GB1533482A - Method and apparatus for steam/water separation - Google Patents

Abstract

1533482 Steam separator CLARKE CHAPMAN Ltd 6 Jan 1977 [20 Feb 1976] 06734/76 Headings BIT and B2P A steam/water separator comprises at least one centrifugal separator to effect a first separation and a scrubber assembly to effect a second separation; steam leaving the centrifugal separator being passed around an imperforate baffle before reaching the scrubber assembly and steam leaving the scrubber being passed through a perforate baffle, the two baffles being designed to produce a uniform velocity distribution of steam entering the scrubber assembly. Figures 1 and 2 show a vessel 10 having a pair of steam-water mixture inlets 22 leading via an annular plenum 24 and vertical channels 30 to a plurality of pairs of centrifugal separators 20 arranged in parallel. In each separator, the mixture is arranged to flow in a downward spiral path, water being collected for removal at the vessel base and steam escaping through central opening 36. Separation flow is in opposite directions in each separator of a pair. Separated steam then flows around imperforate baffle 18 to scrubber 14. This may comprise a polygonal, e.g. hexagonal, array of scrubber units, each comprising arrays of superimposed corrugated plates defining tortuous separating paths. Hollow tubes at the apices of the polygon remove separated water. Suitably, each face of the polygon comprises a plurality of vertically spaced units, each slightly inclined to the vertical so that their lower ends are inward in the flow direction of their upper ends. A water droplet agglomerator 16, e.g. knitted wire mesh, may be arranged upstream of the scrubber. The steam leaves the scrubber via perforate baffle 12. The vessel 10 may be a start-up vessel for a steam power generator boiler and may have appropriate heating, feed water &c. connections.