Condensate Recovery in Power Plant

Condensate is essentially distilled water which is originally taken from steam out from turbine generator. Steam will be condensed into condensate form in condenser. Condensate has ideal quality as boiler water, so condensate recovery is performed to be supplied into steam boiler again. But if the condensate is contaminated then condensate should not be used for further processing.

Condensate is the result of heat exchanger process. Steam should be totally converted into condensate (liquid form). If there is steam contain in condensate, steam should be trapped with equipment which is called steam trap. Pressure and temperature of steam from turbine generator after pass condenser will be reduced by flash steam process. Flash steam is a process to discharge steam into atmosphere. The amount of steam which is discharged into atmosphere is approximately 10% - 15%.

Condensates will losses its mass about 13% if flash steam is performed. The quality of condensate should be maintained so can be used again and distributed to deaerator to get further treatment. The following below is example figure that show circuit of steam and condensate.
Figure 1: Circuit of Steam and Condensate

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