The Main Energy Efficiency Advantages of Venturi Style Steam Traps

Steam systems account for around 30 percent of the total energy used in industrial applications. These systems play a crucial role in the delivery of energy required for industrial processes such as heating, separation of components, mechanical drives, pressure control, and production of hot water. As the costs of energy are continuing to rise, it has become crucial for industrial plants to find ways through which they can reduce the consumption of energy by their steam systems. It has been estimated that if different industrial sectors can make their steam systems more efficient, it would result in an annual reduction of energy costs by several billion and a reduction in CO2 emissions by several million metric tons. In other words, making your plant energy-efficient can greatly reduce your utility bills and improve your bottom line. Strategies that are used to make your steam system more efficient often help in reducing your operation and maintenance costs, minimizing waste, and enhancing productivity. Most of these improvements require little or no extra investment, are easy to implement, and offer a return of investment in less than a year. One such improvement is upgrading your conventional mechanical steam traps to venturi-type steam traps.

A steam trap is a very important component of a steam system. Its main role is to allow the condensate to flow while preventing the passage of steam. In large steam systems, there can be hundreds or even thousands of steam traps. For an efficient operation of the steam system, each trap must be able to remove any condensate as it builds up while preventing live steam from leaking the system. Since it is such an important component, any malfunction in it can cause a significant waste of energy. Based on the individual maintenance routine, an average factory can have 15 to 25 percent of its mechanical steam traps leaking at any given point in time, which results in an annual loss of hundreds of thousands of pounds of energy. Apart from the loss of expensive live steam, frequently failing steam traps can also translate into extra expenditures for the facility in the form of stocking, maintaining, checking, and replacing these traps. In a comprehensive steam trap survey conducted in a large government-owned facility, it was found that among the 910 traps surveyed, more than 200 were wasting around 5,000 lbs. of steam each hour, which resulted in an annual loss of more than $60,000 for the facility.

Now, there are different manufacturers that are manufacturing different types of steam traps. As a matter of fact, there can be a lot of variations in these steam traps based on their designs and sizes. Broadly speaking, steam traps can be categorized into two types: ones that continuously release condensate, otherwise known as orifice type steam traps, and the others that intermittently discharge the condensate after a sufficient amount is accumulated — mechanical type steam traps.

When it comes to conventional mechanical steam traps, they often tend to fail quite easily and are extremely hard to maintain. As a matter of fact, it has been observed that around 10 percent of mechanical steam traps in a steam system fail each year. This brings huge financial losses for the company in the form of repairing or replacement of the failed steam traps as well as halting the plant’s operation.  The culprit in conventional mechanical steam traps is their moving parts which often get stuck either in the open or closed position, thereby causing failure. Traps that fail in the closed position result in condensate backups, while traps that fail in the open position allow steam to escape.

This is where Venturi-Type Steam Traps come to the rescue as they have no moving parts at all, and thus the possibility of failure becomes negligible. According to some reputable research studies, the venturi orifice steam traps, like those manufactured by SMART Valves Inc., are so energy efficient that they have the potential to reduce your boiler fuel bill by an average of around 11 percent. Plus, the venture orifice-type steam traps can maintain their original efficiency even after decades of use, while the mechanical traps, on the other hand, have a tendency to deteriorate due to their constantly moving parts.

The venturi steam traps work based on the density difference between steam and water. The continuous flow preferentially discharges the higher density condensate, which results in significantly less condensed water on the heat transferring side, while also maintaining steam. This results in much better thermal efficiency compared to mechanical-type steam traps. Moreover, as the venturi steam trap is particularly sized to enable continuous discharge of condensate, it results in much less loss of live steam compared to a mechanical steam trap—even a brand new one.

With much higher operating efficiency and little to no need for maintenance, venturi steam traps are becoming the number one choice for commercial and industrial applications to effectively drain condensate from steam systems. The absence of any mechanical parts provides you the ultimate reliability in performance, with no need for any spares, testing, or monitoring equipment. What’s more, the venturi steam traps can even handle variable load conditions that make them suitable for a wide range of applications.

At SMART Valves Inc., we manufacture our venturi orifice steam traps with high-grade corrosion-resistant stainless steel and offer a performance guarantee of up to 20 years, which is a testimony to our high standards and quality. You can even avail our 90-Day Risk-Free Trial to verify the performance of our products in your steam system without even spending a dime. So, contact us now and get rid of the needless energy losses that you have been incurring by using the conventional, prone-to-failure, mechanical steam traps. Install our SMART venturi steam traps and make your steam systems more energy-efficient, all while freeing yourself from the hassle of constantly reducing steam consumption, optimizing steam trap design and size, preparing for steam leaks, and implementing a steam trap maintenance program.