1. Rail Unloading House 19.

Intermediate Pressure Turbine

2. Junction House 20. Low Pressure Turbine
3. Coal Conveyor 21. Rotor
4. Boiler Coal Bunker 22. Stator
5. Bucket Wheel Machine 23. Generator Transformer
6. Coal Feeder 24. Condenser
7. Pulverising Mill 25. Condensate Extraction Pump
8. Primary Air Fan 26. Low Pressure Feed Heaters
9. Boiler Burner 27. Deaerator
10. Boiler 28. Boiler Feed Pump
11. Forced Draught Fan 29. High Pressure Feed Heaters
12. Air Heater 30. Economiser
13. Electrostatic Precipitator 31. Steam Drum
14. Induced Draught Fan 32. Cooling Tower
15. Main Chimney 33. Circulating Water Pumps
16. Superheater 34. Circulating Water Make-Up Pumps
17. High Pressure Turbine 35. FGD Absorber Tower
18. Boiler Reheater

1. Rail Unloading Coal is transported to the station by

coal trains of typically 1,400 tonnes
House capacity and discharged through
bottom hoppers, which open
automatically whilst the train is in
motion.

2. Junction House At the junction house, coal can be sent

to or retrieved from the stockpile, or
sent to the coal bunkers.

3. Coal Conveyor Coal conveyors are used to move coal

 around efficiently. Coal arriving by train
can be stocked for later use or taken
straight to thecoal bunkers. An
automatic control system helps to
ensure that the conveyors take the coal
to the right bunkers.
4. Boiler Coal Bunker Each coal bunker supplies coal to
two pulverising fuel mills. Each bunker
can hold 1,000 tonnes of coal, and
there are five bunkers per unit.

5. Bucket Wheel Bucket wheel machines are used to put

coal out to the stockpile and reclaim
Machine coal from the stockpile. A bucket wheel
machine can move approximately
3,000 tonnes of coal in an hour.

6. Coal Feeder The variable speed coal feeder feeds

coal from the bunkers to themill via a
450 millimetre diameter pipe. It uses a
conveyor to move coal through a fixed
gap at a precisely controlled speed.
Varying the speed controls the amount
of coal supplied to the boilers.

7. Pulverising Mill Each of the six units at Drax has ten

pulverising fuel mills, each capable of
pulverising 36 tonnes of coal per hour.
Inside the mills, ten giant hollow steel
balls, each 1.4 tonnes in weight and
approximately 730 millimetres in
diameter, crush the coal into a fine
powder.
8. Primary Air Fan Air to blow the coal from the mill to
the boiler, called the primary air, is
supplied by a large fan driven by a
3,300 volts variable speed motor.

9. Boiler Burner Propane is fed to the burner where it is

lit by a spark plug. Fuel oil is then fed
to the burner and is burned by the
propane flame. Once a stable flame is
established the coal/air mix is blown
through the burner where it lights
spontaneously. The propane and oil
are then shut off. In 2003, we
completed the replacement of all the
original burners with low NOX burners
to reduce the amount
of oxides of nitrogen produced.

10. Boiler To produce steam each boiler converts

energy, in the form of coal, into steam
at a rate of 563 kilogrammes per
second. The boiler is lined with steel
tubing in which pure boiler feed water
is turned to steam by the heat created
from the combustion of coal.
11. Forced Draught Fan Each unit has two forced draught fans.
The fans draw warm air from the top of
the boiler house through large air
heaters becoming the primary and
secondary air used for
the boiler combustion process. The air
heater warms the incoming air by
transferring heat energy from the
outgoing flue gases.

12. Air Heater The air heaters use the remaining heat
energy in the flue gas to heat up the
combustion air for the boiler. Efficiency
is increased by using this heat that
would otherwise go up the chimney.
The air temperature leaving the air
heaters is at 294°C.
13. Electrostatic Each boiler has three precipitators
which contain high voltage electrodes,
Precipitator these attract the dust or pulverised fuel
ash (PFA) from the flue gases. At
regular intervals the electrodes are
rapped with motor-driven hammers and
the PFA falls into hoppers below. In a
year we would expect to produce 1.4
million tonnes of PFA.

14. Induced Draught Two induced draught fans draw gases

out of the boiler. The gas has already
Fan passed through the air
heaters and precipitators before it has
reached these fans.
15. Main Chimney The main chimney is 259 metres high
and 44,000 tonnes of reinforced
concrete were used to make it. It
consists of three elliptical flues each of
which serves two boilers. The flues are
re-shaped to a circular section of 9.1
metres at the point where they emerge
from the top of the chimney to extend
another 9.1 metres

16. Superheater The steam produced in the boiler goes

to the steam drum and is then piped
through the primary, platen and final
superheaters where it reaches the
outlet temperature of 568°C and 166
bar pressure.

17. High Pressure High pressure steam at 565°C and 156

bar pressure passes through the high
Turbine pressure turbine. The exhaust steam
from this section is returned to
the boiler for reheating before being
used in the next section of the turbine
set.

18. Boiler Reheater After expanding through the high

pressure turbine the exhaust steam is
returned to the boiler at 360°C and 42
bar pressure for reheating before being
used in the intermediate pressure
turbine.
19. Intermediate On leaving the boiler reheater, steam
enters the intermediate pressure
Pressure Turbine turbine at 565°C and 40.2 bar
pressure. From here the steam goes
straight to the next section of the
turbine set.

20. Low Pressure From the intermediate pressure

turbines, the steam continues its
Turbine expansion in the three low pressure
turbines. The steam entering the
turbines is at 306°C and 6.32bar. To
get the most work out of the steam, the
exhaust pressure is kept very low, just
50 millibar above a complete vacuum.
21. Rotor The shaft that runs through the turbines
is coupled to the rotor, which is a large
electromagnet inside a cylinder of
copper windings called the stator.

22. Stator As the electromagnet rotates inside the

copper windings, a magnetic field is
created which induces a three phase
alternating electric current (AC) in the
stator windings. Together the rotor and
stator are known as the generator. The
stator weighs 305 tonnes

23. Generator From the generator the electricity then

goes to a transformer where the
Transformer voltage is increased to 400,000 volts
before sending it via cables to the
National Grid sub-station for
distribution around the country.

24. Condenser With its useful energy spent in

the turbines the steam then passes to
two pannier mounted condensers
where it is condensed back into water
and pumped back to the boiler via a
series of low pressure and high
pressure feed heaters.

25. Condensate The condensate water is drawn from

the condenser by the extraction pump
Extraction Pump and sent to the low pressure feed
heaters.
26. Low Pressure Feed Feedwater from the condensate
extraction pumps passes through five
Heaters low pressure feed heaters. Steam is
used to heat the feedwater. After the
fifth feedheater, the feedwater is at
around 160°C.

27. Deaerator From the low pressure feed heaters the

water passes through the deaerator
before going to the high pressure feed
heaters.

28. Boiler Feed Pump The boiler feed pump pumps water into
the boiler, overcoming
theboiler pressure of 160 bar to
achieve it. The pump is driven by a
steam turbine and runs at 7,500
revolutions per minute

29. High Pressure Feed With a similar purpose to the low

pressure feed heaters, the high
Heaters pressure feed heaters are the last
stage of feedwater heating before the
feedwater enters the boiler system at
the economiser. Feedwater leaving
these heaters is at 252°C.

30. Economiser Flue gases leaving the superheater

and reheater still contain useful energy.
Water from the high pressure feed
heaters is heated in the economiser
from 252°C to 292°C before it
continues to the steam drum. Having
given up its last heat in the boiler, the
flue gases move on to the air heater.

31. Steam Drum After leaving the economiser, the

feedwater reaches the steam drum,
which is a cylindrical vessel at the top
of the boiler. From here the water flows
by natural circulation through
downpipes into theboiler. Saturated
steam collects here ready to go to the
superheater.
32. Cooling Tower The warm river water is taken from the
condenser tubes to about a quarter of
the way up the 114 metre high cooling
tower where it is dropped through
honeycombed plastic packing. This
breaks the water up into a very fine
spray, increasing the surface area of
the water droplets making it easier to
cool.
The cooling tower is designed as a
natural draught chimney, drawing cold
air from outside through the falling
water. The now cool river water is
collected in the 95 metre diameter
pond at the bottom of the cooling tower
and from here it is either pumped back
to the condensers or periodically is
purged back to the river.

33. Circulating Water The circulating water pumps are used

to circulate the water from the cooling
Pumps tower to the condenser and back again.

34. Circulating Water These pumps are used to supply water

from the River Ouse. Before going to
Make-Up Pumps the cooling tower the silt is removed in
large sedimentation tanks.

35. FGD Absorber After passing through the electrostatic

precipitators, the boiler flue gas is
Tower increased in pressure and then cooled
from between 115°C-130°C to 80°C. It
enters the lowest part of the absorber
and is further cooled by water used to
wash the inlet duct to prevent a build
up of solids.
The main SO2 absorption process, and
the washing out of any remaining
pulverised fuel ash, occurs as the gas
is ‘scrubbed’ by the recirculating
limestone slurry. This is taken from the
bottom of the absorber and is sprayed
downwards from nozzles arranged at
five separate levels in the absorber
tower. As a result of the process
chemistry, the recirculating slurry
becomes predominantly gypsum and a
portion is continuously pumped away
for gypsum separation and the removal
of water using a hydrocyclone system.
A waste water treatment plant ensures
any water from the FGD process
returned to the river meets quality
standards set by the regulatory
authority.