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ISPECE 2019 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1449 (2020) 012001 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1449/1/012001

Methods of Improving the Efficiency of Thermal Power Plants

Tongjun Zhang
Shenyang No.2 High School, 6th Wuai Street, Shenhe District, Shenyang 110016,
China
[email protected]

Abstract. As one of the most important power sources in modern society, electricity takes up a
large proportion of modern energy consumption. Among all those methods of power
generation, fossil-fuel thermal power generation is one of the earliest ways of large-scale
electricity production. Its popularity in the modern society comes from its stability and
controllability. Given the wide applications of electricity around the world, improving the
efficiency of thermal power plants would be an effective way to reduce the total energy
consumption and protect the environment. The paper discusses the efficiency of energy
transition and its determinant during each stage of power generations along with proposals to
improve the efficiency of thermal power generation.

1. Introduction
Coal-fuel thermal power generation is one of the earliest forms of large-scale power generation. The
first rudimentary power generator was invented by Frenchman Hippolyte Pixii in 1832. 28 years later,
in 1860, the power generator was upgraded to allow for continuous and direct current power [1].
Nowadays, fossil-fuel thermal power generation is still the dominant method of power generation in
the world. In 2017, coal-fueled thermal power plant produced about as much electricity as nuclear
power, hydropower and renewable energy combined, according to the statistics of the International
Energy Agency (IEA) and BP Group[2].
The over consumption of electricity demands an urgent need to improve the efficiency of
fossil-fueled thermal power generation to save fossil fuel resources while minimizing contaminants
such as SO2, fly ash, and other waste gases. Thus, improving the efficiency of thermal power
generation has always been a core topic of the power generation industry. Energy loss during different
stages of thermal power generation will be discussed in the paper while methods of improving the
efficiency of thermal power generation in modern power plants will be introduced.

2. Energy lost in each stage of thermal power generation

In the operation of the thermal power plant, the fuel gets ignited in the boiler (steam), producing
vapors that expand in the turbine and driving its operation; the turbine would then power the generator
to produce electricity[3]. Transitions of energy in this process would lead to significant energy loss.
Currently, sub-critical thermal power plants can attain an efficiency of around 38%, compared with 41%
by supercritical thermal power plants, while ultra-supercritical thermal power plants can reach up to
around 44%. The main components that affect the efficiency of thermal power plants include boiler,
turbine, and generator.
The major energy loss in a thermal power plant includes boiler heat loss, pipe heat loss, cold source
loss, mechanical loss, and generator loss, etc.

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution
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ISPECE 2019 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1449 (2020) 012001 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1449/1/012001

2.1 Boiler heat loss

Due to incomplete combustion and exhaust heat, the energy in the fuel cannot be completely
transferred to the steam, thus causing energy loss. Modern boilers can attain an efficiency of around
90%-94%.

2.2 Cold source loss

As a heat engine operating between high and low temperature, the thermal power plant is bound to
discharge a large amount of heat into the cold environment in order to fulfill its duty, resulting in huge
energy loss. Energy loss from a cold source (560⁰C/560⁰C) caused by efficiency threshold stands at
about 64%-67.57%. The actual thermal efficiency of a modern thermal power plant usually ranges
between 35% and 49%.

2.3 Generator loss

Modern generators usually attain an efficiency of around 96%-99%.
As shown above, in the three main stages of thermal power generation, most of the energy loss
comes from cold source loss. Thus, the key to improving the total efficiency of a thermal power plant
lies at the steam cycle (where the cold source loss takes place).

3. Methods of improving the efficiency of thermal power plants

Rankine Cycle, a term describing the efficiency of a steam turbine, defines efficiency as
𝑊𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟 −𝑊𝑝𝑢𝑚𝑝
𝜂= (1)
𝑄𝑖𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡
In an idealized model, the work done by the generator can be described as the heat input minus the
heat wasted, so
𝑄𝑖𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡 −𝑄𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 −𝑊𝑝𝑢𝑚𝑝
𝜂= (2)
𝑄𝑖𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡
In a T-S diagram, the heat input is described as
𝑆
𝑄𝑖𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡 = ∫𝑆 𝑏 𝑇𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑚 𝑑𝑆 (3)
𝑡
Where 𝑇𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑚 represents the temperature of the steam output of the boiler; 𝑆𝑏 is the entropy of
the steam input of the turbine, and 𝑆𝑡 is the entropy of the steam output of the turbine. The heat
output of the system is calculated by
𝑆
𝑄𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 = ∫𝑆 𝑏 𝑇𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑆 (4)
𝑡
where 𝑇𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑟 represents the temperature of the water in the condenser; 𝑆𝑏 is the entropy of the
steam input of the turbine, and 𝑆𝑡 is the entropy of the steam output of the turbine. Since the
compression process is isentropic, the work done by the pump can be represented as
𝑉
𝑊𝑝𝑢𝑚𝑝 = ∫𝑉 𝑏 𝑝𝑑𝑉 (5)
𝑐
where 𝑃𝑏 is the pressure after compression and 𝑉𝑏 the volume before the compression; 𝑉𝑐 is the
volume after the compression while p represents the pressure of the water. Since the volume of the
water is relatively small compared with the steam, the work done by pump could almost be ignored in
calculation, so
𝑆 𝑆
∫𝑆 𝑏 𝑇𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑚 𝑑𝑆−∫𝑆 𝑐 𝑇𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑆
𝑡 𝑡
𝜂= 𝑆 (6)
∫𝑆 𝑏 𝑇𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑚 𝑑𝑆
𝑡
Thus, by increasing 𝑇𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑚 or decreasing 𝑇𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑟 , the total efficiency could be improved.
At present, the most popular approaches to improve the total efficiency of a steam turbine include
increasing the initial steam parameters, decreasing final steam parameters, installing a feed-water
heater, and applying combined-cycle technology.

2
ISPECE 2019 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1449 (2020) 012001 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1449/1/012001

3.1 Increasing initial steam parameters

The temperature difference between the heat and cold sources determines the limit of the efficiency of
a heat engine. As discussed above, the efficiency of thermal power plants could be improved by
increasing the initial steam parameters.
High-volume-high-parameters supercritical (SC) and ultra-supercritical (USC) thermal power
plants have proven stable and effective for large-scale commercial power generation. Supercritical
power plants (25MPa, 566⁰C/566⁰C) can attain an efficiency 2%-3% higher than sub-critical power
plants while ultra-supercritical (30MPa, 600⁰C/600⁰C) thermal power plants boast an efficiency even
2%-3% higher.
Since the end of the 20th century, organizations around the world started to develop Advanced
Ultra-Super Critical (A-USC) thermal power plants and Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) combustion
in an effort to improve the efficiency of thermal power plant [4]. In an A-USC thermal power plant, the
steam parameters can reach 700⁰C-760⁰C, 30MPa-35MPa. The thermal efficiency of such a power
plant can reach 55% (based on Lower Heating Value), where the major challenge lies in limitations of
materials [5].

3.2 Lowering final steam parameters

Given a fixed set of initial steam parameters, lowering the final steam parameters would allow for a
greater temperature difference between 𝑇𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑚 and 𝑇𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑟 , thus lifting the theoretical efficiency
threshold for thermal power plant.
In a thermal power plant, condenser is the place where the waste steam is condensed, after which
the water will be pumped back in to the boiler. Most modern thermal plants use either water-cooled
condenser or air-cooled condenser as the cold source in the cycle. Water-cooled condensers could be
classified into cooling systems with open or close cycle [6]. Air-cooled condensers could be classified
into direct or indirect cooling systems [7, 8, 9].
Among the three determinants of thermal efficiency of a power plant (namely initial temperature,
initial pressure, and exhaust pressure), exhaust pressure plays a key role in determining total efficiency.
The lower the final steam parameters, the higher the total thermal efficiency of the power plant. In the
condenser, the pressure will be close to vacuum to guarantee an effective enthalpy drop of the steam in
the turbine. Calculations have proven that when the initial steam parameters are set at 9.0MPa under
490⁰C, every 10⁰C drop in temperature would boost an increase of 3.5% in efficiency. If the exhaust
pressure drops from 0.006MPa to 0.004MPa, the efficiency would increase by around 2.20%.

3.3 Water pre-heater

In the water pre-heater, the expanded steam is extracted from the turbine under certain parameters,
which is then used to heat the water before pumping it into the turbine (as shown in RH1—RH10 in the
diagram) [10, 11]. In such a system, energy from extracted steam is transferred back into the system,
where the cold source loss would be much smaller than a simple Rankine cycle. Furthermore, the
extraction consists of several stages [12]. The longer the extraction from the turbine takes, the lower the
temperature of water for heating. In this way, steam could do more work on the turbine before getting
extracted, thus increasing the thermal efficiency of the turbine. Each turbine has a distinct set of
optimum steam extraction parameters. Theoretically, the more stages involved in steam extraction
inside the power plant, the higher the total efficiency of the power plant would be. However, in a
real-world scenario, more stages would also lead to an increase in the construction cost of thermal
power plants. Modern high-parameter-high-power thermal power plants usually have 7-9 stages of
steam extraction.

3
ISPECE 2019 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1449 (2020) 012001 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1449/1/012001

Figure 1 Stages of steam extraction a power plant[10]

3.4 Combined cycle (CC) power generation

Among all existing thermal power generation devices, gas turbines and steam turbines are the only two
types of devices suitable for large-scale power generation. However, they both suffer from a lower
thermal efficiency.
High initial (around 1350⁰C to 1430⁰C) and final temperature (around 450⁰C to 630⁰C) in the gas
turbine has a high initial temperature. However, its final temperature is also highwould lower the
turbine’s efficiency. steam turbines are confronted with similar restrictions, with an initial temperature
of around 600⁰C and a final temperature of around 30⁰C to 33⁰C. However, since the final temperature
of a gas turbine is usually higher than that of a steam turbine, the exhaust gas of the gas turbine could
be used as a direct heat source for the steam turbine, which means more work is extracted by adding a
steam turbine as an auxiliary system for the gas turbine. Integration of the gas turbine and the steam
turbine would boost the Carnot efficiency of the whole system due to the greater difference between
the initial temperature of the gas turbine and the final temperature of the steam turbine [13].

4. Conclusion
Above all, most of the energy loss in a fossil-fuel thermal power plant comes from the steam turbine.
The efficiency of a thermal power plant can be improved by either energy conservation within the
system or expansion of differences between initial steam parameters and final steam parameters. The
paper, however, did not take the impact of pressure into consideration when discussing the efficiency
under Rankine Cycle. Also, the paper offers merely a simple introduction to different methods of
improving efficiency of thermal power plants. Further studies will apply mathematical formula in
describing and determining the parameters for the optimum efficiency under different situations.

References
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Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1449 (2020) 012001 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1449/1/012001

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