Introduction
A power plant (also known as power station) is an industrial facilities for the generation of electric power for both residential and commercial usage. At the heart of most power plant is a rotating generator that convert mechanical energy into electrical energy by creating relative motion between a magnetic field and a conductor. There are many different types of power plant that uses different mediums and methods to generate the required output. Steam power plants, geothermal power plants, nuclear power plants, wind power plants, coal power plants and fossil fuel power plants are some of the more commonly found power plants being deployed in industrial.
In this laboratory and report, steam power plants are being used to illustrate the applications, objective and the theory behind the power plants concept. Most of the steam power plants being used in the industrial use petroleum and coal as the fuels to be burned for the heating of water to produce the required steam for the pressure to spin the turbine inside the generator. A simple steam power plant consists of a boiler, turbine, condenser and a pump. The fuel is being burned in the boiler or a super heater to produce the steam needed. The produced steam is later heated to a superheated state before being used to rotate the turbine which powers the generator. The winding rotation movement by the generator thus generates electrical energy. After the steam leave the turbine, it is cooled back to it liquid state in the condenser before being pressurized by the pump prior to going back to the boiler. The Rankine Cycle is best used to describe a simple steam power plant.
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Fig 1 – Schematic diagram for most industrial steam power plant
The Rankine cycle used to describe the steam power plant has the saturated or superheated steam enters the turbine at state 1, where it will expand isentropically to the exit pressure at state 2. At stage 3, steam is then condensed at constant pressure...