15 psig steam boiler blowdown heat recovery-good idea??

[BronYrAur]

I have a 125 psig steam system that has a flash recovery vessel on the blowdown. The flash steam is sent to the deaerator.

During the summer months, the 125 psig system will be shut down and a 15 psig system will become active. Is it worth while to try to recover flash steam from 15 psig boiler blowdown? The deaerator runs at 5 psig, so it would probably work from a pressure standpoint. But, is it practical? It would be just as easy to dump the blowdown into the existing "hot well" where the high pressure blowdown goes after leaving the recovery vessel.

 

[pmover]

steam losses or unrecovered steam directly relates to make-up water, per-heating, heating, removal of gases, etc. Any opportunity to recover steam can be economical beneficial, unless the steam contains contaminants not suitable for recovery.

good luck!
-pmover

 

[Joesteam]

The flash steam you will get reducing from 15 psig to 5 psig is minimal, about 2.4% of the liquid at 15 will turn back into steam at 5%. However, if the vessel and system are already there, why not use them even for this small amount??

There are many more BTU's available in the hot water portion of the blowdown if this is recoverable

 

[stanlsimon]

It depends on how much and how often you are blowing down, if you have a continuous surface blowdown or some other feature that goes on for a long period of time them you will pick up more btu's.