Thermal power plants convert heat energy from burning coal into electrical energy. They have several major components including a coal storage and handling system, boiler, turbine, condenser, and alternator. While thermal plants are cheaper to build and operate than other power sources, they also pollute the air and have low overall efficiency. The largest thermal plants in India are located in Singrauli, Mundra, and Korba.

1. THERMAL POWER
PLANT
NOTES4EE

2. ■ Thermal Power Plant uses coal as a fuel and convert the heat energy obtained from burning of
coal into electrical energy.
■ There are various types of coal exist:
• Anthracite (CarbonContain is about 85%)
• Bituminous (CarbonContain is about 50 – 85%) – Maximum found in India
• Lignite (CarbonContain is about 35 – 50%)
• Peat (CarbonContain is about less than 35%)
■ Few Famous Coal Mine in India* –
• Chhattisgarh – Korba (Biggest coal mine in India on production capacity), Jhilmil
•West Bengal – Raniganj (2nd biggest coal mine)
• Jharkhand – Jharia, Karanpura,Giridih
• Odisha –Talchar, Rampur
• MP – Singrauli mine
•Telangana – Singareni, Kothagudem
• Maharashtra –Wardha, Ballarpur, Kampti
(*) Just for general knowledge

3. BiggestThermal Power Plant in India –
■ Vidhyanchal (MP) – Singrauli [BiggestThermal Power Plant in India]
■ Mundra Ultra Mega (Gujrat)
■ SipatThermal Power Plant (Chhattisgarh)
■ Korba SuperThermal Power Plant (Chhattisgarh)
■ Dadri NTPC (UP)
■ India’s first thermal power plant is Hussain Sagar (Hyderabad)
■ World biggest thermal power plant isTaichung (Taiwan)

4. Advantages and Disadvantages of aThermal
Power Plant –
■ Advantages:
• Less initial cost as compared to other generating stations.
• It requires less land as compared to hydro power plant.
•The fuel (i.e. coal) is cheaper.
•The cost of generation is lesser than that of diesel power plants.
■ Disadvantages:
• It pollutes the atmosphere due to the production of large amount of smoke. This is one of the
causes of global warming.
•The overall efficiency of a thermal power station is low (less than 30%).
• Requires long time for errection and put into action.
• Costlier in operating in comparison with that of Hydro and Nuclear power plants.
• Requirement of water in huge quantity.

5. Major Component

6. ■ Coal Storage –
• Coal storage is necessary to store the coal for emergencies. If the supply of coal is stop due any
reason then the coal available in storage plant is used because the plant shouldn’t shut down.
■ Coal Handling –
• The obtained coal pieces are big in size so for proper heating in boiler, these big pieces are broken
down into small pieces and this process is known as pulverization.
• Pulverization process takes place in coal handling.
■ Boiler –
• A boiler (or steam generator) is a closed vessel in which water, under pressure , is converted into
steam.The heat is transferred to the boiler by all three modes of heat transfer i.e. conduction,
convection and radiation.
• Pyrometer is used to measure the temperature of boiler.
• Boiler efficiency is 85 - 90%
• Major types of boilers are: (i) Fire tube boiler and (ii)Water tube boiler.

7. FireTube Boiler –
The boiler is named so because the products of combustion pass through the tubes which are
surrounded by water. In the event of a sudden and major tube failure. Steam explosions may be
caused in the furnaces due to rush of high pressure water into the hot combustion chamber which
may generate large quantities of steam in the furnace. Fire tube boiler use is therefore limited to
low cost small size and low pressure plants.

8. WaterTube Boiler –
In this boiler, the water flows inside the tubes and hot gases flow outside the tube.

9. ■ Ash Handling –
• The ash obtained from the burning of coal in boiler is handled at ash handling plant and
store in the ash storage plant.
• This ash can used for the production of cement in cement industries.
■ Super heater –
• The steam obtain from the boiler has some moisture content left and to reduce this
moisture content the steam is pass through the super heater. Hence super heater is used to
reduce the moisture content from the steam.
• Flue gases are also fed to the super heater to heat them.
■ Turbine –
• It convert the heat energy into mechanical energy.
• Thermal turbine are two types –
Impulse type
Reaction type

10. ■ Condenser –
• Condenser collect the exhaust steam from the turbine and convert it into water this process
is known as condensation.
■ Economizer –
• It increase the temperature of water by using flue gases.
• Boilers are provided with economizer and air pre-heaters to recover heat from the flue
gases.An increase of about 20% in boiler efficiency is achieved by providing both
economizer and air pre-heaters
• Economizer alone gives only 10-12% efficiency increase, causes saving in fuel consumption
5-15 %.The feed water from the high pressure heaters enters the economizer and picks up
heat from the flue gases after the low temperature super heater.
■ Air Pre-heater –
• Air (Oxygen) is necessary for the fire in the boiler. So by the help of flue gases, the moisture
content from the air is reduce and then it is feed to the boiler.
• After the flue gases leave economizer, some further heat can be extracted from them and is
used to heat the incoming air for combustion

11. ■ Alternator –
• Cylindrical rotor type synchronous generator is used to convert the mechanical
energy into electrical energy.
• Cylindrical rotor type synchronous motor rotate at higher speed than salient pole
type rotor due to less number of poles.

12. Note:
■ The overall efficiency of thermal power plant is 25 – 30%
■ Thermal power plant is best suited for Base load.
■ ESP (Electrostatic Precipitators) –
• An electrostatic precipitator (ESP), or electrostatic air cleaner is a particulate collection device that
removes particles from a flowing gas (such as air) using the force of an induced electrostatic charge.
• The basic idea of an ESP:
• Charging
• Collecting.
• Removing
• Every particle either has or can be given a charge - positive or negative.
• We impart a negative charge to all the particles in a gas stream in ESP
• Then a grounded plate having a positive charge is set up.
• The negatively charged particle would migrate to the grounded collection plate and be captured
• The particles would quickly collect on the plate, creating a dust layer.The dust layer would accumulate
until we removed it.

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