Flash Steam: Are You Venting (Flash) Steam to Atmosphere?

Get this article to review why flash occurs, how to calculate its cost, and proven ways to address it.

For any given saturated steam or condensate pressure, there can be only the specific values listed in the steam tables for temperature, sensible heat, latent heat, and specific volume.

Condensate at a given pressure, discharged into an area of lower pressure, automatically adjusts the condensate temperature to the saturated conditions and other values at the lower pressure.

This phenomenon is called “flashing” and the resultant steam is called “flash steam”. A specific amount of heat energy is released for each lower pressure condition and the heat energy that is release causes an effect that is called “flash steam”, which is a percentage of condensate being re-evaporated into flash steam at the lower pressure.

Review: High pressure condensate (higher energy content) discharging through a steam trap, control valve, or other device to a lower pressure area (condensate return line, flash tank, or other system), the condensate liquid temperature must be at the saturated conditions of the lower pressure. To reduce the temperature of the condensate at the lower pressure, a percentage of the condensate is flashed into the steam...

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