STEAM CONDENSER
INTRODUCTION
• The condenser is a heat transfer device in which the exhaust steam of a
turbine or an engine is condensed by means of cooling water at pressure
below the atmospheric pressure.
Why below the atmospheric pressure:
• According to Carnot’s principle, to develop the maximum power, the heat
must be supplied at the maximum possible temperature and pressure and
the heat should be rejected at minimum temperature and pressure.
• The steam from the steam turbine or the steam engine could be exhausted
to atmosphere, in such case the back pressure would be above the
atmospheric pressure.
If the back pressure could be reduced below the atmospheric pressure it
increases the work output per kg of steam.
Advantage of condenser
• It reduces the specific steam consumption therefore it reduces the size of power plant for the given
capacity.
• It improves the thermal efficiency of the plant.
• Since condensate is returned to the boiler , it saves the cost of water to be supplied to the boiler.
• It saves the cost of water softening plant .
ELEMENTS OF CONDENSING PALNT
ELEMENTS OF CONDENSING PALNT
• Condenser: In this, the exhaust steam is condensed by circulating water.
• Condensate extraction pump: It removes the condensate from the condenser and feed it into the hot
well. The feed water from hot well is further pumped to the boiler.
• Air extraction pump: It removes air from the condenser.
• Circulating pump: It is used to supply the feed water either from the river or from the cooling tower
pond to the condenser.
• Cooling tower: In this, the hot water from the condenser is cooled by rejecting heat to air passing
through the condenser.
• The cooled water is collected into a pond built below the cooling tower.
Types of Condensers
1. Jet condenser: In case of jet condenser, the exhaust steam and cooling water comes in direct
contact and as a result steam is condensed.. The temperature of condensate and the coolant is same while
leaving the condenser. It is also called direct contact type or mixing type condenser.
2. Surface condenser: In surface condenser, the cooling water flows through a network of tubes and
the exhaust steam is passed over these tubes. The steam gets condensed due to heat transfer by
conduction and convection. It is also called indirect contact type or non-mixing type condenser.
3. Evaporative condenser: Evaporative condensers use evaporation of water for heat extraction.
• TYPES OF JET CONDENSER
a) Low Level Jet Condenser (i) Parallel flow type (ii) Counter flow type
b) High Level Jet Condenser (i) Parallel flow type (ii) Counter flow type
c) Ejector Condenser
• Parallel flow type: In this type of condenser exhaust steam and cooling water both enters from the top of
the condenser and then flows downward and condensate & water are finally collected at the bottom.
• Counter flow type: In this, the steam and cooling water enter the condenser from opposite direction.
Generally exhaust steam travels in upward direction and meet the cooling water which flows downwards
LOW LEVEL JET CONDENSER (Counter flow)
Low level jet condenser is the one which is placed at low level
such that vacuum inside condenser draws cooling water
into condenser from river/pond/cooling tower.
Difference between atmospheric pressure (at which cooling
water is available) and condenser pressure causes flow of
cooling water from cooling water reservoir to condenser.
Flow of steam and cooling water could be parallel flow or
counter flow type. In counter flow type condenser:
•Exhaust steam is supplied from the bottom side of the
condenser and it flows upwards while the cooling water is
supplied from the top of the condenser.
•The water flows in the downward direction through series of
perforated trays. The steam gets condensed while it comes in
contact with the falling water.
•The air extraction pump is situated at the top of the condenser
which draws the air any uncondensed vapour.
•The air pump always maintains the required vacuum in the
condenser.
•The mixture of condensate and the coolant is extracted with the
help of condensate extraction pump and it is discharged into hot
well.
•The capacity of air pump required is small since it extracts
cooled air and water vapour.
• Condenser chamber is placed at low elevation and overall
height of the unit is low enough so that the condenser may be
directly placed beneath the steam turbine.
LOW LEVEL JET CONDENSER (Parallel flow)
• The steam enters at the top of the
condenser and the cooling water
just below it from the sides as
shown in fig.
• The baffle plate is provided for
proper mixing of the steam and
cooling water.
• An extraction pump at the bottom
discharges the condensate to the
hot well from where it may be fed
to the boiler if the cooling water
being used is free from
impurities.
HIGH LEVEL JET CONDENSER (Counter flow)
• It is also called Barometric jet condenser
since it is placed above the atmospheric
pressure equivalent to 10.33 meter of water
pressure.
• A long tail pipe more than 10.33m in length
is attached to the bottom of the condenser.
This allows the condensate and the coolant
to be discharged from the condenser under
gravity action , hence condensate extraction
pump is not required for such condensers.
• The working and other details are similar to
low level counter flow jet condenser.
• High level jet condenser may also be of
counter flow type or parallel flow type
depending upon the direction of flow of
steam and cooling water.
EJECTOR CONDENSER
• In this , Cooling water enters from the top of the
condenser at least under a head of 6 meter and
then it passes over a series of convergent nozzles
and finally it leaves through a convergent
divergent nozzle. Discharge of water through the
convergent nozzles causes partial vacuum due to
conversion of potential energy into kinetic
energy
• Exhaust steam enters the condenser through a
non return valve. The non return valve helps in
preventing the rush of water from hot well to the
engine in case the cooling water supply fails.
• The steam mixes with the cooling water and it
gets condensed.
• The advantage of such a condenser is that it does
not need condensate ejector pump since the
cooling water passing through the nozzles gains
momentum which forces out the condensate and
air.
• Ejector condensers are well suited for moderate
vacuum only.
• This system is reliable, simple and cheap.
TYPES OF SURFACE CONDENSER
• In Surface condensers the steam to be condensed and cooling fluid
(water) do not come in contact with one another, instead the heat transfer
occurs between two fluids through surface in between them.
• Generally, cooling water flows through the pipes/tubes and steam
surrounds them.
• These condensers are preferred in the locations where large quantity of
poor quality cooling fluid (impure water) is available and condensate is to
be re circulated.
• Surface condensers can be classified based on number of passes of
condenser i.e. single pass or multi -pass
• Number of times the cooling water crosses any transverse section is called
a pass.
• Surface condensers may be of ‘down flow type’ or ‘central flow type’
depending on the type of flow of condensate and tube arrangement.
DOUBLE PASS SURFACE CONDENSER
• It consists of a cylindrical shell which
is made airtight and it is closed at each
end.
• A water circulating pump is used to
circulate the cooling water into the
condenser. This water enters from one
end and comes out after twice
traversing through the tubes (generally,
brass) containing water and surrounded
by steam to be condensed.
• Steam is admitted from the top and
while it flows down over the tube, the
steam gets condensed. Condensate gets
collected at bottom and is subsequently
sucked by condensate extraction pump.
• For extraction of air the provision is
made for air pump.
DOWN FLOW CONDENSER
• Down flow condenser has steam and air
entering from top and flowing downwards
across the bundle of tubes having cooling water
flowing through them.
• Air is extracted from bottom and before being
handled by air extraction pump it is flown
through air cooler so as to reduce the
temperature of air
• Low temperature of air enhances the air
handling capacity of pump.
• With the flow of steam down and simultaneous
heat exchange the condensate is taken out by
condensate extraction pump.
• This condenser employs two separate pumps
for the extraction of condensate and the air.
• Baffles are provided so that the air is cooled to
the minimum temperature before it is extracted.
• Due to cooling of air, its specific volume
reduces, thereby, it reduces the pump capacity.
Therefore it also reduces the energy
consumption for running the pump.
CENTRAL FLOW CONDENSER
• Central flow condenser has air cooling
section in the centre of condenser.
• Steam enters from top and passes over
the tube banks of similar type as in case
of down flow condenser.
• As air is being sucked from centre so
the flow of steam is radially inwards
towards the centre. During this flow
steam passes over tubes.
• Condensate is extracted from the bottom
of the condenser with the help of
condensate extraction pump.
• In this type of condenser there is better
contact between steam and tubes
because of radial flow of steam in
whole of condenser, thus arrangement is
better as compared to down flow
condenser.
• Air extraction pump is located at the
center of the condenser tubes.
EVAPORATIVE CONDENSER
• Evaporative condensers are generally used where the
availability of water is very poor.
• Water falls from top through the nozzles over the
condenser coil
• The exhaust steam is passed through the series of
gilled tubes (condenser coils).
• Water picks up heat from the steam flowing through
condenser coil and gets warmed up.
• Thin film of cooling water trickles over these tubes
continuously from water nozzles.
• During the condensation of steam, this thin film of
water is evaporated and the remainder water is
collected in the water tank. This water is re circulated
by water circulating pump.
• Water gets evaporated and evaporated vapours are
taken by air leaving condenser. Heat required for
evaporation is extracted from the steam flowing inside
tubes and thus causing its phase transformation.
• Air flow inside condenser is maintained by using
exhaust fan .This flow of air across condenser coil
may be natural or forced to enhance the cooling rate.
• The condensate is extracted with the help of wet air
pump.
• Evaporative condensers are named so because the
technique of evaporation is used for realizing the
cooling.
MERITS AND DEMERITS OF CONDENSERS
• Advantage of jet condenser:
1. Less quantity of cooling water is required to condense the steam.
2. Simple in construction and low in cost.
3. Less space is required.
4. Low maintenance cost.
• Disadvantage of jet condenser:
1. The condensate is a waste.
2. Less suitable for high capacity plants.
3. Large length of pipes required, hence piping cost is high.
4. More power is required to run the air extraction pump.
• Advantage of Surface condenser:
1. No mixing of cooling water and steam, hence the condensate is directly pumped into the boiler.
2. Any kind of feed water can be used.
3. Develops high vacuum, therefore suitable for large capacity power plants.
4. Require less power to run the air extraction and water extraction pump.
5. System is more efficient.
• Disadvantage of Surface condenser:
1. Require large quantity of cooling water.
2. System is complicated, costly and requires high maintenance cost.
3. Require large floor area.
Comparison Between Jet Condenser And Surface Condenser
[Link] Jet Condenser Surface condenser
1 Exhaust Steam and cooling water Exhaust Steam and cooling water does not
comes in direct contact. come in direct contact.
2 Condensation of steam is due to Condensation of steam is due to heat
mixing with coolant. transfer by conduction and convection
3 It is cheap. Requires small floor It is costly. Requires large floor space
space.
4 Does not affect plant efficiency. Less Improves the plant efficiency. More power
power is required for water pumping. is required for water pumping.
5 The condensing plant is simple. The condensing plant is complicated.
Maintenance cost is low. Maintenance cost is high.
6 Condensate is not fit for use as Condensate is fit for reuse as boiler feed
boiler feed water water
7 Vacuum created is up to 600 mm of Vacuum created is up to 730mm of Hg
Hg
AIR LEAKAGE
• Inside the condenser, pressure less than atmospheric pressure is maintained, thereby increasing the chances
of air leakage into condenser. leakage of air is practically always there in the condensers.
• Sources of air in the condenser:
1. Air leakage through the joints.
2. Feed water contains dissolved air which is liberated in the boiler during .Therefore the exhaust steam
carries along with the liberated air into the condenser.
3. Air dissolved with cooling water is carried in case of jet condenser.
• Effects of air leakage in a condenser:
1. Air leakage causes the reduction in work done per kg of steam as it increases the back pressure.
2. The quantity of water required for condensation of steam is increased due to lowering of partial pressure of
steam.
3. Air has poor thermal conductivity. Hence leaked air reduces the rate of heat transfer
4. Leakage of air reduces the condenser efficiency.
5. The presence of air in the condenser increases the corrosion.
• vacuum efficiency of condenser = Actual vacuum in condenser / Theoretical vacuum in condenser
• Condenser efficiency =Actual rise in cooling water temperature / Maximum possible temperature
rise
Here, the maximum possible temperature rise = {(Saturated temperature corresponding to condenser
pressure) – (Cooling water inlet temperature)}