Steam turbine condenser

A condenser is a device where the exhaust steam from turbine is condensed; it operates at a
pressure lower than the atmospheric pressure.
There are two main objectives of the steam condensers
1. To reduce the turbine exhaust pressure so as to increase
the specific work output of the turbine so if the
condensate goes to lower temperatures as low as
(say

) that means pressure of the condenser will be

the saturation pressure corresponding to that temperature
, and its known that the enthalpy drop between the
turbine and condenser is the measure of the work output
from the turbine, so lower pressure in the condenser
means larger enthalpy drop .
By lowering the condenser operating pressure the following will occur :
Increase the turbine output
Increase plant efficiency and reduce the steam flow (for a given plant output)
2. To recover high quality feedwater in the form of condensate and feed it right back to the
boiler without any further treatment .
In al-mukha power plant they have 4 condensers of surface type in which sea water at 30

gets
heated by the 40 MW turbines to 35

.
Surface condensers which are shell-and-tube heat exchangers where the steam and cooling water
(sea water) doesnt come in direct contact , and the heat released during the condensation process
is first transferred to the walls of the tubes and to the cooling water.








Air removal:-
Air leaks into the condenser shell through flanges, some air also comes along with steam, which
has leaked into the exhaust end of the turbine along the shaft, this air affects the condenser
performance badly because of the following reasons
It reduces the heat transfer considerably .
It reduces the condenser vacuum and increases the turbine exhaust pressure thus
reducing turbine output.
The amount of air infiltrating into the shell maybe estimated by the term of partial pressures
P
Sh
= P
Air
+ P
St




Assuming that air behaves as an ideal gas at such a low pressure we have :-
P
air
*
s
*
2
=
a
*R
a
*(t
s
+ 273 )
Where :

2
= specific volume of exhaust steam.

s
= rate of air leakage.
R
a
= gas constant of air = 0.287 kj/kg .
So the air leakage can be estimated from those equations thus this amount of air has to be
continuously removed from the condenser.
A steam air ejector, SJAE , is mostly used to remove air from condenser shell from the coldest
part of the condenser to reduce the loss of vapor accompanying it and hence, to reduce the air
ejector load , steam from the boiler is taken as a motive steam for the ejector, the vacuum created
at the nozzle throat due to high velocity of steam draws air from the shell along with some steam
and the combined flow gets compressed while flowing through the diffuser part , the escaping
vapor is condensed in the inter cooler and the remaining air is again drawn by the vacuum
created at the nozzle throat of the second stage. In the after condenser the vapor is condensed and
air now become at a pressure higher than the atmospheric pressure is vented out .

Where :
P
st
=

saturation pressure at the condenser temp
P
sir
=

partial pressure of air

P
SH
=total pressure of the condenser