Alternative trends in development of thermal power plants

Thermal (or fossil fuel) power plants (TPP) are the major polluters of man’s environment, discharging into the atmosphere the basic product of carbon fuel combustion, CO2. It is this very gas that accounts for the greenhouse effect causing the global climate warm-up on our planet. A natural solution of the problem of reducing carbon dioxide discharge into the atmosphere lies in power saving, thus reducing the amount of the fuel burnt. This approach can be justified from any standpoint, both economically and ecologically. The ideal way of solving the problem would be to completely give up burning carbon-containing fuel, such as coal, petroleum products, and other power resources of organic nature. This work is intended to outline the ways of reducing consumption of fuel by TPP and, consequently, of reducing their discharging into the atmosphere the gases producing the greenhouse effect. One of the ways lies in changing the thermophysical characteristics of the working medium, which becomes possible if we can modify the conventional working medium, that is water, or can use some working medium with quite different thermophysical properties. The article dwells on various technological ways providing for a practical solution of the problem, such as the Kalina cycle; modification of water properties by way of magneto-hydrodynamic resonance (MHD resonance); and employing, in the thermodynamic cycle of Thermal Power Plants, liquids boiling at temperatures which are lower than that of the environment.