Chapter Two: Background
Abstract
Summary of major power plant types and their evolution over the years, including contrast in efficiency.
Keywords
Coal; Gas reactor; Water reactor; Natural gas; Coal-gas; Transmission; Grid
Historical perspective
Since the dawn of 19th century, power production using heat has been an engineering challenge. Coal fired boilers, designed to generate steam subsequently used to rotate a turbine/generator, have been a mainstay for well over a 100 years. Through the years, modest efficiency improvements to reduce production costs have been made by increasing steam pressures and temperatures.
With the advent of ...
Get Hybrid Nuclear Energy Systems now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
