Page 58 - Handbook of Energy Engineering Calculations

Energy Output Analysis of Condensing Steam Turbine

Steam-Turbine Regenerative-Cycle Performance

Reheat-Regenerative Steam-Turbine Heat Rates

kW Output of Extraction Steam Turbine

STEAM POWER CALCULATION PARAMETERS

Fossil-fired steam power-generating plants account for the majority of power
generated today throughout the world. Such plants have been dominant in
electric generation worldwide for more than a century. While nuclear

generation is catching up with fossil-fuel generation in terms of generating
capacity, it will be some years before the two are equal in output.
Meanwhile, fossil-fueled coal-fired plants have dual environmental
challenges:

• The carbon dioxide and particulates produced during the combustion of coal

are blamed for atmospheric pollution. Coal-fired plants have operated in an
environmentally unregulated manner for a century because greenhouse
gases (GHG) were accepted as part of the plant output by designers,
operators, and most regulators. Today GHG occupy front and center in the

design of every coal-fired power plant, as well as liquid-fuel- and gaseous-
fuel-fired generating plants.

• The coal ash produced by combustion of coal is categorized as a toxic
pollutant in landfills to which it is sent for disposal. Even though some of
the coal ash produced by the combustion of coal is recycled in the

manufacture of building construction materials and concrete, much of the
coal ash is disposed of in landfills. Toxic lead and arsenic in the coal ash
can pollute ground water in the landfills in which the ash is dumped.

Published statistics show that some 1300 million tons of coal ash are
produced annually by the combustion of coal in power plants in the United
States alone.