ME8792 - POWER PLANT ENGINEERING

UNIT 1: COAL BASED THERMAL POWR PLANTS

PART A

1) What is meant by Super critical boiler? (OR) What is super critical boiler? (OR) When a boiler
is said to be supercritical boiler? [A/M 2019] [N/D 2015], M/J 2018], [N/D 2018-N]
If boilers incorporate only economizer and superheater, they are called supercritical boilers. The super
critical boilers are above 300MW capacity units available. Eg., Velox boiler, Loeffler boiler.
The power plant which is operated above the critical pressure and temperature condition is called
supercritical boiler.

2) What is pulveriser and why it is used? [N/D 2015]

A pulverizer or grinder is a mechanical device for grinding many different types of materials. Pulverizer
mill is used to pulverize the coal for combustion in the steam generating furnaces of fossil fuel power
plants.

3) What are once through boilers? [M/J 2016]

The word once-through boiler itself means that if the water is fed to the boiler, it will be fully converted
into dry or superheated steam without any water content present in it.

4) What are the functions of draught system? (OR) What are the purposes of Draught? [M/J 2016],
[N/D 2018]
 The draught is necessary to force air through the fuel bed/ grate to aid in proper combustion of
fuel and to remove the products of combustion i.e. flue gases to the atmosphere after they have
given their heat to water being evaporated in the boiler.
 To move the air through the fuel bed and to produce a flow of hot gases through the boiler,
economizer, pre-heater and chimney require a difference of pressure require a difference of
pressure. This difference of pressure for to maintaining the constant flow of air and discharging the
gases through the chimney to atmosphere is known as draught.
 Draught also provides velocity to flue gases and so increases the heat transfer coefficient in the
boiler. This draught is essentially required in a boiler and can be produced by a number of
methods.

5) What do you understand by the term boiler draught? [N/D 2016]

Boiler draught may be defined as the small difference between the pressure of outside air and that of gases
within a furnace or chimney at the grate level, which causes the flow of air/hot flue gases to take place
through the boiler

6) Define steam rate and heat rate. [N/D 2016]

Steam Rate:
It is the capacity of a steam plant is expressed in terms of steam rate or specific steam combustion (SSC).
It is defined as the rate of steam flow (Kg/h) required for producing unit shaft output(1 Kw).
Steam Rate, SSC=3600×ms/WT in Kg/Kwh
where, WT be the turbine work in Kw.
Ms be the steam flow rate in Kg/s.

Heat Rate:
Heat rate of a power plant is defined as the heat input needed to produce one unit of power output. It
indicates the amount of fuel required to generate one unit of electricity.
Heat Rate=3600×QL/WT in KJ/Kwh
where, WT be the turbine work in Kw. Ms be the steam flow rate in Kg/s.
7) Define compounding of steam turbines. [M/J 2017]
Compounding of steam turbines is the strategy in which energy from the steam is extracted in a number of
stages rather than a single stage in a turbine. A compounded steam turbine has multiple stages i.e. it has
more than one set of nozzles and rotors, in series, keyed to the shaft or fixed to the casing, so that either the
steam pressure or the jet velocity is absorbed by the turbine in number of stages.

8) What is stoker ? Classify it. [M/J 2017]

Stoker is a feeding device which feeds solid fuels into the furnace in medium and large size power plants.
Types: 1) Overfeed stoker 2) Underfeed stoker.

9) Why majority of coal based thermal power plants are located near Seashore? [N/D 2017]
The reason behind the presence of coal-based thermal power plants to be near the seashore is, that the
water availability is in abundance which is essentially required as the coal-based thermal power plants
function over a water boiler which needs water to form steam which is converted into the thermal energy.
All the thermal power plant with the same reason and minimum cost efficiency are found to be located
near seashore as the water is needed to cool down the plant and also used in the mechanism.

10) Reason why Cogeneration is quite visible in Sugar industries compared to that in other
industries. [N/D 2017]
Cogeneration operates can be improved by reducing moisture content at milling and also later using dryer
with flue gases. Energy generation with sugarcane bagasse and trash has the potential to supply a
substantial amount of electricity. There is need to develop the necessary technology to implement trash
recovery and its use as supplementary fuel to bagasse at sugarcane mills, at attractive cost and without
hindering mill operations.

11) What are binary cycles? Give examples. [M/J 2018]

A binary vapor cycle is defined in thermodynamics as a power cycle that is a combination of two cycles,
one in a high temperature region and the other in a lower temperature region. In the binary cycle, heat is
transferred from the geothermal fluid to a secondary working fluid. During this heat transfer process, the
pressurized working fluid is vaporized. The working fluid leaving the geothermal heat exchangers is
subsequently expanded through a turbine producing work, or electrical power. The lower-pressure working
fluid leaving the turbine is condensed and pumped back to the geothermal heat exchangers, completing the
closed cycle. The heat rejection accomplished with an air-cooled condenser. Eg. Geothermal energy cycle,
Biomass based energy cycle, Mercury Vapour Cycle.

12) What is the principle of cogeneration? (OR) What do you understand by co-generation system?
[N/D 2018], [N/D 2018-N]
Co-generation is also called combined heat power. Cogeneration works based on the concept of producing
two different form of energy by using a single source of fuel. The fuel is used to generate electricity and
this electricity produces heat and this heat is used to boil the water to produce steam for space heating and
even for cooling buildings.

13) Why the preparation of coal is necessary? [A/M 2019]

The coal preparation process including sizing, removal of rock originating from mine roof, removal of ash
forming and sulphur bearing minerals, drying to remove excessive surface moisture and blending of
different coals to achieve the desired physical and chemical properties.