Plenary Lecture

Modern Technology to Improve Steam-Power Plant Efficiency

Professor Ioana Diaconescu
Research Center for Mechanics of Machines and Technological Equipment
“Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati
Romania
E-mail: idiaconescu@ugal.ro

Abstract: Energy is of vital importance in our lives. We rely on it for transport, for heating our homes in winter, for cooling them in summer, for the operation and proper functioning of our factories, farms and offices. Fossil fuels, however, are finite resources, on the one hand, and on the other – the main cause of global warming. Therefore, we can no longer continue to take energy for granted so is time to adopt integrated energy-saving and environment-friendly policy based on clear goals, as well as a program for reducing the use of fossil fuels, for saving energy and for developing alternative energy sources.
Electric energy and the energy-producing techniques and technologies connected with it are the foundation of the economic development of modern society. The technology for producing electric power, as well as the type of the resources used to this end, plays an important role both in economy and in ecology. The economical utilization of the mineral resources of the earth is an exceptionally important task for us, and especially for the generations to come, as these resources are finite. In addition, the pollution of the environment and the threat of increase of the concentration of СО2, SO2 and nitric oxides in the atmosphere calls for the development of new technologies, for new technical and technological solutions in the production of electric power, as well as for new energy-saving and environment friendly technological solutions in our industry and economy.
This paper’s goal is to present a new technology and an installation for converting waste heat into electric power. What distinguishes the proposed installation is the opportunity to increase significantly the efficiency of converting heat into electric power that is to enhance the thermal efficiency of the process by using a heat pump operating in the Rankine cycle mode.

Brief Biography of the Speaker: Ioana Diaconescu received her Master‘s degree in Electrotechnics and Energetic from Polytechnic Institute from Bucharest, in 1987. She has earned her Ph.D in Advanced Engineering Thermodynamics from “Dunarea de Jos” University-Galati, in 1998. She is recognized as mechanical engineering associate professor at the department of Technical Sciences, Machines and Drives from “Dunarea de Jos” University from Galati and she teaches mainly Thermodynamics, Heat and Mass Transfer and Electrical Drives. Since 2001 she is a senior research at the Research Center for Mechanics of Machines and Technological Equipments and she focused her research activities during the last ten years to energy saving and trigeneration, mass and heat transfer (paper drying process), exergy and energy analysis of thermal processes, irreversible processes analysis, renewable energy and energy management. She is author of three books and more than 90 scientific papers published at international conferences and journals. She is Romanian and Bulgarian evaluator for R&D projects and also European evaluator for education’s quality. Also, Ioana Diaconescu is reviewer for WSEAS papers and other prestigious journals.
Ioana Diaconescu was invited two times as visiting professor in City University of Honk-Kong-China, were developed a fruitful collaboration with Mathematical Department regarding PDEs in mass transfer issues (paper drying process).