Paul Mueller Company Academy

A sterile and clean environment is required for many commercial applications and industries including healthcare, pharmaceuticals, animal health, biotechnology and cosmetics. When manufacturing the specialized equipment for these industries, clean steam generation systems must be in place to ensure sterilization for equipment such as autoclaves, washer-disinfectors, and pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment. Some breweries that want a completely pure final product also use clean steam generators to sterilize their kegs.

Commercial steam generation is a crucial function for many industries as an effective heating medium. For industrial processes, selecting the appropriate type of steam is dictated by the specific application and regulations for quality and sterilization. In the process of condensing from steam to water for industrial applications, steam gives up its heat of vaporization or latent heat. This is the amount of heat that it takes to transform a liquid into a gas at the same temperature.  At atmospheric pressure and 212°F (100°C), it takes 970 BTU/lbm to transform water into steam.  So, when steam condenses, it gives off that same heat.  If you compare the heat that it takes to raise the temperature of water from its freezing point to its boiling point (sensible heat) to the heat that it takes just to turn it from a liquid to a vapor (latent heat), the latent heat is around five times more than the sensible heat.  So, if you’ve got saturated steam being used as a heating source for your heat exchanger, it’s at the boiling point, ready to give off latent heat.