22-10-2010, 03:39 PM
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thermal power generation full report
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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. 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.Introductory overview
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.
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 individual-phase
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 fullsize
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.
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