Steam Flows

Steam plays a very important role in our lives today. It is used in the production of paper, in food preparation, for cooling and heating buildings, and as a source of power for ships. Perhaps its most important use is a source of power in electricity production. Steam power plants obtain heat from a variety of sources, including fossil fuels such... as coal, oil, or natural gas. Some plants get their power from nuclear fuels. Others get fuel from waste fuels, municipal sold waste, solar energy, and other sources. With each of these power sources, heat energy is released. With fossil fuels, this is done through combustion, while nuclear plants use fission. Heat is typically transferred to water in these plants. The heated water generates steam. To learn more about multi-tech, go to: Steam in a power plant is generated in a system called a boiler. The steam flows to a turbine, where drives a generator for the purpose of producing electricity. After it passes through the turbine, the steam flows to a condenser. Here the steam is converted back to water so it can be reused as boiler feedwater. Steam is often classified into three types. These types of steam reflect the different temperature and pressure conditions that steam exists under: Wet steam is a fluid that contains both steam and condensed hot water. The term quality is used to refer to the percent of flow that is steam and water by weight. For example, 85% quality refers to a fluid that is 85% steam and 15% water. Wet steam is also called quality steam, and it is the most difficult type of steam to measure. Saturated steam does not contain any water, and exists at one pressure and corresponding temperature. Saturated steam is saturated with heat. Adding heat to saturated steam raises the temperature above the boiling point, and removing heat from saturated steam causes water to form Superheated steam exists when the temperature of the steam has been raised above the boiling point. The temperature above the boiling point is called degrees of superheat. ...Read More