If you live in the area of this steam plant, you probably hear trains going by all the time. Ever wonder what's on those trains? Coal, and lots of it. The Bull Run Fossil Plant is a massive coal fired steam plant, that uses a single General Electric Cross Compound Turbine to generate nominally 950 MW (that's Megawatts) of electricity. While there is much talk about going away from coal fired electricity, it makes perfect sense for this plant to be here. It is close to multiple coal mining operations in the Cumberland Plateau (thus the steady stream of trains) and also to one very energy hungry consumer, the Oak Ridge National Laboratories. Since it was commissioned in 1967, it has seen many upgrades to reduce toxic emissions and consistently ranks at the top of the countries most efficient coal fired steam plants. But at its heart, it is still a coal eating machine, gobbling up tons of coal every day to provide the area with the energy it demands.
To find the location you will have to delve into the thermodynamics of a steam power plant, learning about the phases of steam, entropy, the Rankine cycle, T-S diagrams, enthalpy, isentropic processes and more. It is an involved process, but if you stick it through, you will come away with a better understanding of how this plant works, and next time you plug in your phone charger, you might pause and wonder at the complexity of our local power source.
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