This project was the final assignment for my Thermodynamics (ENES 232) course, which encompassed the material we had learned throughout the semester. We were tasked with creating our own power plant by selecting the fluid, the individual components (boilers, turbines, pumps, water heaters, valves, and condensers), any performance enhancing measures, and the overall design of the plant. There were enforced system restrictions, including the maximum temperature, pressure, and quality of the fluid at any given stage in the process. Based on the provided cost of each component we incorporated into the power plant, the hypothetical carbon tax, the assumed maintenance fees, and the operating profits, we had to prove that our power plant did earn money and stayed within a certain spending budget. This project was done in assigned pairs, so I collaborated with my teammate to complete this report. Also, an engineering software called Engineering Equation Solver (EES) was used to carry out the calculations associated with our power plant.

With all aforementioned considerations, we developed a code via EES that allowed us to plug in hypothetical temperatures and pressures at each stage in the power plant and calculate the profit based on these guesses. We toggled with the conditions at each stage of the power plant, based on the material we learned throughout the semester about each component. We eventually reached an iteration of the power plant that fulfilled all the given requirements and made a profit. I then developed a plant diagram and a T-s (Temperature vs. Specific Entropy) graph that visually showed each phase of the power plant and clearly dictated how it operated. This assignment furthered my understanding of thermodynamic systems by asking us to perform cost analysis and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of our design. Throughout the course, we had mainly focused on how boilers, turbines, pumps, water heaters, valves, and condensers operated individually. But by incorporating them into one large plant and analyzing the cost, environmental impacts, lifetime, and efficiency of this system, we were encouraged to see the value in these components. I gained technical writing experience because of this assignment, as my team member and I compiled the information about our power plant into a report. This project also was assigned at the end of the semester, which meant that we could use all of our accumulated knowledge. This also meant that I was at an extremely stressful point in the semester. By attending my professor’s office hours and allotting a portion of time each day to work on the project, I was able to complete my portion in tandem with my partner. It ended up being a useful way to study for our final, as this report blended a lot of the semester topics into one assignment.