Steam Steam Latent Outside Air Outer Material Outer Diameter of Insulation Material Outer Material Insulation Thermal

ter Material Insulation Thermal Wind Speed

Pipe Length Wind Speed
Pipe Identification Temperature Heat Temperature Surface Temp Steam Pipe Thickness Thickness Conductivity Coefficient
o
C kJ/kg m o
C o
C mm mm mm m/s kJ/mhoC -
Test 174.5 2038 275 5 25 216.3 50 0.5 2 0.1827 1.7
Wind Speed Convective Thermal
D1 D2 D3 Gs-Ta Heat Dissipation Generated Steam
Coefficient HTC Resistance
o
- mm mm mm C - mhoC/kJ kJ/m.h kg/h
1.7 216.3 316.3 317.3 20 10 0.331270793952 511.6660 69.04

Gs : Surface Temperature of outer Material (degC)

Ta : Outside air Temperature (degC)

Gs - Ta as
20 10
40 10.5
60 11.5
80 12.3
100 13.3

Wind Speed Coeffficient

(m/s)
1 1.5
2 1.7
3 1.85
4 2
5 2.2
 Steam Process Fluid Steam Latent Heat Transfer Insulation Lineal Feet of Pipe Line per
Pipe Length Condensate Load
Pipe Identification Temperature Temperature Heat Factor Efficiency sq ft of surface
o o
F F btu/lb ft Btu/sq ft/oC/hr -
mm lb/hr
Test 100 50 857 200 3.1 0 0.355 101.9
Test 250 50 880 100 2.44 0.75 0.191 72.6
1. BACKGROUND
PT South Pacific Viscose (SPV) / Owner plans to make a new Closing Loops of Utility Streams Facilities. Current situation in some
processing area, water effluent from utility or untreated stream are being discharged into storm drains, which potentially contaminates
the storm water with chemicals and solid matters. By applying closing loops of utility stream systems, the water from utility streams will
be collected and might either be reused by feeding back to Water Treatment Plant or being discharged after the contaminants being
separated.

Among the utility streams that are being discharged into storm drains are steam trap condensates. These steam trap condensates
need to be collected in some pits, and then will be sent to WTM cooling water tank.

The condensate flowrates need to be determined before advancing to the design of the facility for steam traps condensate collection
and transfer. Initially, the flowrates already being calculated using steam trap capacity approach. The aproach is to determine the
flowrate from steam traps capacity based on vendor data. There are several brand of steam traps, the brand which has the highest
capacity will be used as the basis for flowrate determination of every steam traps. Then 10% of the steam traps total capacity is
assumed to be the condensate load of this closing loop system. Below are the tabulation of the calculation based on this approach:

Table 1. Steam Trap Condensate Disharge

Steam Trap Size Steam Trap Capacity Condensate Load Per Steam Trap
(10% of Steam Trap Capacity)
(Inch) (kg/h) (kg/h)
1/2 410 41.0
3/4 680 68.0
1 1250 125.0

In order to validate that this approach can cover the actual formed condensate rate discharged by the steam traps, the different
method of calculations which use heat loss approach need to be conducted. The calculations are presented in the following sections.

2. REFERENCE
- Steam Trap, Yoshitake
- How to Trap: Steam Tracer Lines, Armstrong International
- Calculating Condensate Load for Steam Tracer Lines, Velan Steam Traps

3. STEAM TRACER CONDENSATE FLOWRATE ESTIMATION USING HEAT LOSS APPROACH

This approach estimates the flowrate of the condensate, based on actual heat loss of the steam inside the steam tracer. The formula
for this approach is as follows:

Q=(𝐿⨯𝑈⨯𝑇⨯𝐸)/(𝑆⨯𝐻)
Where:
Q = Condensate Load in lb/hr
L = Length of Product pipe between tracer line traps (ft)
U = Heat Transfer Factor (Btu/sq ft/oF/hr)
ΔT = Temperature differential in oF
E = 1 minus efficiency of the insulation
S = Linear feet of pipe line per sq ft of surface
H = latent heat of steam in btu/lb
The heat transfer factor (U), can be obtained from graph below:

Figure 1. Heat Transfer Factor

The linear pipe length per sq ft of pipe can be obtained from standard dimension of pipe below:

Table 2. Standard Pipe Dimensions for Sch40 Pipe

Condensate flowrate of one point of the steam traps will be calculated using this approach:

a. Heat Transfer Factor (U) Estimation

Pipe Size : 10"
Steam Pressure : 10 bar(g)
: 145.0 psig
Steam Temperature : 184.1 o
C
: 363.4 o
F
Process Fluid Temperature : 40 o
C
: 104.0 o
F
Temperature Difference : 259.4 o
F
Heat Transfer Factor (U) : 2.8 Btu/sq ft/oF/hr
(from the graph)
b. Condensate Load Calculation
Pipelength : 100 m
: 328.1 ft
Heat Transfer Factor : 2.8 Btu/sq ft/oF/hr
Temperature Difference : 259.4 o
F
Insulation Efficiency (Note 1) : 0.75
E factor : 0.25 (One minus insulation efficiency)
Linear Pipe Length per sq ft pipe : 0.381 ft
Latent Heat of the Steam : 477.6 kcal/kg
: 859.1 Btu/lb

Q = 328.1 x 2.8 x 259.4 x 0.3

0.381 x 859.1

= 181.983 lb/hr
= 82.55 kg/hr

The same calculation method is done for other size.

Sample Case - Sample Case - Sample Case -

1 2 3
4" Pipe 6" Pipe 10" Pipe
Pipe Size : 4" 6" 10"
Steam Trap Size : 1/2" 3/4" 1"
Steam Pressure bar(g) : 10 10 10
psig : 145.0 145.0 145.0
Steam Temperature o
C: 184.1 184.1 184.1
o
F: 363.4 363.4 363.4
Process Fluid Temperature o
C: 40 40 40
o
F: 104.0 104.0 104.0
Temperature Difference o
F: 259.4 259.4 259.4
Heat Transfer Factor (U) [Btu/sq ft/oF/hr] : 3 2.85 2.8
(from the graph)

Pipelength m: 100 100 100

ft : 328.1 328.1 328.1
Heat Transfer Factor Btu/sq ft/oF/hr : 3 2.85 2.8
Temperature Difference o
F: 259.4 259.4 259.4
Insulation Efficiency (Note 1) : 0.75 0.75 0.75
E factor : 0.25 0.25 0.25
Linear Pipe Length per sq ft pipe ft : 0.948 0.629 0.381
Latent Heat of the Steam kcal/kg : 477.6 477.6 477.6
Btu/lb : 859.1 859.1 859.1

Condensate Load lb/hr : 78.4 112.2 182.0

kg/hr 35.5 50.9 82.5

Note:
1. Engineering practice for insulation efficiency is 90% for newly installed insulation. But for old insulation, the efficiency may drop to
below 80%.
4. STEAM PIPE CONDENSATE FLOWRATE ESTIMATION USING HEAT LOSS APPROACH
This approach estimates the flowrate of the condensate, based on actual heat loss of the steam inside the steam pipe. The calculation
will utilize the heat loss of the steam to the outside air. The condensate flowrate is obtained by dividing the heat loss with the steam
latent heat.

The heat loss can be estimated by following formula

Q=(𝑇_𝑠−𝑇_𝐴)/𝑅
Where:
Q = Amount of heat loss per 1 m pipe (kJ/m.h)
Ts = Steam temperature (oC)
Ta = Outside air temperature (oC)
R = Thermal resistance (m.h.oC/kJ)

The thermal resistance is calculated by following formula:

R=1/2π(1/𝜆 ln⁡〖𝐷 _2/𝐷_1 +2/(𝐷_3 ℎ) 〗 )

Where:
λ = Thermal conductivity of insulating material (kJ/m.h.oC)
D1 = Outer diameter of steam pipe (mm)
D2 = Outer diameter of insulating material (mm)
D3 = Outer diameter of outer material (mm)
h = Coefficient of convective & radiative heat transfer between outer material and outside air

Coefficient of convective and radiative heat transfer (h) can be obtained from following table:

Tsur - Ta 20 40 60 80 100
h 10 10.5 11.5 12.3 13.3

Tsur = Surface temperature of outer material (oC)

Ta = Outside air temperature (oC)

In case of outdoor aplication with wind, the heat transfer coefficient (h) should be multiplied by following coefficient:

Wind Speed (m/s) 1 2 3 4 5

Coefficient 1.5 1.7 1.85 2 2.2

The calculation for one point of steam trap condensate from steam pipe:
a. Coefficient of Convective and Radiative Heat transfer determination
Steam Temperature : 184.1 o
C (saturated T for 10 bar steam)
Outer material temperature : 35 o
C (assumption)
Outside air temperature : 27.1 o
C (design basis)
Wind speed : 2.75 m/s (design basis)

heat transfer coefficient : 10 (based on table above)

correction factor : 1.85 (based on table above, for 2.75 m/s wind speed)
corrected heat transfer coeff. : 18.5

b. Thermal Resistance Calculation

Outer diameter of steam pipe : 323.8 mm (12")
Insulation thickness : 50 mm
Outer diameter of insulation : 423.8 mm
Outer material thickness : 0.5 mm
Outer diameter of outer material : 424.8 mm
Thermal conductivity of insulation : 0.223 kJ/m.h.oC (rockwool insulation @ steam temperature)

Thermal resistance :
1 1 423.8 2
R = x ( x ln + )
2π 0.223 323.8 424.8 x 18.5

= 0.192 m.h.oC/kJ
c. Heat loss calculation
Thermal resistance : 0.192 m.h.oC/kJ
Steam Temperature : 184.1 o
C
Outside air temperature : 27.1 o
C
Pipelength : 100 m

Heat loss per 1 m pipe :

184.1 - 27.1
Q =
0.192

= 817.19 kJ/m.h

Total Heat Loss :

Q = 817.19 x 100 x 2 (note 1)

= 163437.48 kJ/h

d. Condensate load calculation

Heat Loss : 163437.5 kJ/h
Steam Latent Heat : 1999.7 kJ/kg

Condensate Load : 81.7 kg/h

The same calculation method is done for other size:

Sample Case - Sample Case - Sample Case -
1 2 3
4" Pipe 8" Pipe 12" Pipe
Steam Trap Size : 1/2" 3/4" 1"
Steam Temperature o
C: 184.1 184.1 184.1
Outer material temperature o
C: 35 35 35
Outside air temperature o
C: 27.1 27.1 27.1
Wind speed m/s : 2.75 2.75 2.75

heat transfer coefficient (based on table) : 10 10 10

correction factor (based on table) : 1.85 1.85 1.85
corrected heat transfer coeff. : 18.5 18.5 18.5

Outer diameter of steam pipe mm : 114.3 219.1 323.8

Insulation thickness mm : 50 50 50
Outer diameter of insulation mm : 214.3 319.1 423.8
Outer material thickness mm : 0.5 0.5 0.5
Outer diameter of outer material mm : 215.3 320.1 424.8
Thermal conductivity of insulation kJ/m.h.oC : 0.223 0.223 0.223

Thermal Resistance m.h.oC/kJ : 0.449 0.268 0.192

Pipelength m : 100 100 100

Heat Loss per 1 m pipe kJ/m.h : 349.9 585.0 817.2
Safety Factor (note 1) : 2.0 2.0 2.0
Total Heat Loss kJ/.h : 69983.7 116994.9 163437.5

Steam Latent Heat kJ/kg : 1999.7 1999.7 1999.7

Condensate Load kg/h : 35.0 58.5 81.7

Note:
1. Engineering practice safety factor for steam header condensate calculation is 2 (two).
5. CALCULATION RESULT COMPARISON
Previously, the calculation have been done for one sample point of each steam trap size. The summary of the result is tabulated
below:

Table 3. Comparison of calculated condensate rate from steam trap between heat loss method and initial method
Steam Steam Trap 10% of Steam Trap Steam Tracing Heat Loss Steam Pipe Heat Loss
Trap Capacity (kg/h) Capacity (kg/h) Sample Case Condensate Rate Sample Case Condensate Rate
Size
(Inch) (kg/h) (kg/h) - (kg/h) - (kg/h)
1/2 410 41.0 1 35.5 1 35.0
3/4 680 68.0 2 50.9 2 58.5
1 1250 125.0 3 82.5 3 81.7

6. CONCLUSION
According to the comparison table above, the calculated condensate rate based on heat loss method from both steam pipe and steam
trace are still less than 10% steam trap capacity (initial method). Therefore, it can be concluded that the initial method of 10% steam
trap capacity is feasible to cover the actual formed condensate that will be collected in the close loop system.