Technological investigations and efficiency analysis of a steam heat exchange condenser: conceptual design of a hybrid steam condenser

Abstract

Most of the electricity being produced throughout the world today is from steam power plants. At the same time, many other competent means of gener-ating electricity have been developed viz. electricity from natural gas, MHD generators, biogas, solar cells, etc. But steam power plants will continue to be competent because of the use of water as the main working fluid which is abundantly available and is also reusable. The condenser remains among one of the key components of a steam power plant. The efficiency of a thermal power plant depends upon the efficiency of the condenser. In this paper, a the-oretical investigation about thermal analysis and design considerations of a steam condenser has been undertaken. A hybrid steam condenser using a higher surface area to diameter ratio of cooling a water tube has been analyzed. The use of a hybrid steam condenser enables higher efficiency of the steam power plant by lowering condenser steam pressure and increasing the vacuum inside the con-denser. The latent/sensible heat of steam is used to preheat the feed water supply to the boiler. A con-ceptual technological design aspect of a super vacu-um hybrid surface steam condenser has been theo-retically analyzed.