Posted by Tony Conner on July 26, 2001 at 12:45:11:
In Reply to: Re: temp. posted by scott on July 26, 2001 at 12:15:52:
: Although the saturation temperature of 25 psig steam is 267 deg. F, 25 psig steam can have a higher temperature. In fact, it is usually desirable to have superheated steam in most applications to prevent condensation in the lines, which could lead to steam hammering. Apparently, you are only operating with 2 degrees of superheat, in which case I would suspect that your steam is rather "wet". If you did want lower temperature steam, then lowering the pressure is the only option.
I'd have to disagree on superheat being desirable under most circumstances. Unless you're running a steam turbine or engine, you don't really want superheat. Superheated steam causes problems in heat transfer applications because you have to use the sensible heat in the superheat before you can get to where the real action is - the latent heat in saturated steam. If the boiler is funtioning properly (no carryover), and the steam lines are sloped, trapped, and insulated properly, there should be no hammering.