Vapor power system

In the gas power cycles, the working fluid remains gas throughout the entire cycle.
But in vapor cycles the working fluid is alternately vaporized and condensed.
Steam is the most common working fluid in vapor power cycles since it has several
desirable characteristics, such as low cost, availability and high enthalpy of
vaporization.
Steam power plants are referred to as coal plants, nuclear plants, or natural gas plants
depending on the type of fuel used to supply heat to the steam. But steam goes
through the same basic cycle in all of them.

Rankine Cycle
Rankine cycle is the ideal cycle for vapor power plants and consists of the following four
processes:

1-2 Isentropic compression in a pump

Diagrams

Processes

• Water enters the pump at state 1 as saturated liquid and is compressed isentropically
to the operating pressure of the boiler. There is slight increase in water temperature
during the compression process.
• Water enters the boiler as a compressed liquid at state 2 and leaves as a superheated
vapor at state 3. The boiler is basically a heat exchanger where water is heated at
constant pressure.
• The superheated vapor at state 3 enters the turbine, where it expands isentropically
and produces work by rotating shaft connected to an electric generator. The pressure
and the temperature of the steam drop during this process to the values at state 4.

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• Steam enters the condenser at state 4. At this state steam is usually a saturated liquid-
vapor mixture with a high quality. It is condensed at constant pressure and leaves the
condenser as a saturated liquid.

Energy Analysis

Pump: wpump,in = h2 – h1
wpump,in = v(P2 – P1)
Boiler: qin = h3 – h2
Turbine: wturb,out = h3 – h4
Condenser: qout = h4 – h1
Thermal efficiency:
η = wnet / qin = 1- qout / qin

wnet = qin - qout = wturb,out - wpump,in

Deviation of actual vapor power cycles from idealized ones

• The actual vapor power cycle differs from the ideal Rankine cycle because of
irreversibilities in various components.
• Fluid friction and undesired heat loss to the surroundings are the most common
sources of irreversibilities.
• There are pressure drops in the boiler and the condenser because of the friction.
• Irreversibilities within the pump and the turbine also play important role in this
deviation. A pump requires a greater work input and a turbine produces a smaller wok
output as a result of irreversibilities.
• The deviation of actual pumps and turbines from the isentropic ones can be accounted
for by using adiabatic efficiencies as described below:

Efficiency of pump:
ηP = (h2s – h1) / (h2a – h1) (isentropic work / actual work)
Efficiency of turbine:
ηT = (h3 – h4a) / (h3 – h4s) (actual work / isentropic work)

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Example:
Consider a steam power plant operating on the Rankine cycle. The steam enters the
turbine at 3 MPa and 350oC and is condensed at a pressure of 75 kPa. The pump has the
efficiency of 85% and the turbine has that of 87%. Determine (a) the thermal efficiency
of the cycle, (b) the back work ratio, (c) the net power output for a mass flow rate of 15
kg/s.

Increasing efficiency of the Rankine cycle

1. Lowering the condenser pressure

2. Superheating the steam to high temperatures

3. Increasing the boiler pressure

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Ideal Reheat Cycle
Increasing the boiler pressure increases the thermal efficiency of the Rankine cycle, but it
also increases the moisture content of the system. Liquid droplets can erode the turbine
blades. To avoid this we can modify the Rankine cycle with a reheat process. This is
achieved by expanding the steam in the turbine in two stages, and reheating it in between.
The T-s diagram of the ideal reheat Rankine cycle can be seen below:

Diagram

In the first stage (the high pressure turbine), steam is expanded isentropically to an
intermediate pressure and sent back to the boiler where it is reheated at constant pressure,
usually to the inlet temperature of the first turbine stage. Steam then expands
isentropically in the second stage (low pressure turbine) to the condenser pressure.

Total heat input and the total work output for a reheat cycle can be expressed as:
qin = qprimary + qreheat = (h3-h2)+(h5-h4)
wturb,out = wturb,I +wturb,II

Example:

Consider a steam power plant operating on the ideal reheat Rankine cycle. Steam enters
the high-pressure turbine at 15 MPa and 600oC and is condensed in the condenser at a
pressure of 10 kPa. If the moisture content of the steam at the exit of the low pressure
turbine is not to exceed 10.4%, determine (a) the pressure at which the steam should be
reheated, and (b) the thermal efficiency of the cycle. Assume the steam is reheated to the
inlet temperature of the high-pressure turbine.

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Regenerative Vapor Power Cycle
• Regeneration increases efficiency of vapor power plant.
• It involves raising the temperature of the liquid leaving the pump (called the
feedwater) before it enters the boiler.
• This is achieved by extracting steam from turbine. This steam (which could have
produced more work by expanding further in the turbine) is used to heat the
feedwater.
• The device where this takes place is called a regenerator or a feedwater heater.
• A feedwater heater is basically a heat exchanger where heat is transferred from the
steam to the feedwater either by:
o Mixing the two fluid streams (Open feedwater heaters), or
o Without mixing them (Closed feedwater heaters).

1) Open feedwater heaters

In an ideal cycle:
- Steam enters the turbine at the boiler pressure (state 5) and expands isentropically to
state 6. Here some steam is extracted to the feedwater heater, while rest expands
isentropically to the condenser pressure (state 7).
- Steam leaves the condenser as a saturated liquid at state 1. The condensed water (also
called feedwater) enters a pump where it is isentropically compressed to the
feedwater heater pressure (state 2), and is routed to the feedwater heater, where it
mixes with the steam extracted from the turbine.
- The fraction of the steam extracted is such that the mixture leaves the heater as a
saturated liquid at the heater pressure (state 3).
- A second pump raises the pressure of the water to the boiler pressure (state 4).
- Water in the boiler is now heated to the turbine inlet state (state 5).

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Analysis of the cycle:
In this case the mass flow rates are different through different components of the cycle.
For example, if 1 kg steam leaves the boiler and y kg expands partially in the turbine and
is extracted to state 6, the remaining (1-y) kg expands to the condenser pressure.
qin = h5-h4
qout = (1-y) (h7-h1)
wturb,out = (h5-h6) + (1-y) (h6-h7)
wpump,in = (1-y) wpumpI,in + wpumpII,in

Example:
Consider a steam power plant operating on the ideal regenerative Rankine cycle with one
open feedwater heater. Steam enters the turbine at 15 MPa and 600oC and is condensed in
the condenser at a pressure of 10 kPa. Some steam leaves the turbine at a pressure of 1.2
MPa and enters the open feedwater heater. Determine the fraction of the steam extracted
from the turbine and the thermal efficiency of the cycle.

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2) Closed feedwater heaters
In closed feedwater heater, heat is transferred from the extracted steam to the feedwater
without any mixing taking place. The two streams can be at different pressures since they
do not mix.

In an ideal closed feedwater heater, the feedwater is heated to the exit temperature of the
extracted steam, which ideally leaves the heater as a saturated liquid at the extraction
pressure. (But in actual scenario, the feedwater leaves the heater below the exit
temperature of the extracted steam).

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Differences between open and closed feedwater heaters:
Open – simple, inexpensive, good heat transfer characteristics; but for each heater, a
pump is required to handle the feedwater

Closed – complex (because of internal tubing), expensive, less effective as two streams
not allowed in direct contact; but does not need a separate pump for each heater as the
extracted steam and the feedwater can be at different pressures.

Most power plants use combination of open and closed feedwater heaters.

Working fluid characteristics, Binary vapor cycles and cogeneration

Case study: Exergy analysis of a vapor power plant