2 replies to this topic

[ixora7]

Hi all,

I had a general question and so decided to post it on this forum. The question is, is there such a situation where a heater which is using steam as its heating medium will produce subcooled liquid at the condensate outlet?

I cant seem to decide if its plausible or not. On one hand It seems impossible as I can seem to picture a scenario where you can be in control of the state of your condensate. On the other hand, I think its probably not that difficult to obtain subcooled liquid as your condensate.

Thoughts?

[Art Montemayor]

Ioxora7:

It isn't very difficult to produce sub-cooled steam condensate in a heat exchanger - producing solid condensate is a strong possibility in vaporizers that are badly designed or not operated correctly. For example, vaporizing liquid CO₂ at 250 psig and -8 ^oF is a common, everyday occurance in thousands of gas bottling plants. Many of these vaporizers are designed to employ available, cheap low pressure steam. If not applied or employed correctly, these vaporizers can literally "freeze" up because the condensate has not been drained fast enough or correctly. And when these vaporizers do work well, the condensate is often sub-cooled.

There are many other industrial examples, but the above should confirm what you suspect.

[ixora7]

Art,

Thanks for the answer.