Question

A palm oil mill plant owned by Slime Karby Plantations Sdn Bhd has been operating under low efficiency and performance of its boiler and turbine. Its Chief Technical Officer has employed you to review the plant and submit a proposal on how the performance of the plant can be improved. Currently, the plant operates in a simple Rankine cycle manner. The source of raw water for boiler is pumped from the Klang River to a reserve pond. Superheated steam generated from the boiler is used to run a steam turbine. This in turn generates electricity, as well as heat for use throughout the plant processes. The steam that leaves the turbine is then condensed and discharged from the plant to the effluent treatment facility. The current operation conditions given are; i. Water Pressure and Temperature leaving pump are 2.62 MPa and 50 °C ii. Steam Pressure and Temperature after boiler are 2.5 MPa and 280 °C iii. Pressure after Condenser is 100 kPa iv. Actual Pump Work = 2.92 kJ/kg V. Actual Turbine Work =. 496.18 kJ/kg vi. Mass flow rate of biofuel needed to heat water in boiler = 3 kg/s vii. Boiler mass capacity = 40,000 kg/hour viii. Heating value of fuel = 17,000 kJ/kg 1) Draw the T-s diagram of this cycle 2) Find the original thermal efficiency of the pump 3) Find the original thermal efficiency of the turbine 4) What is the thermal efficiency of this cycle? 5) How would you propose to improve the efficiency of the cycle? a) Try increasing the pressure at the boiler while maintaining the superheated steam temperature entering the turbine. b) Try increasing the superheated steam temperature while maintaining the pressure entering the turbine. c) Try increasing both d) Plot a bar graph comparing these values for each methods above to the original setting • Quality of the liquid-vapour mixture leaving the turbine Thermal efficiency of the cycle (If you can) Boiler efficiency

Answer 1