CONDENSER

By: Ragragio, Millaine Joy E.

What is Condenser
• Is a device or unit used to condense a substance from its gaseous to
its liquid state, by cooling it.
• Used in air conditioning, industrial chemical processes such as
distillation, steam power plants and other heat-exchange systems.
• Use of cooling water or surrounding air as the coolant is common in
many condensers.
• can be made according to numerous designs, and come in many sizes
ranging from rather small (hand-held) to very large (industrial-scale
units used in plant processes).
Surface Condenser

• is a commonly used term for a water-cooled shell and tube heat

exchanger installed on the exhaust steam from a steam turbine in
thermal power stations. These condensers are heat exchangers which
convert steam from its gaseous to its liquid state at a pressure below
atmospheric pressure.
Parts
• Shell
The shell is the condenser's outermost body and contains the heat
exchanger tubes. The shell is fabricated from carbon steel plates and is
stiffened as needed to provide rigidity for the shell. When required by
the selected design, intermediate plates are installed to serve as baffle
plates that provide the desired flow path of the condensing steam. The
plates also provide support that help prevent sagging of long tube
lengths.
Vacuum system
• For water-cooled surface condensers, the shell's internal vacuum is most
commonly supplied by and maintained by an external steam jet ejector
system.
Tube sheets
• At each end of the shell, a sheet of sufficient thickness usually made of
stainless steel is provided, with holes for the tubes to be inserted and rolled.
Tubes
• Generally the tubes are made of stainless steel, copper alloys such as brass
or bronze, cupro nickel, or titanium depending on several selection criteria.
Waterboxes
• The tube sheet at each end with tube ends rolled, for each end of the
condenser is closed by a fabricated box cover known as a waterbox,
with flanged connection to the tube sheet or condenser shell. The
waterbox is usually provided with man holes on hinged covers to
allow inspection and cleaning.
• The steam can be condensed in surface steam condenser in two ways. Firstly,
cooling water is passed through a series of tubes and steam passes over the tubes.
• Secondly, the steam is passed through a series of tubes and water is allowed to
flow in the form of thin film outside the tubes.
• A surface condenser mainly consists of a cast iron shell. The shell is cylindrical in
shape and closed at both end to form a water box. A tube plate is located between
each cover head and the shell. A number of water tubes are fixed to the tube
plates. The shell is provided with exhaust steam inlet at the top and condensed
steam outlet at the bottom. The hot exhaust steam enters through the top inlet of
the surface condenser shell cooling water enters into the inlet water box and then
flows through the water tubes runs from one end to other end of the condenser
shell as shown.