Electricity Generation
There a variety of methods by which electricity can be generated. One of these methods is through coal-fired plants. Coal is crushed into a fine powder in order to burn quicker. Then, the powder coal is blown into combustion chambers using high temperature. The high temperature and gasses is converted to water which converts to steam. Electricity is generated when this steam is passed into a turbine. One of the advantages of this method is that with recent changes more electricity can be generated from less coal which increases cost-efficiency.
Another source of electricity is natural gas. In fact in 2015, natural gas surpassed coal as the top source of electric power in the U.S. In order to generate electricity from natural gas, there is a compressor to draw in the air into its engine and feed it to the combustion chambers. The combustion system injects the fuel into the combustion chambers and mixes it with air. The mixture is burned at a high temperature which produces high temperature gas stream into the turbine. The turbine produces electricity by spinning a generator with that hot gas. When the temperature is higher, the efficiency increases. Also, in order to increase efficiency, turbines can use generators that can recover energy from the turbine’s exhaust.
Finally, nuclear power plants are another significant source of electricity. The generation process of nuclear power plants is similar to the other plants, water is turned into steam that goes into the turbines and turns into electricity with the help of generators. However, here, the heat to drive the process is produced when the uranium atoms split, and there is no combustion.
References:
http://www.worldcoal.org/coal/uses-of-coal/coal-electricity/
http://energy.gov/fe/how-gas-turbine-power-plants-work
https://www.duke-energy.com/about-energy/generating-electricity/nuclear-how.asp