like
water) or gas (like air) and helps us do something useful. So a wind turbine is
just a machine that catches air with its propeller, turns a generator hidden
inside, and makes electricity. The more energy there is in the air, the more
power a wind turbine can make. It's just like the water. The harder it's hitting
your hand, the more energy it has, so the more energy you could catch and
turn into power. A wind turbine is built very high up in the air because the wind
(the air) moves much faster there. That's like turning the tap on harder. It
means the wind turbine can catch and make more power for us. Different
types of turbines catch different types of fluids (liquids or gases). So while a
wind turbine or a windmill catches air, a steam turbine catches hot steam
made from burning something like coal, and a water wheel (which is just a
water turbine) catches water. All turbines do the same job: they capture
energy (the energy in the moving liquid or gas) and turn it into a form we can
use (movement in a machine or electricity). Turbines are energy-catching
machines."
Thermal power station
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Republika Power Plant, a thermal power station in Pernik, Bulgaria.

Mohave Generating Station, a 1,580 MW thermal power station near Laughlin, Nevadafuelled by coal.

Nuclear thermal power station in Bavaria,Germany.

 Geothermal power station in Iceland.

Taichung Thermal Power Station, the world's largest coal-fired power station, inTaichung, Taiwan.

A thermal power station is a power plant in which the prime mover is steam driven. Water is
heated, turns into steam and spins asteam turbine which drives an electrical generator. After it
passes through the turbine, the steam is condensed in a condenser and recycled to where it was
heated; this is known as a Rankine cycle. The greatest variation in the design of thermal power
stations is due to the different fossil fuel resources generally used to heat the water. Some prefer to
use the term energy center because such facilities convert forms of heat energy into electrical
energy.[1] Certain thermal power plants also are designed to produce heat energy for industrial
purposes of district heating, or desalination of water, in addition to generating electrical power.
Globally, fossil fueled thermal power plants produce a large part of man-made CO2 emissions to the
atmosphere, and efforts to reduce these are varied and widespread.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Types of thermal power station

 2 History
 3 Thermal power generation Efficiency
 4 Electricity cost
 5 Typical coal thermal power station
 6 Boiler and steam cycle
o 6.1 Feed water heating and deaeration
o 6.2 Boiler operation
o 6.3 Boiler furnace and steam drum
o 6.4 Superheater
 o 6.5 Steam condensing
o 6.6 Reheater
o 6.7 Air path
 7 Steam turbine generator
 8 Stack gas path and cleanup
o 8.1 Fly ash collection
o 8.2 Bottom ash collection and disposal
 9 Auxiliary systems
o 9.1 Boiler make-up water treatment plant and storage
o 9.2 Fuel preparation system
o 9.3 Barring gear
o 9.4 Oil system
o 9.5 Generator cooling
o 9.6 Generator high-voltage system
o 9.7 Monitoring and alarm system
o 9.8 Battery-supplied emergency lighting and communication
o 9.9 Circulating water system
 10 Transport of coal fuel to site and to storage
 11 See also
 12 References
 13 External links

Types of thermal power station[edit]

Almost all coal, nuclear, geothermal, solar thermal electric, and waste incineration plants, as well as
many natural gas power plants are thermal. Natural gas is frequently combusted in gas turbines as
well as boilers. The waste heat from a gas turbine can be used to raise steam, in a combined
cycle plant that improves overall efficiency. Power plants burning coal, fuel oil, or natural gas are
often called fossil-fuel power plants. Some biomass-fueled thermal power plants have appeared
also. Non-nuclear thermal power plants, particularly fossil-fueled plants, which do not use co-
generation are sometimes referred to as conventional power plants.
Commercial electric utility power stations are usually constructed on a large scale and designed for
continuous operation. Electric power plants typically use three-phase electrical generators to
produce alternating current (AC) electric power at a frequency of 50 Hz or 60 Hz. Large companies
or institutions may have their own power plants to supply heating or electricity to their facilities,
especially if steam is created anyway for other purposes. Steam-driven power plants have been
used in various large ships, but are now usually used in large naval ships. Shipboard power plants
usually directly couple the turbine to the ship's propellers through gearboxes. Power plants in such
ships also provide steam to smaller turbines driving electric generators to supply electricity.
Shipboard steam power plants can be either fossil fuel or nuclear. Nuclear marine propulsion is, with
few exceptions, used only in naval vessels. There have been perhaps about a dozen turbo-
electric ships in which a steam-driven turbine drives an electric generator which powers an electric
motor for propulsion.
Combined heat and power plants (CH&P plants), often called co-generation plants, produce both
electric power and heat for process heat or space heating. Steam and hot water lose energy when
piped over substantial distance, so carrying heat energy by steam or hot water is often only
worthwhile within a local area, such as a ship, industrial plant, or district heating of nearby buildings.

History[edit]
The initially developed reciprocating steam engine has been used to produce mechanical power
since the 18th Century, with notable improvements being made by James Watt. When the first
commercially developed central electrical power stations were established in 1882 at Pearl Street
Station in New York and Holborn Viaduct power station in London, reciprocating steam engines were
used. The development of the steam turbine in 1884 provided larger and more efficient machine
designs for central generating stations. By 1892 the turbine was considered a better alternative to
reciprocating engines;[2] turbines offered higher speeds, more compact machinery, and stable speed
regulation allowing for parallel synchronous operation of generators on a common bus. After about
1905, turbines entirely replaced reciprocating engines in large central power stations.
The largest reciprocating engine-generator sets ever built were completed in 1901 for the Manhattan
Elevated Railway. Each of seventeen units weighed about 500 tons and was rated 6000 kilowatts; a
contemporary turbine set of similar rating would have weighed about 20% as much.[3]

Thermal power generation Efficiency[edit]

A Rankine cycle with a two-stage steam turbine and a single feed water heater.

The energy efficiency of a conventional thermal power station, considered salable energy produced
as a percent of the heating value of the fuel consumed, is typically 33% to 48%.[citation needed] As with all
heat engines, their efficiency is limited, and governed by the laws of thermodynamics. By
comparison, most hydropower stations in the United States are about 90 percent efficient in
converting the energy of falling water into electricity.[4]
The energy of a thermal not utilized in power production must leave the plant in the form of heat to
the environment. This waste heat can go through a condenser and be disposed of with cooling
water or in cooling towers. If the waste heat is instead utilized for district heating, it is called co-
generation. An important class of thermal power station are associated with desalination facilities;
these are typically found in desert countries with large supplies of natural gasand in these plants,
freshwater production and electricity are equally important co-products.
The Carnot efficiency dictates that higher efficiencies can be attained by increasing the temperature
of the steam. Sub-critical fossil fuel power plants can achieve 36–40% efficiency. Super
critical designs have efficiencies in the low to mid 40% range, with new "ultra critical" designs using
pressures of 4400 psi (30.3 MPa) and multiple stage reheat reaching about 48% efficiency. Above
the critical point for water of 705 °F (374 °C) and 3212 psi (22.06 MPa), there is no phase
transition from water to steam, but only a gradual decrease in density.
Currently most of the nuclear power plants must operate below the temperatures and pressures that
coal-fired plants do, since the pressurized vessel is very large and contains the entire bundle of
nuclear fuel rods. The size of the reactor limits the pressure that can be reached. This, in turn, limits
their thermodynamic efficiency to 30–32%. Some advanced reactor designs being studied, such as
the very high temperature reactor, advanced gas-cooled reactorand supercritical water reactor,
would operate at temperatures and pressures similar to current coal plants, producing comparable
thermodynamic efficiency.

Electricity cost[edit]
See also: Relative cost of electricity generated by different sources

The direct cost of electric energy produced by a thermal power station is the result of cost of fuel,
capital cost for the plant, operator labour, maintenance, and such factors as ash handling and
disposal. Indirect, social or environmental costs such as the economic value of environmental
impacts, or environmental and health effects of the complete fuel cycle and plant decommissioning,
are not usually assigned to generation costs for thermal stations in utility practice, but may form part
of an environmental impact assessment.

Typical coal thermal power station[edit]

Typical diagram of a coal-fired thermal power station

1. Cooling tower 10. Steam Control valve 19. Superheater

2. Cooling water pump 11. High pressure steam turbine 20. Forced draught (draft) fan

3. Transmission line (3-phase) 12. Deaerator 21. Reheater

4. Step-up transformer (3-phase) 13. Feedwater heater 22. Combustion air intake

5. Electrical generator (3-phase) 14. Coal conveyor 23. Economiser

6. Low pressure steam turbine 15. Coal hopper 24. Air preheater

7. Condensate pump 16. Coal pulverizer 25. Precipitator

8. Surface condenser 17. Boiler steam drum 26. Induced draught (draft) fan

9. Intermediate pressure steam turbine 18. Bottom ash hopper 27. Flue-gas stack
For units over about 200 MW capacity, redundancy of key components is provided by installing
duplicates of the forced and induced draft fans, air preheaters, and fly ash collectors. On some units
of about 60 MW, two boilers per unit may instead be provided. The list of coal power stations has the
200 largest power stations ranging in size from 2,000MW to 5,500MW.

Boiler and steam cycle[edit]

In the nuclear plant field, steam generator refers to a specific type of large heat exchanger used in
a pressurized water reactor (PWR) to thermally connect the primary (reactor plant) and secondary
(steam plant) systems, which generates steam. In a nuclear reactor called a boiling water
reactor (BWR), water is boiled to generate steam directly in the reactor itself and there are no units
called steam generators.
In some industrial settings, there can also be steam-producing heat exchangers called heat recovery
steam generators (HRSG) which utilize heat from some industrial process. The steam generating
boiler has to produce steam at the high purity, pressure and temperature required for the steam
turbine that drives the electrical generator.
Geothermal plants need no boiler since they use naturally occurring steam sources. Heat
exchangers may be used where the geothermal steam is very corrosive or contains excessive
suspended solids.
A fossil fuel steam generator includes an economizer, a steam drum, and the furnace with its steam
generating tubes and superheater coils. Necessary safety valves are located at suitable points to
avoid excessive boiler pressure. The air and flue gas path equipment include: forced draft
(FD) fan, air preheater (AP), boiler furnace, induced draft (ID) fan, fly ash collectors (electrostatic
precipitator or baghouse) and the flue gas stack.[5][6][7]
Feed water heating and deaeration[edit]
The boiler feedwater used in the steam boiler is a means of transferring heat energy from the
burning fuel to the mechanical energy of the spinning steam turbine. The total feed water consists of
recirculated condensate water and purified makeup water. Because the metallic materials it contacts
are subject to corrosion at high temperatures and pressures, the makeup water is highly purified
before use. A system of water softeners and ion exchange demineralizers produces water so pure
that it coincidentally becomes an electrical insulator, with conductivity in the range of 0.3–
1.0 microsiemens per centimeter. The makeup water in a 500 MWe plant amounts to perhaps 120
US gallons per minute (7.6 L/s) to replace water drawn off from the boiler drums for water purity
management, and to also offset the small losses from steam leaks in the system.
The feed water cycle begins with condensate water being pumped out of the condenser after
traveling through the steam turbines. The condensate flow rate at full load in a 500 MW plant is
about 6,000 US gallons per minute (400 L/s).
Diagram of boiler feed water deaerator (with vertical, domed aeration section and horizontal water storage
section).

The water is pressurized in two stages, and flows through a series of six or seven intermediate feed
water heaters, heated up at each point with steam extracted from an appropriate duct on the
turbines and gaining temperature at each stage. Typically, in the middle of this series of feedwater
heaters, and before the second stage of pressurization, the condensate plus the makeup water flows
through a deaerator[8][9] that removes dissolved air from the water, further purifying and reducing its
corrosiveness. The water may be dosed following this point with hydrazine, a chemical that removes
the remaining oxygen in the water to below 5 parts per billion (ppb).[vague] It is also dosed
with pH control agents such as ammonia or morpholine to keep the residual acidity low and thus
non-corrosive.
Boiler operation[edit]
The boiler is a rectangular furnace about 50 feet (15 m) on a side and 130 feet (40 m) tall. Its walls
are made of a web of high pressure steel tubes about 2.3 inches (58 mm) in diameter.
Pulverized coal is air-blown into the furnace through burners located at the four corners, or along
one wall, or two opposite walls, and it is ignited to rapidly burn, forming a large fireball at the center.
The thermal radiation of the fireball heats the water that circulates through the boiler tubes near the
boiler perimeter. The water circulation rate in the boiler is three to four times the throughput. As the
water in the boiler circulates it absorbs heat and changes into steam. It is separated from the water
inside a drum at the top of the furnace. The saturated steam is introduced into superheat pendant
tubes that hang in the hottest part of the combustion gases as they exit the furnace. Here the steam
is superheated to 1,000 °F (540 °C) to prepare it for the turbine.
Plants designed for lignite (brown coal) are increasingly used in locations as varied
as Germany, Victoria, Australia and North Dakota. Lignite is a much younger form of coal than black
coal. It has a lower energy density than black coal and requires a much larger furnace for equivalent
heat output. Such coals may contain up to 70% water and ash, yielding lower furnace temperatures
and requiring larger induced-draft fans. The firing systems also differ from black coal and typically
draw hot gas from the furnace-exit level and mix it with the incoming coal in fan-type mills that inject
the pulverized coal and hot gas mixture into the boiler.
Plants that use gas turbines to heat the water for conversion into steam use boilers known as heat
recovery steam generators (HRSG). The exhaust heat from the gas turbines is used to make
superheated steam that is then used in a conventional water-steam generation cycle, as described
in gas turbine combined-cycle plants section below.
Boiler furnace and steam drum[edit]
The water enters the boiler through a section in the convection pass called the economizer. From
the economizer it passes to the steam drum and from there it goes through downcomers to inlet
headers at the bottom of the water walls. From these headers the water rises through the water
walls of the furnace where some of it is turned into steam and the mixture of water and steam then
re-enters the steam drum. This process may be driven purely by natural circulation (because the
water is the downcomers is denser than the water/steam mixture in the water walls) or assisted by
pumps. In the steam drum, the water is returned to the downcomers and the steam is passed
through a series ofsteam separators and dryers that remove water droplets from the steam. The dry
steam then flows into the superheater coils.
The boiler furnace auxiliary equipment includes coal feed nozzles and igniter guns, soot blowers,
water lancing and observation ports (in the furnace walls) for observation of the furnace interior.
Furnace explosions due to any accumulation of combustible gases after a trip-out are avoided by
flushing out such gases from the combustion zone before igniting the coal.
The steam drum (as well as the super heater coils and headers) have air vents and drains needed
for initial start up.
Superheater[edit]
Fossil fuel power plants often have a superheater section in the steam generating furnace. The
steam passes through drying equipment inside the steam drum on to the superheater, a set of tubes
in the furnace. Here the steam picks up more energy from hot flue gases outside the tubing and its
temperature is now superheated above the saturation temperature. The superheated steam is then
piped through the main steam lines to the valves before the high pressure turbine.
Nuclear-powered steam plants do not have such sections but produce steam at essentially saturated
conditions. Experimental nuclear plants were equipped with fossil-fired super heaters in an attempt
to improve overall plant operating cost.
Steam condensing[edit]
The condenser condenses the steam from the exhaust of the turbine into liquid to allow it to be
pumped. If the condenser can be made cooler, the pressure of the exhaust steam is reduced and
efficiency of the cycle increases.
Diagram of a typical water-cooled surface condenser.[6][7][10][11]

The surface condenser is a shell and tube heat exchanger in which cooling water is circulated
through the tubes.[6][10][11][12] The exhaust steam from the low pressure turbine enters the shell where it
is cooled and converted to condensate (water) by flowing over the tubes as shown in the adjacent
diagram. Such condensers use steam ejectors or rotary motor-driven exhausters for continuous
removal of air and gases from the steam side to maintainvacuum.
For best efficiency, the temperature in the condenser must be kept as low as practical in order to
achieve the lowest possible pressure in the condensing steam. Since the condenser temperature
can almost always be kept significantly below 100 °C where the vapor pressure of water is much
less than atmospheric pressure, the condenser generally works under vacuum. Thus leaks of non-
condensible air into the closed loop must be prevented.
Typically the cooling water causes the steam to condense at a temperature of about 35 °C (95 °F)
and that creates an absolute pressure in the condenser of about 2–7 kPa (0.59–2.07 inHg), i.e.
a vacuum of about −95 kPa (−28 inHg) relative to atmospheric pressure. The large decrease in
volume that occurs when water vapor condenses to liquid creates the low vacuum that helps pull
steam through and increase the efficiency of the turbines.
The limiting factor is the temperature of the cooling water and that, in turn, is limited by the prevailing
average climatic conditions at the power plant's location (it may be possible to lower the temperature
beyond the turbine limits during winter, causing excessive condensation in the turbine). Plants
operating in hot climates may have to reduce output if their source of condenser cooling water
becomes warmer; unfortunately this usually coincides with periods of high electrical demand for air
conditioning.
The condenser generally uses either circulating cooling water from a cooling tower to reject waste
heat to the atmosphere, or once-through water from a river, lake or ocean.
A Marley mechanical induced draft cooling tower

The heat absorbed by the circulating cooling water in the condenser tubes must also be removed to
maintain the ability of the water to cool as it circulates. This is done by pumping the warm water from
the condenser through either natural draft, forced draft or induced draft cooling towers (as seen in
the image to the right) that reduce the temperature of the water by evaporation, by about 11 to 17 °C
(20 to 30 °F)—expelling waste heat to the atmosphere. The circulation flow rate of the cooling water
in a 500 MW unit is about 14.2 m³/s (500 ft³/s or 225,000 US gal/min) at full load.[13]
The condenser tubes are made of brass or stainless steel to resist corrosion from either side.
Nevertheless they may become internally fouled during operation by bacteria or algae in the cooling
water or by mineral scaling, all of which inhibit heat transfer and reduce thermodynamic efficiency.
Many plants include an automatic cleaning system that circulates sponge rubber balls through the
tubes to scrub them clean without the need to take the system off-line.[citation needed]
The cooling water used to condense the steam in the condenser returns to its source without having
been changed other than having been warmed. If the water returns to a local water body (rather than
a circulating cooling tower), it is tempered with cool 'raw' water to prevent thermal shock when
discharged into that body of water.
Another form of condensing system is the air-cooled condenser. The process is similar to that of
a radiator and fan. Exhaust heat from the low pressure section of a steam turbine runs through the
condensing tubes, the tubes are usually finned and ambient air is pushed through the fins with the
help of a large fan. The steam condenses to water to be reused in the water-steam cycle. Air-cooled
condensers typically operate at a higher temperature than water-cooled versions. While saving
water, the efficiency of the cycle is reduced (resulting in more carbon dioxide per megawatt of
electricity).
From the bottom of the condenser, powerful condensate pumps recycle the condensed steam
(water) back to the water/steam cycle.
Reheater[edit]
Power plant furnaces may have a reheater section containing tubes heated by hot flue gases outside
the tubes. Exhaust steam from the high pressure turbine is passed through these heated tubes to
collect more energy before driving the intermediate and then low pressure turbines.
Air path[edit]
External fans are provided to give sufficient air for combustion. The Primary air fan takes air from the
atmosphere and, first warming it in the air preheater for better combustion, injects it via the air
nozzles on the furnace wall.
The induced draft fan assists the FD fan by drawing out combustible gases from the furnace,
maintaining a slightly negative pressure in the furnace to avoid backfiring through any closing.

Steam turbine generator[edit]

Main article: Turbo generator
Rotor of a modern steam turbine, used in a power station

The turbine generator consists of a series of steam turbines interconnected to each other and a
generator on a common shaft. There is a high pressure turbine at one end, followed by an
intermediate pressure turbine, two low pressure turbines, and the generator. As steam moves
through the system and loses pressure and thermal energy it expands in volume, requiring
increasing diameter and longer blades at each succeeding stage to extract the remaining energy.
The entire rotating mass may be over 200 metric tons and 100 feet (30 m) long. It is so heavy that it
must be kept turning slowly even when shut down (at 3 rpm) so that the shaft will not bow even
slightly and become unbalanced. This is so important that it is one of only five functions of blackout
emergency power batteries on site. Other functions are emergency lighting, communication, station
alarms and turbogenerator lube oil.
Superheated steam from the boiler is delivered through 14–16-inch (360–410 mm) diameter piping
to the high pressure turbine where it falls in pressure to 600 psi (4.1 MPa) and to 600 °F (320 °C) in
temperature through the stage. It exits via 24–26-inch (610–660 mm) diameter cold reheat lines and
passes back into the boiler where the steam is reheated in special reheat pendant tubes back to
1,000 °F (540 °C). The hot reheat steam is conducted to the intermediate pressure turbine where it
falls in both temperatureand pressure and exits directly to the long-bladed low pressure turbines and
finally exits to the condenser.
The generator, 30 feet (9 m) long and 12 feet (3.7 m) in diameter, contains a stationary stator and a
spinning rotor, each containing miles of heavy copper conductor—no permanent magnets here. In
operation it generates up to 21,000 amperes at 24,000 volts AC(504 MWe) as it spins at either 3,000
or 3,600 rpm, synchronized to the power grid. The rotor spins in a sealed chamber cooled
withhydrogen gas, selected because it has the highest known heat transfer coefficient of any gas
and for its low viscosity which reduces windage losses. This system requires special handling during
startup, with air in the chamber first displaced by carbon dioxide before filling with hydrogen. This
ensures that the highly explosive hydrogen–oxygenenvironment is not created.
The power grid frequency is 60 Hz across North America and 50 Hz
in Europe, Oceania, Asia (Korea and parts of Japan are notable exceptions) and parts of Africa. The
desired frequency affects the design of large turbines, since they are highly optimized for one
particular speed.
The electricity flows to a distribution yard where transformers increase the voltage for transmission
to its destination.
The steam turbine-driven generators have auxiliary systems enabling them to work satisfactorily and
safely. The steam turbine generator being rotating equipment generally has a heavy, large diameter
shaft. The shaft therefore requires not only supports but also has to be kept in position while running.
To minimize the frictional resistance to the rotation, the shaft has a number of bearings. The bearing
shells, in which the shaft rotates, are lined with a low friction material like Babbitt metal. Oil
lubrication is provided to further reduce the friction between shaft and bearing surface and to limit
the heat generated.

Stack gas path and cleanup[edit]

See also: Flue-gas emissions from fossil-fuel combustion and Flue-gas desulfurization

As the combustion flue gas exits the boiler it is routed through a rotating flat basket of metal mesh
which picks up heat and returns it to incoming fresh air as the basket rotates, This is called the air
preheater. The gas exiting the boiler is laden with fly ash, which are tiny spherical ash particles. The
flue gas contains nitrogen along with combustion products carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide,
and nitrogen oxides. The fly ash is removed by fabric bag filters or electrostatic precipitators. Once
removed, the fly ash byproduct can sometimes be used in the manufacturing of concrete. This
cleaning up of flue gases, however, only occurs in plants that are fitted with the appropriate
technology. Still, the majority of coal-fired power plants in the world do not have these facilities.[citation
needed]
Legislation in Europe has been efficient to reduce flue gas pollution. Japan has been using flue
gas cleaning technology for over 30 years and the US has been doing the same for over 25 years.
China is now beginning to grapple with the pollution caused by coal-fired power plants.
Where required by law, the sulfur and nitrogen oxide pollutants are removed by stack gas
scrubbers which use a pulverized limestone or other alkaline wet slurry to remove those pollutants
from the exit stack gas. Other devices use catalysts to remove Nitrous Oxide compounds from the
flue gas stream. The gas travelling up the flue gas stack may by this time have dropped to about
50 °C (120 °F). A typical flue gas stack may be 150–180 metres (490–590 ft) tall to disperse the
remaining flue gas components in the atmosphere. The tallest flue gas stack in the world is 419.7
metres (1,377 ft) tall at the GRES-2 power plant in Ekibastuz, Kazakhstan.
In the United States and a number of other countries, atmospheric dispersion modeling[14] studies are
required to determine the flue gas stack height needed to comply with the local air
pollution regulations. The United States also requires the height of a flue gas stack to comply with
what is known as the "Good Engineering Practice (GEP)" stack height.[15][16] In the case of existing
flue gas stacks that exceed the GEP stack height, any air pollution dispersion modeling studies for
such stacks must use the GEP stack height rather than the actual stack height.
Fly ash collection[edit]
Fly ash is captured and removed from the flue gas by electrostatic precipitators or fabric bag filters
(or sometimes both) located at the outlet of the furnace and before the induced draft fan. The fly ash
is periodically removed from the collection hoppers below the precipitators or bag filters. Generally,
the fly ash is pneumatically transported to storage silos for subsequent transport by trucks or railroad
cars .
Bottom ash collection and disposal[edit]
At the bottom of the furnace, there is a hopper for collection of bottom ash. This hopper is always
filled with water to quench the ash and clinkers falling down from the furnace. Some arrangement is
included to crush the clinkers and for conveying the crushed clinkers and bottom ash to a storage
site. Ash extractor is used to discharge ash from Municipal solid waste–fired boilers.

Auxiliary systems[edit]
Boiler make-up water treatment plant and storage[edit]
Since there is continuous withdrawal of steam and continuous return of condensate to the boiler,
losses due to blowdown and leakages have to be made up to maintain a desired water level in the
boiler steam drum. For this, continuous make-up water is added to the boiler water system.
Impurities in the raw water input to the plant generally consist ofcalcium and magnesium salts which
impart hardness to the water. Hardness in the make-up water to the boiler will form deposits on the
tube water surfaces which will lead to overheating and failure of the tubes. Thus, the salts have to be
removed from the water, and that is done by a water demineralising treatment plant (DM). A DM
plant generally consists of cation, anion, and mixed bed exchangers. Any ions in the final water from
this process consist essentially of hydrogen ions and hydroxide ions, which recombine to form pure
water. Very pure DM water becomes highly corrosive once it absorbs oxygen from the atmosphere
because of its very high affinity for oxygen.
The capacity of the DM plant is dictated by the type and quantity of salts in the raw water input.
However, some storage is essential as the DM plant may be down for maintenance. For this
purpose, a storage tank is installed from which DM water is continuously withdrawn for boiler make-
up. The storage tank for DM water is made from materials not affected by corrosive water, such
as PVC. The piping and valves are generally of stainless steel. Sometimes, a steam blanketing
arrangement or stainless steel doughnut float is provided on top of the water in the tank to avoid
contact with air. DM water make-up is generally added at the steam space of the surface
condenser (i.e., the vacuum side). This arrangement not only sprays the water but also DM water
gets deaerated, with the dissolved gases being removed by a de-aerator through an ejector attached
to the condenser.
Fuel preparation system[edit]

Conveyor system for moving coal (visible at far left) into a power plant

In coal-fired power stations, the raw feed coal from the coal storage area is first crushed into small
pieces and then conveyed to the coal feed hoppers at the boilers. The coal is next pulverized into a
very fine powder. The pulverizers may be ball mills, rotating drum grinders, or other types of
grinders.
Some power stations burn fuel oil rather than coal. The oil must kept warm (above its pour point) in
the fuel oil storage tanks to prevent the oil from congealing and becoming unpumpable. The oil is
usually heated to about 100 °C before being pumped through the furnace fuel oil spray nozzles.
Boilers in some power stations use processed natural gas as their main fuel. Other power stations
may use processed natural gas as auxiliary fuel in the event that their main fuel supply (coal or oil) is
interrupted. In such cases, separate gas burners are provided on the boiler furnaces.
Barring gear[edit]
Barring gear (or "turning gear") is the mechanism provided to rotate the turbine generator shaft at a
very low speed after unit stoppages. Once the unit is "tripped" (i.e., the steam inlet valve is closed),
the turbine coasts down towards standstill. When it stops completely, there is a tendency for the
turbine shaft to deflect or bend if allowed to remain in one position too long. This is because the heat
inside the turbine casing tends to concentrate in the top half of the casing, making the top half
portion of the shaft hotter than the bottom half. The shaft therefore could warp or bend by millionths
of inches.
This small shaft deflection, only detectable by eccentricity meters, would be enough to cause
damaging vibrations to the entire steam turbine generator unit when it is restarted. The shaft is
therefore automatically turned at low speed (about one percent rated speed) by the barring gear until
it has cooled sufficiently to permit a complete stop.
Oil system[edit]
An auxiliary oil system pump is used to supply oil at the start-up of the steam turbine generator. It
supplies the hydraulic oil system required for steam turbine's main inlet steam stop valve, the
governing control valves, the bearing and seal oil systems, the relevant hydraulic relays and other
mechanisms.
At a preset speed of the turbine during start-ups, a pump driven by the turbine main shaft takes over
the functions of the auxiliary system.
Generator cooling[edit]
While small generators may be cooled by air drawn through filters at the inlet, larger units generally
require special cooling arrangements. Hydrogen gas cooling, in an oil-sealed casing, is used
because it has the highest known heat transfer coefficient of any gas and for its low viscosity which
reduces windage losses. This system requires special handling during start-up, with air in the
generator enclosure first displaced by carbon dioxide before filling with hydrogen. This ensures that
the highly flammable hydrogen does not mix with oxygen in the air.
The hydrogen pressure inside the casing is maintained slightly higher than atmospheric pressure to
avoid outside air ingress. The hydrogen must be sealed against outward leakage where the shaft
emerges from the casing. Mechanical seals around the shaft are installed with a very small annular
gap to avoid rubbing between the shaft and the seals. Seal oil is used to prevent the hydrogen gas
leakage to atmosphere.
The generator also uses water cooling. Since the generator coils are at a potential of about 22 kV,
an insulating barrier such as Teflon is used to interconnect the water line and the generator high-
voltage windings. Demineralized water of low conductivity is used.
Generator high-voltage system[edit]
The generator voltage for modern utility-connected generators ranges from 11 kV in smaller units
to 22 kV in larger units. The generator high-voltage leads are normally large aluminium channels
because of their high current as compared to the cables used in smaller machines. They are
enclosed in well-grounded aluminium bus ducts and are supported on suitable insulators. The
generator high-voltage leads are connected to step-up transformers for connecting to a high-
voltage electrical substation (usually in the range of 115 kV to 765 kV) for further transmission by the
local power grid.
The necessary protection and metering devices are included for the high-voltage leads. Thus, the
steam turbine generator and the transformer form one unit. Smaller units may share a common
generator step-up transformer with individual circuit breakers to connect the generators to a common
bus.
Monitoring and alarm system[edit]
Most of the power plant operational controls are automatic. However, at times, manual intervention
may be required. Thus, the plant is provided with monitors and alarm systems that alert the plant
operators when certain operating parameters are seriously deviating from their normal range.
 Battery-supplied emergency lighting and communication [edit]
A central battery system consisting of lead acid cell units is provided to supply emergency electric
power, when needed, to essential items such as the power plant's control systems, communication
systems, turbine lube oil pumps, and emergency lighting. This is essential for a safe, damage-free
shutdown of the units in an emergency situation.

Circulating water system[edit]

See also: Circulating Water Plant

Thermal power plants requires water in bulk quantity,for condensation of steam and also for Active
Fire protection in plant.Certain Power plants are preferred to built near any water body like Kota
Super Thermal Power Station is built near Bank of River Chambal, another example is Bokaro
Thermal Power Station which is situated on the bank of Konar River in India.

Transport of coal fuel to site and to storage[edit]

Main article: Fossil fuel power plant

Most thermal stations use coal as the main fuel. Raw coal is transported from coal mines to a power
station site by trucks, barges, bulk cargo ships or railway cars. Generally, when shipped by railways,
the coal cars are sent as a full train of cars. The coal received at site may be of different sizes. The
railway cars are unloaded at site by rotary dumpers or side tilt dumpers to tip over onto conveyor
belts below. The coal is generally conveyed to crushers which crush the coal to about 3⁄4 inch
(19 mm) size. The crushed coal is then sent by belt conveyors to a storage pile. Normally, the
crushed coal is compacted by bulldozers, as compacting of highly volatile coal avoids spontaneous
ignition.
The crushed coal is conveyed from the storage pile to silos or hoppers at the boilers by another belt
conveyor system.
Electric generators work on the principle of Faraday’s electromagnetic induction. The essential part of this principle is the
magnetic field. The magnetic filed is produced from a DC power source from an Exciter that is part of the generator system. Read
on for more.

 The main requirement for electricity generation as per the basic principle is a magnetic field. The generator while producing
electricity also has to produce this at a constant voltage for the electrical system to work properly. Controlling the magnetic field
controls the voltage output of the generator.

How does one produce and control this magnetic field in a large generator?

 The rotor or the field coils in a generator produce the magnetic flux that is essential to the production of the electric power. The
rotor is a rotating electromagnet that requires a DC ( Direct Current) electric power source to excite the magnetic field. This
power comes from an exciter.

 DC Exciter
In the past, the exciter was a small DC generator coupled to the same shaft as the rotor. Therefore, when the rotor rotates this
exciter produces the power for the electromagnet. Control of the exciter output is done by varying the field current of the exciter.
This output from the exiter then controls the magnetic field of the rotor to produce a constant voltage output by the generator.
This DC current feeds to the rotor through slip rings.

 Static Exciter
 In modern generators the exciters are static. The DC power for the electromagnet is from the main generator output itself. A
number of high power thyristors rectify the AC current to produce a DC current which feeds to the rotor through slip rings. This
eliminates the operation and maintenance problems associated with having another rotating machine. Static exciters offer a better
control of the output than an electromechanical control.

During start up, when there is no output from the generator, a large battery bank provides the necessary power for excitation.

 Brushless Exciter
Another method is the brushless system. In this system the armature of the exciter is on the rotor shaft itself. The DC output of
this armature, after rectification by solid-state devices, goes to the rotor coils. Since the armature and rotor are on the same
rotating shaft, this eliminates the need for slip rings. Hence it reduces maintenance and operational requirements and thus
improving reliability.

Alternator
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please

help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources.
Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2013)

Early 20th-century alternator made in Budapest,Hungary, in the power generating hall of a hydroelectricstation
(photograph by Prokudin-Gorsky, 1905–1915)

An alternator is an electrical generator that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the
form of alternating current.[1] For reasons of cost and simplicity, most alternators use a
rotating magnetic field with a stationary armature.[2]Occasionally, a linear alternator or a rotating
 armature with a stationary magnetic field is used. In principle, any ACelectrical generator can be
called an alternator, but usually the term refers to small rotating machines driven by automotive and
other internal combustion engines. An alternator that uses a permanent magnet for its magnetic
field is called a magneto. Alternators in power stations driven by steam turbines are called turbo-
alternators. Large 50 or 60 Hzthree phase alternators in power plants generate most of the world's
electric power, which is distributed by electric power grids.

Contents
[hide]

 1 History
 2 Principle of operation
 3 Synchronous speeds
 4 Classifications
o 4.1 By excitation
 4.1.1 Direct connected DC generator
 4.1.2 Transformation and rectification
 4.1.3 Brushless alternators
o 4.2 By number of phases
o 4.3 By rotating part
 5 Specific applications
o 5.1 Electric Generators
o 5.2 Automotive alternators
o 5.3 Diesel electric locomotive alternators
o 5.4 Marine alternators
o 5.5 Radio alternators
 6 See also
 7 Notes
 8 References
 9 External links

History[edit]

In what is considered the first industrial use of alternating current in 1891, workmen pose with a Westinghouse
alternator at the Ames Hydroelectric Generating Plant. This alternator was used as a generator producing 3000
volt, 133 Hertz, single-phase AC, and an identical one 3 miles away was used as an AC motor.[3]
Alternating current generating systems were known in simple forms from the discovery of
the magnetic induction of electric current in the 1830s. The early machines were developed by
pioneers such as Michael Faraday and Hippolyte Pixii.

Faraday developed the "rotating rectangle", whose operation was heteropolar - each active
conductor passed successively through regions where the magnetic field was in opposite
directions.[4] William Stanley, Jr. demonstrated the first practical system for providing electric
illumination with the use of alternating current in 1886.[5] Both DC generators and the "alternator
system" were used from the 1870s on.[6] Large two-phase alternating current generators were built
by a British electrician, J.E.H. Gordon, in 1882. Lord Kelvin andSebastian Ferranti also developed
early alternators, producing frequencies between 100 and 300 Hz. After 1891, polyphase alternators
were introduced to supply currents of multiple differing phases.[7] Later alternators were designed for
varying alternating-current frequencies between sixteen and about one hundred hertz, for use with
arc lighting, incandescent lighting and electric motors.[8]Specialized radio frequency alternators like
the Alexanderson alternator were developed as longwave radio transmitters around World War 1
and used in a few high power wireless telegraphy stations before vacuum tube transmitters replaced
them.

Principle of operation[edit]

Diagram of a simple alternator with a rotating magnetic core (rotor) and stationary wire (stator) also showing
the current induced in the stator by the rotating magnetic field of the rotor.[citation needed]

A conductor moving relative to a magnetic field develops an electromotive force (EMF) in it,
(Faraday's Law). This emf reverses its polarity when it moves under magnetic poles of opposite
polarity. Typically, a rotating magnet, called the rotor turns within a stationary set of conductors
wound in coils on an iron core, called the stator. The field cuts across the conductors, generating an
induced EMF (electromotive force), as the mechanical input causes the rotor to turn.
The rotating magnetic field induces an AC voltage in the stator windings. Since the currents in the
stator windings vary in step with the position of the rotor, an alternator is a synchronous generator.[2]

The rotor's magnetic field may be produced by permanent magnets, or by a field coil electromagnet.
Automotive alternators use a rotor winding which allows control of the alternator's generated voltage
by varying the current in the rotor field winding. Permanent magnet machines avoid the loss due to
magnetizing current in the rotor, but are restricted in size, due to the cost of the magnet material.
Since the permanent magnet field is constant, the terminal voltage varies directly with the speed of
the generator. Brushless AC generators are usually larger machines than those used in automotive
applications.

An automatic voltage control device controls the field current to keep output voltage constant. If the
output voltage from the stationary armature coils drops due to an increase in demand, more current
is fed into the rotating field coils through the voltage regulator (VR). This increases the magnetic field
around the field coils which induces a greater voltage in the armature coils. Thus, the output voltage
is brought back up to its original value.

Alternators used in central power stations also control the field current to regulate reactive
power and to help stabilize the power system against the effects of momentary faults. Often there
are three sets of stator windings, physically offset so that the rotating magnetic field produces
a three phase current, displaced by one-third of a period with respect to each other.

Synchronous speeds[edit]
One cycle of alternating current is produced each time a pair of field poles passes over a point on
the stationary winding. The relation between speed and frequency is , where is
the frequency in Hz (cycles per second). is the number of poles (2,4,6...) and is the rotational
speed in revolutions per minute (RPM). Very old descriptions of alternating current systems
sometimes give the frequency in terms of alternations per minute, counting each half-cycle as
one alternation; so 12,000 alternations per minute corresponds to 100 Hz.

The output frequency of an alternator depends on the number of poles and the rotational speed. The
speed corresponding to a particular frequency is called the synchronous speed for that frequency.
This table[9] gives some examples:

Poles RPM for 50 Hz RPM for 60 Hz RPM for 400 Hz

2 3,000 3,600 24,000

4 1,500 1,800 12,000

6 1,000 1,200 8,000

8 750 900 6,000

10 600 720 4,800

12 500 600 4,000

14 428.6 514.3 3,429

16 375 450 3,000

18 333.3 400 2,667

20 300 360 2,400

40 150 180 1,200

Classifications[edit]
Alternators may be classified by method of excitation, number of phases,the type of rotation,and
their application.[10]
By excitation[edit]
There are two main ways to produce the magnetic field used in the alternators, by using permanent
magnets which create their own persistent magnetic field or by using field coils. The alternators that
use permanent magnets are specifically called magnetos. In other alternators, wound field coils form
an electromagnet to produce the rotating magnetic field.
All devices that use permanent magnets and produce alternating current are called PMA or
permanent magnet alternator. A "permanent magnet generator" (PMG) may produce either
alternating current, or direct current if it has a commutator. If the permanent magnet device makes
only AC current, it is correctly called a PMA.

Direct connected DC generator[edit]

This method of excitation consists of a smaller direct-current (DC) generator fixed on the same shaft
with the alternator. The DC generator generates a small amount of electricity just enough
to excite the field coils of the connected alternator to generate electricity. A variation of this system is
a type of alternator which uses direct current from the battery for excitation, after which the alternator
is self-excited.[10]

Transformation and rectification[edit]

This method depends on residual magnetism retained in the iron core to generate weak magnetic
field which would allow weak voltage to be generated. The voltage is used to excite the field coils for
the alternator to generate stronger voltage as part of its build up process. After the initial AC voltage
buildup, the field is supplied with rectified voltage from the alternator.[10]

Brushless alternators[edit]

A brushless alternator is composed of two alternators built end-to-end on one shaft. Smaller
brushless alternators may look like one unit but the two parts are readily identifiable on the large
versions. The larger of the two sections is the main alternator and the smaller one is the exciter. The
exciter has stationary field coils and a rotating armature (power coils). The main alternator uses the
opposite configuration with a rotating field and stationary armature. A bridge rectifier, called the
rotating rectifier assembly, is mounted on the rotor. Neither brushes nor slip rings are used, which
reduces the number of wearing parts. The main alternator has a rotating field as described above
and a stationary armature (power generation windings).

Varying the amount of current through the stationary exciter field coils varies the 3-phase output
from the exciter. This output is rectified by a rotating rectifier assembly, mounted on the rotor, and
the resultant DC supplies the rotating field of the main alternator and hence alternator output. The
result of all this is that a small DC exciter current indirectly controls the output of the main alternator.
By number of phases[edit]
Main articles: Single-phase generator and Polyphase coil

Another way to classify alternators is by the number of phases of their output voltage. The output
can be single phase, or polyphase. Three-phase alternators are the most common, but polyphase
alternators can be two phase, six phase, or more.[10]
By rotating part[edit]
The revolving part of alternators can be the armature or the magnetic field. The revolving armature
type has the armature wound on the rotor, where the winding moves through a stationary magnetic
field. The revolving armature type is not often used.[10] The revolving field type has magnetic field on
the rotor to rotate through a stationary armature winding. The advantage is that then the rotor circuit
carries much less power than the armature circuit, making the slip ring connections smaller and less
costly; only two contacts are needed for the direct-current rotor, whereas often a rotor winding has
three phases and multiple sections which would each require a slip ring connection. The stationary
armature can be wound for any convenient medium voltage level, up to tens of thousands of volts;
manufacture of slip ring connections for more than a few thousand volts is costly and inconvenient.

Specific applications[edit]
Electric Generators[edit]
For more details on this topic, see Electric generator.

Most of Power generation stations are using Synchronous Machines as their Generators.
Connection of these generators to the utility grid requires synchronization conditions to be met.[11]
Automotive alternators[edit]
For more details on this topic, see Alternator (automotive).

Alternator mounted on an automobile engine with a serpentine belt pulley

Alternators are used in modern automobiles to charge the battery and to power the electrical system
when its engine is running.

Until the 1960s, automobiles used DC dynamo generators with commutators. With the availability of
affordable silicon diode rectifiers, alternators were used instead.
Diesel electric locomotive alternators[edit]
In later diesel electric locomotives and diesel electric multiple units, the prime mover turns an
alternator which provides electricity for thetraction motors (ac or dc).

The traction alternator usually incorporates integral silicon diode rectifiers to provide the traction
motors with up to 1200 volts dc (dc traction, which is used directly) or the common inverter bus (ac
traction, which is first inverted from dc to three-phase ac).

The first diesel electric locomotives, and many of those still in service, use DC generators as, before
silicon power electronics, it was easier to control the speed of DC traction motors. Most of these had
two generators: one to generate the excitation current for a larger main generator.

Optionally, the generator also supplies head end power (HEP) or power for electric train heating.
The HEP option requires a constant engine speed, 900 rpm for a 480 volt 60 Hz HEP application,
even when the locomotive is not moving.
Marine alternators[edit]
Marine alternators used in yachts are similar to automotive alternators, with appropriate adaptations
to the salt-water environment. Marine alternators are designed to beexplosion proof so that brush
sparking will not ignite explosive gas mixtures in an engine room environment. They may be 12 or 24
volt depending on the type of system installed. Larger marine diesels may have two or more
alternators to cope with the heavy electrical demand of a modern yacht. On single alternator circuits,
the power is split between the engine starting battery and the domestic or house battery (or
batteries) by use of a split-charge diode (battery isolator) or a mechanical switch. Because the
alternator only produces power when running, engine control panels are typically fed directly from
the alternator by means of an auxiliary terminal. Other typical connections are for charge control
circuits.
Radio alternators[edit]
High frequency alternators of the variable-reluctance type were applied commercially to radio
transmission in the low-frequency radio bands. These were used for transmission ofMorse code and,
experimentally, for transmission of voice and music. In the Alexanderson alternator, both the field
winding and armature winding are stationary, and current is induced in the armature by virtue of the
changing magnetic reluctance of the rotor (which has no windings or current carrying parts). Such
machines were made to produce radio frequency current for radio transmissions, although the
efficiency was low..

See also[edit]
Cooling tower
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See also: Evaporative cooler

Natural draft wet cooling hyperboloid towers atDidcot Power Station (UK)

Forced draft wet cooling towers (height: 34 meters) and natural draft wet cooling tower (height: 122 meters)
in Westfalen, Germany.

"Camouflaged" natural draft wet cooling tower near Dresden (Germany)

 Cooling tower (forced draft) attached to a power station

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the
cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of
water to remove process heat and cool the working fluid to near the wet-bulb air temperature or, in
the case of closed circuit dry cooling towers, rely solely on air to cool the working fluid to near
the dry-bulb air temperature.
Common applications include cooling the circulating water used in oil refineries, petrochemical and
other chemical plants, thermal power stations and HVAC systems for cooling buildings. The
classification is based on the type of air induction into the tower: the main types of cooling towers
are natural draft and induced draft cooling towers.
Cooling towers vary in size from small roof-top units to very large hyperboloid structures (as in the
adjacent image) that can be up to 200 metres (660 ft) tall and 100 metres (330 ft) in diameter, or
rectangular structures that can be over 40 metres (130 ft) tall and 80 metres (260 ft) long. The
hyperboloid cooling towers are often associated with nuclear power plants,[1] although they are also
used to some extent in some large chemical and other industrial plants. Although these large towers
are very prominent, the vast majority of cooling towers are much smaller, including many units
installed on or near buildings to discharge heat from air conditioning.

Contents
[hide]

 1 History
 2 Classification by use
o 2.1 Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC)
o 2.2 Industrial cooling towers
 3 Classification by build
o 3.1 Package type
o 3.2 Field erected type
 4 Heat transfer methods
 5 Air flow generation methods
 6 Categorization by air-to-water flow
o 6.1 Crossflow
o 6.2 Counterflow
o 6.3 Common aspects
 7 Wet cooling tower material balance
o 7.1 Cycles of concentration
o 7.2 Water treatment
 8 Legionnaires' disease
 9 Terminology
 10 Fog production
 11 Salt emission pollution
 12 Use as a flue-gas stack
 13 Operation in freezing weather
 14 Fire hazard
 15 Structural stability
 16 See also
 17 References
 18 External links

History[edit]

A 1902 engraving of "Barnard's fanless self-cooling tower", an early large evaporative cooling tower that relied
on natural draft and open sides rather than a fan; water to be cooled was sprayed from the top onto the radial
pattern of vertical wire-mesh mats.

Cooling towers originated out of the development in the 19th century of condensers for use with
the steam engine.[2] Condensers use relatively cool water, via various means, to condense the steam
coming out of the cylinders or turbines. This reduces the back pressure, which in turn reduces the
steam consumption, and thus the fuel consumption, while at the same time increasing power and
recycling boiler-water.[3] However the condensers require an ample supply of cooling water, without
which they are impractical—the cost of the water exceeds the savings on fuel.[4][5] While this was not
an issue with marine engines, it formed a significant limitation for many land-based systems.
By the turn of the 20th century, several evaporative methods of recycling cooling water were in use
in areas without a suitable water supply, such as urban locations relying on municipal water
mains.[2][5] In areas with available land, the systems took the form of cooling ponds; in areas with
limited land, such as in cities, it took the form of cooling towers.[4][6]
These early towers were positioned either on the rooftops of buildings or as free-standing structures,
supplied with air by fans or relying on natural airflow.[4][6] An American engineering textbook from
1911 described one design as "a circular or rectangular shell of light plate — in effect, a chimney
stack much shortened vertically (20 to 40 ft. high) and very much enlarged laterally. At the top is a
set of distributing troughs, to which the water from the condenser must be pumped; from these it
trickles down over "mats" made of wooden slats or woven wire screens, which fill the space within
the tower."[6]
A hyperboloid cooling tower was patented by the Dutch engineers Frederik van Iterson and Gerard
Kuypers in 1918.[7] The first hyperboloid cooling towers were built in 1918 near Heerlen. The first
ones in the United Kingdom were built in 1924 at Lister Drive power station in Liverpool, England to
cool water used at a coal-fired electrical power station.[8]
Classification by use[edit]
Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC)[edit]

Two HVAC cooling towers on the rooftop of a shopping center (Germany)

See also: HVAC

A HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) cooling tower is used to dispose of ("reject")
unwanted heat from a chiller. Water-cooled chillers are normally more energy efficient than air-
cooled chillers due to heat rejection to tower water at or near wet-bulb temperatures. Air-cooled
chillers must reject heat at the higher dry-bulb temperature, and thus have a lower average reverse-
Carnot cycle effectiveness. Large office buildings, hospitals, and schools typically use one or more
cooling towers as part of their air conditioning systems. Generally, industrial cooling towers are much
larger than HVAC towers.
HVAC use of a cooling tower pairs the cooling tower with a water-cooled chiller or water-cooled
condenser. A ton of air-conditioning is defined as the removal of 12,000 BTU/hour (3500 W).
The equivalent ton on the cooling tower side actually rejects about 15,000 BTU/hour (4400 W) due
to the additional waste heat-equivalent of the energy needed to drive the chiller's compressor.
This equivalent tonis defined as the heat rejection in cooling 3 US gallons/minute (1,500 pound/hour)
of water 10 °F (6 °C), which amounts to 15,000 BTU/hour, assuming a chiller coefficient of
performance (COP) of 4.0.[9] This COP is equivalent to an energy efficiency ratio (EER) of 14.
Cooling towers are also used in HVAC systems that have multiple water source heat pumps that
share a common piping water loop. In this type of system, the water circulating inside the water loop
removes heat from the condenser of the heat pumps whenever the heat pumps are working in the
cooling mode, then the externally mounted cooling tower is used to remove heat from the water loop
and reject it to the atmosphere. By contrast, when the heat pumps are working in heating mode, the
condensers draw heat out of the loop water and reject it into the space to be heated. When the water
loop is being used primarily to supply heat to the building, the cooling tower is normally shut down
(and may be drained or winterized to prevent freeze damage), and heat is supplied by other means,
usually from separate boilers.
Industrial cooling towers[edit]
Industrial cooling towers for a power plant

Industrial cooling towers can be used to remove heat from various sources such as machinery or
heated process material. The primary use of large, industrial cooling towers is to remove the heat
absorbed in the circulating cooling water systems used in power plants,petroleum
refineries, petrochemical plants, natural gas processing plants, food processing plants, semi-
conductor plants, and for other industrial facilities such as in condensers of distillation columns, for
cooling liquid in crystallization, etc.[10] The circulation rate of cooling water in a typical 700 MW coal-
fired power plant with a cooling tower amounts to about 71,600 cubic metres an hour (315,000 US
gallons per minute)[11] and the circulating water requires a supply water make-up rate of perhaps 5
percent (i.e., 3,600 cubic metres an hour).
If that same plant had no cooling tower and used once-through cooling water, it would require
about 100,000 cubic metres an hour[12]and that amount of water would have to be continuously
returned to the ocean, lake or river from which it was obtained and continuously re-supplied to the
plant. Furthermore, discharging large amounts of hot water may raise the temperature of the
receiving river or lake to an unacceptable level for the local ecosystem. Elevated water temperatures
can kill fish and other aquatic organisms (see thermal pollution), or can also cause an increase in
undesirable organisms such as invasive species of Zebra mussels or algae. A cooling tower serves
to dissipate the heat into the atmosphere instead and wind and air diffusion spreads the heat over a
much larger area than hot water can distribute heat in a body of water. Some coal-fired and nuclear
power plants located in coastal areas do make use of once-through ocean water. But even there, the
offshore discharge water outlet requires very careful design to avoid environmental problems.
Petroleum refineries also have very large cooling tower systems. A typical large refinery processing
40,000 metric tonnes of crude oil per day (300,000 barrels (48,000 m3) per day) circulates about
80,000 cubic metres of water per hour through its cooling tower system.
The world's tallest cooling tower is the 202 metres (663 ft) tall cooling tower of Kalisindh Thermal
Power Station in Jhalawar, Rajasthan, India.[13]

Package type cooling towers

Field erected cooling towers

Classification by build[edit]
Package type[edit]
This type of cooling towers are factory preassembled, and can be simply transported on trucks as
they are compact machines. The capacity of package type towers is limited and for that reason, they
are usually preferred by facilities with low heat rejection requirements such as food processing
plants, textile plants, some chemical processing plants, or buildings like hospitals, hotels, malls,
automotive factories etc.
Due to their frequent use in or near residential areas, sound level control is a relatively more
important issue for package type cooling towers.
Field erected type[edit]
Facilities such as power plants, steel processing plants, petroleum refineries, or petrochemical
plants usually install field erected type cooling towers due to their greater capacity for heat rejection.
Field erected towers are usually much larger in size compared to the package type cooling towers.
A typical field erected cooling tower has a pultruded fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) structure,
FRP cladding, a mechanical unit for air draft, drift eliminator, and fill.

Heat transfer methods[edit]

With respect to the heat transfer mechanism employed, the main types are:

 dry cooling towers operate by heat transfer through a surface that separates the working fluid
from ambient air, such as in a tube to air heat exchanger, utilizing convective heat transfer. They
do not use evaporation.
 wet cooling towers (or open circuit cooling towers) operate on the principle of evaporative
cooling. The working fluid and the evaporated fluid (usually water) are one and the same.
 fluid coolers (or closed circuit cooling towers) are hybrids that pass the working fluid through
a tube bundle, upon which clean water is sprayed and a fan-induced draft applied. The resulting
heat transfer performance is much closer to that of a wet cooling tower, with the advantage
provided by a dry cooler of protecting the working fluid from environmental exposure and
contamination.
In a wet cooling tower (or open circuit cooling tower), the warm water can be cooled to a
temperature lower than the ambient air dry-bulb temperature, if the air is relatively dry (see dew
point and psychrometrics). As ambient air is drawn past a flow of water, a small portion of the water
evaporates, and the energy required to evaporate that portion of the water is taken from the
remaining mass of water, thus reducing its temperature. Approximately 970 BTU of heat energy is
absorbed for each pound of evaporated water. Evaporation results in saturated air conditions,
lowering the temperature of the water processed by the tower to a value close to wet-bulb
temperature, which is lower than the ambient dry-bulb temperature, the difference determined by the
initial humidity of the ambient air.
To achieve better performance (more cooling), a medium called fill is used to increase the surface
area and the time of contact between the air and water flows. Splash fillconsists of material placed to
interrupt the water flow causing splashing. Film fill is composed of thin sheets of material
(usually PVC) upon which the water flows. Both methods create increased surface area and time of
contact between the fluid (water) and the gas (air), to improve heat transfer.

Air flow generation methods[edit]

Access stairs at the base of a massive hyperboloid cooling tower give a sense of its scale (UK)

With respect to drawing air through the tower, there are three types of cooling towers:

 Natural draft — Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney. Warm, moist air naturally rises due to the
density differential compared to the dry, cooler outside air. Warm moist air is less dense than
drier air at the same pressure. This moist air buoyancy produces an upwards current of air
through the tower.
 Mechanical draught — Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw air through the tower.
 Induced draught — A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the discharge (at the top) which
pulls air up through the tower. The faninduces hot moist air out the discharge. This produces
low entering and high exiting air velocities, reducing the possibility ofrecirculation in which
discharged air flows back into the air intake. This fan/fin arrangement is also known as draw-
through.
 Forced draught — A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at the intake. The
fan forces air into the tower, creating high entering and low exiting air velocities. The low
exiting velocity is much more susceptible to recirculation. With the fan on the air intake, the
fan is more susceptible to complications due to freezing conditions. Another disadvantage is
that a forced draft design typically requires more motor horsepower than an equivalent
induced draft design. The benefit of the forced draft design is its ability to work with
high static pressure. Such setups can be installed in more-confined spaces and even in
some indoor situations. This fan/fill geometry is also known as blow-through.
 Fan assisted natural draught — A hybrid type that appears like a natural draft setup, though
airflow is assisted by a fan.
Hyperboloid (sometimes incorrectly known as hyperbolic) cooling towers have become the design
standard for all natural-draft cooling towers because of their structural strength and minimum usage
of material. The hyperboloid shape also aids in accelerating the upward convective air flow,
improving cooling efficiency. These designs are popularly associated with nuclear power plants.
However, this association is misleading, as the same kind of cooling towers are often used at large
coal-fired power plants as well. Conversely, not all nuclear power plants have cooling towers, and
some instead cool their heat exchangers with lake, river or ocean water.

Categorization by air-to-water flow[edit]

Crossflow[edit]
Mechanical draft crossflow cooling tower used in an HVAC application

Crossflow is a design in which the air flow is directed perpendicular to the water flow (see diagram at
left). Air flow enters one or more vertical faces of the cooling tower to meet the fill material. Water
flows (perpendicular to the air) through the fill by gravity. The air continues through the fill and thus
past the water flow into an open plenum volume. Lastly, a fan forces the air out into the atmosphere.
A distribution or hot water basin consisting of a deep pan with holes or nozzles in its bottom is
located near the top of a crossflow tower. Gravity distributes the water through the nozzles uniformly
across the fill material.
Advantages of the crossflow design:

 Gravity water distribution allows smaller pumps and maintenance while in use.
 Non-pressurized spray simplifies variable flow.
 Typically lower initial and long-term cost, mostly due to pump requirements.
Disadvantages of the crossflow design:

 More prone to freezing than counterflow designs.

 Variable flow is useless in some conditions.
 More prone to dirt buildup in the fill than counterflow designs, especially in dusty or sandy areas.
Counterflow[edit]
Forced draft counter flow package type cooling towers

In a counterflow design, the air flow is directly opposite to the water flow (see diagram at left). Air
flow first enters an open area beneath the fill media, and is then drawn up vertically. The water is
sprayed through pressurized nozzles near the top of the tower, and then flows downward through
the fill, opposite to the air flow.

Advantages of the counterflow design:

 Spray water distribution makes the tower more freeze-resistant.

 Breakup of water in spray makes heat transfer more efficient.

Disadvantages of the counterflow design:

 Typically higher initial and long-term cost, primarily due to pump requirements.
 Difficult to use variable water flow, as spray characteristics may be negatively affected.
 Typically noisier, due to the greater water fall height from the bottom of the fill into the cold water
basin
Common aspects[edit]
Common aspects of both designs:

 The interactions of the air and water flow allow a partial equalization of temperature, and
evaporation of water.
 The air, now saturated with water vapor, is discharged from the top of the cooling tower.
 A "collection basin" or "cold water basin" is used to collect and contain the cooled water after its
interaction with the air flow.
Both crossflow and counterflow designs can be used in natural draft and in mechanical draft cooling
towers.
Wet cooling tower material balance[edit]
Quantitatively, the material balance around a wet, evaporative cooling tower system is governed by
the operational variables of make-up flow rate, evaporation and windage losses, draw-off rate, and
the concentration cycles.[14][15]
In the adjacent diagram, water pumped from the tower basin is the cooling water routed through the
process coolers and condensers in an industrial facility. The cool water absorbs heat from the hot
process streams which need to be cooled or condensed, and the absorbed heat warms the
circulating water (C). The warm water returns to the top of the cooling tower and trickles downward
over the fill material inside the tower. As it trickles down, it contacts ambient air rising up through the
tower either by natural draft or by forced draft using large fans in the tower. That contact causes a
small amount of the water to be lost as windage/drift (W) and some of the water (E) to evaporate.
The heat required to evaporate the water is derived from the water itself, which cools the water back
to the original basin water temperature and the water is then ready to recirculate. The evaporated
water leaves its dissolved salts behind in the bulk of the water which has not been evaporated, thus
raising the salt concentration in the circulating cooling water. To prevent the salt concentration of the
water from becoming too high, a portion of the water is drawn off/blown down (D) for disposal. Fresh
water make-up (M) is supplied to the tower basin to compensate for the loss of evaporated water,
the windage loss water and the draw-off water.

Fan-induced draft, counter-flow cooling tower

Using these flow rates and concentration dimensional units:

M = Make-up water in m³/h

C = Circulating water in m³/h

 D = Draw-off water in m³/h

E = Evaporated water in m³/h

W = Windage loss of water in m³/h

X = Concentration in ppmw (of any completely soluble salts ... usually chlorides)

XM = Concentration of chlorides in make-up water (M), in ppmw

XC = Concentration of chlorides in circulating water (C), in ppmw

Cycles = Cycles of concentration = XC / XM (dimensionless)

ppmw = parts per million by weight

A water balance around the entire system is then:[15]

M=E+D+W
Since the evaporated water (E) has no salts, a chloride balance around the system is:[15]

and, therefore:[15]

From a simplified heat balance around the cooling tower:

where:

HV = latent heat of vaporization of water = 2260 kJ / kg

ΔT = water temperature difference from tower top to tower bottom, in °C

cp = specific heat of water = 4.184 kJ / (kg °C)

Windage (or drift) losses (W) is the amount of total tower water flow that is
evaporated into the atmosphere. From large-scale industrial cooling towers, in the
absence of manufacturer's data, it may be assumed to be:
W = 0.3 to 1.0 percent of C for a natural draft cooling tower without windage drift eliminators
W = 0.1 to 0.3 percent of C for an induced draft cooling tower without windage drift
eliminators
W = about 0.005 percent of C (or less) if the cooling tower has windage drift eliminators
W = about 0.0005 percent of C (or less) if the cooling tower has windage drift eliminators and
uses sea water as make-up water.
Cycles of concentration[edit]
Cycles of concentration represents the accumulation of dissolved
minerals in the recirculating cooling water. Discharge of draw-off (or
blowdown) is used principally to control the buildup of these
minerals.
The chemistry of the make-up water, including the amount of
dissolved minerals, can vary widely. Make-up waters low in
dissolved minerals such as those from surface water supplies
(lakes, rivers etc.) tend to be aggressive to metals (corrosive).
Make-up waters from ground water supplies (such as wells) are
usually higher in minerals, and tend to bescaling (deposit minerals).
Increasing the amount of minerals present in the water by cycling
can make water less aggressive to piping; however, excessive
levels of minerals can cause scaling problems.

Relationship between cycles of concentration and flow rates in a cooling

tower

As the cycles of concentration increase, the water may not be able

to hold the minerals in solution. When the solubility of these
minerals have been exceeded they can precipitate out as mineral
solids and cause fouling and heat exchange problems in the
cooling tower or theheat exchangers. The temperatures of the
recirculating water, piping and heat exchange surfaces determine if
and where minerals will precipitate from the recirculating water.
Often a professional water treatment consultant will evaluate the
make-up water and the operating conditions of the cooling tower
and recommend an appropriate range for the cycles of
concentration. The use of water treatment chemicals, pretreatment
such as water softening, pH adjustment, and other techniques can
affect the acceptable range of cycles of concentration.
Concentration cycles in the majority of cooling towers usually range
from 3 to 7. In the United States, many water supplies use well
water which has significant levels of dissolved solids. On the other
hand, one of the largest water supplies, for New York City, has a
surface rainwater source quite low in minerals; thus cooling towers
in that city are often allowed to concentrate to 7 or more cycles of
concentration.
Since higher cycles of concentration represent less make-up
water, water conservation efforts may focus on increasing cycles of
concentration.[16] Highly treated recycled water may be an effective
means of reducing cooling tower consumption of potable water, in
regions where potable water is scarce.[17]
Water treatment[edit]
See also: Industrial water treatment

Besides treating the circulating cooling water in large industrial

cooling tower systems to minimize scaling and fouling, the water
should be filtered to remove particulates, and also be dosed
with biocides and algaecides to prevent growths that could interfere
with the continuous flow of the water.[14] Under certain conditions,
a biofilm of micro-organisms such as bacteria, fungi and algae can
grow very rapidly in the cooling water, and can reduce the heat
transfer efficiency of the cooling tower. Biofilm can be reduced or
prevented by using chlorine or other chemicals.

Legionnaires' disease[edit]

Legionella pneumophila (5000x magnification)

Further information: Legionellosis and Legionella

Another very important reason for using biocides in cooling towers

is to prevent the growth of Legionella, including species that
causelegionellosis or Legionnaires' disease, most notably L.
pneumophila,[18] or Mycobacterium avium.[19] The
various Legionella species are the cause of Legionnaires' disease
in humans and transmission is via exposure to aerosols—the
inhalation of mist droplets containing the bacteria. Common
sources of Legionella include cooling towers used in open
recirculating evaporative cooling water systems, domestic hot water
systems, fountains, and similar disseminators that tap into a public
water supply. Natural sources include freshwater ponds and
creeks.
French researchers found that Legionella bacteria travelled up to 6
kilometres (3.7 mi) through the air from a large contaminated
cooling tower at a petrochemical plant in Pas-de-Calais, France.
That outbreak killed 21 of the 86 people who had a laboratory-
confirmed infection.[20]
Drift (or windage) is the term for water droplets of the process flow
allowed to escape in the cooling tower discharge. Drift eliminators
are used in order to hold drift rates typically to 0.001–0.005% of the
circulating flow rate. A typical drift eliminator provides multiple
directional changes of airflow to prevent the escape of water
droplets. A well-designed and well-fitted drift eliminator can greatly
reduce water loss and potential for Legionella or water treatment
chemical exposure.
Many governmental agencies, cooling tower manufacturers and
industrial trade organizations have developed design and
maintenance guidelines for preventing or controlling the growth
of Legionella in cooling towers. Below is a list of sources for such
guidelines:

 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) PDF (4.99 MB) -
Procedure for Cleaning Cooling Towers and Related
Equipment (pages 225 and 226)
 Cooling Technology Institute PDF (240 KB) - Best Practices for
Control of Legionella, July, 2006
 Association of Water Technologies PDF (964 KB) - Legionella
2003: An Update and Statement
 California Energy Commission PDF (194 KB) - Cooling Water
Management Program Guidelines For Wet and Hybrid Cooling
Towers at Power Plants
 SPX Cooling Technologies PDF (119 KB) - Cooling Towers
Maintenance Procedures
 SPX Cooling Technologies PDF (789 KB) - ASHRAE Guideline 12-
2000 - Minimizing the Risk of Legionellosis
 SPX Cooling Technologies PDF (83.1 KB) - Cooling Tower
Inspection Tips {especially page 3 of 7}
 Tower Tech Modular Cooling Towers PDF (109 KB) - Legionella
Control
 GE Infrastructure Water & Process Technologies Betz
Dearborn PDF (195 KB) - Chemical Water Treatment
Recommendations For Reduction of Risks Associated with
Legionella in Open Recirculating Cooling Water Systems

Terminology[edit]
Fill plates at the bottom of the Iru Power Plant cooling tower (Estonia).
Tower is shut down, revealing numerous water spray heads.

 Windage or Drift — Water droplets that are carried out of the

cooling tower with the exhaust air. Drift droplets have the same
concentration of impurities as the water entering the tower. The
drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices,
called drift eliminators, through which the air must travel after
leaving the fill and spray zones of the tower. Drift can also be
reduced by using warmer entering cooling tower temperatures.
 Blow-out — Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by
wind, generally at the air inlet openings. Water may also be
lost, in the absence of wind, through splashing or misting.
Devices such as wind screens, louvers, splash deflectors and
water diverters are used to limit these losses.
 Plume — The stream of saturated exhaust air leaving the
cooling tower. The plume is visible when water vapor it
contains condenses in contact with cooler ambient air, like the
saturated air in one's breath fogs on a cold day. Under certain
conditions, a cooling tower plume may present fogging or icing
hazards to its surroundings. Note that the water evaporated in
the cooling process is "pure" water, in contrast to the very small
percentage of drift droplets or water blown out of the air inlets.
 Draw-off or Blow-down — The portion of the circulating water
flow that is removed (usually discharged to a drain) in order to
maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and other
impurities at an acceptably low level. Higher TDS concentration
in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency.
However the higher the TDS concentration, the greater the risk
of scale, biological growth and corrosion. The amount of blow-
down is primarily designated by measuring by the electrical
conductivity of the circulating water. Biological growth, scaling
and corrosion can be prevented by chemicals (respectively,
biocide, sulfuric acid, corrosion inhibitor). On the other hand,
the only practical way to decrease the electrical conductivity is
by increasing the amount of blow-down discharge and
subsequently increasing the amount of clean make-up water.

 Zero bleed for cooling towers, also called zero blow-down

for cooling towers, is a process for significantly reducing the
need for bleeding water with residual solids from the system by
enabling the water to hold more solids in solution.[21][22][23]

 Make-up — The water that must be added to the circulating

water system in order to compensate for water losses such as
evaporation, drift loss, blow-out, blow-down, etc.
 Noise — Sound energy emitted by a cooling tower and heard
(recorded) at a given distance and direction. The sound is
generated by the impact of falling water, by the movement of
air by fans, the fan blades moving in the structure, vibration of
the structure, and the motors, gearboxes or drive belts.
 Approach — The approach is the difference in temperature
between the cooled-water temperature and the entering-air wet
bulb temperature (twb). Since the cooling towers are based on
the principles of evaporative cooling, the maximum cooling
tower efficiency depends on the wet bulb temperature of the
air. The wet-bulb temperature is a type of temperature
measurement that reflects the physical properties of a system
with a mixture of a gas and a vapor, usually air and water vapor
 Range — The range is the temperature difference between the
warm water inlet and cooled water exit.
 Fill — Inside the tower, fills are added to increase contact
surface as well as contact time between air and water, to
provide better heat transfer. The efficiency of the tower
depends on the selection and amount of fill. There are two
types of fills that may be used:
 Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)
 Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and
interrupts its vertical progress)
 Full-Flow Filtration — Full-flow filtration continuously strains
particulates out of the entire system flow. For example, in a
100-ton system, the flow rate would be roughly 300 gal/min. A
filter would be selected to accommodate the entire 300 gal/min
flow rate. In this case, the filter typically is installed after the
cooling tower on the discharge side of the pump. While this is
the ideal method of filtration, for higher flow systems it may be
cost-prohibitive.
 Side-Stream Filtration — Side-stream filtration, although
popular and effective, does not provide complete protection.
With side-stream filtration, a portion of the water is filtered
continuously. This method works on the principle that
continuous particle removal will keep the system clean.
Manufacturers typically package side-stream filters on a skid,
complete with a pump and controls. For high flow systems, this
method is cost-effective. Properly sizing a side-stream filtration
system is critical to obtain satisfactory filter performance, but
there is some debate over how to properly size the side-stream
system. Many engineers size the system to continuously filter
the cooling tower basin water at a rate equivalent to 10% of the
total circulation flow rate. For example, if the total flow of a
system is 1,200 gal/min (a 400-ton system), a 120 gal/min side-
stream system is specified.
 Cycle of concentration — Maximum allowed multiplier for the
amount of miscellaneous substances in circulating water
compared to the amount of those substances in make-up
water.
 Treated timber — A structural material for cooling towers
which was largely abandoned about 10 years ago.[when?] It is still
used occasionally due to its low initial costs, in spite of its short
life expectancy. The life of treated timber varies a lot,
depending on the operating conditions of the tower, such as
frequency of shutdowns, treatment of the circulating water, etc.
 Under proper working conditions, the estimated life of treated
timber structural members is about 10 years.
 Leaching — The loss of wood preservative chemicals by the
washing action of the water flowing through a wood structure
cooling tower.
 Pultruded FRP — A common structural material for smaller
cooling towers, fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) is known for its
high corrosion-resistance capabilities. Pultuded FRP is
produced using pultrusion technology, and has become the
most common structural material for small cooling towers. It
offers lower costs and requires less maintenance compared to
reinforced concrete, which is still in use for large structures.

Fog production[edit]

Fog clouds produced by Eggborough Power Plant (UK)

Under certain ambient conditions, plumes of water vapor (fog) can

be seen rising out of the discharge from a cooling tower, and can
be mistaken as smoke from a fire. If the outdoor air is at or near
saturation, and the tower adds more water to the air, saturated air
with liquid water droplets can be discharged, which is seen as fog.
This phenomenon typically occurs on cool, humid days, but is rare
in many climates.
This phenomenon can be prevented by decreasing the relative
humidity of the saturated discharge air. For that purpose, in hybrid
towers, saturated discharge air is mixed with heated low relative
humidity air. Some air enters the tower above drift eliminator level,
passing through heat exchangers. The relative humidity of the dry
air is even more decreased instantly as being heated while entering
the tower. The discharged mixture has a relatively lower relative
humidity and the fog is invisible.

Salt emission pollution[edit]

When wet cooling towers with seawater make-up are installed in
various industries located in or near coastal areas, the drift of fine
droplets emitted from the cooling towers contain nearly 6% sodium
chloride which deposits on the nearby land areas. This deposition
of sodium salts on the nearby agriculture/vegetative lands can
convert them intosodic saline or sodic alkaline soils depending on
the nature of the soil. The salt deposition problem from such
cooling towers aggravates where national pollution control
standards are not imposed or not implemented to minimize the drift
emissions from wet cooling towers using seawater make-up.[24]
Respirable suspended particulate matter, of less than
10 micrometers (µm) in size, can be present in the drift from cooling
towers. Larger particles above 10 µm in size are generally filtered
out in the nose and throat via cilia and mucus but particulate matter
smaller than 10 µm, referred to as PM10, can settle in the bronchi
and lungs and cause health problems. Similarly, particles smaller
than 2.5 µm, (PM2.5), tend to penetrate into the gas exchange
regions of the lung, and very small particles (less than 100
nanometers) may pass through the lungs to affect other organs.
Though the total particulate emissions from wet cooling towers with
fresh water make-up is much less, they contain more PM10 and
PM2.5 than the total emissions from wet cooling towers with sea
water make-up. This is due to lesser salt content in fresh water drift
(below 2,000 ppm) compared to the salt content of sea water drift
(60,000 ppm).[24]

Use as a flue-gas stack[edit]

Flue gas stack inside a natural draft wet cooling tower

Flue gas stack connection into a natural draft wet cooling tower
Large hyperboloid cooling towers made of structural steel for a power plant
in Kharkov (Ukraine)

At some modern power stations equipped with flue gas purification,

such as the Großkrotzenburg Power Station and the Rostock
Power Station, the cooling tower is also used as a flue-gas
stack (industrial chimney), thus saving the cost of a separate
chimney structure. At plants without flue gas purification, problems
with corrosion may occur, due to reactions of raw flue gas with
water to form acids.
Sometimes, natural draft cooling towers are constructed with
structural steel in place of concrete (RCC) when the construction
time of natural draft cooling tower is exceeding the construction
time of the rest of the plant or the local soil is of poor strength to
bear the heavy weight of RCC cooling towers or cement prices are
higher at a site to opt for cheaper natural draft cooling towers made
of structural steel.

Operation in freezing weather[edit]

Some cooling towers (such as smaller building air conditioning
systems) are shut down seasonally, drained, and winterized to
prevent freeze damage.
During the winter, other sites continuously operate cooling towers
with 40 °F (4 °C) water leaving the tower. Basin heaters, tower
draindown, and other freeze protection methods are often
employed in cold climates. Operational cooling towers with
malfunctions can freeze during very cold weather. Typically,
freezing starts at the corners of a cooling tower with a reduced or
absent heat load. Severe freezing conditions can create growing
volumes of ice, resulting in increased structural loads which can
cause structural damage or collapse.
To prevent freezing, the following procedures are used:

 The use of water modulating by-pass systems is not

recommended during freezing weather. In such situations, the
control flexibility of variable speed motors, two-speed motors,
and/or two-speed motors multi-cell towers should be
considered a requirement.[25]
 Do not operate the tower unattended. Remote sensors and
alarms may be installed to monitor tower conditions.
 Do not operate the tower without a heat load. Basin heaters
may be used to keep the water in the tower pan at an above-
freezing temperature. Heat trace ("heating tape") is a resistive
heating element that is installed along water pipes to prevent
freezing in cold climates .
 Maintain design water flow rate over the tower fill.
 Manipulate or reduce airflow to maintain water temperature
above freezing point.[26]
 Fire hazard[edit]
Cooling towers constructed in whole or in part of combustible
materials can support internal fire propagation. Such fires can
become very intense, due to the high surface-volume ratio of the
towers, and fires can be further intensified by natural convection or
fan-assisted draft. The resulting damage can be sufficiently severe
to require the replacement of the entire cell or tower structure. For
this reason, some codes and standards[27] recommend that
combustible cooling towers be provided with an automatic fire
sprinkler system. Fires can propagate internally within the tower
structure when the cell is not in operation (such as for maintenance
or construction), and even while the tower is in operation,
especially those of the induced-draft type, because of the existence
of relatively dry areas within the towers.[28]

Structural stability[edit]
Being very large structures, cooling towers are susceptible to wind
damage, and several spectacular failures have occurred in the
past. At Ferrybridge power station on 1 November 1965, the station
was the site of a major structural failure, when three of the cooling
towers collapsed owing to vibrations in 85 mph (137 km/h) winds.
Although the structures had been built to withstand higher wind
speeds, the shape of the cooling towers caused westerly winds to
be funnelled into the towers themselves, creating a vortex. Three
out of the original eight cooling towers were destroyed, and the
remaining five were severely damaged. The towers were later
rebuilt and all eight cooling towers were strengthened to tolerate
adverse weather conditions. Building codes were changed to
include improved structural support, and wind tunnel tests were
introduced to check tower structures and configuration.

Surface condenser
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Surface condenser

A surface condenser is a commonly used term for a water-cooled shell and tube heat
exchanger installed on the exhaust steam from asteam turbine in thermal power
stations.[1][2][3] These condensers are heat exchangers which convert steam from its gaseous to its
liquid state at a pressure below atmospheric pressure. Where cooling water is in short supply, an air-
 cooled condenser is often used. An air-cooled condenser is however, significantly more expensive
and cannot achieve as low a steam turbine exhaust pressure (and temperature) as a water-cooled
surface condenser.
Surface condensers are also used in applications and industries other than the condensing of steam
turbine exhaust in power plants.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Purpose
 2 Why it is required
 3 Diagram of water-cooled surface condenser
o 3.1 Shell
o 3.2 Vacuum system
o 3.3 Tube sheets
o 3.4 Tubes
o 3.5 Waterboxes
 4 Corrosion
o 4.1 Effects of corrosion
o 4.2 Protection from corrosion
 5 Effects of tube side fouling
 6 Other applications of surface condensers
 7 Testing
 8 See also
 9 References
 10 External links

Purpose[edit]
In thermal power plants, the primary purpose of a surface condenser is to condense the exhaust
steam from a steam turbine to obtain maximum efficiency, and also to convert the turbine exhaust
steam into pure water (referred to as steam condensate) so that it may be reused in the steam
generator or boiler as boiler feed water.

Why it is required[edit]
The steam turbine itself is a device to convert the heat in steam to mechanical power. The difference
between the heat of steam per unit mass at the inlet to the turbine and the heat of steam per unit
mass at the outlet from the turbine represents the heat which is converted to mechanical power.
Therefore, the more the conversion of heat per pound orkilogram of steam to mechanical power in
the turbine, the better is its efficiency. By condensing the exhaust steam of a turbine at a pressure
below atmospheric pressure, the steam pressure drop between the inlet and exhaust of the turbine
is increased, which increases the amount of heat available for conversion to mechanical power.
Most of the heat liberated due to condensation of the exhaust steam is carried away by the cooling
medium (water or air) used by the surface condenser.

Diagram of water-cooled surface condenser[edit]

Diagram of a typical water-cooled surface condenser

The adjacent diagram depicts a typical water-cooled surface condenser as used in power stations to
condense the exhaust steam from a steam turbine driving an electrical generator as well in other
applications.[2][3][4][5] There are many fabrication design variations depending on the manufacturer, the
size of the steam turbine, and other site-specific conditions.
Shell[edit]
The shell is the condenser's outermost body and contains the heat exchanger tubes. The shell is
fabricated fromcarbon steel plates and is stiffened as needed to provide rigidity for the shell. When
required by the selected design, intermediate plates are installed to serve as baffle plates that
provide the desired flow path of the condensing steam. The plates also provide support that help
prevent sagging of long tube lengths.
At the bottom of the shell, where the condensate collects, an outlet is installed. In some designs,
a sump (often referred to as the hotwell) is provided. Condensate is pumped from the outlet or the
hotwell for reuse as boiler feedwater.
For most water-cooled surface condensers, the shell is under vacuum during normal operating
conditions.
Vacuum system[edit]

Diagram of a typical modern injector or ejector. For a steam ejector, the motive fluid is steam.
For water-cooled surface condensers, the shell's internal vacuum is most commonly supplied by and
maintained by an external steam jet ejector system. Such an ejector system uses steam as the
motive fluid to remove any non-condensible gases that may be present in the surface condenser.
The Venturi effect, which is a particular case of Bernoulli's principle, applies to the operation of
steam jet ejectors.
Motor driven mechanical vacuum pumps, such as the liquid ring type, are also popular for this
service.
Tube sheets[edit]
At each end of the shell, a sheet of sufficient thickness usually made of stainless steel is provided,
with holes for the tubes to be inserted and rolled. The inlet end of each tube is also bellmouthed for
streamlined entry of water. This is to avoid eddies at the inlet of each tube giving rise to erosion, and
to reduce flow friction. Some makers also recommend plastic inserts at the entry of tubes to avoid
eddies eroding the inlet end. In smaller units some manufacturers use ferrules to seal the tube ends
instead of rolling. To take care of length wiseexpansion of tubes some designs have expansion joint
between the shell and the tube sheet allowing the latter to move longitudinally. In smaller units some
sag is given to the tubes to take care of tube expansion with both end water boxes fixed rigidly to the
shell.
Tubes[edit]
Generally the tubes are made of stainless steel, copper alloys such as brass or bronze, cupro nickel,
or titanium depending on several selection criteria. The use of copper bearing alloys such as brass
or cupro nickel is rare in new plants, due to environmental concerns of toxic copper alloys. Also
depending on the steam cycle water treatment for the boiler, it may be desirable to avoid tube
materials containing copper. Titanium condenser tubes are usually the best technical choice,
however the use of titanium condenser tubes has been virtually eliminated by the sharp increases in
the costs for this material. The tube lengths range to about 85 ft (26 m) for modern power plants,
depending on the size of the condenser. The size chosen is based on transportability from the
manufacturers’ site and ease of erection at the installation site. The outer diameter of condenser
tubes typically ranges from 3/4 inch to 1-1/4 inch, based on condenser cooling water friction
considerations and overall condenser size.
Waterboxes[edit]
The tube sheet at each end with tube ends rolled, for each end of the condenser is closed by a
fabricated box cover known as a waterbox, with flanged connection to the tube sheet or condenser
shell. The waterbox is usually provided with man holes on hinged covers to allow inspection and
cleaning.
These waterboxes on inlet side will also have flanged connections for cooling water inlet butterfly
valves, small vent pipe with hand valve for air venting at higher level, and hand operated
drain valve at bottom to drain the waterbox for maintenance. Similarly on the outlet waterbox the
cooling water connection will have large flanges, butterfly valves, vent connection also at higher level
and drain connections at lower level. Similarly thermometer pockets are located at inlet and outlet
pipes for local measurements of cooling water temperature.
In smaller units, some manufacturers make the condenser shell as well as waterboxes of cast iron.

Corrosion[edit]
On the cooling water side of the condenser:
The tubes, the tube sheets and the water boxes may be made up of materials having different
compositions and are always in contact with circulating water. This water, depending on its chemical
composition, will act as an electrolyte between the metallic composition of tubes and water boxes.
This will give rise to electrolytic corrosion which will start from more anodic materials first.
Sea water based condensers, in particular when sea water has added chemical pollutants, have
the worst corrosion characteristics. River water with pollutants are also undesirable for condenser
cooling water.
The corrosive effect of sea or river water has to be tolerated and remedial methods have to be
adopted. One method is the use of sodium hypochlorite, or chlorine, to ensure there is no marine
growth on the pipes or the tubes. This practice must be strictly regulated to make sure the circulating
water returning to the sea or river source is not affected.
On the steam (shell) side of the condenser:
The concentration of undissolved gases is high over air zone tubes. Therefore these tubes are
exposed to higher corrosion rates. Some times these tubes are affected by stress corrosion
cracking, if original stress is not fully relieved during manufacture. To overcome these effects of
corrosion some manufacturers provide higher corrosive resistant tubes in this area.
Effects of corrosion[edit]
As the tube ends get corroded there is the possibility of cooling water leakage to the steam side
contaminating the condensed steam or condensate, which is harmful to steam generators. The other
parts of water boxes may also get affected in the long run requiring repairs or replacements involving
long duration shut-downs.
Protection from corrosion[edit]
Cathodic protection is typically employed to overcome this problem. Sacrificial anodes of zinc (being
cheapest) plates are mounted at suitable places inside the water boxes. These zinc plates will get
corroded first being in the lowest range of anodes. Hence these zinc anodes require periodic
inspection and replacement. This involves comparatively less down time. The water boxes made of
steel plates are also protected inside by epoxy paint.

Effects of tube side fouling[edit]

As one might expect, with millions of gallons of circulating water flowing through the condenser
tubing from seawater or fresh water, anything that is contained within the water flowing through the
tubes, can ultimately end up on either the condenser tubesheet (discussed previously) or within the
tubing itself. Tube side fouling for surface condensers falls into five main categories; particulate
fouling like silt and sediment, biofouling like slime and biofilms, scaling and crystallization such as
calcium carbonate, macrofouling which can include anything from zebra mussels that can grow on
the tubesheet, to wood or other debris that blocks the tubing, and finally, corrosion product
(discussed previously).
Depending on the extent of the fouling, the impact can be quite severe on the condenser's ability to
condense the exhaust steam coming from the turbine. As fouling builds up within the tubing, an
insulating effect is created and the heat transfer characteristics of the tubes are diminished often
requiring the turbine to be slowed to a point where the condenser can handle the exhaust steam
produced. Typically, this can be quite costly to power plants in the form of reduced output, increase
fuel consumption and increased CO2 emissions. This "derating" of the turbine to accommodate the
condenser's fouled or blocked tubing is an indication that the plant needs to clean the tubing in order
to return to the turbine's nameplate capacity. A variety of methods for cleaning are available
including online and offline options depending on the plant's site-specific conditions.

Other applications of surface condensers[edit]

 Vacuum evaporation
 Vacuum refrigeration
 Ocean Thermal Energy (OTEC)
 Replacing barometric condensers in steam-driven ejector systems
 Geothermal energy recovery
 Desalination systems

Testing[edit]
National and international test codes are used to standardize the procedures and definitions used in
testing large condensors. In the U.S., ASME publishes several performance test codes on
condensers and heat exchangers. These include ASME PTC 12.2-2010, Steam Surface
Condensers,and PTC 30.1-2007, Air cooled Steam Condensers.

Electrostatic precipitator
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve
this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed. (February 2013)

Electrostatic precipitator of abiomass heating system with a heat power of 2 MW

Cylindrical electrostatic precipitator in waste incineration plant

Electrodes inside electrostatic precipitator

Collection electrode of electrostatic precipitator in waste incineration plant

An electrostatic precipitator (ESP) is a filtration device that removes fine particles, like dust and
smoke, from a flowing gas using the force of an induced electrostatic charge minimally impeding the
flow of gases through the unit. [1]
 In contrast to wet scrubbers which apply energy directly to the flowing fluid medium, an ESP applies
energy only to the particulate matter being collected and therefore is very efficient in its consumption
of energy (in the form of electricity).[citation needed]

Contents
[hide]

 1 Invention of the electrostatic precipitator

 2 Plate precipitator
 3 Collection efficiency (R)
o 3.1 Dust Layer Resistivity
o 3.2 Normal Resistivity
o 3.3 High Resistivity
o 3.4 Low Resistivity
 4 Modern industrial electrostatic precipitators
 5 Wet electrostatic precipitator
 6 Consumer-oriented electrostatic air cleaners
 7 References
 8 See also
 9 External links

Invention of the electrostatic precipitator[edit]

The first use of corona discharge to remove particles from an aerosol was by Hohlfeld in
1824.[2] However, it was not commercialized until almost a century later.
In 1907 Frederick G. Cottrell, a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley,
applied for a patent on a device for charging particles and then collecting them
through electrostatic attraction—the first electrostatic precipitator. Cottrell first applied the device to
the collection of sulphuric acid mist and lead oxide fumes emitted from various acid-making
and smelting activities. Wine-producing vineyards in northern California were being adversely
affected by the lead emissions.[citation needed]
At the time of Cottrell's invention, the theoretical basis for operation was not understood. The
operational theory was developed later in Germany, with the work of Walter Deutsch and the
formation of the Lurgi company.[3]
Cottrell used proceeds from his invention to fund scientific research through the creation of a
foundation called Research Corporation in 1912, to which he assigned the patents. The intent of the
organization was to bring inventions made by educators (such as Cottrell) into the commercial world
for the benefit of society at large. The operation of Research Corporation is perpetuated by royalties
paid by commercial firms after commercialization occurs. Research Corporation has provided vital
funding to many scientific projects: Goddard's rocketry experiments, Lawrence's cyclotron,
production methods for vitamins A and B1, among many others.
By a decision of the US Supreme Court,[when?] the Corporation had to be split into several entities.[citation
needed]
The Research Corporation was separated from two commercial firms making the hardware:
Research-Cottrell Inc. (operating east of the Mississippi River) and Western Precipitation (operating
in the western states). The Research Corporation continues to be active to this day, and the two
companies formed to commercialize the invention for industrial and utility applications are still in
business as well.
Electrophoresis is the term used for migration of gas-suspended charged particles in a direct-
current electrostatic field. Traditional CRTtelevision sets tend to accumulate dust on the screen
because of this phenomenon (a CRT is a direct-current machine operating at about 35 kilovolts).

Plate precipitator[edit]

Conceptual diagram of an electrostatic precipitator

The most basic precipitator contains a row of thin vertical wires, and followed by a stack of large flat
metal plates oriented vertically, with the plates typically spaced about 1 cm to 18 cm apart,
depending on the application. The air or gas stream flows horizontally through the spaces between
the wires, and then passes through the stack of plates.
A negative voltage of several thousand volts is applied between wire and plate. If the applied voltage
is high enough, an electric corona discharge ionizes the gas around the electrodes. Negative
ions flow to the plates and charge the gas-flow particles.
The ionized particles, following the negative electric field created by the power supply, move to the
grounded plates. Particles build up on the collection plates and form a layer. The layer does not
collapse, thanks to electrostatic pressure (due to layer resistivity, electric field, and current flowing in
the collected layer).[further explanation needed]
A two-stage design (separate charging section ahead of collecting section) has the benefit of
minimizing ozone production,[citation needed]which would adversely affect health of personnel working in
enclosed spaces. For shipboard engine rooms where gearboxes generate anoil mist, two-stage
ESP's are used to clean the air, improving the operating environment and preventing buildup of
flammable oil fog accumulations. Collected oil is returned to the gear lubricating system.[citation needed]

Collection efficiency (R)[edit]

Precipitator performance is very sensitive to two particulate properties: 1) Electrical resistivity; and
2) Particle size distribution. These properties can be measured economically and accurately in the
laboratory, using standard tests. Resistivity can be determined as a function of temperature in
accordance with IEEE Standard 548. This test is conducted in an air environment containing a
specified moisture concentration. The test is run as a function of ascending or descending
temperature, or both. Data is acquired using an average ash layer[further explanation needed]
electric field of 4 kV/cm. Since relatively low applied voltage is used and no sulfuric acid vapor is
present in the test environment, the values obtained indicate the maximum ash resistivity.
In an ESP, where particle charging and discharging are key functions, resistivity is an important
factor that significantly affects collection efficiency. While resistivity is an important phenomenon in
the inter-electrode region where most particle charging takes place, it has a particularly important
effect on the dust layer at the collection electrode where discharging occurs. Particles that exhibit
high resistivity are difficult to charge. But once charged, they do not readily give up their acquired
charge on arrival at the collection electrode. On the other hand, particles with low resistivity easily
become charged and readily release their charge to the grounded collection plate. Both extremes in
resistivity impede the efficient functioning of ESPs. ESPs work best under normal resistivity
conditions.
Resistivity, which is a characteristic of particles in an electric field, is a measure of a particle's
resistance to transferring charge (both accepting and giving up charges). Resistivity is a function of a
particle's chemical composition as well as flue gas operating conditions such as temperature and
moisture. Particles can have high, moderate (normal), or low resistivity.
Bulk resistivity is defined using a more general version of Ohm’s Law, as given in Equation (1)
below:
(
1
)

Where:
E is the Electric field strength (V/cm);
j is the Current density (A/cm2); and
ρ is the Resistivity (Ohm-cm)

A better way of displaying this would be to solve for resistivity as a function of applied voltage
and current, as given in Equation (2) below:
(
2
)

Where:
ρ = Resistivity (Ohm-cm)
V = The applied DC potential, (Volts);
I = The measured current, (Amperes);
l = The ash layer thickness, (cm); and
A = The current measuring electrode face area, (cm2).

Resistivity is the electrical resistance of a dust sample 1.0 cm2 in cross-sectional area,
1.0 cm thick, and is recorded in units of ohm-cm. A method for measuring resistivity will be
described in this article. The table below, gives value ranges for low, normal, and high
resistivity.

Resistivity Range of Measurement

Low between 104 and 107 ohm-cm

Normal between 107 and 2×1010 ohm-cm

High above 2×1010 ohm-cm

Dust Layer Resistivity[edit]

Let’s take a closer look at the way resistivity affects electrical conditions in the dust layer. A
potential electric field (voltage drop) is formed across the dust layer as negatively charged
particles arrive at the dust layer surface and leak their electrical charges to the collection
plate. At the metal surface of the electrically grounded collection plate, the voltage is zero.
Whereas at the outer surface of the dust layer, where new particles and ions are arriving,
the electrostatic voltage caused by the gas ions can be quite high. The strength of this
electric field depends on the resistivity and thickness of the dust layer.
In high resistivity dust layers, the dust is not sufficiently conductive, so electrical charges
have difficulty moving through the dust layer. Consequently, electrical charges accumulate
on and beneath the dust layer surface, creating a strong electric field.
Voltages can be greater than 10,000 volts. Dust particles with high resistivities are held too
strongly to the plate, making them difficult to remove and causing rapping problems.
In low resistivity dust layers, the corona current is readily passed to the grounded collection
electrode. Therefore, a relatively weak electric field, of several thousand volts, is maintained
across the dust layer. Collected dust particles with low resistivity do not adhere strongly
enough to the collection plate. They are easily dislodged and become re-entrained in the
gas stream.
The electrical conductivity of a bulk layer of particles depends on both surface and volume
factors. Volume conduction, or the motions of electrical charges through the interiors of
particles, depends mainly on the composition and temperature of the particles. In the higher
temperature regions, above 500 °F (260 °C), volume conduction controls the conduction
mechanism. Volume conduction also involves ancillary factors, such as compression of the
particle layer, particle size and shape, and surface properties.
Volume conduction is represented in the figures as a straight-line at temperatures above
500 °F (260 °C). At temperatures below about 450 °F (230 °C), electrical charges begin to
flow across surface moisture and chemical films adsorbed onto the particles. Surface
conduction begins to lower the resistivity values and bend the curve downward at
temperatures below 500 °F (260 °C).
These films usually differ both physically and chemically from the interiors of the particles
owing to adsorption phenomena. Theoretical calculations indicate that moisture films only a
few molecules thick are adequate to provide the desired surface conductivity. Surface
conduction on particles is closely related to surface-leakage currents occurring on electrical
insulators, which have been extensively studied.[4] An interesting practical application of
surface-leakage is the determination of dew point by measurement of the current between
adjacent electrodes mounted on a glass surface. A sharp rise in current signals the
formation of a moisture film on the glass. This method has been used effectively for
determining the marked rise in dew point, which occurs when small amounts of sulfuric acid
vapor are added to an atmosphere (commercial Dewpoint Meters are available on the
market).
The following discussion of normal, high, and low resistivity applies to ESPs operated in a
dry state; resistivity is not a problem in the operation of wet ESPs because of the moisture
concentration in the ESP. The relationship between moisture content and resistivity is
explained later in this work.
Normal Resistivity[edit]
As stated above, ESPs work best under normal resistivity conditions. Particles with normal
resistivity do not rapidly lose their charge on arrival at the collection electrode. These
particles slowly leak their charge to grounded plates and are retained on the collection
plates by intermolecular adhesive and cohesive forces. This allows a particulate layer to be
built up and then dislodged from the plates by rapping. Within the range of normal dust
resistivity (between 107 and 2 x 1010 ohm-cm), fly ash is collected more easily than dust
having either low or high resistivity.
High Resistivity[edit]
If the voltage drop across the dust layer becomes too high, several adverse effects can
occur. First, the high voltage drop reduces the voltage difference between the discharge
electrode and collection electrode, and thereby reduces the electrostatic field strength used
to drive the gas ion-charged particles over to the collected dust layer. As the dust layer
builds up, and the electrical charges accumulate on the surface of the dust layer, the voltage
difference between the discharge and collection electrodes decreases. The migration
velocities of small particles are especially affected by the reduced electric field strength.
Another problem that occurs with high resistivity dust layers is called back corona. This
occurs when the potential drop across the dust layer is so great that corona discharges
begin to appear in the gas that is trapped within the dust layer. The dust layer breaks down
electrically, producing small holes or craters from which back corona discharges occur.
Positive gas ions are generated within the dust layer and are accelerated toward the
"negatively charged" discharge electrode. The positive ions reduce some of the negative
charges on the dust layer and neutralize some of the negative ions on the "charged
particles" heading toward the collection electrode. Disruptions of the normal corona process
greatly reduce the ESP's collection efficiency, which in severe cases, may fall below 50% .
When back corona is present, the dust particles build up on the electrodes forming a layer of
insulation. Often this can not be repaired without bringing the unit offline.
The third, and generally most common problem with high resistivity dust is increased
electrical sparking. When the sparking rate exceeds the "set spark rate limit," the automatic
controllers limit the operating voltage of the field. This causes reduced particle charging and
reduced migration velocities toward the collection electrode. High resistivity can generally be
reduced by doing the following:

 Adjusting the temperature;

 Increasing moisture content;
 Adding conditioning agents to the gas stream;
 Increasing the collection surface area; and
 Using hot-side precipitators (occasionally and with foreknowledge of sodium depletion).
Thin dust layers and high-resistivity dust especially favor the formation of back corona
craters. Severe back corona has been observed with dust layers as thin as 0.1 mm, but a
dust layer just over one particle thick can reduce the sparking voltage by 50%. The most
marked effects of back corona on the current-voltage characteristics are:

1. Reduction of the spark over voltage by as much as 50% or more;

2. Current jumps or discontinuities caused by the formation of stable back-corona
craters; and
3. Large increase in maximum corona current, which just below spark over corona gap
may be several times the normal current.
The Figure below and to the left shows the variation in resistivity with changing gas
temperature for six different industrial dusts along with three coal-fired fly ashes. The Figure
on the right illustrates resistivity values measured for various chemical compounds that were
prepared in the laboratory.

Resistivity Values of Representative Dusts and Fumes From Industrial Plants

Resistivity Values of Various Chemicals and Reagents as a Function of Temperature

Results for Fly Ash A (in the figure to the left) were acquired in the ascending temperature
mode. These data are typical for a moderate to high combustibles content ash. Data for Fly
Ash B are from the same sample, acquired during the descending temperature mode.
The differences between the ascending and descending temperature modes are due to the
presence of unburned combustibles in the sample. Between the two test modes, the
samples are equilibrated in dry air for 14 hours (overnight) at 850 °F (450 °C). This overnight
annealing process typically removes between 60% and 90% of any unburned combustibles
present in the samples. Exactly how carbon works as a charge carrier is not fully
understood, but it is known to significantly reduce the resistivity of a dust.
Resistivity Measured as a Function of Temperature in Varying Moisture Concentrations (Humidity)

Carbon can act, at first, like a high resistivity dust in the precipitator. Higher voltages can be
required in order for corona generation to begin. These higher voltages can be problematic
for the TR-Set controls. The problem lies in onset of corona causing large amounts of
current to surge through the (low resistivity) dust layer. The controls sense this surge as a
spark. As precipitators are operated in spark-limiting mode, power is terminated and the
corona generation cycle re-initiates. Thus, lower power (current) readings are noted with
relatively high voltage readings.
The same thing is believed to occur in laboratory measurements. Parallel plate geometry is
used in laboratory measurements without corona generation. A stainless steel cup holds the
sample. Another stainless steel electrode weight sits on top of the sample (direct contact
with the dust layer). As voltage is increased from small amounts (e.g. 20 V), no current is
measured. Then, a threshold voltage level is reached. At this level, current surges through
the sample... so much so that the voltage supply unit can trip off. After removal of the
unburned combustibles during the above-mentioned annealing procedure, the descending
temperature mode curve shows the typical inverted “V” shape one might expect.
Low Resistivity[edit]
Particles that have low resistivity are difficult to collect because they are easily charged (very
conductive) and rapidly lose their charge on arrival at the collection electrode. The particles
take on the charge of the collection electrode, bounce off the plates, and become re-
entrained in the gas stream. Thus, attractive and repulsive electrical forces that are normally
at work at normal and higher resistivities are lacking, and the binding forces to the plate are
considerably lessened. Examples of low-resistivity dusts are unburned carbon in fly ash and
carbon black.
If these conductive particles are coarse, they can be removed upstream of the precipitator
by using a device such as a cyclonemechanical collector.
The addition of liquid ammonia (NH3) into the gas stream as a conditioning agent has found
wide use in recent years. It is theorized that ammonia reacts with H2SO4 contained in the
flue gas to form an ammonium sulfate compound that increases the cohesivity of the dust.
This additional cohesivity makes up for the loss of electrical attraction forces.
The table below summarizes the characteristics associated with low, normal and high
resistivity dusts.
The moisture content of the flue gas stream also affects particle resistivity. Increasing the
moisture content of the gas stream by spraying water or injecting steam into the duct work
preceding the ESP lowers the resistivity. In both temperature adjustment and moisture
conditioning, one must maintain gas conditions above the dew point to prevent corrosion
problems in the ESP or downstream equipment. The figure to the right shows the effect of
temperature and moisture on the resistivity of a cement dust. As the percentage of moisture
in the gas stream increases from 6 to 20%, the resistivity of the dust dramatically decreases.
Also, raising or lowering the temperature can decrease cement dust resistivity for all the
moisture percentages represented.
The presence of SO3 in the gas stream has been shown to favor the electrostatic
precipitation process when problems with high resistivity occur. Most of the sulfur content in
the coal burned for combustion sources converts to SO2. However, approximately 1% of the
sulfur converts to SO3. The amount of SO3 in the flue gas normally increases with increasing
sulfur content of the coal. The resistivity of the particles decreases as the sulfur content of
the coal increases.

Range of
Resistivity Precipitator Characteristics
Measurement

1. Normal operating voltage and current levels unless

dust layer is thick enough to reduce plate clearances
and cause higher current levels.
between 104and 2. Reduced electrical force component retaining
Low
107 ohm-cm collected dust, vulnerable to high reentrainment
losses.
3. Negligible voltage drop across dust layer.
4. Reduced collection performance due to (2)
 1. Normal operating voltage and current levels.
between 107and 2 x 2. Negligible voltage drop across dust layer.
Normal
1010ohm-cm 3. Sufficient electrical force component retaining
collected dust.
4. High collection performance due to (1), (2) and (3)
1. Reduced operating voltage and current levels with
between 2 x high spark rates.
Marginal to
1010 and 1012ohm- 2. Significant voltage loss across dust layer.
High 3. Moderate electrical force component retaining
cm
collected dust.
4. Reduced collection performance due to (1) and (2)
1. Reduced operating voltage levels; high operating
current levels if power supply controller is not
operating properly.
High above 1012ohm-cm 2. Very significant voltage loss across dust layer.
3. High electrical force component retaining collected
dust.
4. Seriously reduced collection performance due to (1),
(2) and probably back corona.

Other conditioning agents, such as sulfuric acid, ammonia, sodium chloride, and soda ash
(sometimes as raw trona), have also been used to reduce particle resistivity. Therefore, the
chemical composition of the flue gas stream is important with regard to the resistivity of the
particles to be collected in the ESP. The table below lists various conditioning agents and
their mechanisms of operation.

Conditioning Agent Mechanism(s) of Action

1. Condensation and adsorption on fly ash surfaces.

Sulfur Trioxide and/or
2. may also increase cohesiveness of fly ash.
Sulfuric Acid
3. Reduces resistivity

Mechanism is not clear, various ones proposed;

Ammonia
1. Modifies resistivity.
2. Increases ash cohesiveness.
3. Enhances space charge effect.
Little is known about the mechanism; claims are made for the
following:

Ammonium Sulfate
1. Modifies resistivity (depends upon injection temperature).
2. Increases ash cohesiveness.
3. Enhances space charge effect.
4. Experimental data lacking to substantiate which of these is
 predominant.
Triethylamine Particle agglomeration claimed; no supporting data.

Sodium Compounds 1. Natural conditioner if added with coal.

2. Resistivity modifier if injected into gas stream.
Compounds of Transition Postulated that they catalyze oxidation of SO2 to SO3; no definitive
Metals tests with fly ash to verify this postulation.

In cement and lime kiln ESPs:

Potassium Sulfate and
Sodium Chloride 1. Resistivity modifiers in the gas stream.
2. NaCl - natural conditioner when mixed with coal.

If injection of ammonium sulfate occurs at a temperature greater than about 600 °F (320 °C),
dissociation into ammonia and sulfur trioxide results. Depending on the ash, SO2may
preferentially interact with fly ash as SO3 conditioning. The remainder recombines with
ammonia to add to the space charge as well as increase cohesiveness of the ash.
More recently, it has been recognized that a major reason for loss of efficiency of the
electrostatic precipitator is due to particle buildup on the charging wires in addition to the
collection plates (Davidson and McKinney, 1998). This is easily remedied by making sure
that the wires themselves are cleaned at the same time that the collecting plates are
cleaned.[5]
Sulfuric acid vapor (SO3) enhances the effects of water vapor on surface conduction. It is
physically adsorbed within the layer of moisture on the particle surfaces. The effects of
relatively small amounts of acid vapor can be seen in the figure below and to the right.
The inherent resistivity of the sample at 300 °F (150 °C) is 5×1012 ohm-cm. An equilibrium
concentration of just 1.9 ppm sulfuric acid vapor lowers that value to about 7 x 109ohm-cm.
Resistivity Modeled As A Function of Environmental Conditions - Especially Sulfuric Acid Vapor

Modern industrial electrostatic precipitators[edit]

A smokestack at coal-firedHazelwood Power Station in Victoria, Australia emits brown smoke when its
ESP is shut down

ESPs continue to be excellent devices for control of many industrial particulate emissions,
including smoke from electricity-generating utilities (coal and oil fired), salt cake collection
from black liquor boilers in pulp mills, and catalyst collection from fluidized bed catalytic
cracker units in oil refineries to name a few. These devices treat gas volumes from several
hundred thousand ACFM to 2.5 million ACFM (1,180 m³/s) in the largest coal-fired boiler
applications. For a coal-fired boiler the collection is usually performed downstream of the air
preheater at about 160 °C (320 °F) which provides optimal resistivity of the coal-ash
particles. For some difficult applications with low-sulfur fuel hot-end units have been built
operating above 370 °C (698 °F).
The original parallel plate–weighted wire design[further explanation needed] has evolved as more efficient
(and robust) discharge electrode designs were developed, today focusing on rigid (pipe-
frame) discharge electrodes to which many sharpened spikes are attached (barbed wire),
maximizing corona production. Transformer-rectifier systems apply voltages of 50–100 kV at
relatively high current densities. Modern controls, such as an automatic voltage control,
minimize electric sparking and prevent arcing (sparks are quenched within 1/2 cycle of
the TR set), avoiding damage to the components. Automatic plate-rapping systems and
hopper-evacuation systems remove the collected particulate matter while on line,
theoretically allowing ESPs to stay in continuous operation for years at a time.[citation needed]

Wet electrostatic precipitator[edit]

A wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP or wet ESP) operates with water vaporsaturated air
streams (100% relative humidity). WESPs are commonly used to remove liquid droplets
such as sulfuric acid mist from industrial process gas streams. The WESP is also commonly
used where the gases are high in moisture content, contain combustible particulate, or have
particles that are sticky in nature.
The preferred and most modern type of WESP is a downflow tubular design. This design
allows the collected moisture and particulate to form a moving slurry that helps to keep the
collection surfaces clean. Plate style and upflow design WESPs are very unreliable and
should not be used in applications where particulate is sticky in nature.[citation needed]

Consumer-oriented electrostatic air cleaners[edit]

 A portable electrostatic air cleaner marketed to consumers

Portable electrostatic air cleaner with cover removed, showing collector plates

Plate precipitators are commonly marketed to the public as air purifier devices or as a
permanent replacement for furnace filters, but all have the undesirable attribute of being
somewhat messy to clean. A negative side-effect of electrostatic precipitation devices is the
potential production of toxic ozone andNOx. However, electrostatic precipitators offer
benefits over other air purifications technologies, such asHEPA filtration, which require
expensive filters and can become "production sinks" for many harmful forms of bacteria.[citation
needed]

With electrostatic precipitators, if the collection plates are allowed to accumulate large
amounts of particulate matter, the particles can sometimes bond so tightly to the metal
plates that vigorous washing and scrubbing may be required to completely clean the
collection plates. The close spacing of the plates can make thorough cleaning difficult, and
the stack of plates often cannot be easily disassembled for cleaning. One solution,
suggested by several manufacturers, is to wash the collector plates in a dishwasher.
Some consumer precipitation filters are sold with special soak-off cleaners, where the entire
plate array is removed from the precipitator and soaked in a large container overnight, to
help loosen the tightly bonded particulates.
A study by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation testing a variety of forced-
air furnace filters found that ESP filters provided the best, and most cost-effective means of
cleaning air using a forced-air system.[6]
The first portable electrostatic air filter systems for homes was marketed in 1954 by
Raytheon.[7]

Economizer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve
this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed. (April 2011)
 Economizers (US and Oxford spelling), or economisers (UK), are mechanical devices intended to
reduce energy consumption, or to perform useful function such as preheating a fluid. The term
economizer is used for other purposes as well. Boiler, power plant, heating, ventilating, and air
conditioning (HVAC) uses are discussed in this article. In simple terms, an economizer is a heat
exchanger.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Stirling engine
 2 Boilers
o 2.1 History
 3 Power plants
 4 HVAC
 5 Refrigeration
o 5.1 Walk-in Cooler Economizer
o 5.2 Vapor-Compression Refrigeration
o 5.3 Economizer setups in refrigeration
 5.3.1 Two staged systems and boosters
 5.3.2 Economizer gas compressors
 5.3.3 Subcooling and refrigeration cycle optimizers
 5.3.4 Internal heat exchangers
 6 See also
 7 References

Stirling engine[edit]
Robert Stirling's innovative contribution to the design of hot air engines of 1816 was what he called
the 'Economiser'. Now known as the regenerator, it stored heat from the hot portion of the engine as
the air passed to the cold side, and released heat to the cooled air as it returned to the hot side. This
innovation improved the efficiency of Stirling's engine enough to make it commercially successful in
particular applications, and has since been a component of every air engine that is called a Stirling
engine.

Boilers[edit]
In boilers, economizers are heat exchange devices that heat fluids, usually water, up to but not
normally beyond the boiling point of that fluid. Economizers are so named because they can make
use of the enthalpy in fluid streams that are hot, but not hot enough to be used in a boiler, thereby
recovering more useful enthalpy and improving the boiler's efficiency. They are a device fitted to a
boiler which saves energy by using the exhaust gases from the boiler to preheat the cold water used
to fill it (the feed water).
Energy heat recovery with condensing economizer.[clarification needed]
The boiler room is a huge energy guzzler. It consists of thermal fluid boilers or steam boiler, with
exhaust gases through a common chimney. An indirect contact or contact condensing economizer
will recover the residual heat from the combustion products. A series of dampers, an efficient control
system, as well as a ventilator, allow all or part of the combustion products to pass through the
economizer, depending on the demand for make-up water and/or process water. The temperature of
the gases can be lowered from 200°C to 10°C,[citation needed] while preheating the process water from 8°C
to 80°C. On average over the year,[clarification needed] boiler combustion efficiency has risen from 80% to
more than 95%. The efficiency of heat produced is directly linked to boiler efficiency. The percentage
of excess air and the temperature of the combustion products are two key variables in evaluating
this efficiency.
The combustion of natural gas needs a certain quantity of air in order to be complete, so the burners
need a flow of excess air in order to operate. Combustion produces water steam, and the quantity
depends on the amount of natural gas burned. Also, the evaluation of the dew point depends on the
excess air. Natural gas has different combustion efficiency curves linked to the temperature of the
gases and the excess air. For example, if the gases[clarification needed] are chilled to 38°C and there is 15%
excess air, then the efficiency will be 94%.[citation needed] The condensing economizer can thus recover
the sensible and latent heat in the steam condensate contained in the flue gases for the process.
The economizer is made of an aluminium and stainless steel alloy.[citation needed] The gases pass through
the cylinder and the water through the finned tubes. It condenses about 11% of the water contained
in the gases.[citation needed]
History[edit]

One of two original 1940's 'Green's Economizers' inside the Killafaddy Board Mills boiler house on the outskirts
of Launceston

The first successful economizer design was used to increase the steam-raising efficiency of the
boilers of stationary steam engines. It was patented by Edward Green in 1845, and since then has
been known as Green's economizer. It consisted of an array of vertical cast irontubes connected to a
tank of water above and below, between which the boiler's exhaust gases passed. This is the
reverse arrangement to that usually but not always seen in the fire tubes of a boiler; there the hot
gases usually pass through tubes immersed in water, whereas in an economizer the water passes
through tubes surrounded by hot gases. While both are heat exchange devices, in a boilerthe
burning gases heat the water to produce steam to drive an engine, whether piston or turbine,
whereas in an economizer, some of the heat energy that would otherwise all be lost to the
atmosphere is instead used to heat the water and/or air that will go into the boiler, thus saving fuel.
The most successful feature of Green's design of economizer was its mechanical scraping
apparatus, which was needed to keep the tubes free of deposits of soot.
Economizers were eventually fitted to virtually all stationary steam engines in the decades following
Green's invention. Some preserved stationary steam engine sites still have their Green's
economisers although usually they are not used. One such preserved site is theClaymills Pumping
Engines Trust in Staffordshire, England, which is in the process of restoring one set of economisers
and the associated steam engine which drove them. Another such example is the British
Engineerium in Brighton & Hove, where the economiser associated with the boilers for Number 2
Engine is in use, complete with its associated small stationary engine. A third site is Coldharbour Mill
Working Wool Museum, where the Green's economiser is in working order, complete with the drive
shafts from the Pollit and Wigzell steam engine.

Power plants[edit]
Main article: Feedwater heater

Modern-day boilers, such as those in coal-fired power stations, are still fitted with economizers which
are descendants of Green's original design. In this context they are often referred to as feedwater
heaters and heat the condensate from turbines before it is pumped to the boilers.
Economizers are commonly used as part of a heat recovery steam generator in a combined
cycle power plant. In an HRSG, water passes through an economizer, then a boilerand then
a superheater. The economizer also prevents flooding of the boiler with liquid water that is too cold
to be boiled given the flow rates and design of the boiler.
A common application of economizers in steam power plants is to capture the waste heat
from boiler stack gases (flue gas) and transfer it to the boiler feedwater. This raises the temperature
of the boiler feedwater, lowering the needed energy input, in turn reducing the firing rates needed for
the rated boiler output. Economizers lower stack temperatures which may cause condensation of
acidic combustion gases and serious equipment corrosion damage if care is not taken in their design
and material selection.

HVAC[edit]
Air-side economizers HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) can save energy in
buildings by using cool outside air as a means of cooling the indoor space. When the temperature of
the outside air is less than the temperature of the recirculated air, conditioning the outside air is more
energy efficient than conditioning recirculated air. When the outside air is both sufficiently cool and
sufficiently dry (depending on the climate) the amount of enthalpy in the air is acceptable and no
additional conditioning of it is needed; this portion of the air-side economizer control scheme is
called free cooling.
Air-side economizers can reduce HVAC energy costs in cold and temperate climates while also
potentially improving indoor air quality, but are most often not appropriate in hot and humid climates.
With the appropriate controls, economizers can be used in climates which experience various
weather systems. For information on how economizers and other controls can affect energy
efficiency and indoor air quality in buildings, see the US Environmental Protection Agency report,
"Energy Cost and IAQ Performance of Ventilation Systems and Controls Study." [1]
When the outside air's dry- and wet-bulb temperatures are low enough, water-side
economizers use water cooled by a wet cooling tower or a dry cooler (also called fluid cooler) to
cool buildings without operating a chiller. They are historically known as the strainer cycle, but the
water-side economizer is not a true thermodynamic cycle. Also, instead of passing the cooling tower
water through a strainer and then to the cooling coils, which causes fouling, more often a plate-and-
frame heat exchanger is inserted between the cooling tower and chilled water loops.
Good controls, and valves or dampers, as well as maintenance, are needed to ensure proper
operation of the air- and water-side economizers.

Refrigeration[edit]
Walk-in Cooler Economizer[edit]
A common form of refrigeration economizer is a "walk-in cooler economizer" or "outside air
refrigeration system". In such a system outside air that is cooler than the air inside a refrigerated
space is brought into that space and the same amount of warmer inside air is ducted outside. The
resulting cooling supplements or replaces the operation of a compressor-based refrigeration system.
If the air inside a cooled space is only about 5°F warmer than the outside air that replaces it (that is,
the ∆T>5°F) this cooling effect is accomplished more efficiently than the same amount of cooling
resulting from a compressor based system. If the outside air is not cold enough to overcome the
refrigeration load of the space the compressor system will need to also operate, or the temperature
inside the space will rise.
Vapor-Compression Refrigeration[edit]
Another use of the term occurs in industrial refrigeration, specifically vapor-compression
refrigeration. Normally, the economizer concept is applied when a particular design or feature on
the refrigeration cycle, allows a reduction either in the amount of energy used from the power grid; in
the size of the components (basically the gas compressor’snominal capacity) used to produce
refrigeration, or both. For example, for a walk-in freezer that is kept at −20 °F (−29 °C), the main
refrigeration components would include: anevaporator coil (a dense arrangement of pipes containing
refrigerant and thin metal fins used to remove heat from inside the freezer), fans to blow air over the
coil and around the box, an air-cooled condensing unit sited outdoors, and valves and piping. The
condensing unit would include a compressor and a coil and fans to exchange heat with the ambient
air.
An economizer display takes advantage of the fact that refrigeration systems have increasing
efficiencies at increasing pressures and temperatures. The power the gas compressor needs is
strongly correlated to both the ratio and the difference, between the discharge and the suction
pressures (as well as to other features like the refrigerant’s heat capacity and the type of
compressor). Low temperature systems such as freezers move less fluid in same volumes. That
means the compressor’s pumping is less efficient on low temperature systems. This phenomenon is
notorious when taking in account that the evaporation temperature for a walk-in freezer at −20 °F
(−29 °C) may be around −35 °F (−37 °C). Systems with economizers aim to produce part of the
refrigeration work on high pressures, condition in which gas compressors are normally more
efficient. Depending of the application, this technology either allows smaller compression capacities
to be able to supply enough pressure and flow for a system that normally would require bigger
compressors; increases the capacity of a system that without economizer would produce less
refrigeration, or allows the system to produce the same amount of refrigeration using less power.
The economizer concept is linked to subcooling as the condensed liquid line temperature is usually
higher than that on the evaporator, making it a good place to apply the notion of increasing
efficiencies.[1] Recalling the walk-in freezer example, the normal temperature of the liquid line in that
system is around 60 °F (16 °C) or even higher (it varies depending on the condensing temperature).
That condition is by far less hostile to produce refrigeration, than the evaporator at −35 °F (−37 °C).
Economizer setups in refrigeration[edit]
Several displays permit the refrigeration cycle to work as economizers, and benefit from this idea.
The design of this kind of systems demands certain expertise on the matter, and the manufacture of
some of the gear, particular finesse and durability. Pressure drop, electric valve controlling and oil
drag, must all be attended with special caution.
Two staged systems may need to double the pressure handlers installed in the cycle. The diagram displays two
different thermal expansion valves (TXV) and two separate stages of gas compression.

Two staged systems and boosters[edit]

A system is said to be in a two staged set up if two separate gas compressors in serial display work
together to produce the compression. A normal booster installation is a two staged system that
receives fluid that cools down the discharge of the first compressor, before arriving to the second
compressor’s input. The fluid that arrives to the interstage of both compressors comes from
the liquid line and is normally controlled by expansion, pressure and solenoid valves.

A subcooled booster has asubcooling heat exchanger (SHX) that provides subcooling for the condensed liquid
line.

A standard two staged cycle of this kind will possess an expansion valve that expands and
modulates the amount of refrigerant incoming at the interstage. As the fluid arriving to the interstage
expands, it will tend to evaporate, producing an overall temperature drop and cooling the second
compressor’s suction when mixing with the fluid discharged by the first compressor. This kind of set
up may have a heat exchanger between the expansion and the interstage, situation in which
that second evaporator may serve to produce refrigeration as well, though not as cool as the main
evaporator (for example to produce air conditioning or for keeping fresh products). A two staged
system is said to be set up in a booster display with subcooling, if the refrigerant arriving to the
interstage passes through a subcooling heat exchanger that subcoolsthe main liquid line arriving to
the main evaporator of the same system.[2]
Some screw compressormanufacturers offer them with economizer. This systems can useflash-gas for the
economizer input.

Economizer gas compressors[edit]

The need to use two compressors when considering a booster set-up tends to increase the cost of a
refrigeration system. Besides the gear’s price, two staged systems need special attention over
synchronization, pressure control and lubrication. To reduce these costs, special gear has been
elaborated.

A subcooled economizer reduces the amount of gas compressors in the system.

Economizer screw compressors are being built by several manufacturers like Refcomp, Mycom,
Bitzer and York. These machines merge both compressors of a two staged system into one screw
compressor and have two inputs: the main suction and an interstage side entrance for higher
pressure gas.[3] This means there is no need to install two compressors and still benefit from the
booster concept.
There are two types of economizer setups for these compressors, flash and subcooling. The latter
works under the same principle as the two staged booster displays with subcooling.
The flasheconomizer is different because it doesn’t use a heat exchanger to produce the subcooling.
Instead, it has a flash chamber or tank, in which flash gas is produced to lower the temperature of
the liquid before the expansion. The flash gas that is produced in this tank leaves the liquid line and
goes to the economizer entrance of the screw compressor.[4]

Refrigeration cycle optimizers such as EcoPac's E-Series, keep the original design of the refrigeration cycle
without modification.

Subcooling and refrigeration cycle optimizers[edit]

All previous systems produce an economizer effect by using compressors, meters, valves and heat
exchangers within the refrigeration cycle. Depending on the system, in some refrigeration cycles it
may be convenient to produce the economizer using an independent refrigeration mechanism. Such
is the case of subcooling the liquid line by any other means that draw the heat out of the main
system. For example, a heat exchanger that preheats cold water needed for another process or
human use, may withdraw the heat from the liquid line, effectively subcooling the line and increasing
the system’s capacity.[5]
Recently, machines exclusively designated for this purpose have been developed. In Chile, the
manufacturer EcoPac Systems developed a cycle optimizer able to stabilize the temperature of
the liquid line and allowing either an increase in the refrigeration capacity of the system, or a
reduction of the power consumption.[6] Such systems have the advantage of not interfering with the
original design of therefrigeration system being an interesting alternative for expanding single staged
systems that don not possess an economizercompressor.[7]
Internal heat exchangers[edit]
Subcooling may also be produced by superheating the gas leaving the evaporator and heading to
the gas compressor.[8] These systems withdraw heat from the liquid line but heat up the gas
compressors suction. This is a very common solution to insure that gas reaches the compressor and
liquid reaches thevalve. It also allows maximum heat exchanger use as minimizes the portion of the
heat exchangers used to change the temperature of the fluid, and maximizes the volume in which
the refrigerant changes its phase (phenomena involving much more heat flow, the base principle of
vapor-compression refrigeration).
An internal heat exchanger is simply a type of heat exchanger that uses the cold gas leaving
the evaporator coil to cool the high-pressure liquid that is headed into the beginning of the
evaporator coil via an expansion device. The gas is used to chill a chamber that normally has a
series of pipes for the liquid running through it. The superheated gas then proceeds on to the
compressor. The subcooling term refers to cooling the liquid below its boiling point. 10 °F (5.6 °C) of
subcooling means it is 10 °F colder than boiling at a given pressure. As it represents a difference of
temperatures, the subcooling value won’t change if it is measured on the absolute scale, or the
relative scale (10 °F of subcooling equals 10 °R (5.6 K) of subcooling).

Air preheater
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Schematic diagram of typical coal-fired power plant steam generator highlighting the air preheater (APH)
location.

An air preheater (APH) is a general term used to describe any device designed to heat air before
another process (for example, combustion in a boiler) with the primary objective of increasing the
thermal efficiency of the process. They may be used alone or to replace a recuperative heat system
or to replace a steam coil.
In particular, this article describes the combustion air preheaters used in large boilers found
in thermal power stationsproducing electric power from e.g. fossil fuels, biomass or waste.[1][2][3][4][5]
The purpose of the air preheater is to recover the heat from the boiler flue gas which increases the
thermal efficiency of the boiler by reducing the useful heat lost in the flue gas. As a consequence,
the flue gases are also conveyed to the flue gas stack (or chimney) at a lower temperature, allowing
simplified design of the conveyance system and the flue gas stack. It also allows control over the
temperature of gases leaving the stack (to meet emissions regulations, for example).

Contents
[hide]

 1 Types
o 1.1 Tubular type
 1.1.1 Construction features
 1.1.2 Problems
 1.1.2.1 Dew point corrosion
o 1.2 Regenerative air preheaters
 1.2.1 Rotating-plate regenerative air preheater
 1.2.1.1 Construction features
 1.2.1.2 Problems
 1.2.2 Stationary-plate regenerative air preheater
o 1.3 Regenerator
 2 See also
 3 References
Types[edit]
There are two types of air preheaters for use in steam generators in thermal power stations: One is a
tubular type built into the boiler flue gas ducting, and the other is aregenerative air
preheater.[1][2][6] These may be arranged so the gas flows horizontally or vertically across the axis of
rotation.
Another type of air preheater is the regenerator used in iron or glass manufacture.
Tubular type[edit]
Construction features[edit]
Tubular preheaters consist of straight tube bundles which pass through the outlet ducting of the
boiler and open at each end outside of the ducting. Inside the ducting, the hot furnace gases pass
around the preheater tubes, transferring heat from the exhaust gas to the air inside the preheater.
Ambient air is forced by a fan through ducting at one end of the preheater tubes and at other end the
heated air from inside of the tubes emerges into another set of ducting, which carries it to the boiler
furnace for combustion.
Problems[edit]
The tubular preheater ductings for cold and hot air require more space and structural supports than
a rotating preheater design. Further, due to dust-laden abrasive flue gases, the tubes outside the
ducting wear out faster on the side facing the gas current. Many advances have been made to
eliminate this problem such as the use of ceramic and hardened steel.
Many new circulating fluidized bed (CFB) and bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) steam generators are
currently incorporating tubular air heaters offering an advantage with regards to the moving parts of
a rotary type.
Dew point corrosion[edit]
Dew point corrosion occurs for a variety of reasons.[7][8] The type of fuel used, its sulfur content and
moisture content are contributing factors. However, by far the most significant cause of dew point
corrosion is the metal temperature of the tubes. If the metal temperature within the tubes drops
below the acid saturation temperature, usually at between 190 °F (88 °C)and 230 °F (110 °C), but
sometimes at temperatures as high as 260 °F (127 °C), then the risk of dew point corrosion damage
becomes considerable.
Regenerative air preheaters[edit]
There are two types of regenerative air preheaters: the rotating-plate regenerative air preheaters
(RAPH) and the stationary-plate regenerative air preheaters (Rothemuhle).[1][2][3][9]
Rotating-plate regenerative air preheater[edit]
Typical Rotating-plate Regenerative Air Preheater (Bi-sector type)[10]

Principle function for the Ljungstrom regenerative preheater.

The rotating-plate design (RAPH)[2] consists of a central rotating-plate element installed within a
casing that is divided into two (bi-sector type), three (tri-sector type) or four (quad-sector type)
sectors containing seals around the element. The seals allow the element to rotate through all the
sectors, but keep gas leakage between sectors to a minimum while providing separate gas air
and flue gas paths through each sector.
Tri-sector types are the most common in modern power generation facilities.[11] In the tri-sector
design, the largest sector (usually spanning about half the cross-section of the casing) is connected
to the boiler hot gas outlet. The hot exhaust gas flows over the central element, transferring some of
its heat to the element, and is then ducted away for further treatment in dust collectors and other
equipment before being expelled from the flue gas stack. The second, smaller sector, is fed with
ambient air by a fan, which passes over the heated element as it rotates into the sector, and is
heated before being carried to the boiler furnace for combustion. The third sector is the smallest one
and it heats air which is routed into the pulverizers and used to carry the coal-air mixture to coal
boiler burners. Thus, the total air heated in the RAPH provides: heating air to remove the moisture
from the pulverised coal dust, carrier air for transporting the pulverised coal to the boiler burners and
the primary air for combustion.
The rotor itself is the medium of heat transfer in this system, and is usually composed of some form
of steel and/orceramic structure. It rotates quite slowly (around 3-5 RPM) to allow optimum heat
transfer first from the hot exhaust gases to the element, then as it rotates, from the element to the
cooler air in the other sectors.
Construction features[edit]
In this design the whole air preheater casing is supported on the boiler supporting structure itself
with necessaryexpansion joints in the ducting.
The vertical rotor is supported on thrust bearings at the lower end and has an oil bath lubrication,
cooled by water circulating in coils inside the oil bath. This arrangement is for cooling the lower end
of the shaft, as this end of the vertical rotor is on the hot end of the ducting. The top end of the rotor
has a simple roller bearing to hold the shaft in a vertical position.
The rotor is built up on the vertical shaft with radial supports and cages for holding the baskets in
position. Radial and circumferential seal plates are also provided to avoid leakages of gases or air
between the sectors or between the duct and the casing while in rotation.
For on line cleaning of the deposits from the baskets steam jets are provided such that the blown out
dust and ash are collected at the bottom ash hopper of the air preheater. This dust hopper is
connected for emptying along with the main dust hoppers of the dust collectors.
The rotor is turned by an air driven motor and gearing, and is required to be started before starting
the boiler and also to be kept in rotation for some time after the boiler is stopped, to avoid uneven
expansion and contraction resulting in warping or cracking of the rotor. The station air is generally
totally dry (dry air is required for the instrumentation), so the air used to drive the rotor is injected
with oil to lubricate the air motor.
Safety protected inspection windows are provided for viewing the preheater's internal operation
under all operating conditions.
The baskets are in the sector housings provided on the rotor and are renewable. The life of the
baskets depend on the ash abrasiveness and corrosiveness of the boiler outlet gases.
Problems[edit]
The boiler flue gas contains many dust particles (due to high ash content) not contributing towards
combustion, such as silica, which cause abrasive wear of the baskets, and may also contain
corrosive gases depending on the composition of the fuel. For example, Indian coals generally result
in high levels of ash and silica in the flue gas. The wear of the baskets therefore is generally more
than other, cleaner-burning fuels.
In this RAPH, the dust laden, corrosive boiler gases have to pass between the elements of air
preheater baskets. The elements are made up of zig zag corrugated plates pressed into a steel
basket giving sufficient annular space in between for the gas to pass through. These plates are
corrugated to give more surface area for the heat to be absorbed and also to give it the rigidity for
stacking them into the baskets. Hence frequent replacements are called for and new baskets are
always kept ready. In the early days, Cor-ten steel was being used for the elements. Today due to
technological advance many manufacturers may use their own patents. Some manufacturers supply
different materials for the use of the elements to lengthen the life of the baskets.
In certain cases the unburnt deposits may occur on the air preheater elements causing it to catch fire
during normal operations of the boiler, giving rise to explosions inside the air preheater. Sometimes
mild explosions may be detected in the control room by variations in the inlet and outlet
temperatures of the combustion air.

Schematic of typical stationary-plate regenerative air preheater

Stationary-plate regenerative air preheater[edit]

The heating plate elements in this type of regenerative air preheater are also installed in a casing,
but the heating plate elements are stationary rather than rotating. Instead the air ducts in the
preheater are rotated so as to alternatively expose sections of the heating plate elements to the
upflowing cool air.[1][2][3]
As indicated in the adjacent drawing, there are rotating inlet air ducts at the bottom of the stationary
plates similar to the rotating outlet air ducts at the top of the stationary plates.
Stationary-plate regenerative air preheaters are also known as Rothemuhle preheaters,
manufactured for over 25 years by Balke-Dürr GmbH of Ratingen, Germany.
Regenerator[edit]
Main article: Regenerative heat exchanger

A regenerator consists of a brick checkerwork: bricks laid with spaces equivalent to a brick's width
between them, so that air can flow relatively easily through the checkerwork. The idea is that as hot
exhaust gases flow through the checkerwork, they give up heat to the bricks. The airflow is then
reversed, so that the hot bricks heat up the incoming combustion air and fuel. For a glass-melting
furnace, a regenerator sits on either side of the furnace, often forming an integral whole. For a blast
furnace, the regenerators (commonly called Cowper stoves) sit separate to the furnace. A furnace
needs no less than two stoves, but may have three. One of the stoves is 'on gas', receiving hot
gases from the furnace top and heating the checkerwork inside, whilst the other is 'on blast',
receiving cold air from the blowers, heating it and passing it to the blast furnace.
ID,FD,PA FANS FOR BOILER IN THERMAL POWER PLANT
PLAN AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FANS
Till my last dispatch I completed the topics of Boiler structure , Boiler Pressure Parts , Rotary air
preheater as major equipment . I have discussed about the plans and erection sequence of the same .
Now I will discuss about the fans ( ID , FD and PA) .I am receiving number of e-mails about my
dispatches .The questions are mainly about erection sequences ,clarification of the pictures , suitability of
my erection sequence with their project and also about construction equipment. I
request all the readers to read relevant blogs of my 87 dispatches and he will certainly get the answer.
If there is any doubt I will be there to help you out.
Erection sequence of FANs differs with the layout of the plant. According to Mill position side ,rear
or front Fan erection sequence differs. These are true for FD ,PA fans only. ID Fan is independent of
Boiler erection . An e-mail received from one of the reader about the commencement of civil work for
foundations.

First of all we should not consider only fans in that area. There will foundations for Duct support
between Boiler Outlet Flange to ESP , Foundations for Transfer point structures , foundations for
Mill Reject System silos.If foundations require piling then piling and pile cap to be completed
with boiler foundations. If pile cap drawings are not available then pile cap can be done afterwards.
But then pile cap to be carried out one by one. It has been seen that this type of job leads to delay
due to massive excavation for individual fans.This excavation can only be started when Boiler supporting
structure erection completion ( ceiling Girder erection , rear structure erection and air heater structure
erection completion). There should be alternate route for feeding second Pass Pressure Part
material feeding . Civil works for other foundations are to completed with fan foundations . Minimum two
heavy duty crane ( 250 MT) capacities will be placed in boiler rear to carry out erection work of Boiler and
CHP.Individual fan erection time cycle is around three months to four months. During this time boiler 2nd
pass erection ,ducting above air heater , air heaters , Eco handling structures , ESP side inlet nozzle ,
Gates and dampers of ducting will also be required for erection completion. Therefore this area is very
important regarding interfaces are concern and close co-ordination and monitoring are required .

Besides ID ,FD and PA there are two important fans are there one is seal air fan and other is scanner fan.
A brief description is given below.
FANS FOR POWER PLANT

-Supply air for combustion in the furnace and for evacuation of the flue gases formed from the
combustion.

-Maintain Balanced Draft inside the furnace .

-Supply air for cooling of equipments working in hot zones.

-Supply air for sealing of gates, feeders & mills bearings etc.

-Air used for combustion is divided into 2 parts:

1.Primary Air

Portion of total air sent through mills to the furnace. This air dries the pulverized coal and transport it to
the furnace for combustion.

2.Secondary Air

Large portion of total air sent to furnace to supply necessary oxygen for the combustion.
Types of Fans :- 1. Axial Fan with two subgroup as i) Impulse ii) Reaction.

2. Radial fans or Centrifugal fan. ( Single suction or double suction).

FD FANS

Supplies secondary air to the furnace through APH to assist in combustion.

Supply total air flow to the furnace except where an independent atmospheric P.A fan is used.

Provides air for sealing requirement and excess air requirement in the furnace.

Axial fan-reaction type with blade pitch control is use in the Pulverized fired boiler(210/250/500 MW).

PA FANS

Supply high pressure primary air through APH needed to dry & transport coal directly from the coal mills
to the furnace.

Primary air for mills is divided into cold & hot primary air.

Axial fan-double stage-reaction type with blade pitch control is use in the Pulverized fired
boiler(210/250/500 MW).

ID FANS

Suck the gases out of the furnace and throw them into the stack by creating sufficient negative pressure
in the furnace (5-10 mmwc) in the balanced draft units.

Located in between the ESP and Chimney in the flue gas path.

Radial Fans -double suction-backward curved vane with inlet guide vane(IGV)control and VFD control is
use in all boilers

Handles large volume hot dust/ash laden flue gas (temp up to 150 deg C) from furnace and all leakages
occurring in the system till the inlet of the fan.

Overcome the pressure drop inside the furnace, Super heater, Re -heater, Economiser, Gas ducting &
ESP.

Consumes max. power in all boiler auxiliaries as it handles the large volume and heavy pressure drop of
the flue gas.

SCANNER AIR FANS

Scanner Air Fan is belong to Centrifugal Fan category.

Supply cooling air to all the flame scanners at different elevations housed in the furnace for sensing
flame.
A.C scanner fan boost the pressure of cold secondary air from F.D fan discharge duct in normal
operation.

D.C scanner operates only in case of a.c power failure and sucks air directly from the atmosphere.

SEAL AIR FANS

Seal Air Fan is also belong to Centrifugal Fan category.

Supply seal air at a pressure higher than system or equipment pressure.

Supply seal air to raw coal feeders, mills bearings, gates etc

Seal fan either boost the pressure of cold secondary air from F.D fan discharge duct or takes air directly
from the atmosphere in normal operation.

In my next part i will provide erection sequence of three major fans.

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