ENERGY SAVING SOLUTION: CONDENSATE REVOCERY TO BOILER

ENERGY SAVING SOLUTION: CONDENSATE RECOVERY TO BOILER

1. WHAT IS CONDENSATE?

The steam from boiler will provide the heat required by the processes or be used to generate electricity in power plants. After the heat transfer in the heat exchanger, the condensed steam will change into a form called CONDENSATE.

One of important energy efficiency solution in production is condensate recovery to boiler because recovered condensate will help reduce the feed-water to boiler as well as saving fuel and chemical consumption, and reducing waste water to the drain water system.

Boiler principle diagram

2. BENEFITS OF CONDENSATE RECOVERY

Condensate is naturally clean, so it will help reduce the boiler blow down as well as reduce waste energy by the blow down. A significant fuel could be save because the condensate is so hot (55°C – 107°C), so the energy consumption for the transfer of this condensate to steam is less than the one to heat feed water at normal temperature (20°C – 25°C) to steam.

• Reduce feed water, save water cost
• Reduce water treatment cost (feed water and waste water included)
• Reduce blowdown heat lost as the condensate is hot so it need less energy consumption to transfer condensate to steam

The condensate can be directly transferred to boiler or mixed together with the feed water of boiler. However, directly bringing condensate to boiler sometimes has risk of contamination. In case the distance between the boiler and the end-user of steam is so far, recovering condensate isn’t really economic efficiency. 

3. HOW TO RECOVER CONDENSATE TO REDUCE OPERATING COST?

Reduce operating costs on maximum by recovering the condensate to boiler by the following measures:

• If there is not the condensate recovering system yet, it’s recommended to estimate the cost for system and do installation in case of its economic efficiency. 
• Fix the steam distribution and condensate recovering system in case of leaks.
• Insulating for condensate recovery system for preventing heat loss and potential risk.

Hope this topic on “CONDENSATE RECOVERY” will be useful and essential for your reference in case of needed. If there is any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact ENERTEAM for more direct support and consultancy.