Integration of Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) Power Generating Technology with Thermal Power Plants for Efficiency Improvement

The electricity necessities of the world are increasing at alarming rate and the power demand has been running ahead of supply. It is also now widely recognized that the fossil fuels and other conventional resources, presently being used for generation of electrical energy, may not be either sufficient or suitable to keep pace with ever increasing demand of the electrical energy of the world. The recent severe energy crisis has forced the world to develop new and alternative methods of power generation. Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is a highly efficient and unique method for power generation, which is based on plasma physics and its working principle is based on Faraday's Law of electromagnetic induction. The electricity is directly extracted from thermal energy of plasma (ionized gas) which is passing through the strong magnetic field. The flow of conducting plasma (ionized gas) through a magnetic field at high velocity causes a voltage to be generated across the electrodes which are placed at suitable position in the stream of ionized gas and thus the electrical energy is generated directly through thermal energy. In this paper the processes and technology involved in MHD power generation with different type of MHD generators, their functions and by utilizing it for increasing the efficiency of existing conventional thermal power plants are discussed.