Power plants play a critical role in our nation’s infrastructure.  Upgrading and repairing power plants are a part of the trillion dollar infrastructure package expected to be rolled out by the White House any day now.  While some of the money will doubtless go to shuttering plants no longer needed, the issue of upgrading power plants is a tricky and expensive process.  Enter the desuperheater, which can help power plants rise to the challenge!

By design, steam desuperheaters reduce the temperature of superheated steam in order to produce lower operating temperatures.  High operating temperatures and power plants should conjure up some fairly awful images, so the need to operate at lower temperatures is quite obvious!  Auxilliaries, heating systems, heat exchangers and dump stations are typical sites where desuperheaters may be needed.  However, desuperheaters do more than just cool things down.  They also improve heat transfer in surface-type exchangers, maintain balance between process steam and power requirements, reducing pressure systems in refineries and process plants, etc.

The major reason to invest in proper desuperheating is the necessity for predictable condensation as the steam gives up its heat.  Komax’s Equalizer Mixing Module goes beyond conventional desuperheaters by utilizing low pressure water injection nozzles carefully directed upstream, which causes the cone of water to reverse direction and pass downstream through the mixing module.    Six fixed mixing elements then divide and mix while multiple impingement mixing zones develop at the exit.  Because of the process, cooling happens almost instantly.  No extensive downstream pipe lay lengths required, less space, more accurate temperature control, reduction of thermal cycling fatigue, improved safety, less wear and downtime – what’s not to love?