Power Plant Engineering, 1st Edition

Our lives and the functioning of modern societies are closely connected with electric power usage. We owe our high quality of life to electric power. However, {the electric} power technology industry is partly responsible for some of the most urgent challenges we currently face, including climate change and the pollution of natural environments, energy inequality, and energy insecurity. Sustaining our lifestyle while addressing these issues is the ultimate challenge for the future of humanity. The aim of this book is to prepare engineering and science students and professionals to tackle this task. Penned by an expert with over 25 years of combined academic and industrial experience in the field, this comprehensive textbook covers both fossil fuels and sustainable energy technology technologies. For each topic, fundamental principles, historical backgrounds, and state-of-the-art technologies are covered.

Conventional power production technologies, steam power plants, gas turbines, and combined cycle power plants are presented. For steam power plants, the historical background, thermodynamic principles, steam turbines, combustion methods, emission reduction technologies, steam generators, condensate-feedwater systems, and cooling systems are covered in separate chapters. Similarly, the historical background and thermodynamic principles of gas turbines, including extensive discussions on compressors, combustors, and turbines, are presented and then followed by combined cycle power plants.

The latter part of the book deals with sustainable energy sources, including solar photovoltaic systems, solar thermal power plants, wind turbines, ocean energy systems, and geothermal power plants. For each energy source, the available energy and its variations, historical background, operational principles, basic calculations, current and future technologies, and environmental impacts are provided. Finally, energy storage systems as necessary technologies to address the intermittent nature of sustainable energy sources are covered.

While the book has been written with the aims of undergraduate and graduate university students in mind, professionals interested in broadening their understanding of the field may benefit from it.