This book examines power plants, from input of energy to output of rotating-shaft mechanical power, and it follows the well-established tradition of covering the mechanical engineer's area of responsibility in power plant design. Its contents are arranged to match the requirements of various universities in the USA, Europe, the Middle East, the Far East and Africa and it has been written for courses in power plant engineering for both junior and senior students. However, it should also be useful for practicing power plant engineers and plant operators. It assumes that the reader has a background knowledge of basic engineering thermodynamics, heat transfer, mathematics and mechanics.