See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/311901069

Energy and exergy analysis of a coal based thermal power plant

Poster · December 2014

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.13859.55848

CITATIONS READS

2 671

3 authors, including:

A.K.M. Nazrul Islam Md Ashraful Islam

Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology European University of Bangladesh
16 PUBLICATIONS   12 CITATIONS    23 PUBLICATIONS   21 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Effects of Various Parameters on the Performance of Gas Fired Combined Cycle Power Plant View project

Feasibility Analysis of 4G Wireless Technology in Ubiquitous m-Health System in Bangladesh View project

All content following this page was uploaded by A.K.M. Nazrul Islam on 26 December 2016.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 A.K.M. Nazrul Islam et al. / BSME-ICTE 2014 1

6th BSME International Conference on Thermal Engineering (ICTE 2014)

Energy and exergy analysis of a coal based thermal power plant

A.K.M. Nazrul Islam, Farhana Alam, Md. Ashraful Islam
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh.

Abstract

This paper addresses the energetic and exergetic efficiencies and losses in different components and the overall system of a 250
MW coal based thermal power plant. The plant is operated under Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), which is
located at Barapukuria, Bangladesh and consists of 2 units (2 x 125 MW). The analyses have been carried out by considering
design data for different designed and loading conditions of the plant. The overall energy efficiencies of the plant are 35.48%,
56.77%, 70.96% and 75.67% and the overall exergy efficiencies were 44.25%, 33.31%, 30.78 % and 30.21% for 50%, 80%,
100% and 106% loading conditions respectively for the design data. However, the overall energy and exergy efficiencies of the
power plant during operation are 39.2%, 46.6% and 27.9 %, 27.2% for 57% and 67% loading conditions respectively, which are
lower than the design value. The distribution of the exergy losses in power plant components has been assessed to locate the
process irreversibility. The comparison between the energy losses and the exergy losses of the individual components of the plant
shows that the maximum energy losses (~49.92%) occur in the condenser, whereas the maximum exergy losses (~68.27%) occur
in the boiler. Exergy analysis can be particularly effective in identifying ways to optimize the performance of existing operations
and designing the plant while energy balance gives heat transfer between the system and its surrounding.

Keywords: Energy efficiency; exergy destruction; coal base power plant; thermal power plant.

1. Introduction

Energy consumption is one of the most important indicators showing the development stages of countries and
living standards of communities. Population increment, urbanization, industrializing and technological development
result directly in increasing energy consumption. To achieve the maximum utilization of energy resources and
reliability of the plant, researchers have the great interest on energy and exergy analysis of the power plant. In
generally, the performance of thermal power plants is evaluated through energetic performance criteria based on the
first law of thermodynamics, including electrical power and thermal efficiency [1]. In recent decades, the exergetic
performance based on the second law of thermodynamics has found as useful method in the design, evaluation,
optimization and improvement of thermal power plants. The majority of the causes of thermodynamic imperfection
of thermal processes are not accounted for by energy (or the first law of thermodynamics), whilst the exergy (or
second law of thermodynamic analysis) accounts the irreversibilities like heat transfer through a finite temperature
difference, chemical reactions, friction, mixing, and unrestrained expansion. Practical devices involving energy
conversion and transfer always observe energy conservation law, but the quality of energy degrades. Degradation of
energy is equivalent to the irretrievable loss of exergy due to all real processes being irreversible. The loss of exergy
or irreversibility provides a quantitative measure of process inefficiency [2].
A.K.M. Nazrul Islam et al. / BSME-ICTE 2014 2

Nomenclature Subscript
Cp Specific heat at constant pressure g Flue gas
En Energy flow (kW) in Inlet
Ex Exergy flow (kW) j Species /stream identification
HPT High pressure turbine out Outlet
IPT Intermediate pressure turbine o Reference state
DFLP Differential low pressure turbine
CW Cooling water Superscript
CEP Condensate extraction pump a air
BFP Boiler feed pump f fuel
HTR Heater g Flue gas
LHV Lower Heating Value

The exergy consumption during a process is proportional to entropy creation, which accounts for inefficiencies
due to irreversibilities. Therefore, exergy analysis is as important as energy analysis for design, operation and
maintenance of different equipment and systems of a power plant. An exergy analysis can identify locations of
energy degradation and rank them in terms of their significance. This knowledge is useful in directing the attention
of process design, researchers, and practicing engineers to those components of the system being analyzed that
offers the greatest opportunities for improvement [3].
At present 1880 GW of total electricity (5940 GW) is generated from coal (Source: IEA, June 2014) which is the
31.64% of total generation. As per statistics June 2014 of BPDB, the electricity production by coal is about 2.40% of
total electricity generation of country [4]. Bangladesh has up to 2.7 billion short tons of high-quality coal reserves
[5] and thus coal-based thermal power plants can play an important role for Bangladesh. Extensive research have
been carried out concerning energetic and exergetic performances of coal-fired thermal power plants. Datta et al. [6]
presented work on exergy analysis of a coal-based thermal power plant using the design data from a 210 MW
thermal power plant. The exergy efficiency is calculated using the operating data from the plant at different
conditions, viz. at different loads, different condenser pressures, with and without regenerative heaters. Rosen [7]
presented energy and exergy-based comparison of coal-fired and nuclear steam power plants. The results show
overall energy and exergy efficiencies are 37% and 36% respectively for the coal-fired and nuclear process.
Ganapathy et al. [8] determined the energy losses and the exergy losses of the individual components of the lignite
fired thermal power plant. The results represent the maximum energy losses of 39% occur in the condenser, whereas
the maximum exergy losses of 42.73% occur in the combustor. Suresh et al. [9] provides insight to find out
efficiency improvement in various components of a power generating system. The performance of the plant was
estimated by a component-wise modeling followed by computer program, “Cycle-Tempo” was used for the study.
The maximum exergy loss was found to be in steam generation unit followed by turbine. The off-design simulation
resulted in an overall energy efficiency of 28.5% at 40% load factor compared to 31.5% at design rating. Rudra et al.
[10] examined to increase coal-fired steam power plant efficiency by advance steam parameters. Although a
considerable amount of research have been carried out, but more effective research is essential to investigate results
on coal based thermal power plant using sub-critical, supercritical and ultra-supercritical steam conditions. This
study represents the results considering both the energetic and exergetic performance criteria, efficient and effective
usage of fuel resources by taking into account the quality and quantity of the energy used in the generation of
electric power in coal based thermal power plants, which is operating on sub-critical steam conditions.

2. Process Description

Coal fired thermal power plant generally operates on Rankine cycle [11]. The schematic arrangement of
equipments of this power plant is shown in Fig. 1. The major components of the plant are high, intermediate and
differential low pressure turbines (HPT, IPT and DFLP), boiler (B), pumps (P), deaerator (D), generator (G),
condenser (C), low and high pressure feed water heaters etc. The thermodynamic models of this power plant are
based on fundamental mass, energy and exergy balances.
A.K.M. Nazrul Islam et al. / BSME-ICTE 2014 3

3
A STM.CHEST
CONTROL
1
VOLUME 1
L B

K FLUE
5 GAS

T R L COAL
DFLP IP E D HP N Y OG BOILER
CONTROL AIR
VOLUME 2 S M
P

12 11

H
4
6 10 9 M S P G.R. 2
W CONTROL
13 COND. VOLUME 3
H

14 7
W

Z B N
A K
T R 30
28 29 8B 8A D. 31
15
16 19 21 HTR5
22 23 24 25 18 26 27
HTR1 HTR2 HTR3
G.C. HTR4 HTR6 HTR7
D.C. D.C. D.C. D.C.
20 17
32 33 34 35

Fig. 1. Flow diagram of Barapukuria 2 x 125 MW coal based thermal power plant.

The plant consists of three turbines, namely high, intermediate and low pressure (HP, IP and LP) which are
connected to the generator. Steam flows to HP turbine (point 1) with high energy and high exergy, after producing
work on expansion in HP turbine, cold reheat steam (point 12) with low energy and exergy flows back to boiler for
reheating, hot reheat steam (point 3). Wet steam (vapour fraction = 0.92) is exhausted from LP turbine to condenser
at a very low pressure (86 kPa). Circulating water flows to the condenser (point 13) almost at ambient temperature
takes away heat of condensation and flows back to the river (point 14). The condensate exits the condenser (point
15) with low energy and is pumped by the condensate extraction pump (CEP) to the deaerator through LP heaters
(HTR1 to HTR4). Deaerator feeds (point 17) to BFP, which raise the pressure of feed water flow (point 18) to high
value to flow through high pressure heaters (HTR6 and HTR7) and back to the boiler (point 11) for generation of
steam and the cycle continues. Final feed water (point 11) temperature rises across feed heaters by transferring heat
from turbine extraction steam and facilitates high temperature heat addition in boiler.
Table 1. Some baseline data of the Barapukuria 250 MW coal based power plant (Source: BPDB)
Coal flow 55 t/h
Ash production 6.6 t/h
Flue gas flow 700,000 Nm3/h
Flue gas temperature 150 oC
Emission SOx on average 0.600 t/h
Emission SOx max 0.735 t/h
Emission NOx max 500 mg/Nm3
Particulate matter 50 mg/Nm3
Stack height 95m
Circulating cooling water 14,000 m3/h

Following additional considerations are made for calculation of the energy and exergy of the different components:
 Total auxiliary power consumption in the plant is considered in a consolidated manner as a percentage of
the generated power.
 Atmospheric pressure and temperature are 25°C temperature and 1 atmospheric pressure.
 The relative humidity of the ambient air is assumed to be 80%.
 Incoming fuel temperature is 25°C.
A.K.M. Nazrul Islam et al. / BSME-ICTE 2014 4

3. Results and discussion

The design and operating data of Barapukuria 2 x 125 MW coal based thermal power plant have been used for
the energy and exergy analysis at different state points. The total cycle of the power plant consists of six closed feed
water heaters and one open feed water heater (deaerator). The T-s diagram is shown in Fig. 2. For this cycle, the
working fluid passes isentropically through the turbine stages and pumps. The T-S diagram shows the principal
states of the cycle. The steam (temp. 515 oC, 14.00 Mpa) enters the HP turbine at state 1 and expands to state 2,
where a fraction of the total flow is extracted, or bled, into two closed feed water heater HTR6 and HTR7 (state 7
and state 31). Then the steam is reheated (temp. 510 oC, 1.078 Mpa) and enters the IP turbine at state 3 and expands
to state 5. A fraction of the total flow is extracted, or bled, into one open feed water heater HTR5 (deaerator, state
30) and two closed feed water heater HTR3 and HTR4 (state 8B and state 8A). The rest of the steam expands
through the LP turbine to state 6. Finally, after increasing the temperature by the feed water heater and increasing
the pressure by the boiler feed pump to the steam generator pressure and enters the steam generator at state 27.The
cycle is completed as the working fluid is heated in the steam generator at constant pressure from state 27 to 1.

1 3

4
31 8A

8B
14x10 3 kPa

27
1.78x10 3 kPa 2
Temp., C

26 9
18 35 1.14x103 kPa
340 kPa
25 17
34 10
210 kPa
24 33
22 23 120 kPa
21 32 30 kPa
16 7.5 kPa
15 20 5.45 kPa 6

Entropy, s [kJ/kg-K]

Fig. 2. T-s diagram of total power cycle.

Energy and exergy efficiencies of the overall power plant are shown in Fig. 3(a) as function of 100%, 80% and
50% loading condition for the design data condition. The decrease in exergy efficiency is attributed to the loss of
exergy in the steam generation unit (boiler) and turbine. Energy and exergy efficiencies of the overall power plant
are shown in Fig. 3(b) as function of 57% and 67% loading condition for the operation condition. From the
comparison of design and operating data of the overall power plant, it is found that the efficiency of the operating
condition is low than the design condition.
(a) (b)
Energy Efficiency Exergy Efficiency Energy efficiency Exergy efficiency
80 80 80 80
70 70 70 70
Energy Efficiency, %
Energy Efficiency, %

Exergy Efficiency, %

60 60 60 60
Exergy Efficiency, %

50 50 50 50
40 40 40 40
30 30 30 30
20 20 20 20
10 10 10 10
0 0 0 0
40 60 80 100 120 50 55 60 65 70
Different Loading Condition, % Different Loading Condition, %

Fig. 3. Energy and exergy efficiencies of the overall power plant for (a) design data (b) operating data.
A.K.M. Nazrul Islam et al. / BSME-ICTE 2014 5

The comparison of energy efficiency and exergy efficiency between different components of the power plant is
specified in Fig. 4(a) - 4(c) for different loading conditions.
(a) (b)
Energy efficiency Exergy efficiency Energy Efficiency Exergy Efficiency
120 120
100 100
80
Efficiency

80

Efficiency
60 60
40 40
20 20
0 0

(c)

Energy Efficiency Exergy Efficiency

150
Efficiency

100
50
0

Fig. 4. Comparison of efficiency in the plant and components at (a) 50%; (b) 80%; (c) 100% load.

The comparisons of energy and exergy losses between the different subsystems of the plant are shown in Fig 5. It
is noted that the maximum exergy loss occurs in the boiler subsystem (68.27% at 100% load). This might be due to
the irreversibility of the combustion process in the combustor. The exergy destruction of the condenser is only
0.21%. The real loss is primarily back in the boiler where entropy was produced. Contrary to the first law analysis,
this demonstrates that significant improvements exist in the boiler system rather than in the condenser. The
calculated exergy efficiency of the cycle is 30.78% at 100% load. This indicates that remarkable opportunities are
available for improvement. Energy efficiency of the turbine cycle is low (47.25% at 100% load) due to a large
quantity of energy rejection in the condenser. But the derived exergy efficiency of the turbine is high (83.14 % at
100% load), this is due to the reason that a little exergy associated with turbine exhaust steam enters condenser, part
of which is rejected to CW and partly consumed due to irreversibility.
(a) (b)
Boiler Boiler
0.03
0.00
0.128.36 Turbine cycle 19.16 0.10 Turbine cycle
29.70 Condenser 1.82 Condenser
2.71
Condensate extention pump Condensate extention pump

40.68 HTR1
68.27 HTR1
0.00 30.64
8.64 HTR2 HTR2

HTR3 HTR3

HTR4 HTR4
20.23 HTR5 (Deaerator)
HTR5 (Deaerator)
49.92 0.00 0.21 17.26
8.64
HTR6 HTR6
HTR7 HTR7

Fig. 5. (a) Energy (b) Exergy loss of different components of the plant at 100% loading condition.
 A.K.M. Nazrul Islam et al. / BSME-ICTE 2014 6

Exergy analysis can also be effectively used to take important decisions pertaining to operation and maintenance.
Any operation decisions based on the energy analysis will be incorrect for the overall plant performance. This
corroborates to the overall plant performance degradation. First law analysis alone also often does not reflect
properly the performance deterioration level of a single component. Exergy analysis can benefit by pinpointing the
sources of irreversibility in different components of a power cycle.

4. Conclusions

Energy and exergy analyses are presented in this study to understand the performance of coal fired thermal power
plants and identify design possible efficiency improvements. From the data presented and the subsequent analysis,
following conclusions can be drawn:
 Exergy efficiency is lower than energy efficiency of the plant. Boiler is the main part that contributed to lower the
exergy efficiency.
 It has been observed that 68.27% exergy loss occur in combustor (boiler) which represents combustor is not fully
adiabatic and combustion might be incomplete. The large exergy loss is mainly due to the combustion reaction
and to the large temperature difference during heat transfer between the combustion gas and steam. Other factors
that might contribute to the high amount of exergy loss are tubes fouling, defective burners, fuel quality,
inefficient soot blowers, valves steam traps and air heaters fouling.
 The major energy destruction occurs in the condenser which leads to inefficient heat transfer between hot stream
(flue gas) and cold stream (water and air).
 Thus, energy analysis results lead to erroneous conclusion that major loss is associated with the heat rejection at
the condenser, while exergy analysis quantitatively demonstrates that only a very small amount of work potential
is lost in the condenser. Operation and maintenance decisions based on exergy analysis of the power plants
proved more effective. Power station equipment involves high density of exergy transfer and therefore, it is
important that exergy destruction is minimized in such devices. Exergy-based approach of performance
monitoring in operating power plants helps in better management of energy resources and environment.

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the authority of Barapukuria 250 MW coal based thermal power plant
and Bangladesh power development board (BPDB) for helping during the collection of data from the plant and
conduct research.

References

[1] H.E. Hasan, V.A. Ali, Burhanettin, D. Ahmet, H.S. Suleyman, S. Bahri, T. Ismail, G. Cengiz, A. Selcuk, Comparative energetic and exergetic
performance analyses for coal-fired thermal power plants in Turkey, International journal of thermal sciences 48 (2009), pp. 2179–86.
[2] T.J. Kotas, The exergy method of thermal plant analysis, Butterworth’s: London, 1985.
[3] K.N. Sachdeva, Karun, Performance optimization of steam power plant through energy and exergy analysis, International journal of current
engineering and technology, Vol.2, No.3, Sept, 2012.
[4] Bangladesh power development board, key statistics, June 2014.
[5] http://www.eoearth.org/article/Energy_profile_of_Bangladesh, 2007.
[6] A. Datta, S. Sengupta, S. Duttagupta, Exergy analysis of a coal based 210 MW thermal power plant, International journal of energy research,
Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 14-28, 2007.
[7] M.A. Rosen, I. Dincer, Thermoeconomic analysis of power plants: an application to the coal fired electrical generating station, Energy
conversion and management 44 (2003), pp. 2473-2761.
[8] T. Ganapathy, N. Alagumurthi, R.P. Gakkhar, K. Murugesan, Exergy analysis of operating lignite fired thermal power plant, Journal of
engineering science and technology review, Vol. 2, No. 1 (2009), pp. 123-130.
[9] M.V. Suresh, K.S. Reddy, A.K. Kolar, Energy and exergy based thermodynamic analysis of a 62.5 MW coal based thermal power plant,
International conference on energy and environment, August 28-30, Malaysia, 2006.
[10] S. Rudra, H.M. Shim, H.T. Kim, Exergetic analysis of coal fired thermal power plants based advance steam parameters, 4th BSME-ASME
International conference on thermal Engineering, 27-29 December, 2008.
[11] J. Beér, High efficiency electric power generation; the environmental role, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), October 17, 2006,
http://mitei.mit.edu/system/files/beer-combustion.pdf

View publication stats