In this article, I will share various ways in which the air may enter the steam condensers and its effects.
The air in the condenser affects the vacuum in it thus affecting the pressure at which the steam is released with.
The air is not needed in the condenser and it has to be continuously removed to create the vacuum needed.
The main function of the condenser is to maintain the low pressure of the exhausted steam; that will only happen if there is a partial vacuum in the condenser.
You can’t completely prevent air to enter the condenser and that is why measures to remove the air are employed.
Soon in this article, you will know why air is not needed in the condenser.
The measures that are usually employed to ensure that the condenser is air free is by using an air extraction pump.
This pump continuously removes the air from the condenser to ensure the vacuum exists.
If you want to learn more about steam condensers you should read the article below.
You might like this: steam condensers.
Without wasting time, let me share what you need to know about how the air may enter the condenser.
This is how air may enter the steam condenser;
1. The air may enter the steam condenser via pipe leakages and joints.
The steam condenser has a piping system that is used to take in the steam and cools it.
Also, there are pipes at the outlet that allows the hot water from the condenser to go out of the condenser.
Any leakages on these pipes will result in air entering the steam condenser.
The vacuum created when air enters the steam condenser through the joints will reduce the pressure inside the steam condenser, making the atmospheric pressure higher thus air will be able to leak inside the steam condenser through the joints and leakages on the piping systems.
This is one of the ways in which air enters steam condensers.
2. The boiler feed water may contain air.
The boiler feed water contains dissolved gasses that need to be eliminated before it’s supplied to the boiler.
You might like this: 4 Reasons Why Boiler Feed Water Needs To Be Heated
The air in the boiler feed water is usually removed by preheating the water using the feed water heaters before it’s conveyed to the boiler.
In some cases where the process of preheating the boiler feed water has not been done, it will allow the boiler feed water to enter the boiler with its air.
The steam generated in the boiler will leave with the air from the boiler thus taking it to the steam condenser.
And this is one of the ways that the steam condenser may contain air inside.
For this to be prevented, the boiler feed water must be deprived of all the air inside by any means possible.
3. In a jet condenser, the air dissolved in water enters the condenser.
In a jet condenser, the exhaust steam and the cooling water come into contact for the cooling process to happen.
The cooling water contains dissolved air that will mix up with the exhaust steam entering the condenser.
And the air will find itself inside the steam condenser.
In this case, it’s hard to completely eliminate the air from the steam condenser because the cooling water can’t be heated.
The cooling water needs to be cool to be able to cool the exhausted steam.
The only thing that will help to maintain the vacuum inside the steam condenser is to have the air extraction pump do the extraction.
Effects of air leakages into the steam condenser;
1. Increases the pressure inside the steam condenser.
The presence of air inside the steam condenser will affect the vacuum inside thus changing the pressure.
The pressure inside the steam condenser will increase to that of atmospheric pressure because of the air leakages into the steam condenser.
Considering the fact that the exhausted steam has to be removed from the steam condenser with a pressure slightly under the atmospheric pressure; it will affect the workflow of the steam condenser.
With an increase in pressure inside the steam condenser, the amount of exhausted steam handled by it will be lower.
The work done per Kg of the steam will be lower because of the increase in pressure inside the steam condenser.
The process of cooling the steam will be slower because the work done per kg of the steam will have been reduced significantly.
2. The cooling efficiency of the steam condenser is reduced.
The main function of the steam condenser is to ensure that the exhausted steam is sufficiently cooled and released with considerable low pressure.
If the air leaks inside the steam condenser the cooling efficiency of the steam condenser will be tempered.
What you have to know is that air offers a great resistance to heat flow; which shows that the exhausted steam will hardly leave its heat behind when passing through the steam condenser.
When the cooling efficiency of the steam condenser is reduced, more quantity of cooling water will be needed than the usual amount to ensure that the cooling of the exhausted steam is achieved.
3. A large amount of water will be used in the condenser.
As I said in the section above when the pressure increases a large quantity of water will be needed for the cooling of the exhausted steam to be achieved.
But that is not the only reason that will make the steam condenser require a large amount of water for cooling to happen.
The pressure increase that will be caused by the air leakages into the condenser will lower the partial pressure and temperature of the steam.
The effect of this is that; the latent heat of the exhausted steam will significantly increase because of the lower pressure.
When it reaches this stage, the normal volume of cooling water that is usually used to cool the exhausted steam effectively won’t be able to do that because the latent heat of the exhausted steam has increased.
A large quantity of water will be needed to cool one kg of steam since the latent heat has increased.
With the increase in cooling water needed, the power plant will have to use more money to increase the water supply thus increasing the operation cost.
And that is what we are trying to avoid.
Lastly…
Now that you know the effects of the air leakages in the steam condenser it’s your responsibility to ensure all measures are taken to prevent these leakages from happening.
The working efficiency of the steam condenser greatly depends on the cleanliness of the heat transfer tube surfaces, how air-sealed it’s and the power of the air extraction pump.
All measures should be put into place to ensure any leakages on the steam condensers are fixed to keep the steam condenser at its best working capacity.
Thanks for reading, if you have any questions about what I have discussed in this article feel free to leave a comment. See you in my next article.
Related articles to check.
