International Journal of Heat and Technology

Vol. 41, No. 1, February, 2023, pp. 253-258

Journal homepage: http://iieta.org/journals/ijht

Evaluation Performance of the Steam Power Plant in Iraq Based on Energy and Exergy
Analysis
Hayder Rafeeq Shaheed1* , Hayder Noori Mohammed1 , Raoof Mohammed Radhi2
1
Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Kerbala, Kerbala 56001, Iraq
2
Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Warith Al-Anbiyaa, Kerbala 56001, Iraq

Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

https://doi.org/10.18280/ijht.410128 ABSTRACT

Received: 20 November 2022 Al-Mosyab thermal power station in Iraq is the subject of a case study to apply energy and
Accepted: 10 February 2023 exergy analysis in this presented paper. The methodical equations derived from mass,
energy, and exergy balancing equations for each part of the cycle were computed using
Keywords: software Engineering Equation Solver (EES). The exergy analysis shows that the plant's
exergy analysis, thermal efficiency, second second law efficiency and entire exergy destruction are 34.91% and 412.6 MW,
law efficiency, steam power plant respectively. The boiler experiences the most significant losses since they destroy the most
exergy. The effect of the condenser pressure rise and the change in cooling water
temperature on the performance of the thermal unit was studied. The thermal and exergy
efficiency are reduced by 0.16% and 0.14%, respectively; the net power output decreased
by 3.61%, demonstrating the significant impact of condenser pressure on the load
produced. As a result of a rise in cooling water inlet temperature, the thermal and second
law efficiency decrease by 1.196% and 1.203%, respectively, while the net power
decreases by 0.57%.

1. INTRODUCTION causes. The energy industry may be seen more clearly with the
help of exergy. Exergy analysis is helpful because it highlights
Even with the availability of energy sources and fossil fuels potential sources of inefficiency in energy systems during the
(oil), The electricity sector in Iraq suffers from shortage of design phase. Cengel et al. [4] presented that exergy is the
electric power, especially in light of population expansion. So, highest amount of useful work that a system is capable of
should be many initiatives are being taken to improve and producing in a given environment and state. When it comes to
enhance fossil fuel-powered steam plants in order to boost the optimization of intricate thermodynamic systems, the
their effectiveness and lower energy losses. The disparity exergy investigation, which is founded on the second law of
between global energy production and demand is getting less thermodynamics, has shown to be an extremely effective tool
every day. Energy consumption is a key indicator of both a that can determine the locations and sizes of the biggest
country's and a community's degree of development and irreversibilities in these cycles. Rosen [5] explained that
quality of life. The capacity augmentation is necessary to meet exergy analysis recognizes that while energy cannot be
these energy demands for effective use of energy resources; generated or destroyed, it can decline in quality until it reaches
thermal system analysis is crucial. The first law of a point where it is completely equilibrated with the
thermodynamics or energy analysis is the conventional environment and is therefore no longer useful for completing
method for analyzing thermal power systems. Inaccurate data tasks. Dewulf et al. [6] elucidated that when a system or
on efficiency and losses cannot be gleaned from energy resource is brought into equilibrium with its surroundings
calculations predicated on the first law of thermodynamics. through reversible processes and is solely permitted to interact
Consequently, there is considerable attention on effectively with the environment, the exergy is the maximum amount of
combining the first and second laws of thermodynamics [1]. useful work that may be obtained from that system or resource.
Ray et al. [2] locating the causes of high irreversibility across Proper consideration must be given to the environment
a power cycle's various parts is helpful information for exergy employed in the calculations, such as the so-called dead state.
analysis. Loss of usable work is easily measurable over time Al-Mubaddel et al. [7] the condenser is an essential component
and under various operational conditions. When the pace at of thermal power plants that utilize the condensation process,
which a component's exergy is destroyed increases and its which entails the transformation of saturated steam exhaust
exergy efficiency falls below its design value, it is in a state of from the LP turbine into liquid water. In addition, non-
progressive deterioration. Rosen and Scott [3] supposed, the condensable dissolved gases are eliminated. Utilizing a
term "energy" is frequently employed in studies, including the condenser in a thermal power unit also improves the efficiency
study of energy production, transformation, and consumption. of the power plant by rejecting heat to the environment; hence,
However, these studies on exergy are often more informative they have examined the effect of environmental factors on the
than those on energy. Exergy-related losses provide a more condenser of the steam power station. Aljundi [8] have
precise identification and description of the magnitudes of investigated the impact of changing the environment's
thermodynamic losses as well as their origins, locations, and temperature from 283.15 to 318.15 K on the degradation of

253
exergy on major portions of Al-Hussein thermal power plant separate units. The power station is located in the Babylon
in Jordan by employed energy and exergy analyses. Ameri et Governorate. At present day, the total available output reaches
al. [9] evaluated the effect environment condition on the approximately 65% of the total rated capacity due to proper
exergy efficiency of the Hamedan steam power plant at maintenance has not been performed and equipment being
different loads. the study had shown the efficiency decreased degraded due to the imposition of the economic embargo after
with increased ambient temperature. Altering the condition the Gulf War.
dead state had been studied for C¸ayırhan thermal power plant Figure 1 shows a flow schematic for the power station.
located in Turkey [10]. The second law efficiency of station Table 1 lists the operating parameters for unit plant No. 3 at
decreased with increased ambient temperature at constant 225 MW load. Each power plant unit consists of a subcritical
pressure. Studied the effect climate condition and condenser single drum radiant natural circulation boiler is a pressurized
pressure of Shahid Montazeri power plant shows that the furnace with two regenerative air heaters, three turbines: (one
decrease the performance of the station due to rise in vacuum HP, one IP, one LP) are connected with couplings, the
pressure of condenser [11]. The investigators [12] examined generator is of liquid/hydrogen cooled type, three main boiler
impact of altering condenser pressure of North Refineries feedwater pumps, three condensate pumps, six closed
Company (MRC)/ Baiji/ Iraq appeared that the second law feedwater heaters, and one open feedwater heater called
efficiency was growing. deaerator (DTR), and a condenser.
The objective of the presented paper is to perform a power
and energy assessment on the 225 MW Al-Mosyab steam Table 1. General current operation condition
power plant's No. 3 unit to determine where energy is lost and
how much exergy is destroyed in each section of the station. Item Value
In addition, this paper studies the effect of changing cooling Feedwater temperature 168℃
water temperature and condenser pressure on plant Mass flow rate of main steam 181.6 kg. s-1
Main steam pressure 152 bar
effectiveness. Thus contributing to improving the performance
Main steam temperature 539℃
of steam stations operating in Iraq. Mass flow rate of fuel 14.68 kg. s-1
Condenser pressure 0.1 bar
NCV (crude oil) 10074 kcal. Kg-1
2. PLANT DESCRIPTION Cooling water temperature 24℃
Draft system Force draft
Al-Mosyab steam power plant, which was completed in Generator Rotating speed 3000 rpm
1990, designed to produce 1200 MW, the station has four

Figure 1. Diagram depiction of Al-Mosyab steam power plant's flow

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3. MATHEMATICAL MODEL 𝑊̇𝑛𝑒𝑡
𝜂𝑡ℎ = (11)
𝑄̇𝐵𝐿𝑅
Thermodynamic model equations are used to evaluate the
performance of various plant components and the entire plant.
where, the 𝑄̇𝐵𝐿𝑅 can calculated by:
For each control volume, the model equations are essentially
derived from the fundamental laws of mass conservation,
𝑄̇𝐵𝐿𝑅 = (𝑚̇13 ∗ ℎ13 + 𝑚̇18 ∗ ℎ18 + 𝑚̇𝐵𝐷 ∗ ℎ𝐵𝐷 )
energy conservation, and exergy balance. All model equations (12)
−(𝑚̇12 ∗ ℎ12 + 𝑚̇17 ∗ ℎ17 + 𝑚̇𝑅1 ∗ ℎ𝑅1 )
are solved with engineering equation solver (EES) [13]
software based on the readings of unit-3 summarised in Table
1 which displays the operating conditions under which the 225
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
MW of power it produces. These equations are applied to
various plant components based on the following assumptions:
A comparison was made between the station simulation
environment references are (298 K and 1bar), steady state
results under design conditions as shown in Table 2 with a 300
control volume. The kinetic and potential of energy and exergy
MW load to validate the EES programme results. The Table 3
were not taken into account as [14, 15].
revealed that the highest discrepancy between the design
Balance of mass, energy, and exergy are calculated as
parameters and simulation results is 1.33%, which are
following:
agreeable values; hence, the mathematical model will be
utilised to assess the station's energy and exergy under actual
∑𝑚̇𝑖 = ∑𝑚̇𝑒 (1)
operating conditions with 225 MW of load.
𝑄̇ − 𝑊̇ = ∑𝑚̇𝑖 ℎ𝑖 − ∑𝑚̇𝑒 ℎ𝑒 (2)
Table 2. Design condition at 300 MW

𝑋̇ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑡 − 𝑊̇ + ∑ 𝑚̇𝑖 𝑥𝑖 − ∑ 𝑚̇𝑒 𝑥𝑒 = 𝑋̇𝑑𝑒𝑠 (3) Item Equipment designation

Feedwater flow 244.6 kg. s-1
Feedwater temperature 251.8℃
where, 𝑋̇ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑡 is the rate of exergy transfer by heat can Mass flow rate of main steam 250.75 kg. s-1
computed by: Main steam pressure 170 bar
Main steam temperature 538℃
𝑇𝑜 Hot reheat steam pressure 83.3 bar
𝑋̇ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑡 = ∑(1 − )𝑄̇ (4)
𝑇𝑘 𝑘 Hot reheat steam pressure 538℃
Condenser pressure 0.0653 bar
The specific exergy can get by: Cooling water temperature 23℃

𝑋̇ = 𝑚̇𝑥 (5) Table 3. The contrast between the results and the current
readings
The specific exergy can get by:
Design Simulation
Deviation%
parameter reading
𝑥 = (ℎ − ℎ𝑜 ) − 𝑇𝑜 (𝑠 − 𝑠𝑜 ) (6) Thermal
0.451 0.445 1.33%
efficiency
The net power has been calculated as [16]: Power output 300 MW 299.7 MW 0.1%

𝑊̇𝑛𝑒𝑡 = 𝑊̇𝑢,𝐻𝑃𝑇 + 𝑊̇𝑢,𝐼𝑃𝑇 + 𝑊̇𝑢,𝐿𝑃𝑇 − 𝑊̇𝑢,𝐵𝐹𝑃 Table 4. Exergy destruction and thermal and second law
(7)
− 𝑊̇𝑢,𝐶𝐸𝑃 efficiency

The exergy content of fuel which represent the exergy Thermal Energy Exergy
2nd Law
Component efficiency Losses destruction
supply to the system is written as: % MW
efficiency%
MW
BLR 94 36.266 45.61 356.9
̇
𝑋𝑓𝑢𝑒𝑙 = 𝑚̇𝑓𝑢𝑒𝑙 ∗ 𝜑 ∗ 𝐿𝐻𝑉 (8) COND 69 98.401 24.2 16.048
HPT 67 27.512 79.91 13.861
where, φ is ratio of chemical exergy of liquid fuel and LVH is IPT 83.7 17.591 90.36 9.643
lower heating value represent the amount of NCV of crude oil LPT 81.2 20.374 89.82 9.97
at Table 1. BFP 86 0.527 90.59 0.3569
CEP 84 0.070 85.49 0.06539
Power plant second law efficiency and exergy destruction
DTR 96 5.459 88 2.638
are calculated by: LPH1 N/A N/A 54.61 0.522
LPH2 N/A N/A 75 1.097
𝑊̇𝑛𝑒𝑡 LPH3 N/A N/A 84.33 0.8108
𝜂ΙΙ = (9) LPH4 N/A N/A 88.56 0.7751
̇
𝑋𝑓𝑢𝑒𝑙
cycle 39.3 206.2 34.91 412.68

𝑋̇𝑑𝑒𝑠 = ∑𝑋̇𝑑𝑒𝑠,𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑛𝑒𝑛𝑡 (10) The energy and exergy analyses were performed and the
results shown in Table 4 were obtained. The total exergy
Power plant Thermal efficiency is computed by Eq. (11): destroyed is 412.6 MW, and the plant's thermal and second law
efficiency are 39.91% and 34.91%, respectively. According to
the results of the energy study, the boiler is responsible for

255
17.58% of the total energy losses and the condenser for which is why the plant's exergy destruction rose by about 2%
47.72%. The exergy analysis indicated that the boiler MW. Condenser exergy destruction by 2.96 MW for every
destroyed 86.48% of the entire exergy, only 3.89% was 0.02 bar increment of condenser pressure. The condenser is not
destroyed in the condenser. Energy-based measures of adiabatic; that is, the exergy of the lost heat at the boundary
efficiency are not always reliable, and may even be deceptive, must be factored into the restored exergy if Tb > T0. No effort
since they do not guarantee a consumed energy quality. is made to harness this exergy, and its destruction is permitted;
Furthermore, energy losses may be enormous in terms of nonetheless, the condenser is not to be held responsible for
quantity, but their poor quality [17]. what happens beyond its walls. It makes it reasonable to think
The performance of the condenser is critical to the operation of a comprehensive system that covers the immediate
of an effective and dependable power plant. Accelerated surroundings of the device so that the borders of the new
corrosion and deposits in the boiler can be the result of air and enlarged system are at T0 if we are interested in the exergy
cooling water leaks. High backpressure is another destroyed during the process outside the confines of the device
consequence of subpar condenser performance, which leads to [5].
less electrical output, decreased efficiency, and higher Figure 4 shows the effect of increasing the cooling water
operation costs [18]. The pressure of the condenser rises due temperature changing value between (24℃ - 32℃) on the
to a poor vacuum instrument. Figure 2 shows the effect of plant's thermal and second law efficiency and net power. Notes
thermal, second law efficiency and net power output when the that the plant thermal efficiency worsen by (1.196%). Also
increased condenser pressure 0.06 bar to 0.24 bar. The results reveals that the second law efficiency get worse by (1.203%)
showed that the thermal efficiency of the thermal cycle where their values range from (34.91% - 34.49%). As well as
decreases gradually by 3.6% from 39.39% to 37.97% The shows that net output power decreases approximately by 0.14
result is compatible as [19]. One way the condenser is used is MW for every 0.7℃ increment of cooling water temperature.
to reject heat to the surrounding area, which helps the power Figure 5 turns out that increasing the temperature there is
plant run more efficiently. Steam flows as a saturated mixture happening to reduce the performance of the actual work
at its pressure-specific saturation temperature in the condenser. turbine by 0.56%, especially at low pressure turbine due to
Consequently, lowering the condenser pressure decreases the smaller expansion of the steam and this is confirmed by
temperature of the steam, which reduces the amount of heat thermodynamics as [23, 24]. Moreover, the exergy destruction
rejected to the environment and increases the condensation of from the condenser has increased by 0.58%.
a greater quantity of steam exiting the low pressure turbine, According to the Figure 6, increasing the cooling water
and vice versa. The 2nd law efficiency descends from 34.99% temperature change from 24 C to 30 C causes the energy
to 33.73% which means every 0.02 bar increasing in the wasted from the thermal cycle to be average18.33 MW, and
condenser pressure so the 2nd law efficiency decreasing is 0.57 MW of the power plant is destroyed by exergy for every
0.14% because increasing condenser pressure will rise the LP 0.7℃ increment.
turbine back pressure that causes increasing saturated steam
temperature. As a result, the temperature differential between
the cooling water and condensing steam widens. thus, this lead
increases entropy generation and irreversibility, this finding
line up with earlier research as [20]. The net power has
decreased from 229.63 MW to 221.3 by 0.92 MW for every
0.02 bar increased, which is consistent with as [21, 22],
indicating that the condenser pressure has a considerable effect
on the load produced.

Figure 3. Effect condenser pressure on plant and condenser

exergy

Figure 2. Effect condenser pressure on plant efficiency and

output power

Figure 3 shows the effect the increasing condenser pressure

from 0.06 bar to 0.24 bar on plant performance. The higher the
condenser pressure, the higher the temperature of heat
rejection to the environment, the higher the temperature Figure 4. Effect inlet cooling water temperature on plant
difference between the working fluid and the cooling water, efficiency and output power
and the higher the entropy generated and irreversibilities [12],

256
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