INTRODUCTION

A diesel power plant or standby power station is the plant when we use diesel
engine as a prime mover or combine a diesel engine with an electric generator to
produce electrical energy by using diesel fuel or liquid fuels like natural gas.
It’s generally a compact station so it can be located when we actually require it.
And the diesel power plant produces limited amounts of electricity.
also as an emergency supply station for many countries; and as diesel plant
produces power in the range of 2 to 50 MW; So, We can use it as standby sets to
supply peak load of hospitals, radio station, telephone exchanges, industries,
cinema theatres, and very suitable for mobile power generation, railways and
ships.
For generating electrical power, it is essential to rotate the rotor of an alternator
by means of a prime mover. The prime mover can be driven by different
methods. Using diesel engine as prime mover is one of the popular methods of
generating power. When prime mover of the alternators is diesel engine, the
power station is called diesel power station.
The mechanical power required for driving alternator comes from combustion
of diesel. As the diesel costs high, this type of power station is not suitable for
producing power in large scale in our country.
But for small scale production of electric power, and where, there is no other
easily available alternatives of producing electric power, diesel power station
are used.
Steam power stations and hydro power plants are mainly used to produce
maximum portion of the electrical load demands. But for steam power station,
sufficient supply of coal and water are required.

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 COMPONENTS

The diesel power station consists of many components used to achieve the best
of the plant let’s illustrate:
Engine: it’s the main part of the plant which used to produce power, it may be
of the two-stroke or four strokes.
Fuel supply system: it consists of a storage tank where we store the oil
supplied to the plant, all day fuel tank where the oil pumped for usage, strainer
which used to remove suspended impurities of the oil, and fuel injection (transfer)
pump which used to inject the clean oil into the engine.
Strainer: it’s used to remove solid impurities from the oil transferred from the
main tank to small dry tank through this strainer.
Air intake system: it’s used to remove the dust particles from the atmospheric
air to supply fresh air to the engine for combustion, it may be dry (or oil) bath
filter or oil immersed filter, and it consists of pipes to supply the fresh air and
filters to remove dust particles from the air.
Exhaust system: it’s used to remove the exhaust gas from the engine to the
atmosphere, and we also add a silencer to this system to reduce the noise level of
the system.
Cooling system: it’s very important in the diesel power station to have a
cooling system to maintain the overall temperature of the engine at an agreeable
level, and this cooling system requires a water source, a water pump which
circulates water through a cylinder, and cooling towers which used to cool the hot
water.
Lubricating system: it’s used to minimize the wear of the rubbing surface of
the engine as we store oil in a main lubricating oil tank then draw this oil from an
oil pump to pass through the oil filter to remove impurities.
Engine starting system: it’s used in old conditions as a starter as it uses the
air to push the engine and start an initial rotation until the engine run with its own
power, and the starting methods may be:
Compressed air system: which used in large diesel engine and it ’s supplied
from an air tank.

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Governing system: it’s used to control the speed of the engine by changing
the fuel provide according to engine load.

LAYOUT OF DIESEL POWER PLANT

The layout of the diesel power station illustrates the main and auxiliary
components of the plant and the importance of each component as:

Diesel engine:
Also known as compression ignition engine consists of a cylinder, cylinder head,
piston, inlet valve, an inlet port, exhaust valve, valve spring, cooling fins, wrist
fines, wrist pin, connecting rod, crankcase, crank pin, crank, and crankshaft.
And it’s classified into a two-stroke engine and four-stroke engines.

Engine starting system:

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It’s an arrangement to initially rotating the engine, we used a compressed air for
starting the engine until it runs with its own power.

Fuel handling system:

We use trucks, railway wagons (barges) or oil tankers to deliver the fuel oil to the
plant site, and we deliver the oil to the main tanks from engine day tanks which
capable to store oil equivalent to 8-hour consumption through strainers. And we
heat the oil by hot water or steam to reduce viscosity and in order reduce the
pumping power input
Fuel injection system:
can say that this system is the heart of the diesel engine as it can uses as: Filter
the ensuring oil from dirt. Meters the correct quantity of fuel to be injected into
the cylinder. Also, regulates the fuel supply. Atomize the fuel oil for better mixing
with the hot oil.
And finally distribute the atomized fuel properly in the combustion chamber.
Air intake system:
It’s used to transfer fresh air through louvers and air filter to the cylinder by an
intake manifold, and we can fit a supercharger driven by the engine between the
filter and the engine to augment the power.
Exhaust system:
It’s used to discharge the engine exhaust to the atmosphere with minimum noise.
We use an exhaust manifold to connect the engine cylinder exhaust to the exhaust
pipe to demand the fluctuating pressure of the exhaust line with a muffler or
silencer to in turn reduces most the noise resulted when gases discharged directly
to the atmosphere.
Engine lubrication system:
It’s used to provide sufficient quantity of cool filtered oil to give adequate
lubrication to the moving parts of the engine, it consists of lubricating oil tank,
pump, filter, and oil cooler. and it’s classified into:
Mixed lubrication system:
it’s usually used in the two-stroke engine where we mix a small quantity of
lubricating oil in the fuel tank.

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Wet sump lubrication system:
which may be splash system, pressure fed system or splash or pressure feed
system.

Dry sump lubrication system:

it’s usually used in a large stationary marine engine where we carry the supply of
oil in an external tank with some help of scavenging pump through a strainer and
filter.
Cooling system:
It consists of a water source; a pump which circulates water through a cylinder
and head jacket; and cooling tower in which it can cool the hot water from the
engine.
And we must take in consideration when planning for the layout the following:
1) The approximate dimensions of the equipment.
2) Location of the equipment and the minimum clearance between each part.
3) Natural lighting and proper ventilation provision.
4) The availability of future addition to the building with minimum changes.
5) Provision for installing at least one spare unit in the future.
6) And provision for a small workshop, stores, office and so on.

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 WORKING OF DIESEL POWER PLANT

The working principle of the diesel power station is very simple; as we compress
the air in a cylinder to raise the temperature, then we burn the diesel inside the
engine and the combustion produces the working fluid at high temperature and
high-pressure to convert the heat energy into mechanical energy.
And as the diesel engine acts as a prime mover it rotates the rotor of the electrical
generator and converts this mechanical energy into electrical energy.
This working principle is a working cycle done by the processes: intake,
compression, expansion, and exhaust.

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 ADVANTAGES

The diesel power station is simple in everything so it has many advantages as:
1) The low initial cost which makes it easy to quickly install and commission
it.
2) The design is very simple and requires small space.
3) It can start and stop with quick facilities; as small generators can start and
stop in few seconds without any standby loss in the system.
4) The thermal efficiency is quite higher than other types.

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 5) We can build it near the load centre and doesn’t cause a problem of ash
disposal exists.
6) The size of the plant is quite smaller than steam plants also they have the
same capacity.
7) It’s easy to design it for portable use.
8) The cooling is easy and requires a small quantity of water.
9) There isn’t any difficulty with varying loads.

DISADVANTAGES

To be fair, as we illustrate the advantages; we will also illustrate the

disadvantages of the diesel plant which are:
1) The higher running costs due to the high cost of the diesel.
2) The general use of this plant is to produce small power requirement.
3) It can’t stand up for a long period of overload conditions.
4) The lubricants cost is high.
5) Complex and high-cost maintenance; which makes the life of the plant
small from 7 to 10 years.
6) Its capacity is only about 50 MW.
7) It’s difficult to construct it for large scale.
8) Also, the noise produced by the plant is high.

APPLICATIONS

As diesel power station has a capacity in the range of 2 to 5MW; So, We can use
it in many applications as:

1) A central station for medium or small power supplies.

2) And for emergency services as a standby plant to hydroelectric power
plants and steam power plants.

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3) We can Use with thermal or hydropower plants as a peak load plant in
combinations.
4) For mobile power generation, transportation systems like automobiles,
railways, airplanes, and ships.
5) A nursery station to transport the power from stations to small power
plants, or supply power to small towns.
6) It’s economical for industries where they require a small power in the order
of 500 KW as it offers high overall efficiency.
7) And also used for electrical power generation in capacities 100 to 500 H.P.

MODEL OF DIESEL POWER PLANT

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 CONCLUSION

We studied about diesel power plant in this project. We studied its

construction and working. Also we studied its advantage,

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disadvantages and applications. We makes a model of diesel power
plant.

REFERENCE

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