REASONS OF LOW EFFICIENCY IN STEAM PIPE LINES
REASONS OF LOW EFFICIENCY IN STEAM PIPE LINES
1 ) LOW QUALITY STEAM :
The steam in the system should be purified from dry air and be at the pressure required for the process. Wet steam could be from over load in the
tank and poor drainage in pipe lines. If the points of drainage and steam trap are well determined, accumulated condensate included in steam can be
removed easily from the system. On the other hand, It could be beneficial to discharge the air from the ends of pipe lines. Therefore pipe sellection
should be done under the circumstances of max. pressure .
2) NOT PROPERLY CHOSEN STEAM TRAP :
Steam trap should be chosen to in a way to get max. efficiency depending on application conditions. The tables and explanations required to make
a good selection, should be taken into consideration. Otherwise, if these points are not taken into consideration , wrong selection will cause loss of
energy and poor efficiency .
3) WRONG INSTALLATION OF STEAM TRAP TO SYSTEM :
Installation of steam traps should be in the direction of arrow on their body. Otherwise, they will fail lock, and bring many troubles together with . Mostly
, float steam traps are confused with inverse bucket steam traps and they are installed downwards which cause fail- locked of steam trap or
remains open continously and let steam pass directly, therefore it causes loss of steam , in other words loss of energy .
4 ) WATER – HAMMER AND FREEZING :
These kind of all bad conditions affects the operation of steam trap negatively which causes loss of energy. A strainer should be installed especially
before float steam trap. Water hammer causes a lot of harm especially on float steam traps. The freezing is biggest enemy of both float and
thermodynamic steam traps. In these situations , it would be advantageous to use free float steam traps . As thermostatic steam traps operate through
the temperature difference, they don’t freeze and are resistant to water hammer with their robust bodies.
5 ) AIR ACCUMULATION IN PIPE LINES :
Air accumulation in pipe lines is one of main significant reasons of poor efficiency , it also causes water hammer in addition to the cause of poor
efficiency. In order to increase efficiency of the system, it is neccessary to eliminate accumulated air in the system. The best solution for similar
problems is to install an air vent or use a steam strap inbuilt with air vent to remove the accumulated air . In similar problems ,
thermodynamic steam traps could fail locked as they operate by differential pressure. This causes stroke in pipe lines and water hammer .
6 ) BACK PRESSURE :
Inlet pressure of the steam trap always must be higher than outlet pressure. Otherwise it fails locked. Back pressure certainly mustn’t be higher
than max. 80 % of inlet pressure especially for thermodynamic steam traps to operate.