Chapter 5

Conventional Power Generating Systems

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview and up-to-date discussion of conventional power generating systems, through the key cycles, with a prime focus on energy and exergy analyses. Some environmental and economic aspects of their operations are also discussed. Centralized electricity generation stations started to develop in the last quarter of nineteenth century, when the steam turbine and the electrical light bulb had been invented and boosted societal evolution toward the electrification era. The overwhelming majority of power stations in use today are based on the steam Rankine cycle. Everywhere around the world, conventional steam Rankine power plants convert the energy of fossil fuels (mostly ...

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