POWER PLANT ENGINEERING

Diesel power plant

 Power plant engineering
Diesel power plant
 INTRODUCTION:
 A generating station in which diesel engine is used as
the prime mover for the generation of electrical energy
is known as diesel power station
 Diesel power plants produce power in the range of 2 to
50 MW.
 They are used as standby sets for continuity of supply
such as hospitals, telephone exchanges, radio stations,
cinema theatres and industries.
 They are suitable for mobile power generation and
widely used in railways , submarine & ships.
 Applications of diesel power plant
 They are used as central station for small or medium power
supplies.
 They can be used as stand-by plants to hydro-electric power
plants and steam power plants for emergency services.
 They can be used as peak load plants in combinations with
thermal or hydro-plants.
 They are quite suitable for mobile power generation and are
widely used in transportation systems such as automobiles,
railways, air planes and ships.
 Now-a-days power cut has become a regular feature for
industries. The only solution to tide over this difficulty is to
install diesel generating sets.
DIESEL ENGINE power plant
 FIELD OF USE
The diesel electric power-plants are chiefly used in the
fields mentioned below.
1. Peak load plant: The diesel plants are used in combination
with thermal or hydro-plants as peak load plants. This plant is
particularly preferable as peak load plant as it can be started
quickly and it has no standby losses as in the case of thermal
plants where boilers always must be kept hot.
2. Mobile plants: Mobile diesel plants mounted on skids or
trailers can be used for temporary or emergency purposes such
as for supplying power to large civil engineering works for
supplementing electricity supply systems that are temporarily
short of power.
3. Stand-by Units: This can be used as a standby unit to supply
part load when required. For example, this can be used with
hydro-plant as stand-by unit. If the water available is not
sufficient due to reduced rainfall, a diesel station supply power
in parallel with hydro-station. The use is made temporarily till
the water is available to take the full load.
4. Emergency plant: The plants used for emergency purposes are at to standby
units, normally idle but are used where power interruption would mean
financial loss or danger in key industrial processes, tunnel lighting and operating
rooms of hospitals. They are also used for telecommunication and water supply
under emergency conditions.
5. Nursery station: When the diesel plant is used to supply the power to a small
town in the absence of main grid and which can be moved to another area which
needs power on a small scale when the main grid is available is known as
"Nursery Station". The main grid cannot extend to every corner of the country
till there is enough load. Many times the extension of grid is not possible due to
the constructional difficulties as in Assam. Diesel unit of small capacity can be
installed to supply the load to a small town during the process of development
and it can be removed to another required place till the main grid for tapping the
power is available.
6. Starting stations: The diesel units are used to run the auxiliaries for starting the
large steam plants.
7. Central stations: This can be used as central station where the capacity required
is small (5 to 10 MW). The limit is generally decided by the cost of the plant and
local conditions regarding the availability of fuel and water, space requirements
and non-availability of the grid. Small supply units for commercial purposes and
public utilities e.g.,, cinema hall, hospital and municipalities are commonly used
in practice.
Layout of Diesel Power
Plant
GENERAL LAYOUT
Simple layout
Essential elements of Diesel Power
Plant
Engine System
Starting System
Lubrication System
Fuel System
Air filter and Supercharge
Cooling System
Exhaust System
Governing System
 Engine system
 ENGINE: This is the main component of the plant
which develops required power. The engine is generally
directly coupled to the generator
 Generally classified as two stroke engine and four stroke
engines.
Industrial GenSet
Engine and Air intake system
Engine-
 This is the main component of the plant which develops
the required power. The electrical generator is usually
direct coupled to the engine.
Air intake system-
 The air intake system conveys fresh air through pipes or
ducts to (i) air intake manifold of 4 stroke engine (ii) The
scavenging pump inlet of a two stroke engine (iii) The
supercharger inlet of a supercharged engine.
Air filter and supercharger
 Air filter is used to remove the dust from the air
which is taken by the engine.
 The supercharger is used to increase the pressure
of the air supplied.
Air intake system
• Air is first drawn through a filter to catch dirt or particles
that may cause excessive wear in cylinders. Filters may be
of following types:
• Dry type (paper, cloth, felt, glass wool etc)
• Wet type (oil impingement type, oil bath type where oil
helps to catch particles)
• Following precautions should be taken while designing air
intake systems
 Following precautions should be taken
while designing air intake systems
 Air intake should be located outside the engine room.
 Air intake should not be located in confined places to
avoid undesirable acoustic vibrations.
 Pressure drop in the air intake line should be
minimum to avoid engine starvation
 Air filters should be accessible for periodic cleaning.
 In some cases a muffler may be introduced to prevent
engine noise from reaching outside air.
 Starting system
 The function of this system is to start the engine
from cold by supplying compressed air at about
17 bar supplied from an air tank is admitted to a
few cylinders making them work like
reciprocating air motors to run the engine shaft.
Fuel is admitted to the remaining cylinders and
ignited in the normal way causing the engine to
start.
 Lubrication system
 It includes the oil pumps, oil tanks, filters, coolers
and connecting pipes.
 The purpose of the lubrication system is to
reduce the wear of the engine moving parts
 Part of the cylinder such as piston , shafts ,
valves must be lubricated. The lubricant is
cooled before recirculation.
 Lubrication also helps to cool the engine
The following are the important
functions of a lubrication system
 LUBRICATION: To keep parts sliding freely past each
other, reducing friction and wear.
 COOLING: To keep surfaces cool by taking away part
of the heat caused by friction.
 CLEANING: To keep the bearings and piston rings
clean.
 SEALING: To form a good seal B/W the piston rings
and cylinder walls.
 REDUCING NOISE: to reduce the noise of the engine
by absorbing vibration.
oil tank
 Fuel system
 It includes the storage tank, fuel pump, fuel transfer pump, strainers
and heater.
 Pump draws diesel from storage tank to day tank through the filter
 The day tank is usually placed high so that diesel flows to engine
under gravity.
 Diesel is filtered before being injected into the engine by the fuel
injection pump.

strainers
The fuel injection system performs
the following functions
Filter the fuel
Meter the correct quantity of the fuel to be injected
Time the injection process
Regulate the fuel supply
Secure fine atomization of fuel oil
Distribute the atomized fuel properly in the combustion
chamber
 Oil is atomized either by blast or pressure jet.
In pressure jet atomization oil is forced to flow
through spray nozzles at pressure above 100 bar. It is
known as solid injection
Classification of solid injection
systems
 Common rail injection system: The system is
named after the shared high-pressure (100 to 200
bars)reservoir (common rail) that supplies all the
cylinders with fuel. With conventional diesel injection
systems, the fuel pressure has to be generated
individually for each injection. With the common rail
system, however, pressure generation and injection are
separate, meaning that the fuel is constantly available
at the required pressure for injection.
• Individual pump injection system:
 Distributor system:
CRDI
Fuel
Injector
Individual pump Injection
System
Individual pump Injection
System
 The schematic is
shown in fig.
 An individual pump or
pump cylinder
connects directly to
each fuel nozzle.
 Metering and injection
timing controlled by
individual pumps.
 Nozzle contains a
delivery valve actuated
by the fuel pressure.
Distributor System
Distributor System
 The schematic is
shown here.
 The fuel is metered
at a central point.
 A pump meters,
pressurizes and
times the fuel
injection.
 Fuel is distributed to
cylinders in correct
firing order by cam
operated poppet
valves which admit
fuel to nozzles.
 Cooling system
 The cooling system
consists of a water source,
pump and cooling towers.
The pump circulates water
through cylinder and
head jacket. The water
takes away heat form the
engine and it becomes hot.
The hot water is cooled by
cooling towers and re
circulated for cooling.
Cooling system
 The temperature of the hot gases inside the cylinder may
be as high as 2750 c . If there is no external cooling, the
cylinder walls and piston will tend to assume the average
temp. of the gases.
 Cooling is necessary because:
 To avoid deterioration or burning of lubricating oil.
 The strength of the materials used for various engine parts
decreases with increase in temperature. Local thermal
stress can develop due to uneven expansion of various
parts.
 Increase in pre-ignition and knocking
 Due to high cylinder head temp. the volumetric efficiency
and hence power O/P of the engine are reduced.
cooling system
Elements of cooling system
There are two methods of cooling
I.C. engines:
1.Air
cooling.
2. Liquid
cooling
Air cooling :
 In this method, heat is carried
away by the air flowing over
and around the cylinder.
 Fins are added on the cylinder
which provide additional mass
of material for conduction as
well as additional area for
convection and radiative
modes of heat transfer
Liquid cooling
 In this method, the
cylinder walls and head
are provided with
jackets through which
the cooling liquid can
circulate.
 The heat is transferred
from the cylinder walls
to the liquid by
convection and
conduction.
 The liquid gets heated
during its passage
through the cooling
jackets and is itself
cooled by means of an
air cooled radiator
system.
Types of Water Cooling System
 Thermo Siphon
System
 In this system the
circulation of water is
due to difference in
temperature
 (i.e. difference in
densities) of water. So
in this system pump is
not required
 but water is circulated
because of density
difference only.
 Pump Circulation
System
 In this system
circulation of water
is obtained by a
pump. This pump is
 driven by means of
engine output shaft
through V-belts.
Exhaust system
Exhaust system
 This includes the silencers and connecting ducts.
 The exhaust gases coming out of the engine is
very noisy.
 silencer (muffler) is provide to reduce the noise.
Exhaust system
 Exhaust pipe leading out of the building should be
short in length with minimum number of bends to
provide as low a pressure loss as possible.
 Flexible tubings may be added in exhaust pipe to take
care of misalignments and expansion/contraction and
also to isolate the system from engine vibrations.
Exhaust system
 Each engine should have its independent exhaust
system.
 Where possible, exhaust heat recovery should be made
to improve plant thermal efficiency. E.g., air heating,
low pressure steam generation in diesel-steam power
plant etc
 Governing system
 The function of the governing system is to
maintain the speed of the engine
 This is done generally by varying fuel supply to
the engine according to load.
 It is achieved with use of governors.
 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF
DIESEL POWER PLANT
ADVANTAGES-> DISADVANTAGES->

 Simple design & layout of plant  High running charges due

 Occupies less space & is compact to costly price of Diesel
 Can be started quickly and picks  Generates small amount of
up load in a short time power
 Requires less water for cooling
 Cost of lubrication very high
 Thermal efficiency better that of
Steam Power Plant of same size  Maintenance charges are
 No ash handling problem generally high
 Less operating and supervising  Noise problem
work is required  Capacity is restricted.
Cannot be of very big size
THANK YOU ALL!!!