Electricity generation plants were initiated in the United States where physical hands were used to feed wood and coal in the process of heating a boiler to produce steam. This steam was used in reciprocating steam engines which turned generators to produce electricity. In 1884, the more efficient high speed steam turbine was developed by British engineer Charles A. Parsons which replaced the use of steam engines to generate electricity. In the 1920s, the pulverized coal firing was developed. This process brought advantages that included a higher combustion temperature, improved thermal efficiency and a lower requirement for excess air for combustion. In the 1940s, the cyclone furnace was developed. This new technology allowed the combustion of poorer grade of coal with less ash production and greater overall efficiency.
Electricity is vital to Nigeria’s day to day prosperity. Living standard is unimaginable without electricity. It lights houses, buildings, streets, provides domestic and industrial heat, and powers most equipment used in homes, offices and machinery in factories. Improving access to electricity worldwide is critical to alleviating poverty. For these reasons, the need to break energy-frontiers collectively challenging the proper enhancement of our natural resources to better citizen’s lives is widely felt. It is believed that some of the natural resources are begging for important ways to utilize them. Among them is coal! At Enugu, coal is lying waste following the face-off of coal-driven locomotive machines. Coal power, can be used to generate electricity since it is inexpensive and reliable electricity source. As the need for supplies of oil and natural gas is going higher everyday, Coal burning can be alternated to produce about 55% of the electricity generated to support thermal/hydro-electric generation in Nigeria.
Coal plays a vital role in electricity generation worldwide. Coal-fired power plants currently fuel 41% of global electricity. In some countries, coal fuels a higher percentage of electricity. The high pressure steam is passed into a turbine containing thousands of propeller-like blades. The steam pushes these blades causing the turbine shaft to rotate at high speed. A generator is mounted at one end of the turbine shaft and consists of carefully wound wire coils. Electricity is generated when these are rapidly rotated in a strong magnetic field. After passing through the turbine, the steam is condensed and returned to the boiler to be heated once again.
The electricity generated is transformed into the higher voltages (up to 400,000 volts) used for economic, efficient transmission via power line grids. When it nears the point of consumption, such as our homes, the electricity is transformed down to the safer 100-250 voltage systems used in the domestic market.
Efficiency Improvements
Improvements continue to be made in conventional PCC power station design and new combustion technologies are being developed. These allow more electricity to be produced from less coal – known as improving the thermal efficiency of the power station. Efficiency gains in electricity generation from coal-fired power stations will play a crucial part in reducing CO2 emissions at a global level.
Efficiency improvements include the most cost-effective and shortest lead time actions for reducing emissions from coal-fired power generation. This is particularly the case in developing countries where existing power plant efficiencies are generally lower and coal use in electricity generation is increasing. Not only do higher efficiency coal-fired power plants emit less carbon dioxide per megawatt (MW), they are also more suited to retrofitting with CO2 capture systems.
Improving the efficiency of pulverised coal-fired power plants has been the focus of considerable efforts by the coal industry. There is huge scope for achieving significant efficiency improvements as the existing fleet of power plants are replaced over the next 10-20 years with new, higher efficiency supercritical and ultra-supercritical plants and through the wider use of Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) systems for power generation.
Presently, coal power is still based on the same methods started over 100 years ago, but improvements in all areas have brought coal power to be the inexpensive power source used so widely today.
Coal is first milled to a fine powder, which increases the surface area and allows it to burn more quickly. In these pulverised coal combustion (PCC) systems, the powdered coal is blown into the combustion chamber of a boiler where it is burnt at high temperature (see diagram below). The hot gases and heat energy produced converts water – in tubes lining the boiler – into steam.
In most coal fired power plants, chunks of coal are crushed into fine powder and are fed into a combustion unit where it is burned. Heat from the burning coal is used to generate steam that is used to spin one or more turbines to generate electricity. The cost of using coal should continue to be even more competitive, compared with the rising cost of other fuels. In fact, generating electricity from coal is cheaper than the cost of producing electricity from natural gas. In the United States, 23 of the 25 electric power plants with the lowest operating costs are using coal. Inexpensive electricity, such as that generated by coal, means lower operating costs for businesses and for homeowners. This advantage can help increase coal’s competitiveness in the marketplace.
Coal is pulverized into a fine powder stems made fine enough, to burn almost as easily and efficiently as a gas. The feeding rate of coal according to the boiler demand and the amount of air available for drying and transporting the pulverized coal fuel is controlled by computers. Pieces of coal are crushed between balls or cylindrical rollers that move between two tracks or “races.” The raw coal is then fed into the pulverizer along with air heated to about 650 degrees F from the boiler. As the coal gets crushed by the rolling action, the hot air dries it and blows the usable fine coal powder out to be used as fuel. The powdered coal from the pulverizer is directly blown to a burner in the boiler. The burner mixes the powdered coal in the air suspension with additional pre-heated combustion air and forces it out of a nozzle similar in action to fuel being atomized by a fuel injector in modern cars. Under operating conditions, there is enough heat in the combustion zone to ignite all the incoming fuel.
Cyclone furnaces were developed after pulverized coal systems and require less processing of the coal fuel. They can burn poorer grade coals with higher moisture contents and ash contents to 25%. The crushed coal feed is either stored temporarily in bins or transported directly to the cyclone furnace. The furnace is basically a large cylinder jacketed with water pipes that absorb the some of the heat to make steam and protect the burner itself from melting down. A high powered fan blows the heated air and chunks of coal into one end of the cylinder. At the same time additional heated combustion air is injected along the curved surface of the cylinder causing the coal and air mixture to swirl in a centrifugal “cyclone” motion. The whirling of the air and coal enhances the burning properties producing high heat densities (about 4700 to 8300kW/m2) and high combustion temperatures.
The hot combustion gases leave the other end of the cylinder and enter the boiler to heat the water filled pipes and produce steam. Like in the pulverized coal burning process, all the fuel that enters the cyclone burns when injected once the furnace is at its operating temperature. Some slag remains on the walls insulating the burner and directing the heat into the boiler while the rest drains through a trench in the bottom to a collection tank where it is solidified and disposed of. This ability to collect ash is the biggest advantage of the cyclone furna
ce burning process. Only 40% of the ash leaves with the exhaust gases compared with 80% for pulverized coal burning. Cyclone furnaces are not without disadvantages. The coal used must have a relatively low sulfur content in order for most of the ash to melt for collection. In addition, high power fans are required to move the larger coal pieces and air forcefully through the furnace, and more nitrogen oxide pollutants are produced compared with pulverized coal combustion. Finally, the actual burner requires yearly replacement of its liners due to the erosion caused by the high velocity of the coal.
The coal is brought to the bottom of the plant into a burning room. Here, coal is coal lit and burned to create large fires. As coal burns off, more is added to produce electricity. During peak hours, coal is constantly burned, but during nonpeak hours, mostly at night, coal may not be burned. The fire created by the coal heats a large water tank. The water eventually boils and turns to steam. The steam created travels through an intricate piping system throughout the plant. The smoke and debris from the coal burning travels straight up the plant’s smokestack. The smokestacks have built-in cleaning tools known as “scrubbers.” The scrubbers help eliminate most of the harmful air pollutants and CO2 that are produced when coal is burned off. The rest of the smoke is released into the air (i.e., the smoke seen when driving by a power plant). The steam that travels through the pipes becomes high pressured as the pipes get smaller and smaller. That high pressured steam is shot out directly at a spinning turbine. The turbine is connected to a power generator using huge rods. As the generator spins, two internal magnets cross over wires to create electricity. The electricity leaves the generator and travels through power lines and out into the power grid.
Electricity-generating plants send out electricity using a transformer, which increases the voltage of the electricity based on the amount required and the distance it must travel. Voltages are often as high as 500,000 volts at this point.
Electricity flows along transmission lines to substation transformers. These transformers reduce the voltage for use in the local areas to be served.
From the substation transformers, electricity travels along distribution lines, which can be either above or below the ground, to cities and towns. Transformers once again reduce the voltage—this time to about 120 to 140 volts—for safe use inside homes and businesses. The delivery process is instantaneous. By the time you have flipped a switch to turn on a light, electricity has been delivered.
1 comment
Beautiful elaboration