2000 Hook-up Book - Spirax Sarco

The importance of effective condensate
removal from steam
spaces has been stressed
throughout this course. If maximum
steam system efficiency is
to be achieved, the best type of
steam trap must be fitted in the
most suitable position for the
application in question, the flash
steam should be utilized, and the
maximum amount of condensate
should be recovered.
There are a number of reasons
why condensate should not
be allowed to discharge to drain.
The most important consideration
is the valuable heat which it contains
even after flash steam has
been recovered. It is possible to
use condensate as hot process
water but the best arrangement is
to return it to the boiler house,
where it can be re-used as boiler
feed water without further treatment,
saving preheating fuel, raw
water and the chemicals needed
for boiler feed treatment. These
savings will be even greater in
cases where effluent charges
have to be paid for the discharge
of valuable hot condensate down
the drain.
Condensate recovery savings
can add up to 20 to 25% of
the plant’s steam generating
costs. One justifiable reason for
not returning condensate is the
risk of contamination. Perforated
coils in process vessels and heat
exchangers do exist and the
cross contamination of condensate
and process fluids is always
a danger. If there is any possibility
that the condensate is
contaminated, it must not be
returned to the boiler. These
problems have been lessened by
the application of sensing systems
monitoring the quality of
condensate in different holding
areas of a plant to determine condensate
quality and providing a
means to re-route the condensate
if contaminated.
Condensate Line Sizing
Condensate recovery systems
divide naturally into three sections,
each section requiring
different design considerations.
a. Drain Lines to the traps carry
pressurized high temperature
hot water that moves by gravity.
b. Trap discharge lines that
carry a two-phase mixture of
flash steam and condensate.
c. Pumped return systems utilizing
electric or non-electric
pumps.
Drain Lines To Traps
In the first section, the condensate
has to flow from the
condensing surface to the steam
trap. In most cases this means
that gravity is relied on to induce
flow, since the heat exchanger
steam space and the traps are at
the same pressure. The lines
between the drainage points and
the traps can be laid with a slight
fall, say 1” in 10 feet, and Table 13
shows the water carrying capacities
of the pipes with such a
gradient. It is important to allow
for the passage of incondensibles
to the trap, and for the extra water
to be carried at cold starts. In
most cases, it is sufficient to size
these pipes on twice the full running
load.
Trap Discharge Lines
At the outlet of steam traps, the
condensate return lines must
carry condensate, non-condensible
gases and flash steam
released from the condensate.
Where possible, these lines
should drain by gravity to the condensate
receiver, whether this be
a flash recovery vessel or the
vented receiver of a pump. When
sizing return lines, two important
practical points must be considered.
Condensate Recovery Systems
Table 13: Condensate, lb/h
Steel Approximate Frictional Resistance
Pipe in inches Wg per 100 ft of Travel
Size 1 5 7 10
1/2" 100 240 290 350
3/4" 230 560 680 820
1" 440 1070 1200 1550
1 1 /4" 950 2300 2700 3300
1 1 /2" 1400 3500 4200 5000
2" 2800 6800 8100 9900
2 1 /2" 5700 13800 16500 20000
3" 9000 21500 25800 31000
4" 18600 44000 52000 63400
First, one pound of steam
has a specific volume of 26.8
cubic feet at atmospheric pressure.
It also contains 970 BTU’s
of latent heat energy. This means
that if a trap discharges 100
pounds per hour of condensate
from 100 psig to atmosphere, the
weight of flash steam released
will be 13.3 pounds per hour, having
a total volume of 356.4 cubic
feet. It will also have 12,901
BTU’s of latent heat energy. This
will appear to be a very large
quantity of steam and may well
lead to the erroneous conclusion
that the trap is passing live steam
(failed open).
Another factor to be considered
is that we have just released
13.3 pounds of water to the
atmosphere that should have
gone back to the boiler house for
recycling as boiler feed water.
Since we just wasted it, we now
have to supply 13.3 pounds of
fresh city water that has been
softened, chemically treated and
preheated to the feedwater system’s
temperature before putting
this new water back into the boiler.
Secondly, the actual formation
of flash steam takes place
within and downstream of the
steam trap orifice where pressure
drop occurs. From this point
onward, the condensate return
system must be capable of carrying
this flash steam, as well as
condensate. Unfortunately, in the
past, condensate return lines
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SYSTEM DESIGN