26

Steam Turbine Vacuum Surface

Condensers

I began my career in 1965, as a process engineer for the American Oil Company in Whiting,
Indiana. I applied myself diligently, but never advanced in my position. Likely, I devoted
too much attention to troubleshooting process problems, and too little to interacting with
management. Thus, in 1980, I resigned and secured a position as Technical Service Man-
ager at the Good Hope Refinery, near New Orleans. I reported directly to the owner:
Mr. Jack Stanley.
A few days after I started work, my phone rang, “This is Jack – K-805 won’t come up to
speed. Fix it!” Click.
K-805 was the main combustion air blower on our 85,000 BSD FCU (fluid catalytic
cracking unit). It was running slow. Thus, the blower’s discharge pressure was too low
to supply air to the catalyst regenerator which resulted in a reduction in FCU feed capacity.
I already knew the cause of the slow air blower speed:
• The steam turbine driver was producing only 80% of its normal horsepower.
• The low horsepower output from the turbine was due to the high turbine exhaust
pressure to the vacuum surface condenser (see Fig. 26.1).
I calculated that to restore turbine horsepower, I would have to improve vacuum in the
surface condenser from its current 90 mm Hg (26.500 Hg) to 50 mm Hg (2800 Hg). But how?
(Note: At sea level, atmospheric pressure equals 0.000 Hg, 14.7 psia, or 760 mm Hg.)

Vacuum Condensers
James Watt did not invent the steam engine, as we were taught in high school. Watt
invented the Barometric Condenser, which increased work extracted from steam by
300%. Watt’s design exhausted steam from a steam engine into a vacuum. Especially if
the motive steam is at a low pressure, like 30 psig, the steam engine exhaust pressure is
really important to maximize the amount of horsepower extracted from each pound
of steam.
At my Sulfuric Acid Regeneration Plant in Texas City that I operated in 1974, the blower
was driven by a steam turbine that exhausted to a barometric condenser. I’ve shown a
sketch of it in Fig. 26.1. It was a trouble-free piece of equipment, unlike other items in that
plant that I still recall with loathing after 43 years.

Understanding Process Equipment for Operators and Engineers. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-816161-6.00026-6 193

© 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
194 UNDERSTANDING PROCESS EQUIPMENT FOR OPERATORS AND ENGINEERS

Vent
Cold to
water atm
spray

Ejector

Exhaust
steam Steam
from
turbine

Warm
water

30 ft Barometric
leg

Sump

FIG. 26.1 Old style barometric condenser.

The exhaust steam flowed into an elevated chamber, where cold water was sprayed to
condense the steam. The warm water and condensed steam were drained by gravity into a
sump. Air leaks were extracted by a steam ejector. The pressure of the surface condenser
was a little higher than the vapor pressure of water at the condenser vapor outlet
temperature.
If the barometric condenser operated at a pressure of 100 mm Hg, and the atmospheric
pressure in Texas City was 760 mm Hg, then the condenser would have to be elevated by:
ð760  100Þ
 340 ¼ 30 ft (26.1)
760
I have assumed that atmospheric pressure at sea level is equivalent to 34 ft of water
(14.7 psia or 29.97 in. of mercury, or 760 mm of Hg). The drain line is called a barometric
leg, hence the name “Barometric Condenser.”

Surface Condenser
Often, older refinery vacuum tower ejector systems are retrofitted to convert their baro-
metric condensers to more modern surface condensers which usually do not work as well.
 Chapter 26 • Steam Turbine Vacuum Surface Condensers 195

The origin of the term “Surface Condenser” arises from the fact that “Barometric
Condensers” do not have any heat exchanger surface area, but surface condensers have
internal heat exchange surface area.
Shell and tube heat exchangers all have internal surface area. So, the real meaning of
the term surface condenser is that it has two outlets as shown in Fig. 26.2:
1. A liquid drain, typically from a boot in the bottom of the shell.
2. A vapor outlet for noncondensables, located on the top of the shell, or on the side of the
shell, but inside an internal baffle used to collect the noncondensable vapors (i.e., an
“Air Baffle”).
Problems with the design, installation, and maintenance of this internal air baffle result in
one of the largest wastes of energy in the history of mankind.
If the motive steam pressure to a condensing steam turbine is very high, perhaps
1500 psig, the vacuum developed in the surface condenser will only improve the amount
of electricity, or horsepower, or work extracted from the steam by a few percent.
If the motive steam pressure to a condensing steam turbine is low, perhaps 100 psig (as
was the case at the Good Hope FCU discussed below) the vacuum developed in the surface

100 psig
steam
To fcu
cat. regen Turbine

Air Exhaust

Air blower
K-805
Air baffle
Surface 90 mm Hg Ejector
condenser

Loose
plug

Air leak 120°F

Steam
90°F

Boot
Steam
condensate
outlet
FIG. 26.2 Effect on condensate back-up in surface condenser slows FCU air blower speed.
196 UNDERSTANDING PROCESS EQUIPMENT FOR OPERATORS AND ENGINEERS

condenser may improve the work extracted from the steam by 30%. For the case of low
pressure motive steam, a reduction in the surface condenser inlet pressure of 2 or 3 in.
of mercury (50 or 75 mm of Hg) (or 0.1–0.2 BARA) is a really big deal.

Correction for Barometric Pressure

A typical plant vacuum pressure gauge IS NOT corrected for atmospheric pressure. When
I was younger, I didn’t realize this and made some serious errors when field troubleshoot-
ing vacuum systems. You should avoid this mistake by using either:
• A mercury manometer
• An electronic digital absolute vacuum manometer
I use a “Meriam—Model #M101-GN0015” that cost $550 (United States) in 2015. Mercury
manometers are no longer permitted outside of the lab in the United States.
When using a plant vacuum pressure gauge, regardless of the type, you’ll have to make
a manual adjustment as follows:
• Step One—The gauge is calibrated for atmospheric pressure (29.97 in. of Hg) at
sea level.
• Step Two—Determine atmospheric pressure for your location either by checking the
weather report or your lab manometer. Atmospheric pressure varies a lot with
elevation and with weather. Colder weather increases atmospheric pressure because
the air is denser.
• Step Three—Correct for your working elevation. For each 100 ft above grade,
atmospheric pressure will be reduced by 0.11 in. of Hg.
• Step Four—To determine full vacuum at your location, take the difference between
29.97 and the ambient pressure at grade. Let’s say ambient pressure in Denver,
Colorado (a city in the United States at a high elevation) is 28 in. of Hg.

29:97  28:00 ¼ 1:9700 Hg

If you have climbed up a ladder with 100 rungs (i.e., 100 ft),
1:97 + 0:11 ¼ 2:08

• Step Five—Subtract the 2.08 from 29.97:

29:97  2:08 ¼ 27:89 in:of Hg

That will be the reading for full vacuum on your pressure gauge.
• Step Six—If you wish to convert your reading (“x”) to mm of Hg (absolute), as I always do:
ð27:89  xÞ  ð25:4Þ ¼ mm of Hg ðabsoluteÞ
There are 25:4mm per in:
 Chapter 26 • Steam Turbine Vacuum Surface Condensers 197

Once I forgot to make this correction while working at a refinery in Canada at a high
elevation. I reported to my client that vacuum in their surface condenser was really bad.
Based on my analysis, they made a lot of costly changes, to no avail. The vacuum had been
really okay all along.

Vacuum Limits Due to Vapor Pressure of Water

The best vacuum that can be developed in a surface condenser is limited by the vapor pres-
sure of water at the condenser VAPOR outlet temperature. Likely half the vacuum systems in
the world are limited by this one simple and easily observed parameter. In Table 26.1, I have
tabulated the vapor pressure of water at typical condenser vapor outlet temperatures.
In stating this limitation, I am assuming that some free water is draining from the liquid
outlet nozzle. I’ll illustrate this common problem. Let’s assume I have a condenser with a
vapor outlet of 100°F. The vapor outlet composition is 200 pounds an hour of steam and
the liquid outlet is 800 pounds an hour of water. According to Table 26.1, the condenser is
operating at a vacuum of 49 mm Hg.
Now, I turn on a second jet in parallel with the first jet. Ejector capacity is doubled. So,
the jets are pulling twice as much vapor flow from the condenser. The vapor flow has dou-
bled to 400 pounds per hour. The liquid outlet flow has dropped to 600 pounds per hour.
But, the vacuum is still the same 49 mm Hg, assuming that the vapor outlet is still 100°F.
The only way to improve the surface condenser vacuum, when limited by the surface
condenser vapor outlet temperature, is to lower this vapor outlet temperature, by improv-
ing heat transfer efficiency in the surface condenser.

FCU Air Blower Horsepower

Now, refer to Fig. 26.2. Note that the pressure in the surface condenser vapor outlet (120°F)
corresponds to the vapor pressure of water (90 mm Hg) at this vapor outlet temperature.
This observation gave me a sense of confidence in my technical analysis.
I expected that the vapor outlet temperature should be the same or a bit lower than the
water boot temperature. Lower because the vapor passes over several extra cooling tubes
underneath the air baffle, as shown in Fig. 26.2. Typically, the effect of this air baffle is to

Table 26.1
Vapor Pressure of Water, mm Hg

80°F 26
90°F 36
100°F 49
110°F 66
120°F 88
130°F 125
212°F 760