Co-generation in Coal Fired Power Stations

Capturing and making use of waste heat is critical to the improvement of thermal power plant technology. A typical coal fired power plant converts only a third of the energy from the coal into electricity; the remaining two-thirds is lost to the atmosphere as waste heat. In contrast, a co-generation system generates electricity and utilises the ‘waste’ heat usefully. A co-generation system can reduce both energy consumption and fuel costs by utilising up to 80 per cent of the energy in the fuel instead of wasting two-thirds. This work examined the options for improving the efficiency of coal fired power plants. The objectives included the use of ‘‘waste’’ heat from large scale electrical power generation, in particular that fired by coal, which is the highest carbon emitter and the development a mathematical model of a coal fired power station with options for using waste heat including absorption cooling.

Co-generation in Coal Fired Power Stations Keywords:

Thermodynamics , Power Plant , Rankine Cycle , Efficiency