Steam Turbine To Power
Steam turbine power generation is an age old technology for the capacities ranging from (1 MW – 1,000 MW). Pure power generation below 2 MW will not be commercially viable. In extraordinary cases, plants of lower capacity are also viable, if the alternative cost of electricity is very high. However, if cogeneration is practiced, plants of sizes as small as 200 kW are also feasible. e.g. use of back pressure steam turbine of capacity 200 – 500 kW is very common in palm oil industries.
In sugar industries also, usage of back pressure turbine is common. Generally back pressure turbines have very low electrical efficiency when compared to condensing turbines. With the current developments in private power generation, sale of electricity to the grid and market deregulation, the emerging
 steam turbine power plant |
 back pressure turbine  condensing turbine |
trend is to go for modern and highly efficient extraction cum condensing turbine that optimizes both steam demand and excess power generation (for sale to the grid).
In this regard industries are also doing systematic energy audit to reduce the steam consumption in the process site, by giving importance to energy efficiency, by avoiding the steam leakages and through process optimization etc.
Inefficient steam driven equipments such as pumps and fans are being replaced by electrical drives, which release additional steam that can be utilized for power generation. Several countries such as India, Thailand, Malaysia, etc. are providing incentives to the private power producers who use biomass as boiler fuel.
Several equipment suppliers are working hard to bring down the investment cost. In some cases, the investment costs are surprisingly lower. It is also possible to bring down the investment cost by following several project development strategies. In Asia, for small scale power generation, several equipment suppliers from Japan, India and China are very active.
It is interesting to note that several mergers and acquisitions happened in this field in the last one decade. Asian market is dominated by around 20-30 boiler and turbine suppliers. In general, rice husk plants and wood plants work often exclusively on power generation mode. Only when steam is required either for paddy or wood drying, they go for cogeneration. Sugar and palm oil plants are generally equipped with cogeneration plants. For services related to steam turbine to power, contact us.