A feedwater heater is a power plant component used to pre-heat water delivered t

o a steam generating boiler.[1][2][3] Preheating the feedwater reduces the irrev

ersibilities involved in steam generation and therefore improves the thermodynam
ic efficiency of the system.[4] This reduces plant operating costs and also help
s to avoid thermal shock to the boiler metal when the feedwater is introduced ba
ck into the steam cycle. Many of the locomotive systems are ACFI type.
In a steam power plant (usually modeled as a modified Rankine cycle), feedwater
heaters allow the feedwater to be brought up to the saturation temperature very
gradually. This minimizes the inevitable irreversibilities associated with heat
transfer to the working fluid (water). See the article on the Second Law of Ther
modynamics for a further discussion of such irreversibilities.
Contents

Cycle discussion and explanation

It should be noted that the energy used to heat the feedwater is usually derived
from steam extracted between the stages of the steam turbine. Therefore, the st
eam that would be used to perform expansion work in the turbine (and therefore g
enerate power) is not utilized for that purpose. The percentage of the total cyc
le steam mass flow used for the feedwater heater is termed the extraction fracti
on[4] and must be carefully optimized for maximum power plant thermal efficiency
since increasing this fraction causes a decrease in turbine power output.
Feedwater heaters can also be open and closed heat exchangers. An open feedwater
heater is merely a direct-contact heat exchanger in which extracted steam is al
lowed to mix with the feedwater. This kind of heater will normally require a fee
d pump at both the feed inlet and outlet since the pressure in the heater is bet
ween the boiler pressure and the condenser pressure. A deaerator is a special ca
se of the open feedwater heater which is specifically designed to remove non-con
densable gases from the feedwater.
Closed feedwater heaters are typically shell and tube heat exchangers where the
feedwater passes throughout the tubes and is heated by turbine extraction steam.
These do not require separate pumps before and after the heater to boost the fe
edwater to the pressure of the extracted steam as with an open heater. However,
the extracted steam (which is most likely almost fully condensed after heating t
he feedwater) must then be throttled to the condenser pressure, an isenthalpic p
rocess that results in some entropy gain with a slight penalty on overall cycle
efficiency.
Many power plants incorporate a number of feedwater heaters and may use both ope
n and closed components.
Feedwater heaters are used in both fossil- and nuclear-fueled power plants. Smal
ler versions have also been installed on steam locomotives, portable engines and
stationary engines. An economiser serves a similar purpose to a feedwater heate
r, but is technically different. Instead of using actual cycle steam for heating
, it uses the lowest-temperature flue gas from the furnace (and therefore does n
ot apply to nuclear plants) to heat the water before it enters the boiler proper
. This allows for the heat transfer between the furnace and the feedwater to occ
ur across a smaller average temperature gradient (for the steam generator as a w
hole). System efficiency is therefore further increased when viewed with respect
to actual energy content of the fuel.