Vacuum Steam Condensers： Air vs. Water Cooling
DURING THE LAST 20 years the use of air as a cooling medium has been increasingly accepted as a logical and economical means of cooling and condensing, not only water but process fluids. One area where air has not been accepted as an economically justified method of providing cooling is the vacuum steam condenser. In Europe, air cooled vacuum steam condensers are quite common. In the United States and various other parts of the world, the air cooled vacuum steam condenser is rare and only recently has it been evaluated as an alternative to a typical water cooled unit. Unfortunately, the evaluation is often based on the typical operating conditions, long established for conventional systems. The sudden rise in fuel costs has overshadowed problems of obtaining sufficient cooling water and initial interest in air cooled condensers has not been pursued. Air cooled vacuum steam condensers are a plausible alternative if our thinking is adjusted slightly to compensate for some of the ideas that have been with us for so many years.
