Lecture-2

Main equipment
of
Coal based Power Plant
Main components in a coal based thermal power plant

• Coal Handling Plant (CHP) • Air preheater

• Pulverizing Plant • Ash Handling Plant (AHP)
• Draft Fans • Generator & Excitation System
• Boiler (Steam generator)
• Super heater and Re-heater
• Steam Turbine
• Condenser
• Cooling Towers
• Feed Water Heater
• Economizer
Coal Handling plant
 Coal handling plant automatically feeds coal to the boiler furnace.
 Coal is weighed and led to a hopper through conveyor mechanism.
 Thermal power plant burns huge amount of coal. A 200 MW plant may need
around 2000 tons of coal daily.
 In a power plant enough coal is stored to last for around 15 days.
Pulverizing plant
 In power plant coal is pulverized to dust like size and carried to furnace
through a stream of hot air.
 Pulverization is a process to expose large surface area of coal to the action of
oxygen and hence helps in combustion.
Advantages Disadvantages
 Rate of combustion can be controlled and changed  Investment cost of plant increases.
quickly to meet varying load requirement.  Explosion hazard increases.
 Boiler can be started from cold condition very quickly.  Auxiliary power consumption increases
 The percentage of excess air required is low  Electrostatic precipitator is required to reduce
 Preheated air can be used. stack emissions to acceptable levels.
 Wide varieties (even low grade) coals can be used.
 Pulverizing equipment is outside furnace and hence it
can be maintained without cooling down the unit.

The advantages of using pulverized fuel (coal) outweigh the disadvantages and hence all modern plants uses
pulverized coal.
Pulverizing mill
 Pulverizing mills are classified as Contact mills, Ball mills and Impact mills.
Contact mill
It has stationary and power driven
rotating element having a rolling
action with respect to each other.
The grinding elements have rollers
running over a stationary surface.
Coal is made to pass through the
grinding elements again and again
till it is pulverized to required
fineness. Hot air is circulated
through the grinding section and
fine particles go with the air stream
but bigger particles are returned for
regrinding. Supply of coal is to the
burner is controlled by flow of air.
Ball mill
It has large drum partly filled with
various sized steel balls. The drum
is rotated slowly while coal is fed
into it. The balls pulverize the coal
by crushing. Hot air enters the drum
dries the coal and carries the
pulverized coal to burner. This type
of mill can successfully pulverize
anthracite and bituminous coals
which are difficult to pulverize.
Impact mill
This type of mill used impact
principle. Coal remain in
suspension during the entire
pulverizing process. All grinding
elements and primary air fan are
mounted on a single shaft. The
pulverized coal output is controlled
by varying the quantity of coal fed
and also by controlling the flow of
primary air.
Pulverizing mill

Contact mill Ball mill Impact mills

Draft System
 Combustion in boiler requires supply of sufficient quantity of air and removal
of exhaust gases. The circulation of air is caused by difference in pressure
(between atmosphere and inside boiler) known as draft.
 There are two draft system namely natural & mechanical.
Natural Draft Mechanical Draft
Natural draft is provided by chimney or Stack. A Large size power plants need tremendous volume of
chimney serves two purposes: air.
(i) Produce draft so that air can flow into the boiler A chimney cant provide enough draft for such large
and products of combustion are discharged. amount of air. Therefore, mechanical draft is
(ii) Deliver the products of combustion of fly ash to necessary. Mechanical draft is provided by fans. A
high altitude so that air pollution is reduced. mechanical draft may consist of forced draft or
induced draft or both.
Intensity of draft depends upon the chimney height and
temperature difference between outside air and inside
gas. Only natural draft is used small boilers.
Draft System
 Forced draft and Induced draft
Forced Draft
In forced draft system the fan is installed near the base
of the boiler.
The FD fans forces air through the furnace,
economizer, air preheater and chimney.
 In most of the power plant it is not sufficient to have a forced draft or induced draft
alone. Therefore, generally both is used.
Induced Draft
In induced draft system the fan is installed near the
base of the chimney.
The burnt gases are sucked out of boiler, thus reducing
the pressure inside the boiler to less than atmospheric.
This induces the fresh air to enter the furnace.
Boiler
 Boiler (Steam Generator) is a closed vessel in which water under pressure is
converted into steam. It is one of the major components of a thermal power
plant. It is designed to absorb maximum amount of heat released in the process
of combustion. The heat is transferred to boiler by all three modes of heat
transfer i.e. Conduction, Convection and Radiation.
Fire Tube Boiler Water Tube Boiler
• In this type of boiler products of combustion passes • In this type of boiler, water flows inside the tubes
through tubes which are surrounded by water. and hot gases flow outside the tubes. The tubes are
• Depending upon tubes direction (vertical or interconnected to common water channels and to
horizontal) they are further classified as vertical or steam outlet.
horizontal tube boilers. • Depending upon tubes direction (vertical or
• This type of boiler is economical for low pressures horizontal or inclined) they are further classified as
and are generally used in small sizes having vertical or horizontal or inclined tube boilers.
capacity of about 15000kg/hr. • Circulation of water may be natural or forced
through pump.
• Now a days, supercritical pressure boilers having
capacity of above 10,00,000kg/hr are available.