Clean Steam Generator

Product Overview

Steam falls into two categories, which are commonly defined by the source of the feed water used. Plant steam is typically generated by a standard boiler system which uses chemically treated feed water. Clean steam systems use non-chemically treated feed water. The Graham clean steam generator is capable of producing clean steam from clean feed water by using plant steam or high temperature hot water as the energy source.

In many uses, steam is not in contact with the final product or plant personnel. The term non-contact can be used to describe these services. Plant steam, which may contain feed water chemicals, is perfectly acceptable. An example of non-contact would be the steam used to heat the water in a Graham MicroMix^®II instantaneous water heater.

Steam also has many uses where it may come into direct contact with personnel or the product being processed. For example:

Steam used to increase the humidity in an office building
Steam used to sterilize equipment or instruments
Direct heating of products by steam injection

This steam often must be of a higher level of purity than plant steam to minimize the risk of contamination.

Standard plant steam may contain trace amounts of the chemicals which are used to treat the boiler feed water. These chemicals can include:

Sulfites or hydrazine
Anti-scaling compounds
Corrosion control chemicals

Sulfites or hydrazine	Used to remove oxygen from the boiler feed water. Most boiler systems, even those with deaerators, will add sulfites, hydrazine, or other oxygen-scavenging chemicals to remove dissolved oxygen and limit corrosion.
Anti-scaling compounds	These are added to the feed water to prevent the scaling deposits which are formed when hard water is heated.
Corrosion control chemicals	Other chemicals can be added; an example of which would be to control the pH of the water in an effort to reduce corrosion.

Using clean steam will also prevent the loss of valuable boiler treatment chemicals.

Clean steam is produced from water to which no chemicals have been added. Often deionized or distilled feed water is used in these systems. This is the type of clean steam the Graham clean steam generator will produce.

As our awareness of environmental considerations increases, we are seeing more restrictions regarding the use of standard plant steam for direct contact applications. Graham clean steam generators have been developed to address this need.

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