MEE220
Vapor Power Cycle
Lecture 13
Thermodynamics II
Process Heating Plant
❖ Many systems or devices, however, require
energy input in the form of heat, called
process heat. Some industries that rely heavily
on process heat are chemical, pulp and paper,
oil production and refining, steel making, food
processing, and textile industries.
❖ Process heat in these industries is usually
supplied by steam at 5 to 7 atm and 150 to 200
°C.
❖ Industries that use large amounts of process heat also
consume a large amount of electric power. Therefore, it
makes economical as well as engineering sense to use the
already-existing work potential to produce power instead of
letting it go to waste.
❖ The result is a plant that produces electricity while meeting
the process-heat requirements of certain industrial processes.
Such a plant is called a cogeneration plant.
❖ In general, cogeneration is the production of more than one
useful form of energy (such as process heat and electric
power) from the same energy source.
Cogeneration
Cogeneration is the production of more than one useful form of energy
(such as process heat and electric power) from the same energy source.
Utilization factor 𝜖u for a cogeneration
cogeneration plant with adjustable loads.
Energy balance on the process heater
Example
Consider the cogeneration plant shown in Fig. 10–24. Steam enters the turbine at 7 MPa
and 500 °C. Some steam is extracted from the turbine at 500 kPa for process heating.
The remaining steam continues to expand to 5 kPa. Steam is then condensed at constant
pressure and pumped to the boiler pressure of 7 MPa. At times of high demand for
process heat, some steam leaving the boiler is throttled to 500 kPa and is routed to the
process heater. The extraction fractions are adjusted so that steam leaves the process
heater as a saturated liquid at 500 kPa. It is subsequently pumped to 7 MPa. The mass
flow rate of steam through the boiler is 15 kg/s. Disregarding any pressure drops and
heat losses in the piping and assuming the turbine and the pump to be isentropic,
determine (a) the maximum rate at which process heat can be supplied, (b) the power
produced and the utilization factor when no process heat is supplied, and (c) the rate of
process heat supply when 10 percent of the steam is extracted before it enters the
turbine and 70 percent of the steam is extracted from the turbine at 500 kPa for process
heating.
Fig. 10–24
Solution
The work inputs to the pumps and the enthalpies at various states are as follows:
(a) The maximum rate of process heat is achieved when all the steam leaving the boiler
is throttled and sent to the process heater and none is sent to the turbine (that is,
Thus,
The utilization factor is 100 percent in this case since no heat is rejected in the
condenser, heat losses from the piping and other components are assumed to be
negligible, and combustion losses are not considered.
(b) When no process heat is supplied, all the steam leaving the boiler passes through
the turbine and expands to the condenser pressure of 5 kPa (that is,
Maximum power is produced in this mode, which is determined to be
That is, 40.8 percent of the energy is utilized for a useful purpose. Notice that the
utilization factor is equivalent to the thermal efficiency in this case.
(c) Neglecting any kinetic and potential energy changes, an energy balance on the
process heater yields
Note that 26.2 MW of the heat transferred will be utilized in the process heater. We
could also show that 11.0 MW of power is produced in this case, and the rate of heat
input in the boiler is 43.0 MW. Thus, the utilization factor is 86.5 percent.
Example
Steam enters the turbine of a cogeneration plant at 7 MPa and 500 °C. One-fourth of the
steam is extracted from the turbine at 1200-kPa pressure for process heating. The
remaining steam continues to expand to 10 kPa. The extracted steam is then condensed
and mixed with feedwater at constant pressure and the mixture is pumped to the boiler
pressure of 7 MPa. The mass flow rate of steam through the boiler is 30 kg/s. Disregarding
any pressure drops and heat losses in the piping, and assuming the turbine and the pump
to be isentropic, determine the net power produced and the utilization factor of the
plant.
Solution
From the steam tables (Tables A-4, A-5, and A-6),
Mixing chamber:
Then,
COMBINED GAS–VAPOR POWER CYCLES
w net=w net,gas + w net,steam
m g h8+ mw h 2= mg h9+ mw h 3
Example
Consider the combined gas–steam power cycle
shown in Fig. 10–26. The topping cycle is a gas-
turbine cycle that has a pressure ratio of 8. Air enters
the compressor at 300 K and the turbine at 1300 K.
The isentropic efficiency of the compressor is 80
percent, and that of the gas turbine is 85 percent.
The bottoming cycle is a simple ideal Rankine cycle
operating between the pressure limits of 7 MPa and
5 kPa. Steam is heated in a heat exchanger by the
exhaust gases to a temperature of 5008C. The
exhaust gases leave the heat exchanger at 450 K.
Determine (a) the ratio of the mass flow rates of the
steam and the combustion gases and (b) the thermal
efficiency of the combined cycle.
Solution
Gas cycle:
Process 1–2 (isentropic compression of an ideal gas):
Process 3–4 (isentropic expansion of an ideal gas):
Steam cycle:
(a) The ratio of mass flow rates is determined from an energy balance on the heat
exchanger:
That is, 1 kg of exhaust gases can heat only 0.131 kg of steam from 33 to 500 °C as they
are cooled from 853 to 450 K.
Then the total net work output per kilogram of combustion gases becomes
Therefore, for each kg of combustion gases produced, the combined plant will deliver
384.8 kJ of work. The net power output of the plant is determined by multiplying this
value by the mass flow rate of the working fluid in the gas-turbine cycle.
(b) The thermal efficiency of the combined cycle is determined from
Note that this combined cycle converts to useful work 48.7 % of the energy supplied to the
gas in the combustion chamber. This value is considerably higher than the thermal
efficiency of the gas-turbine cycle (26.6 %) or the steam-turbine cycle (40.8 %) operating
alone.
