Floating Power Plant

FLOATING POWER PLANT [pic] By K. SRIKAR 10071A0228 VNR VJIET Ph no: 8341103940 Srikar. kollur@yahoo. com CH. PRADEEP 10071A0211 VNR VJIET Ph no: 7207606693 cheedaypradeep@gmail. com ABSTRACT: The concept of the Floating Power Plant is so far the only one known in the world that has combined the two energy forms and has an operating prototype. Our abstract deals with the Floating Power Plant, the current prototype is called Poseidon 37and MH-1A. INTRODUCTION

Floating Power Plant (FPP) is a new type energy source based on technologies of shipbuilding and designed to provide a reliable whole-year energy supply to households, industry and infrastructure facilities [pic] FPP, can combine heat and low-power nuclear station, are vessels projected that present self-contained, low-capacity, floating nuclear power plants. The stations are to be mass-built at shipbuilding facilities and then towed to the destination point in coastal waters near a city, a town or an industrial enterprise.

Although the world’s first floating nuclear power station was MH-1A, the Rosatom project represents the first mass production of that kind of vessel. By 2015, at least seven of the vessels are supposed to be built. The floating power plant can economically supply electricity to a specific district or to a specific facility that temporarily uses the electricity and can minimise limitations caused by environmental regulations, and can be used as an emergency electrical power source HISTORY MH-1A was a pressurized water reactor and the first floating nuclear power station.

One of a series of reactors in the US Army Nuclear Power Program, its designation stood for mobile, high power. The FIRST FLOATING NUCLEAR reactor was built for the U. S. Army by Martin Marietta under a $17,000,000 contract (August 1961), with construction starting in 1963. The original ship propulsion system was removed, and a single-loop pressurized water reactor, in a 350 ton containment vessel, was installed, using low enriched uranium (4% to 7% 235U) as fuel. The reactor supplied 10 MW (13,000 hp) electricity to the Panama Canal Zone from October 1968 to 1975. pic] Waller Marine has played an important role in the reintroduction of the Floating Power Plant (FPP) since the late 1980’s when the Company was asked to inspect the power barge “Impedance”; a barge constructed with steam generating technology that was first used in the Philippines by the US Army in 1940. Since that time, Waller has been involved in development, design, construction and operations of numerous power barge projects using all available generating technologies, different fuels and cooling system [pic]

Floating Power Plants (FPPs), or Power Barges as they are more commonly called, have been around for many years. In fact one of the earlier units, constructed in 1940 by the US Army Corp of Engineers, a 30 MW steam generation facility and put into service in the Philippines, is still in operation at a site in Ecuador. . .Heavy fuels were selected as the fuel of choice mainly due to cost and availability, with consideration being given to simply meeting World Bank emissions standards being made at the time. Single barge designs ranged from 30 MW up to 100 MW. DESIGN:- BARGE CONSTRUCTION:-

When using a semi-submerged structure for a wave energy device, the structure is modified radically compared to a standard barge. On the Poseidon 37, three sections constitute the barge: *The front section, which contains the turret mooring, *The middle section carrying the wave absorbers, and *The rear section. The whole structure is 37 meters wide and 25 meters long (excluding the buoy). The middle section can be disconnected from the front, and the energy device can thus be sailed to port without interfering with the mooring. This is needed since the P 37 is a prototype and a test facility.

The front and rear sections ensure that the Floating Power Plant always turns against the wave front – and that it does so in a passive way without consuming energy. [pic] The wave absorbers (floaters) are hinged at the front. The floaters absorb the pressure motion of the wave both forwards and upwards. Up to 34 percent of the incoming wave energy is converted to electricity in the Floating Power Plant. According to FPP, this has been confirmed by the research and consultancy organization DHI (Danish Hydraulic Institute) in the latest wave flume test series.

Each absorber on Poseidon 37 weighs 4. 7 tonnes without ballast and 24 tonnes fully ballasted. The ballast system is an active control system. Along with trimming of the submerged depth, these are the only two active controls in the whole structure, thus the only part where energy is consumed. Ballast is used to secure the optimum floater movement: in this way the floaters have high efficiency in small as well as large waves. MOORING With a floating structure that turns towards the waves, an anchor system which allows full 360 degrees rotation is needed.

With the Pivot Hinged Wave Absorber, a standard system from the oil and gas industry is used: the Turret Mooring System. Turret mooring is widely used on so-called FPSO vessels (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading). FPSOs typically extract oil and gas from fields far away, refine it and store it, and then offload it onto a transport vessel. Because of the oil extraction (through pipelines), a FPSO has to remain at the exact same position regardless of weather conditions. For this purpose, the vessel is secured with a Turret Mooring System.

The turret is in its essence a buoy held in place by three or more mooring lines. The mooring lines are secured with anchors – in Poseidon’s case, these are plow anchors. A tugboat drags the anchors into the seabed until a given tension is achieved. [pic] The mooring lines have enough slack for the turret to move up and down when water levels rise and fall – but because of the number of mooring lines, the horizontal position remains the same with little deviation. Thus, a platform installed at more than 40 meters depth will be able to follow a rise in the sea level of up to 30 meters.

The system is not suited for depths less than 40 meters because of the energy in the waves at low depths. It would not be commercially viable. ENERGY PRODUCTION Whether one has a starting point in the wind industry or in wave energy, the logic behind a combination of the two energy forms is that it increases the return. The benefits of adding a wave energy device to a floating support structure for a wind turbine is stability and the boat landing. The wave energy device absorbs the wave motions, and thereby makes the structure even more stable.

According to FPP, 70-90 percent of the energy in the wave motion is absorbed into a controlled system. This provides stability compared to a normal floating structure without any absorption. [pic] The wave absorbers convert the forward and upwards pressure from the waves to an upward and downward motion. The movement of the floaters drives a double piston pump on each flow, pushing water at high speed and pressure through a turbine. The prototype Poseidon 37 has a rated power of 140 kW from the waves and 33 KW from wind, a total of 177 kW.

Power production On the Poseidon 37 the wave absorbers start production at 20 centimetres significant wave height (Hs). Cut-out is at 1. 5 meters wave height (Hs). Plants will be dimensioned after the specific conditions at the given site, thus the cut-in and cut-out values can be varied. Apart from the waves, the rest of the energy comes from the three wind turbines. The size and power of the turbines are chosen according to a single criterion: tower height. The surface area and weight of the platform defines how high the tower can be. And the tower height defines what turbines are available on the market.

In the case of the Poseidon 37, engineers chose a common onshore wind turbine: the Gaia-Wind 133-11kW. The tower is normally 18 meters high, but offshore 12 meters was possible. Instead of a standard lattice tower, a tubular tower was chosen to improve corrosion protection. According to Floating Power Plant, the wind turbines can be of any type and the number will vary from 1 to 3 turbines. The turbine can be upwind or downwind, and fitted with any number of blades. Only the tower height matters. In fact, the turbines have been proved to stabilize the whole construction’s pitching at sea. pic] Normally, the direction of wind and wave are overall the same, and this is also the optimal scenario for the plant. For the Poseidon, the power output from the middle wind turbine declines when the wind turns out of alignment with the wave direction. In rare cases with crosswinds the power output from turbines is at its lowest. On average, the middle turbine produces 85 percent of rated power, and the two front turbines produce up to their rated power. UPCOMING PROJECTS The next step is the construction of a power plant of 110 meters width to be installed in Oregon, USA.

The Collaboration between Floating Power Plant and American venture capitalists was announced in April 2011, and the new prototype will be installed between 2014 and 2015. The largest scale of the Floating Power Plant will be 230 meters wide and mounted with three 2 MW turbines. The wave energy device will have a rated power of approximately 5-6 MW. The yearly production will be 50 GWh – of this 60-70 percent will be produced from wave energy, because the waves represent a more stable energy source. PROS AND CONS ADVANTAGES * Relatively fast construction dependent upon equipment availability. * Transportable power. Fast supply of electricity to areas with limited infrastructure. * Provides fast supply of electricity to areas with limited infrastructure * Is a mobile asset, possible to relocate or trade . * Does not require a large site. * Is independent of soil quality. * Provides secure power supply in the event of earth quakes or floods. * Eco friendly, doesn’t produce any harmful gases. [pic] DISADVANTAGES:- * FPP has end user power demand and supply cannot be synchronized. * Access to the installation is critical and infrastructure is costly. CONCLUSION: There are several positive environmental impacts from the construction of Poseidon.

The energy production from a 230 meter Poseidon power plant will reduce the annual emission from a traditional fossil fuel power generation by: • 145 tons of sulphur dioxide • 120 tons of nitric oxides • 35,000 tons of carbon dioxide • 2,600 tons of slag and fly ash Poseidon utilizes and absorbs the inherent energy from the waves, thereby reducing the height of the waves significantly and creating calm waters behind the front of the plant. REFERENCES http://www. floatingpowerplant. com/ http://www. wallermarine. com/ http://www. lorc. dk/Home http://www. google. co. in/ http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Wiki