Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com

Energy Procedia 17 (2012) 926 – 932

2012 International Conference on Future Electrical Power and Energy Systems

Exergy Analysis of 300MW Coal-Fired Power Plant

Yong Li, Lei Liu
School of Energy and Power Engineering,Northeast Dianli University,Jilin City, China

Abstract

In order to find the real distribution of energy loss and weak links in electricity production, based on the second law
of thermodynamics and “fuel” and “product” concept, a 300MW thermal power plant is taken for example,
irreversible loss distribution is obtained through detailed exergy analysis. Then, the comparison of the performance of
major equipments of plant under rated condition, 75%, 50% and 30% loads by sliding pressure regulation shows that
load decrease makes the consumption of production uneconomically.

©
©2012
2011Published
Publishedby Elsevier Ltd. Selection
by Elsevier and/or peer-review
Ltd. Selection under responsibility
and/or peer-review of Hainan University.
under responsibility of [name organizer]
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Keywords:uel and product; exergy analysis; exergy loss distribution

1.Introduction

Currently the main economic evaluation methods of the thermal power plants are: energy equilibrium
method based on the first law of thermodynamics, exergy analysis method based on the second law of
thermodynamics, and the new cross-disciplinary thermoeconomic method. Energy equilibrium method,
due to its inherent defect (only Energy conservation involved, but qualitative aspect [1]), has been
abandoned gradually in many fields. Among the methods based on second law of thermodynamics, exergy
analysis method is most widely used. This paper quotes from “fuel” and “product” concept of
thermodynamic suggested by Spanish scholar A.Valero to analyze a 300MW power plant for evaluating its
equipments function.

2.Computing Method of Exergy

The exergy analysis of power plant is mostly involved with the enthalpy exergy whose exergy
calculation formula

 e h  h0   T0 ( s  s0 ).  

1876-6102 © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Hainan University.
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2012.02.189
 Yong Li and Lei Liu / Energy Procedia 17 (2012) 926 – 932 927

where h0 , s0 and T0 represents enthalpy, entropy of working substance under environment condition and
thermodynamics temperature of environment respectively.

3.“Fuel” and “Product” Concept

In energy transfer and conversion processes of a thermal system or equipments, the ratio between the
exergy used or gained and payment or consumptive exergy is defined as the exergy efficiency of the
system or equipments [2]. In order to express every equipment’s production purpose, many scholars use
“fuel-product” concept to define equipments function [3,4]. Quantified the production purpose of a
equipment or a component is “product” (P), and consumptive exergy for the “product” is called “fuel”
(F).Then, the exergy balance equation can be written as follows:

 F P  I.  

where I is the exergy loss of the irreversible process. Unit exergy consumption expression is
 K F / P.  

where K is greater than 1 in real processˈand the higher degree of irreversibility, the larger the value of
K which equal to 1 only in the reversible process. Unit exergy consumption stands for exergy efficiency,
because its reciprocal is exergy efficiency.

 K P/F 1  I / F. 

Exergy efficiency is the exergy utilization ratio but it can not reflect the situation of exergy loss
distribution. In order to find the proportion of the exergy loss and position and degree of performance
degradation in power plant, exergy loss rate d and exergy loss coefficient H become the indicators that can
value the weak links of power plant performance. Exergy loss rate expression is

 di Ii / ¦ Ii .  

where d i accounts for the the local exergy loss proportion of total exergy loss. However exergy loss
coefficient H i is the local exergy loss proportion of total fuel entered into the entire thermal system and
given by

 Hi I i / Ftotal .  

where Ftatal is total fuel entered into the entire thermal system. Total system exergy loss coefficient can be
written as

 H ¦H ¦ I i i Ftotal .  

and total system exergy efficiency can be written as

 K 1  ¦H i .  
928 Yong Li and Lei Liu / Energy Procedia 17 (2012) 926 – 932

4.A 300MW Coal-Fired Power Plant and Equipments "Fuel" and "Product" Definition

4.1.Introduction of the power plant

The unit is sub-critical, reheat, single-axis, dual-cylinder, dual-exhaust, condensable gas turbine, and
type is N300-16.7/537/537-1. There are 8 non-adjusting extractions supplying 3 high-pressure feed water
heaters, 1 deaerator and 4 low-pressure feed water heaters.

4.2.Physical structure

Shown in Figure 1, for detailed analysis of the turbine operating characteristics, turbine is divided into
components composed by turbine stage-groups according to the location of the turbine extraction points.
Then, gland seal system merges with its corresponding stage-groups. The reheater is separated from the
boiler into an individual component RH, and rest parts including furnace, water wall, drum and superheater,
etc. form an individual component B-SH[7].
1 RH
5 6 12
M
HP1 HP2 IP1 IP2 LP1 LP2 LP3 LP4 LP5 GEN

K L N O P Q R S T X
3 8 10 17
B-SH 7 BFPT
J 2 13 14 15 16 CND
V
U 11
9
DTR 18 CP
28
2a 4
7a
E 13a 14a 15a 16a W 35
FWH1 FWH2 FWH3 FWH7 FWH4 FWH5 FWH6 FWH7
19
I 27
H 26 G F 24 D C B A
25 23 22 21 20
29 30 31 32 33 34

Figure 1. The physical structure of the 300MW coal-fired power plant.

4.3."Fuel" and "Product" definition of components of the power plant

According to Figure 1, the fuel and the product of the main equipments in the thermal power plant is
defined as follows
y Boiler

 F Ef  

 P E1  E28  E6  E5  

where E1 is the turbine inlet steam exergy, E 28 is the feed water inlet exergy of the boiler, E6 and E5 are
hot and cold reheated steam exergy respectively. Note that number subscripts indicate the numbered
locations in Fig. 1 and there are no tips in the following. Ef is the fuel exergy entered into the boiler, and
its value expression are given by

 Ef Pe u b s u ef 3600.  
 Yong Li and Lei Liu / Energy Procedia 17 (2012) 926 – 932 929

where Pe is generate electricity output power, b s is generating standard coal consumption and ef is unit
mass fuel exergy. Fuel exergy algorithmic method has been given in literature [6]. Because calculation is
complicatedˈ in the thermal power plant and other industrial applications, people often use relatively
simple methods to estimate it. This paper use calorific value of standard coal to estimate fuel exergy. So we
take 7000kcal/kg approximately equaling 29300kJ/kg instead of fuel exergy.
y Turbine stage-group

 F E1  E2 .  

 P W G (h1  h2 ).  

where W is shaft work and G is flow of the turbine stage and h1 , h2 represents enthalpy of point 1 and
2 shown in Fig. 1 respectively.
y Feed water heater
We take No.2 feed water heater (FWH2) for example, its fuel and product are

 F E 29  E4  E30 .  

 P E27  E26  

y Condenser

 F E17  E11  E35  E18 .  

 P T0 ( S17  S11  S 35  S18 )  

y Deaerator

 F G9e9  G31e31  (G9  G31 )e24 .  

 P G23 e24  e23   

y Pump
Condensate pump is taken for example, its fuel and product are

 F W. 

 P E19  E18 .  

where W is the power consumed by the pump.

y Pipeline
We take extraction pipe of No.4 feed water heater (FWH4) for example whose fuel and product are
given by

 F GE13 .  
930 Yong Li and Lei Liu / Energy Procedia 17 (2012) 926 – 932

 P GE13a .  

y Generator
It is clear that the shaft work fed into generator is fuel and generated output is product.
Note that in this paper, “ F ” just is for the exergy consumed by installations without regard that
“negentropy” also is a part of fuel. It is generally acknowledged that negentropy is the product of
condenser which is consumed by other equipments as their fuels. This part consumption is not involved in
this paper, and has no any effect on the results of exergy analysis.

5.Calculation and Analysis of Exergy of the Power Plant

According to the design parameter of the thermal system and the physical structure shown in Fig. 1,
computer languages are used for programming computational procedure. Then, the computed results are
incorporated into the Table ĉ.
TABLE I. CALCULATION AND EXERGY ANALYSIS UNDER DESIGN CONDITION

Calculation Projects of Exergy Analysis of The plant

Mark Component Exergy Exercy Exergy Exergy Loss Unit Exergy
Fuel Product
Loss Efficiency Loss Rate Coefficient Consumption
˄kJ/s˅ ˄kJ/s˅
˄kJ/s˅ ˄%˅ ˄%˅ ˄%˅ (kJ/kJ)
A FWH7 2732.46 1889.31 843.14 69.14 0.2 0.12 1.45
B FWH6 3295.61 2748.12 547.49 83.39 0.13 0.08 1.2
C FWH5 3679.87 3251.42 428.45 88.36 0.10 0.06 1.13
D FWH4 7548.42 6534.41 1014.01 86.57 0.24 0.14 1.16
E DTR 11313.97 9329.94 1984.03 82.46 0.47 0.28 1.21
F FWP 6281.76 5448.31 833.45 86.73 0.20 0.12 1.15
G FWH3 11418.52 10776.98 641.54 94.38 0.15 0.09 1.06
H FWH2 20910.52 19382.39 1528.12 92.69 0.36 0.21 1.08
I FWH1 17110.48 16356.82 753.66 95.60 0.18 0.10 1.05
J B-SH 603603.78 299911.09 303692.69 49.69 71.85 42.23 2.01
K HP1 69544.15 63547.99 5996.16 91.38 1.42 0.83 1.09
L HP2 26992.25 25800.96 1191.29 95.59 0.28 0.17 1.05
M RH 115564.61 58532.53 57032.08 50.65 13.49 7.93 1.97
N IP1 45375.28 42603.04 2772.24 93.89 0.66 0.39 1.07
O IP2 38949.09 37688.51 1260.57 96.76 0.3 0.18 1.03
P LP1 19529.24 18658.45 870.79 95.54 0.21 0.12 1.05
Q LP2 37340.88 35358.95 1981.92 94.69 0.47 0.28 1.06
R LP3 37907.04 35738.87 2168.17 94.28 0.51 0.30 1.06
S LP4 22120.08 20739.69 1380.38 93.76 0.33 0.19 1.07
T LP5 32358.65 24867.18 7491.47 76.85 1.77 1.04 1.30
U BFPT 7755.52 6281.76 1473.76 81.00 0.35 0.20 1.23
V CND 16283.85 338633.19 16283.85 3.85 2.26 0.05
W CP 438.80 351.04 87.76 85.00 0.01 0.01 1.25
 Yong Li and Lei Liu / Energy Procedia 17 (2012) 926 – 932 931

X GEN 303486.65 299723.42 3763.23 98.76 0.89 0.52 1.01

Y EP 608030.52 602872.03 5158.49 99.15 1.22 0.72 1.01
Z Shaft 305003.65 303486.65 1517.00 99.50 0.36 0.21 1.00
Sum 422695.70 100 58.77

300000

Exergy losses kJ/s 35000

30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U VW X Y Z
Components

Figure 2. Exergy loss distribution

From the detailed calculations, we can see that the largest consumption of the plant is the boiler whose
irreversible loss account for more than 80%. This is mainly decided by the boiler thermodynamic processes
including combustion, heat exchanging and heat dissipation process. During the processes, plenty of
exergy convert into anergy .In turbine and its system, the largest part exergy loss happen in the condenser,
because the energy of the exhaust steam is low grade. The exergy loss here does not share the entire system
exergy loss very much. When the load is reduced by sliding pressure regulationˈthe performance of the
plant is shown in table Ċ and Fig. 3.
Exergy efficiency of the whole plant is 41.23% that is almost as plant thermal efficiency according the
plant rated data. However their essences are different. Traditional method, according to the tableĉ,
considers that the boiler thermal efficiency is near-perfect 92% and a lot of heat lost in the condenser. The
traditional method realizes the balance of energy and loses the sight of the quality of energy that may
mislead performance optimization staff.
TABLE II. COMPARASION OF THE EXERGY PERFORMANCE THROUGH SLIDING PRESSURE REGULATION
Load Coefficient

100% 75% 50% 30%

Equipme Exer Exer Exer Exer
gy Exergy gy Exergy gy Exergy gy Exergy
nt Exergy Loss Exergy Loss Exergy Loss Exergy Loss
Loss Loss Loss Loss
Loss Coeffici loss Coeffici loss Coeffici loss Coeffici
Rate Rate Rate Rate
˄kJ/s˅ ent ˄kJ/s˅ ent ˄kJ/s˅ ent ˄kJ/s˅ ent
˄% ˄% ˄% ˄%
˄%˅ ˄%˅ ˄%˅ ˄%˅
˅ ˅ ˅ ˅
360724 85.3 281904 85.7 200987 85.7 137085
Boiler 50.16 51.15 52.71 85.6 55.37
.77 4 .90 7 .62 3 .82
Turbine 25113. 17689. 12391.
5.94 3.49 5.38 3.21 5.29 3.25 8047 5.03 3.25
proper 01 95 43
Condens 16283. 12745. 8961.2 5979.4
3.85 2.26 3.88 2.31 3.82 2.35 3.73 2.42
er 85 86 2 8
Regenera
15268. 11860. 8154.7 5466.4
tive 3.61 2.12 3.61 2.15 3.48 2.14 3.41 2.21
09 65 7 4
system
422695 328680 234836 160714
The plant 100 58.77 100 59.64 100 61.55 100 64.77
.70 .34 .41 .62
932 Yong Li and Lei Liu / Energy Procedia 17 (2012) 926 – 932

90

80

Exergy Efficiency %
70 Boiler
Turbine Proper
Regenerative System
60 Plant

50

40

30
30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Load Coefficient %

Figure 3. Exergy efficiency of boiler, turbine proper, regenerative system and the whole plant under different load.

6.Conclusion

Exergy loss distribution of the whole plant is obtained through the exergy analysis of the plant design
data. Boiler is the largest consumption of the whole plant. From the analysis, we can read that where the
vulnerable spots are in power production process clearly. In actual thermal power plant operation,
abnormal exergy parameters of the corresponding equipments can be detected and used for the fault
location. So the exergy efficiency and loss analysis of the power plant are helpful to malfunctions
identification and diagnosis of power plant.

References

[1] J. X. Wang, S. F. Zhang, Exergy method and its application in thermal power plants. Beijing: Resources and Electric Power
Press, 1993:pp,9-43.
[2] Q. S. Fu, Thermodynamic analysis methods of energy systems, Xi'an Jiaotong University Press, 2005,pp.154.
[3] A. Valero, M. A .Lozano, L. Serra and C. Torres Application of the exergetic cost theory to the CGAM problem,
Energy,vol.19.1994,pp.365-381.
[4] Q. Z. Wang, N. H. Song, J. X. Wang, “Calculation of thermal power system based on the concept of fuel and product”,
Electric Power, vol. 35, 2002, pp. 27-31.
[5] M. S. Zhu, Exergy analysis of energy system, Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 1988, pp. 121-123.
[6] C. Zhang, “Thermoeconomic analysis and optimization of complex systems”, Ph.D. thesis, Wuhan: Huazhong University of
Science and Technology, 2006, pp. 56-76.