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Condenser Experiment

The document discusses the importance and classification of condensers in steam power plants, highlighting their role in steam condensation and heat recovery. It categorizes condensers into direct contact (jet) and indirect contact (surface) types, detailing their operational mechanisms and advantages. Additionally, it describes various configurations of jet condensers and surface condensers, including low level, high level, down flow, and central flow types.

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43 views

Condenser Experiment

The document discusses the importance and classification of condensers in steam power plants, highlighting their role in steam condensation and heat recovery. It categorizes condensers into direct contact (jet) and indirect contact (surface) types, detailing their operational mechanisms and advantages. Additionally, it describes various configurations of jet condensers and surface condensers, including low level, high level, down flow, and central flow types.

Uploaded by

Itz jk
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Experiment no.

-03
Study of Different types of condenser
Condenser is one of the essential components of steam power plants as it facilitates condensation
of steam at given conditions with minimum expenditure of energy and minimum loss of heat and
finally gives condensate which can be re circulated by feed pump to boiler for steam generation.
Condenser generally operates at pressure less than atmospheric pressure. “Condenser can be
defined as device used for condensation of steam at constant pressure; generally pressure is less
than atmospheric pressure”. Condenser is thus a closed vessel which is generally maintained at
vacuum and cold fluid is circulated for picking heat from steam to cause its condensation. Use of
Condenser offers advantages such as hotter feed water for being sent to boiler’, ‘removal of air
and non condensable dissolved gases from feed water’, ‘recovery of condensate reduces treated
water requirement’, ‘expansion up to sub atmospheric conditions and capital cost is reduced by
recycling of feed water’ etc.

UCET VBU, Deptt. of ME prepared by ALOK KUMAR Page 1


CLASSIFICATION OF CONDENSER

Condenser can be broadly classified on the basis of type of heat exchange i.e. direct or indirect
contact condensers.

(i) Direct contact type or mixing type or Jet condenser

(ii) Indirect contact type or Non-mixing type or Surface condenser

(iii) Evaporative condenser Jet condensers have direct contact between steam and cooling fluid
thereby causing contamination of condensate. Surface condensers have indirect heat exchange
through metal interface and the two fluids do not come in direct contact to each other.
Evaporative condensers use evaporation of water for heat extraction and are well suited for dry
weather so that evaporation is not difficult. Due to direct contact of two fluids the circulating
water requirement is much less in jet condenser as compared to other types of condensers. Space
requirement and size of condenser etc. are also less with jet condensers. Surface condenser is
advantageous over direct contact type condensers because any type of cooling fluid can be used
in it and also there is no scope of contamination etc. Different types of condensers are discussed
ahead.

(i) Jet condenser:


In jet condenser the steam to be condensed and cooling water are intimately mixed by breaking
up of water in the form of spray and allowing small sized water particles to fall down through the
body of steam. The water may also be discharged out through suitably shaped nozzles into body
of steam. Thus it is desired to atomize water into small sized particles so that increased surface
area is available for heat exchange between hot and cold fluid. Number of arrangements for flow
of steam and water are available such as; counter flow type having steam entering from bottom
and flowing upwards while water enters from top and falls downwards with air pump connected
on top where air is colder etc. Jet condenser may be further classified based on relative
movement of two fluids, and based on arrangement used for removal of condensate. Based on
relative moment of two fluids jet condenser can be,

(a) Counter flow jet condenser

(b) Parallel flow jet condenser

Based on arrangement for removal of condensate jet condenser can be,

(a) Low level jet condenser (b) High level jet condenser (c) Ejector condenser

UCET VBU, Deptt. of ME prepared by ALOK KUMAR Page 2


(a) Low level jet condenser:
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 i.e. (patm – pcond). Flow
of steam and cooling water could be parallel flow or counter flow type. Counter flow type and
parallel flow type low level jet condensers are shown in above Fig. There is provision for
extraction of air and dissolved gases from top of condenser by using air extraction pump.
Condensate extraction pump is used for taking out condensate from condenser and sending it to
hot well. Cooling water supplied to jet condenser has generally a large percentage of dissolved
air which gets liberated due to atomization of water, vacuum and heating of water and is
extracted out. Low level jet condenser suffers from inherent drawback that in the event of failure
of condensate extraction pump condenser shall be flooded with cooling water.

(b) High level jet condenser:


High level jet condenser is the one which is placed at a height more than that of water and water
is to be injected into condenser using a pump and the condensate will flow out of condenser
because of gravity. Here no condensate extraction pump is required; instead pump is required for
pumping water up to condenser inlet. High level jet condenser is also called as ‘barometric
condenser’. High level jet condenser is placed at suitable height depending upon efficient

UCET VBU, Deptt. of ME prepared by ALOK KUMAR Page 3


drainage and capacity of sump (hot well) into which tail pipe of condenser discharges out.
Mathematically, it could be said that jet condenser placed above hot well by 10.36 m shall be
high level jet condenser or barometric 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. Figure 15.4 shows counter flow high level jet condenser.

(ii) Non mixing type or surface condensers:


Surface condensers are the most common types of condenser and offer great advantage in terms
of no contamination of feed water. In these 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. 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. Typical surface condenser having two passes, down
flow type and central flow type arrangement are shown in Fig. 15.6.

UCET VBU, Deptt. of ME prepared by ALOK KUMAR Page 4


Two pass surface condenser has cooling water entering from one end and coming out after twice
traversing through the tubes (generally, brass) containing water and surrounded by steam to be
condensed. Condensate gets collected at bottom and is subsequently sucked by condensate
extraction pump. Steam is admitted from the top. Cooling water may be picked directly from
river/pond/cooling tower. For extraction of air the provision is made for air pump. Thus, this type
of condenser has three pumps i.e. one for circulating cooling water, second for condensate
extraction and third for air extraction. In surface condenser the space occupied by tubes in shell
is about 10% of shell volume. Steam is not passed through the tubes because at this steam
pressure the specific volume of steam is large requiring large number of tubes.

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 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.

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 collected from bottom. 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 .

UCET VBU, Deptt. of ME prepared by ALOK KUMAR Page 5

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