Direct Heating System
Traditionally a sparge pipe is used whenever steam is required to be directly purged into a water for heating. This gives rise to two kinds of challenges.
- High noise due to vibration as steam comes out from a number of small holes and at a high velocity.
- As steam comes out at high velocities, a sizable percentage of this steam actually escapes and gets wasted without condensing and mixing with the process fluid
Indirect Heating System
As the name indicates, in this type of heating, the steam does not come in direct contact with the water to be heated. This type of heating prevents contamination of the water due to steam mixing as in case of direct heating and is used widely in industries where process does not permit such contamination. It is widely used in industry because it provides rapid, even heating. This method uses a heat exchanger, either PHE or shell & tube type, to heat the water
