How Coal Fired Thermal Power Stations Work

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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- [Instructor] Hi, John here.
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In this video we're going to be looking at
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a coal fired power station.
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I'm gonna show you all of
the systems that make up
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the coal fired power station
and how they work together
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in order that a coal fired power station
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can generate electricity.
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By the end of the video you'll
know all of the major systems
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that we require in order that
a coal fired power station
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can function correctly.
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We'll cover the fuel
system, the water system,
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the steam system, the electrical system
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and also the exhaust gas system as well.
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So, by the end of the
video you really will know
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exactly how a coal fired
power station works.
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So, let's get started with an
overview of a power station
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and its main systems.
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I say main systems because
there are a lot of systems
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that make up a coal fired power station.
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They all work together
to produce electricity
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but you have major and minor systems
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and we're looking at the major systems.
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The first thing we're going to need
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when we build a coal fired
power station is coal.
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The idea is that we burn fuel
to release chemical energy
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that we can use to heat
up water and create steam.
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So, we can see we've got a ship
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on the left-hand side of this diagram.
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The ship is delivering coal.
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We will unload the coal from the ship
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and then we use a stacker
to stack the coal up
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in a coal yard or perhaps a coal dome
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or generally just a storage area.
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Now, we're gonna be storing
thousands and thousands of tons
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of coal in this area
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so we've got to organize the
coal yard or the storage area
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so we're not using up more
space than we actually require.
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Once the coal has been stacked,
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we're going to need to reclaim it.
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And that essentially means that
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whereas we drop the coal off
before into the coal yard,
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we're now going to pick the coal up again
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and start feeding it
towards the power station.
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The reason we have a coal
yard in the first place
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is because sometimes we may
not be able to get deliveries
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through to the power station.
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So, they will store a lot of coal,
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sometimes enough for three or four months
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and we'll gradually feed to
coal then to the power station
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without having to worry that
we're gonna run out of coal.
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After we've reclaimed some of
the coal from the coal yard,
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we'll send it to a silo,
often termed a day silo
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and we'll feed the coal from the day silo
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to a coal pulverizer.
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The idea of the pulverizer is
that we can pulverize the coal
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in order to get very fine coal dust.
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Inside the pulverizer, we're
also going to dry the coal out
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using air, cooled primary
air from a force draft fan.
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We're gonna take this
air from a pre-heater
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so that the area is quite hot
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and then we'll force
it into the pulverizer
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and as the coal is ground
up into small molecules,
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we'll also dry it out using this air.
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We use the same air for combustion
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because it's gonna get
blown into the boiler
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along with the coal.
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So, we've got our coal dust
leaving the pulverizer,
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it's been blown pneumatically
from the pulverizer
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to the boiler.
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When we get to the boiler,
we're going to ignite that coal
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and we're going to get combustion.
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So, that is our fuel system.
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We may also use oil to fire
the boiler, at least initially
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or natural gas which is
predominantly methane gas.
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It all depends on the
design of the boiler itself.
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The type of boiler we're
using is a water tube boiler.
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Whenever you need a lot of
steam at very high pressures,
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you're going to be using
a water tube boiler.
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Steam turbines require
steam at very high pressures
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and that's why we use water tube boilers
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but water tube boilers also
generate a lot of steam.
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They're very large.
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They can be greater than
40, 50, 60 meters in height
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and these are the boilers
that power stations
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in the power generation
industry always use.
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So, let's have a look
at our water circuit now
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because it's water that
gets fed to the boiler
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in order to generate steam.
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We've got a makeup water inlet.
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Makeup water feeds to a deaerator.
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When we talk about makeup water,
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were essentially talking
about the water that's added
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to the system and then treated
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before it becomes boiler feedwater.
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You can't just take water from
a city grid or from a lake
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or a river and put it
into a water tube boiler,
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that's not gonna work.
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You're gonna have a lot of
corrosion and a lot of problems.
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So, this makeup water has to be treated,
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chemically and mechanically
and we do that quite often
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in a deaerator.
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The deaerator is going to
reduce the oxygen content
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and the CO2 content of the water
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and before the water
gets to the deaerator,
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it's going to be filtered et cetera
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to take out those particles
that might be floating around
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in the water.
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Then we'll go to a boiler feedwater pump.
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This is usually a
multi-stage centrifugal pump
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and we will increase the
pressure of our boiler feedwater
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and send it to our water tube boiler.
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The pressures involved here
are actually quite high.
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You're looking at in excess of 200 bar
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which is in excess of around 3000 psi.
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The water will be pumped to an economizer
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where we'll preheat the water a little bit
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before we send it to the main
body of the water tube boiler.
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So, the economizer is a nice
way of preheating the water
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before we send it into the
main part of the boiler
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to really start heating it up a lot more.
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We don't wanna feed cold
water into the main part
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of the boiler or the furnace as we call it
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because if we do that
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then we're gonna thermal shock the boiler
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and that could mean that we
have cracked pipes et cetera.
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So, we'll preheat it by
sending it to the economizer.
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We'll then send the water
around to the furnace
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and we'll put the water into
the water tube boiler walls.
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They're called walls because
the piping around the furnace
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makes up a square space
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similar to having four separate walls.
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This means we can get
a lot of heat transfer,
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mostly via radiation to the furnace walls
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and then this heat is going
to be absorbed via conduction
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into the water and our water
is going to change to steam.
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We have different types of steam.
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We have wet steam and we have dry steam,
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superheated steam et cetera.
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But when we talk about wet and dry steam,
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we're referring to if
steam has water molecules
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in it or not.
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If the steam is totally dry
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then it will have no
water molecules in it.
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Steam is a colorless and odorless gas
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and by the time this steam
vapor has reached our steam drum
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which is at the top of the boiler,
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we're gonna have wet steam.
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It's not gonna be completely dry yet,
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there's gonna be particles
of moisture in the steam.
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That is what we see normally
when we think about steam.
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In the steam drum will begin to separate
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that moisture from the steam,
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sometimes using steam
separators or steam cyclones,
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sometimes using arrangement of baffles
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or a combination of both.
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We'll then send our
steam to a super heater
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where we will really heat that steam up
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and although we get a
slight pressure drop,
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we're gonna add more and more heat
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and the temperature of the
steam is going to increase.
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We will then feed that
steam from our super heaters
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into a high pressure turbine.
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As the steam passes through the turbine,
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it causes the turbine runner to rotate.
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So, we've taken the
chemical energy of the fuel,
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turned it into heat,
we've heated up the water,
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we've created high-pressure steam,
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we've fed it to a turbine
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and now we are converting
that heat energy or heat
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into mechanical movement
or kinetic energy.
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We're then gonna take the steam
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out of the high-pressure turbine.
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It's given up a bit of its heat already
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but we send it back into
the boiler to be reheated
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so that we can send it then
to an intermediate turbine.
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The reason we've reheated the steam
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is simply because we get a
slight increase in efficiency
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so it's definitely worth doing
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but we feed that steam from the reheater
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in the water tube boiler
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to an intermediate pressure turbine.
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The process is the same
as for the HP turbine
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or the high pressure turbine.
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We allow the steam to
flow through the turbine,
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the turbine rotor rotates
and then the steam exits
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the intermediate pressure turbine
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and is fed to two low pressure turbines.
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In the low pressure
turbines, we pass the steam
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through the low pressure
turbines, the rotors rotate
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and then the steam has
effectively fulfilled its purpose,
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it's given up a lot of heat
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and the best thing for us to
do now is to cool the steam,
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condense it, pump it back through a heater
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to the deaerator and then
back to the boiler again.
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So, those are our water
and steam circuits.
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So, we've covered the fuel system,
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we've covered the water system,
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we've covered the steam system.
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You might be wondering how
do we cool down so much steam
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and turn it back into condensate.
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Well, quite often we
will use a cooling tower.
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In our example here we have
a natural draft cooling tower
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and essentially the cooling
tower has a large reservoir
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in the base.
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We suck the water out of
the bottom of the reservoir,
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we send it to a condenser
which is a little bit
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like a shell and tube heat exchanger
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and then once we've
cooled down that steam,
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we're going to need to reject the heat
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in order that we can use
our cooling water again.
00:10:09.680 --> 00:10:12.920
So, we send the heated up
or the hot coolant water,
00:10:12.920 --> 00:10:14.930
you could say, to the cooling tower.
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We'll reject that heat to atmosphere
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and then the process continues.
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The hot cooling water
which has been cooled
00:10:22.220 --> 00:10:24.940
drops down into the reservoir of the tower
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and is pumped back to the condenser.
00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:31.500
If you wanna learn more about
natural draft cooling towers
00:10:31.500 --> 00:10:34.770
and shell and tube heat
exchangers, coal pulverizers,
00:10:34.770 --> 00:10:37.300
transformers et cetera
then I will put links
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to all of those tutorials in
the video description area.
00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:45.310
So now, let's have a look
at a few other systems.
00:10:45.310 --> 00:10:48.380
We've got a secondary air
system which passes air
00:10:48.380 --> 00:10:52.040
through a preheater and
feeds it to the boiler.
00:10:52.040 --> 00:10:55.250
The primary air system which
feeds to the coal pulverizer
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and then to the water tube
boiler is also preheated.
00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:00.840
The difference between the two systems
00:11:00.840 --> 00:11:03.610
is that the primary air system is added
00:11:03.610 --> 00:11:06.180
prior to combustion occurring.
00:11:06.180 --> 00:11:08.970
It controls the rate of combustion.
00:11:08.970 --> 00:11:12.370
If we add more fuel than
we need to add more air.
00:11:12.370 --> 00:11:14.300
The secondary air system controls
00:11:14.300 --> 00:11:17.050
how efficiently combustion occurs.
00:11:17.050 --> 00:11:20.400
We can actually sample
the exhaust gas system
00:11:20.400 --> 00:11:22.590
and we can look at things
like the oxygen levels
00:11:22.590 --> 00:11:26.070
or the CO2 levels or the
carbon monoxide levels
00:11:26.070 --> 00:11:29.600
and we can determine then
if we need to add more air
00:11:29.600 --> 00:11:31.940
to the boiler in order to increase
00:11:31.940 --> 00:11:34.910
our combustion efficiency or not.
00:11:34.910 --> 00:11:37.340
Large amounts of oxygen
indicate that we've added
00:11:37.340 --> 00:11:39.690
too much air and perhaps not enough fuel.
00:11:39.690 --> 00:11:42.736
Large amounts of carbon monoxide
00:11:42.736 --> 00:11:46.640
not enough air and that
combustion efficiency is low
00:11:46.640 --> 00:11:49.410
because combustion was not complete.
00:11:49.410 --> 00:11:50.890
So, we've covered the air systems,
00:11:50.890 --> 00:11:54.340
let's have a quick look now
at the exhaust gas system.
00:11:54.340 --> 00:11:57.620
The exhaust gas system is also
known as the flue gas system
00:11:57.620 --> 00:12:01.590
or the gases of combustion system.
00:12:01.590 --> 00:12:03.470
Normally, I call it the exhaust gas system
00:12:03.470 --> 00:12:06.810
although people use these
terms interchangeably.
00:12:06.810 --> 00:12:09.930
The exhaust gases will
pass through the preheater
00:12:09.930 --> 00:12:14.210
and some of the remaining
heat from the exhaust gases
00:12:14.210 --> 00:12:18.360
is used to heat up the air which
is being fed to the boiler.
00:12:18.360 --> 00:12:20.049
After that the exhaust gases will pass
00:12:20.049 --> 00:12:23.600
to an electrostatic precipitator
00:12:23.600 --> 00:12:27.550
and will effectively ionize
the exhaust gas stream
00:12:27.550 --> 00:12:32.430
in order that particles are
attracted to large metal plates.
00:12:32.430 --> 00:12:35.883
These metal plates have a
large contact surface area.
00:12:35.883 --> 00:12:39.467
Particles in the exhaust
gas stream such as fly ash
00:12:39.467 --> 00:12:43.130
will be attracted to these large surfaces
00:12:43.130 --> 00:12:44.580
and in this way we can remove them
00:12:44.580 --> 00:12:46.860
from the exhaust gas stream.
00:12:46.860 --> 00:12:49.510
Periodically, these
large plates will become
00:12:49.510 --> 00:12:53.310
totally covered in these
exhaust gas particles
00:12:53.310 --> 00:12:56.200
and will shape the plates
or simply bang them
00:12:56.200 --> 00:12:58.710
in order that the particles
fall off the plates
00:12:58.710 --> 00:13:02.540
and then go to a silo where
they can be discharged
00:13:02.540 --> 00:13:05.890
to a truck or maybe
they'll go to an ash pond
00:13:05.890 --> 00:13:08.190
or some sort of landfill sites.
00:13:08.190 --> 00:13:10.010
The particles that you filter out
00:13:10.010 --> 00:13:14.270
via the electrostatic
precipitator can actually be sold
00:13:14.270 --> 00:13:15.720
and they'll often use these particles
00:13:15.720 --> 00:13:17.860
in the cement industry, for example.
00:13:17.860 --> 00:13:21.390
So, they will ship the
particles off to a cement plant
00:13:21.390 --> 00:13:25.620
and you'll mix this ash in with the cement
00:13:25.620 --> 00:13:28.180
as part of the cement plan process.
00:13:28.180 --> 00:13:30.450
This is quite useful because
if you're a power station
00:13:30.450 --> 00:13:34.080
then you don't have to pay
to get rid of your ash.
00:13:34.080 --> 00:13:38.156
After the electrostatic
precipitator or ESP,
00:13:38.156 --> 00:13:42.570
the exhaust gases pass
through an induced draft fan
00:13:42.570 --> 00:13:47.340
and then they will flow to a
desulphurization gas scrubber.
00:13:47.340 --> 00:13:50.170
The idea with the scrubber
is that we are removing
00:13:50.170 --> 00:13:53.100
as much of the sulfur
dioxide from the gas stream
00:13:53.100 --> 00:13:55.880
as possible before we discharge
00:13:55.880 --> 00:13:58.550
the exhaust gas to atmosphere.
00:13:58.550 --> 00:14:01.080
In order to remove the
sulfur from the gas stream,
00:14:01.080 --> 00:14:05.340
we will usually use lime,
limestone or ammonia
00:14:05.340 --> 00:14:08.470
and we'll spray that into a large column,
00:14:08.470 --> 00:14:10.400
it will absorb some of the sulfur,
00:14:10.400 --> 00:14:13.180
we may get ammonia sulfate for example
00:14:13.180 --> 00:14:15.780
and will form something called gypsum
00:14:15.780 --> 00:14:17.690
which can then also be sold.
00:14:17.690 --> 00:14:20.170
So, the byproduct of the process is gypsum
00:14:20.170 --> 00:14:22.500
which can be sold by the power station,
00:14:22.500 --> 00:14:25.370
again sometimes to a cement factory.
00:14:25.370 --> 00:14:28.510
I believe sometimes it's
used for plastering walls
00:14:28.510 --> 00:14:31.640
and also in the agricultural
industry as well.
00:14:31.640 --> 00:14:35.550
So, by selling the fly ash particles
00:14:35.550 --> 00:14:38.910
and by selling the gypsum it
means that we don't have to pay
00:14:38.910 --> 00:14:41.940
to get rid of these materials.
00:14:41.940 --> 00:14:43.860
And you have to remember we're producing
00:14:43.860 --> 00:14:47.400
hundreds or thousands of
tons of these byproducts
00:14:47.400 --> 00:14:49.940
of combustion every year.
00:14:49.940 --> 00:14:52.550
So, it's quite a lot of
money if you have to pay
00:14:52.550 --> 00:14:55.800
to get rid of these
products of combustion.
00:14:55.800 --> 00:14:57.920
Sometimes you'll actually
see a cement plant
00:14:57.920 --> 00:15:02.480
located right next door to
00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:03.710
That's not a coincidence.
00:15:03.710 --> 00:15:07.330
It's because they can then
convey the ash and the gypsum
00:15:07.330 --> 00:15:09.810
directly to the cement plant
00:15:09.810 --> 00:15:11.300
and in this way the cement plant
00:15:11.300 --> 00:15:13.570
has a constant stream of raw materials
00:15:13.570 --> 00:15:15.610
from the coal fired power station
00:15:15.610 --> 00:15:17.500
but they don't have to
pay any shipping costs
00:15:17.500 --> 00:15:18.710
to get these materials.
00:15:18.710 --> 00:15:21.380
So, it's quite a convenient arrangement.
00:15:21.380 --> 00:15:25.090
After flue gas desulphurization FGD,
00:15:25.090 --> 00:15:27.590
the exhaust gas is then
gonna flow to a stack
00:15:27.590 --> 00:15:31.120
which is a large cylindrical steel column,
00:15:31.120 --> 00:15:33.650
much like a chimney and the exhaust gases
00:15:33.650 --> 00:15:37.100
will be discharged to atmosphere.
00:15:37.100 --> 00:15:39.640
We call it a stack because
of the stack effect
00:15:39.640 --> 00:15:41.310
which essentially means that hot air
00:15:41.310 --> 00:15:44.890
will rise above cooler air
due to the density difference
00:15:44.890 --> 00:15:46.300
between the two.
00:15:46.300 --> 00:15:48.130
Hot air is actually less dense
00:15:48.130 --> 00:15:52.350
and that's why it rises
above cold air, for example.
00:15:52.350 --> 00:15:54.230
Let's go and have a look now what happens
00:15:54.230 --> 00:15:56.820
after our turbine is in motion.
00:15:56.820 --> 00:16:00.680
Why do we even want the
turbine rotors rotating?
00:16:00.680 --> 00:16:03.300
Well, we want them rotating
because we're gonna connect them
00:16:03.300 --> 00:16:06.230
to a generator rotor.
00:16:06.230 --> 00:16:09.543
The rotor is gonna rotate
within a generator stator
00:16:10.525 --> 00:16:12.853
and we're gonna generate
alternating current.
00:16:13.780 --> 00:16:16.360
I say generate, we have to think about
00:16:16.360 --> 00:16:18.280
the first law of thermodynamics here
00:16:18.280 --> 00:16:23.280
which means we cannot generate,
produce or destroy energy.
00:16:24.020 --> 00:16:26.290
All we're doing throughout
the entire process
00:16:26.290 --> 00:16:30.220
is transferring energy
from one form to another
00:16:30.220 --> 00:16:32.240
in order that we can get it into a form
00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:34.850
that we find very useful.
00:16:34.850 --> 00:16:36.600
The form that we find very useful
00:16:36.600 --> 00:16:40.210
is electricity, electrical energy.
00:16:40.210 --> 00:16:42.680
If we take our electricity
from the generator,
00:16:42.680 --> 00:16:44.250
we pass it to a transformer,
00:16:44.250 --> 00:16:47.600
we increase the voltage significantly
00:16:47.600 --> 00:16:51.020
maybe from 20 kV up to 400 kV
00:16:51.020 --> 00:16:54.360
and then we send it to
an open-air switch yard
00:16:54.360 --> 00:16:59.170
and then distribute it to a
national or international grid.
00:16:59.170 --> 00:17:00.810
But throughout the entire process,
00:17:00.810 --> 00:17:05.460
all we're doing is changing
the form of energy.
00:17:05.460 --> 00:17:07.210
We call it the power generation industry
00:17:07.210 --> 00:17:08.930
but we're not actually generating anything
00:17:08.930 --> 00:17:11.720
maybe we should call it the
power transfer industry.
00:17:11.720 --> 00:17:14.780
We're taking the chemical
energy from the fuel,
00:17:14.780 --> 00:17:17.320
we're turning it into heat,
00:17:17.320 --> 00:17:20.410
we're transferring that
heat via radiation,
00:17:20.410 --> 00:17:23.980
conduction or convection to the water
00:17:23.980 --> 00:17:26.200
which then gives us steam and that steam
00:17:26.200 --> 00:17:27.900
can be sent to a turbine,
00:17:27.900 --> 00:17:31.390
we'll transfer the heat
to the turbine rotors
00:17:31.390 --> 00:17:35.600
in order to give them mechanical
movement or kinetic energy
00:17:35.600 --> 00:17:39.450
then we'll feed that kinetic
energy to a generator
00:17:39.450 --> 00:17:42.290
and as the generator rotor rotates
00:17:42.290 --> 00:17:45.710
through the magnetic
field that surrounds it,
00:17:45.710 --> 00:17:48.460
we're going to induce
current flow in the windings
00:17:48.460 --> 00:17:49.960
and this essentially gives us
00:17:49.960 --> 00:17:53.940
suppose what we refer to as
electricity in alternating form.
00:17:53.940 --> 00:17:56.865
And these alternating current
gets passed into transformer.
00:17:56.865 --> 00:18:00.310
After transformer, we go
to an open-air switch yard
00:18:00.310 --> 00:18:05.310
that is simply a large area
that's full of surge arresters,
00:18:05.330 --> 00:18:08.960
lightning arresters,
circuit breakers et cetera
00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:11.570
and all of those components
within the open-air switch yard
00:18:11.570 --> 00:18:15.200
are there to protect the transformer
00:18:15.200 --> 00:18:18.220
and the electrical systems
in the power station
00:18:18.220 --> 00:18:19.793
as well as the grid itself.
00:18:20.920 --> 00:18:22.390
So, that is essentially
00:18:22.390 --> 00:18:26.580
how a coal fired power station works.
00:18:26.580 --> 00:18:28.820
There are many different
power station designs,
00:18:28.820 --> 00:18:30.820
many different power station types,
00:18:30.820 --> 00:18:34.770
some of them are very large,
some of them are much smaller.
00:18:34.770 --> 00:18:37.140
They become more and more complex
00:18:37.140 --> 00:18:41.960
as you increase the megawatt capacity size
00:18:41.960 --> 00:18:44.610
and generally, the newer power stations
00:18:44.610 --> 00:18:48.003
are a lot more complex than
the older style power stations.
00:18:49.230 --> 00:18:51.840
I've run out of time in this
video but in our next video
00:18:51.840 --> 00:18:55.570
I'm gonna show you a coal
fired power station in 3D
00:18:55.570 --> 00:18:58.270
and then I'm gonna load
up separate 3D models
00:18:58.270 --> 00:19:00.780
of all of the major components associated
00:19:00.780 --> 00:19:02.710
with a coal fired power station
00:19:02.710 --> 00:19:05.560
and I'm going to show you
each of these 3D models
00:19:05.560 --> 00:19:09.840
so you can understand exactly
how the power station works
00:19:09.840 --> 00:19:13.658
and how each individual
component works as well.
00:19:13.658 --> 00:19:17.560
steam or boilers, valves,
00:19:17.560 --> 00:19:21.650
pumps or anything else related
to industrial engineering
00:19:21.650 --> 00:19:23.770
then check out our website.
00:19:23.770 --> 00:19:26.530
You can find a link in the
video description area.
00:19:26.530 --> 00:19:30.670
We've got over 30 hours of
engineering video tutorials
00:19:30.670 --> 00:19:31.753
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00:19:36.260 --> 00:19:38.040
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