BY
EGBUDIWE INNOCENT .N
EE/2007/181
BEING A PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING (B.ENG) DEGREE IN ELECTRICAL/ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING CARITAS UNIVERSITY, AMORJI-NIKE ENUGU.
AUGUST 2017
CERTIFICATION
This is to certify that this work was carried out by, EGBUDIWE .N. INNOCENT of the department of Electrical/Electronic Engineering, Caritas University Amorji-nike, Enugu.
___________________ Date: _____________
Engr. E.C. Aneke
Project Supervisor
___________________ Date: ________________
Engr. C.O Ejimofor
Head of Department
__________________ Date: ________________
External supervisor
DEDICATION
The work is dedicated to the almighty God who with all his conglomerate efforts made my dream come true.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
My Profound gratitude goes to God Almighty who gave me good health and the strength throughout the period of this project. To my parents and siblings, I say a very big thank you for your financial and moral support during and after the completion of this project.
Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) power generation is basically based on the physics background of space plasma. The basic principle is the Faradays Law of electromagnetic induction. In this device plasma (Ionized gas) is the working fluid similar to the mechanism that happening in the magnetosphere of our earth’s atmosphere. Except here the process is controlled and we increase the fluid density and pressure to get maximum efficiency in the generating power. Most problems come from the low conductivity feature in the gas at high temperature. High temperature gaseous conductor at high velocity is passed through a powerful magnetic field and a current is generated and extracted by placing electrodes at suitable position in the gas stream, and hence the thermal energy of gas is directly converted in to electrical energy. In this paper the process involved in MHD power generation will be discussed in detail along with the simplified analysis of MDH system and recent developments in magnetohydrodynamics and their related issues.
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION
We all are aware of power generation using hydro, thermal and nuclear resources. In all the systems, the potential energy or thermal energy is first converted in to mechanical energy and then the mechanical energy is converted in to elecrtrical energy. The conversion of potential energy in to mechanical energy is considerably high (70 to 80%) but conversion of thermal energy in to mechanical energy is considerably poor(40 to 45%).In addition to this the mechanical components required for converting heat energy in to mechanical energy are large in number and considerably costly. This requires huge capital cost as well as maintenance cost also.
The scientists are thinking to eliminate the mechanical system and convert thermal in to direct electrical energy for the last 50-years and more. Unfortunately, no system is yet developed in large capacity (MW) to compete with conventional systems. In addition to this the efficiency of such conversion remained considerably poor(less than10%) therefore, these power generating systems are not developed on large scale.
The electricity generation process, most often, is characterised by the transition of primary or secondary energy, from thermal to mechanical and then to electricity. At the current state of development, most of the power plants are based on processes known as conventional. The production of electricity, through conventional forms or commercial of primary energy, concern only the hydroelectric and thermal power station, where the thermal power stations are different for use of primary source (usually fossil fuels such as natural gas, oil, coal, etc., wood and biomass, municipal or industrial solid wast, etc., or nuclear fuels and more rarely geothermal energy). In the hydroelectric power generation, mechanical energy, in different forms (kinetic, potential and pressure) from flowing fluid, is converted into electricity with a water turbine and an alternator. In the thermal power plants the thermal energy is converted into mechanical energy and from this machine the mechanical energy into electricity. The majority of thermal power plants are powered by fuels, usually fossil or nuclear. Apart some cases, such as power plants that use thermal energy available in nature (primarily solar and geothermal), the form of energy at the base of each of processes is the chemical potential energy of the fuel.
The potential energy of the fossil fuel is converted into heat energy through a chemical exothermic reaction (combustion), characterized by generation of thermal energy equivalent, in absolute value, to the enthalpy variation for the same reaction. In the case of nuclear fuels there is a fission reaction. The heat is then transmitted to elastic working fluid evolving in appropriate machines (usually gas turbine or reciprocating engine) producing mechanical work. In that case, it has converted thermal energy to mechanical (thermodynamics conversion). The mechanical work produced is finally transferred to an electric generator, which operates the last conversion of energy in electric form. It should be noted that in any conversion process one cannot fully convert the energy from one form to another, each of the steps being characterized by a conversion efficiency, a coefficient that takes into account the fraction of the energy initially available, which is converted in the desired form.
1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The first recorded MHD investigation was conducted in 1821 by the English chemist Humphry Davy when he showed that an arc could be deflected by a magnetic field. More than a decade later, Michael Faraday sought to demonstrate motional electromagnetic induction in a conductor moving through Earth’s geomagnetic field. To this end, he set up in January 1832 a rudimentary open-circuit MHD generator, or flow meter, on the Waterloo Bridge across the River Thames in London. His experiment was unsuccessful owing to the electrodes being electrochemically polarized, an effect not understood at that time.
Faraday soon turned his attention to other aspects of electromagnetic induction, and MHD power generation received little attention until the 1920s and ’30s, when Bela Karlovitz, a Hungarian-born engineer, first proposed a gaseous MHD system. In 1938 he and Hungarian engineer D. Halász set up an experimental MHD facility at the Westinghouse Electric Corporation research laboratories and by 1946 had shown that, through seeding the working gas, small amounts of electric power could be extracted. The project was abandoned, however, largely because of a lack of understanding of the conditions required to make the working gas an effective conductor.
Interest in magnetohydrodynamics grew rapidly during the late 1950s as a result of extensive studies of ionized gases for a number of applications. In 1959 the American engineer Richard J. Rosa operated the first truly successful MHD generator, producing about 10 kilowatts of electric power. By 1963 the Avco Research Laboratory, under the direction of the American physicist Arthur R. Kantrowitz, had constructed and operated a 33-megawatt MHD generator, and for many years this remained a record power output. The assumption in the late 1960s that nuclear power would dominate commercial power generation, and the failure to find applications for space missions, led to a sharp curtailment of MHD research. The energy crisis of the 1970s, however, brought about a revival of interest, with the focus centred on coal-fueled systems. By the late 1980s, development had reached the point where construction of a complete demonstration system was feasible. However, the performance and economic risks have deterred electric power utilities from making deep investments in such systems. This situation may change if energy prices or environmental considerations shift significantly.
1.3 AIM OF THE STUDY
The objective of this work is to generate electric power by means of the interaction of a moving fluid (usually an ionized gas or plasma) and a magnetic field. Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) power plants offer the potential for large-scale electrical power generation with reduced impact on the environment.
1.4 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
After completing this work, student involved would able to learn:
- What is a Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) power plant.
- What is energy conversion.
- How moving stream of ionised gases works.
1.5 SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
Magnetohydrodynamic power generation provides a way of generating electricity directly from a fast moving stream of ionised gases without the need for any moving mechanical parts - no turbines and no rotary generators.
MHD power generation has also been studied as a method for extracting electrical power from nuclear reactors and also from more conventional fuel combustion systems can be considered to be a fluid dynamo. This is similar to a mechanical dynamo in which the motion of a metal conductor through a magnetic field creates a current in the conductor except that in the MHD generator the metal conductor is replaced by conducting gas plasma.
When a conductor moves through a magnetic field it creates an electrical field perpendicular to the magnetic field and the direction of movement of the conductor. This is the principle, discovered by Michael Faraday, behind the conventional rotary electricity generator.
1.6 ADVANTAGES OF THE STUDY
Advantages of this work over other means of power generation are:
- No moving parts, so no mechanical losses.
- Overall Efficiency is about 50%.
- Large Amount of pollution free power is generated.
- Size of Plant is small compared to other Fossil fuel plants.
- Less overall generation cost.
1.7 PROBLEMS OF THE STUDY
- Very Large Magnets are needed, this is the major expense.
- High Friction and Heat Transfer losses.
- High operating temperature.
- Even though overall generation cost is less ,DC to AC Converters increase the cost of plant.
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