Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 26 (2021) 100992 Available online 8 April 2021 2214-157X/© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). An investigation of the second law performance for a condenser used in 210 MW thermal power station Fahad S. Al-Mubaddel a, b , Abhijit Dutta c, d, * , Himadri Chattopadhyay d , Abdullah M. Abusorrah e , Mamdouh El Haj Assad f , Mohammad Rahimi-Gorji g , Nidal H. Abu-Hamdeh h , Sayan Surya Bhattacharya i a Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11421, Saudi Arabia b Fellow, King Abdullah City for Renewable and Atomic Energy: Energy Research and Innovation Center (ERIC), Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia c Department of Mechanical Engineering, MCKV Institute of Engineering, Liluah, Howrah, 711204, West Bengal, India d Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, 700032, West Bengal, India e Center of Research Excellence in Renewable Energy and Power Systems, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia f Sustainable and Renewable Energy Engineering Department, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates g Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, 9000, Gent, Belgium h Center of Research Excellence in Renewable Energy and Power Systems, And Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia i Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hooghly Engineering and Technology College, Pipulpati, Hooghly, 712103, West Bengal, India A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Exergetic performance Condenser Fouling resistance Cooling water Load Overall heat transfer coeffcient EDF ABSTRACT This work presents a case study of thermodynamic performance of a condenser used in a 210 MW thermal power station at Mejia in West Bengal, India. The analysis involves an improvement of actual overall heat transfer coeffcient by varying tube materials and fouling resistance. Exergy Destruction Factor (EDF) is introduced to quantify the percentage of exergy loss from the condenser wall. From this study, it is revealed that the second law performance of the condenser increases with the increase in thermal conductivity of the tube materials, decreases with the increase in fouling resistance and decreases with the increase in condenser pressure at the turbine outlet. The actual overall heat transfer coeffcient can be increased up to 6% by selecting better conducting tube materials. While the EDF decreases with the increase in cooling water temper- ature rise and increases with the increase in cooling water inlet temperature, EDF is found to decrease with the increased cooling water mass fow rate. 1. Introduction Condenser is an important element of thermal power plants involving the process of condensation, which is basically conversion of water from vapour phase into liquid phase. From heat transfer point of view, the condenser always handles latent heat (ignoring the sub-cooling) to change the phase of a pure substance. At the outlet of the turbine, the exhaust steam condition is saturated or in two and * Corresponding author. MCKV Institute of Engineering, Liluah, Howrah, 711204, West Bengal, India. E-mail addresses: falmubaddel@ksu.edu.sa (F.S. Al-Mubaddel), abhijit_me2005@yahoo.co.in (A. Dutta), himadri.chattopadhyay@ jadavpuruniversity.in (H. Chattopadhyay), aabusorrah@kau.edu.sa (A.M. Abusorrah), massad@sharjah.ac.ae (M. El Haj Assad), mohammad. rahimigorji@ugent.be, m69.rahimi@yahoo.com (M. Rahimi-Gorji), nabuhamdeh@kau.edu.sa (N.H. Abu-Hamdeh). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Case Studies in Thermal Engineering journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/csite https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csite.2021.100992 Received 2 March 2021; Received in revised form 2 April 2021; Accepted 4 April 2021