Cogeneration offers High Operational Efficiency than Conventional System

Individuals willing to explore their career as electrical and mechanical engineers should definitely possess good knowledge about different types of heat and power systems prevailing in the industry.

Hence, with the help of this article, large numbers of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering professors working under best engineering colleges in India have explained about commonly used technique called as Cogeneration.

Overview and Function

Cogeneration also referred as combined power and heat system performs its functions based on the concept of generating or producing two different energy forms via application of only one fuel source.

Out of the two different forms of energy, as revealed by best engineering colleges in India faculties, one should be of thermal or heat energy, while another one should be of mechanical or electrical energy source.

Operating Principle and Fuel Used

Cogeneration serves as a reliable, optimum, clean and efficient means of using fuel. Here, fuel can be of anything, such as oil, natural gas, wood, propane, butane and coal and so on.

According to best engineering colleges in India experts, cogeneration incorporates very simple and easy operating principle, which involves use of fuel to generate electricity that produces heat, while the heat helps in boiling of water for production of steam, heating space and in cooling of buildings.

Conventional Power Plant

If you look for the operation of a conventional power plant, you will observe burning of fuel inside boiler device, which later on, leads to the production of steam at very high pressure. Professionals use the generated steam for driving turbines, which in turn remain connected with alternator and thereby, drive it for production of electric energy.

Later on, exhaust steam goes into the condenser device, where cooling process takes place and thereby, results in conversion to water. Furthermore, few percentage of the water will return to produce electrical energy in higher rates.

Operational Efficiency Comparison

Lastly, Electrical and Mechanical engineers working under best engineering colleges in India have compared operational efficiency of conventional power plant with the cogeneration plant or station. Firstly, experts said that the efficiency of any conventional type of power plant remains confined to about 35 percent.

On the other side, in case of cogeneration plant, steam of low pressure that comes from the turbine does not condense to form water. Rather, one can consistently use it for cooling or heating process in factories and buildings.

The reason for this is that low-pressure steam that comes from turbine steam possesses high value of thermal energy. Therefore, cogeneration plants are available with relatively high operational efficiency that is in the range of minimum 80 percent to up to 90 percent. In India, cogeneration plants have power generation potential value more than 20,000 Mega Watts approximately.