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PREFACE A thermal power station is a power plant in which the prime mover is steam driven. Water is heated, turns into steam and spins a steam turbine which either drives an electrical generator or does some other work, like ship propulsion. 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. 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. Commercial electric utility power stations are most usually constructed on a very large scale and designed for continuous operation. Electric power plants typically use three-phase or individualphase electrical generators to produce alternating current (AC) electric power at a frequency of 50 Hz or 60 Hz (hertz, which is an AC sine wave per second) depending on its location in the world.

CONTENTS 1. Introduction.02 2. Need For thermal power generation..04 3. Classification..05 4. Basic definitions.07 5. Functioning of thermal power plant...11 6. ADVANTAGES...17 7. DISADVANTAGES18 8. Future Prospects19 9. BIBLIOGRAPHY21

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 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, oil, or natural gas are often referred to collectively as 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 cogeneration, are sometimes referred to as conventional power plants. In thermal power stations, mechanical power is produced by a heat engine that transforms thermal energy, often from combustion of a fuel, into rotational energy. Most thermal power stations produce steam, and these are sometimes called steam power stations. Not all thermal energy can be transformed into mechanical power, according to the second law of thermodynamics. Therefore, there is always heat lost to the environment. If this loss is employed as useful heat, for industrial processes or district heating, the power plant is referred to as a cogeneration power plant or CHP (combined heat-and-power) plant. In countries where district heating is common, there are dedicated heat plants called heat-only boiler stations. An important class of power stations in the

Middle East uses by-product heat for the desalination of water. Commercial electric utility power stations are most usually constructed on a very large scale and designed for continuous operation. Electric power plants typically use three-phase or individualphase electrical generators to produce alternating current (AC) electric power at a frequency of 50 Hz or 60 Hz (hertz, which is an AC sine wave per second) depending on its location in the world. Other large companies or institutions may have their own usually smaller power plants to supply heating or electricity to their facilities, especially if heat or steam is created anyway for other purposes. Shipboard steam-driven power plants have been used in various large ships in the past, but these days are used most often in large naval ships. Such shipboard power plants are general lower power capacity than full-size electric company plants, but otherwise have many similarities except that typically the main steam turbines mechanically turn the propulsion propellers, either through reduction gears or directly by the same shaft. The steam power plants in such ships also provide steam to separate smaller turbines driving electric generators to supply electricity in the ship. Shipboard steam power plants can be either conventional or nuclear; the shipboard nuclear plants are mostly in the navy. 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. Thermal power station is a power plant in which the prime mover is steam driven. Water is heated, turns into steam and spins a steam turbine which either drives an electrical generator or does some other work, like ship propulsion. 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 fuel sources. Some prefer to use the term energy center because such facilities convert forms of heat energy into electrical energy. History Reciprocating steam engines have been used for mechanical power sources since the 18th Century, with notable improvements being made by James Watt. The very first commercial central electrical generating stations in New York and London, in 1882, also used reciprocating steam engines. As generator sizes increased, eventually turbines took over they encres the hose power.

CHAPTER 2 NEED FOR THERMAL POWER GENERATION Scarcity of water resources: Water resources are not abundantly available and are geographically unevenly distributed. Thus hydel power plants cannot be installed with ease and are limited to certain locations. Widely available alternate flues: Many alternate fuels such as coal, diesel, nuclear fuels, geothermal energy sources, solar-energy, biomass fuels can be used to generate power using steam cycles. Maintenance and lubrication cost is lower: Once installed, these require less maintenance costs and on repairs. Lubrication is not a major problem compared to hydel power plant. Coal is abundant: Coal is available in excess quantities in India and is rich form of energy available at relatively lower cost. Working fluid remains within the system, and need not be replaced every time thus simplifies the process.

CHAPTER 3 CLASSIFICATION Thermal power plants are classified by the type of fuel and the type of prime mover Installed. By fuel Nuclear power plants use a nuclear reactor's heat to operate a steam turbine generator. Fossil fuelled power plants may also use a steam turbine generator or in the case of natural gas fired plants may use a combustion turbine. A coal-fired power station produces electricity by burning coal to generate steam, and has the side-effect of producing a large amount of carbon dioxide, which is released from burning coal and contributes to global warming Geothermal power plants use steam extracted from hot underground rocks. Biomass Fuelled Power Plants may be fuelled by waste from sugar cane, municipal solid waste, landfill methane, or other forms of biomass. Solar thermal electric plants use sunlight to boil water, which turns the generator. By prime mover Steam turbine plants use the dynamic pressure generated by expanding steam to turn the blades of a turbine Gas turbine plants use the dynamic pressure from flowing gases (air and combustion products) to directly operate the turbine. Combined cycle plants have both a gas turbine fired by natural gas, and a steam boiler and steam turbine which use the hot exhaust gas from the gas turbine to produce electricity Reciprocating engines are used to provide power for isolated communities and are frequently used for small cogeneration plants. Hospitals, office buildings, industrial plants, and other critical facilities also use them to provide backup power in case of a power outage Microturbines, Stirling engine and internal combustion reciprocating engines are low-cost solutions for using opportunity fuels, such as landfill gas, digester gas from water treatment plants and waste gas from oil production

Efficiency Power is energy per unit time. The power output or capacity of an electric plant can be expressed in units of megawatts electric (MWe). The electric efficiency of a conventional thermal power station, considered as saleable energy (in MWe) produced at the plant busbars as a percent of the heating value of the fuel consumed, is typically 33% to 48% efficient. This efficiency is limited as all heat engines are governed by the laws of thermodynamics (See: Carnot cycle). The rest of the energy must leave the plant in the form of heat. 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 cogeneration. An important class of thermal power station is associated with desalination facilities; these are typically found in desert countries with large supplies of natural gas and in these plants, freshwater production and electricity are equally important co-products. Since the efficiency of the plant is fundamentally limited by the ratio of the absolute temperatures of the steam at turbine input and output, efficiency improvements require use of higher temperature, and therefore higher pressure, steam. Historically, other working fluids such as mercury have been experimentally used in a mercury vapor turbine power plant, since these can attain higher temperatures than water at lower working pressures. However, the obvious hazards of toxicity, and poor heat transfer properties, have ruled out mercury as a working fluid. CHAPTER 4 BASIC DEFINITIONS Steam is vaporized water and can be produced at 100C at standard atmosphere. In common speech, steam most often refers to the visible white mist that condenses above boiling water as the hot vapor mixes with the cooler air.

Turbine A turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a fluid or air flow and converts it into useful work. The simplest turbines have one moving part, a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or drum, with blades attached. Moving fluid acts on the blades, or the blades react to the flow, so that they move and impart rotational energy to the rotor. Early turbine exare windmills and waterwheels. Fig Typical turbine Electric generator An electric generator is a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. A generator forces electrons in the windings to flow through the external electrical circuit. It is somewhat analogous to a water pump, which creates a flow of water but does not create the water inside.

Fig Typical Generator

A boiler or steam generator is a device used to create steam by applyingheat energy to water. Although the definitions are somewhat flexible, it can be said that older steam generators were commonly termed boilers and worked at low to medium pressure (1300 psi/0.06920.684 bar; 6.8952,068.427 kPa), but at pressures above this it is more usual to speak of a steam generator.

A boiler or steam generator is used wherever a source of steam is required. The form and size depends on the application: mobile steam engines such as steam locomotives, portable engines and steam-powered road vehicles typically use a smaller boiler that forms an integral part of the vehicle; Second law of thermodynamics The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the universal principle of entropy, stating that the entropy of anisolated system which is not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium; and that the entropy change dSof a system undergoing any infinitesimal reversible process is given by dq / T, where dq is the heat supplied to the system and T is the absolute temperature of the system.

CHAPTER 5 FUNCTIONING OF THERMAL POWER PLANT: In a thermal power plant, one of coal, oil or natural gas is used to heat the boiler to convert the water into steam. The steam is used to turn a turbine, which is connected to a generator. When the turbine turns, electricity is generated and given as output by the generator, which is then supplied to the consumers through high-voltage power lines. Fig steam power generation

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. Feed water 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

Detailed process of power generation in a thermal power plant: Water intake: Firstly, water is taken into the boiler through a water source. If water is available in a plenty in the region, then the source is an open pond or river. If water is scarce, then it is recycled and the same water is used over and over again. Boiler heating: The boiler is heated with the help of oil, coal or natural gas. A furnace is used to heat the fuel and supply the heat produced to the boiler. The increase in temperature helps in the transformation of water into steam. Reference: http://seminarprojects.com/Thread-thermal-power-generation-full-report#ixzz1yKkO7at3