THERMAL POWER PLANT

 A thermal power plant is a power plant where steam is used to drive a steam turbine. This turbine is connected to an electrical generator. After this, the water is condensed, and may be used again. This is known as the Rankine cycle. There are different procedures that can be used to heat the water.

Combined cycle gas power plants (or steam-gas turbine plants): these combine a gasn turbine and a traditional thermal plant to generate electricity. Unlike conventional thermal power plants, the residual energy of the gases is used for another cycle. This is one of the reasons for which these kind of plants are more efficient (by 56%), also meaning that they produce lower CO₂ emissions than conventional plants.

Initially, gas is injected into the combustion turbine. It generates steam, which is then supplied to another turbine. The combustion turbine and steam turbine work in tandem to turn one or more alternators, which produce electricity.

 Recovery of blast furnace gas: electricity production can also be obtained by recovering and recycling gases from iron and steel production (blast-furnace gas, coking plant gas, steel plant gas), using a traditional boiler (a comparable technology to traditional thermal power plants) or in a heat recovery boiler in a combined cycle gas plant.

 Gas turbines and turbojets: mostly used to supplement the electricity production of other thermal plants, gas turbine and turbojet units can take over very rapidly in the event of a failure of other power plants or of unexpected peaks in consumption.

Gas turbine and turbojets: the compressor draws in air, compresses it and injects it into the combustion chamber. Natural gas (gas turbine) or kerosene (turbojet) is injected into the chamber to be burned. The hot combustion gases rotate the turbine, which drives an alternator to produce electricity.

 Cogeneration units: these produce heat (their principal role) simultaneously with electricity (their secondary role) in a single installation and employing a single fuel. It is a highly energy-efficient solution. By recovering thermal energy normally lost in power generation, these plants are able to produce electricity and heat with efficiency of close to 90%, which is of great interest for industrial sites.

Co-generation: a gas-powered generator drives an alternator that produces electricity. Heat recovered from the cooling of the motor and the combustion gases heats a water circuit thanks to heat exchangers.

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