Abstract:
It is well known that electrical-power generation is the key
factor for advances in industry, agriculture, technology and the
level of living. Also, strong power industry with diverse energy
sources is very important for country independence. In general,
electrical energy can be generated from: 1) burning mined and
refined energy sources such as coal (40%), natural gas (23%), oil
(4%), and nuclear (11%); and 2) harnessing energy sources such
as hydro (17%), and biomass, wind, geothermal, solar, and wave
power (all together about (5%).
Today, the main sources for electrical-energy generation are:
1) thermal power – primarily using coal and secondarily - natural
gas; 2) “large” hydro power; and 3) nuclear power from various
reactor designs. The balance of the energy sources is from using
oil, biomass, wind, geothermal and solar, and have visible impact
just in some countries.
The driving force in the power industry is thermal efficiency
or just efficiency for some energy sources. Modern power plants
have the following gross thermal efficiencies: Combined-cycle
power plants up to 62%; supercritical-pressure thermal power
plants ‒ up to 55%; subcritical-pressure thermal power plants ‒
up to 43%; carbon-dioxide-cooled and sodium-cooled reactors
Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) ‒ up to 40 and 42%, respectively;
and water-cooled reactors NPPs ‒ 30‒36% only. According to
the thermodynamics higher thermal efficiencies correspond to
higher temperatures / pressures. Therefore, the paper presents
the current status of power plants and latest R&D in
thermodynamic cycles and heat transfer in nuclear- and thermalpower
industries.
Description:
Papers presented at the 13th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Portoroz, Slovenia on 17-19 July 2017 .
