On Oct 12, 9:45 pm, Keith Henson wrote:
On Oct 11, 6:44 pm, byblow wrote:

I need something that s completely automated and can extract 100
tonnes of water per day from steam (does 100 tonnes of steam = 100
tonnes of water?).

Yes. Conservation of mass.

This condenser, heat exchanger or whatever has to function realiably
despite lots of dissolved solids in the steam, so it has to be highly
resistant to fouling.

Steam doesn't have dissolved solids. Wet steam, where there are water
drops in the steam can carry over some solids. But the side of a heat
exchanger that gets fouled is usually the side with the heat rise
rather than the condensing side.

It also has to be as compact as possible, weigh as little as possible,
and use as little electricity as possible.

Condensing steam is an energy source rather than a sink.

Could you please expound upon this? I had thought of using the steam
to spin a turbine for electricity, but since this would be in free
space, I was concerned about a resulting need for radiators, which are
heavy.

Could something like a radiator serve as a steam condenser? If so,
that could work nicely: The steam spins a turbine to generate
electricity, then flows through a radiator (which uses no electricity)
where it condenses. Would it be feasible to use electricity generated
by the steam to actively refrigerate some part of the hardware to
complement the radiators?

My goal is to extract 4,800-6,000 tonnes of water from steam in 90
days or less. After that, I don't care if the condenser is a total
loss.

You have not stated the most important operating conditions. Is this
on earth? Mars, the moon or free space (zero g)?

Free space in zero g.


The biggest problem (if in space) will be the radiator area. Mars,
you could probably transfer the heat to the atmosphere.

I believe the radiators on the ISS have a capacity of ~ 1-tonne to 10
KW (heat). Any idea how many tonnes of ISS-quality radiators would be
needed for the condensation of 100 tonnes of steam per day? Let's say
the temperature of the steam is 600 kelvin and 5 tonnes of steam are
produced per hour.

I've read that condensers at power plants typically use a vacuum or
partial vacuum to suck in steam, and also to expand it for more
efficient cooling. Could the natural vacuum of space be used for these
purposes?

No.

Darn! I was really hoping the natural vacuum could be somehow useful
for condensing or filtering the steam/water.

Thank you very much for your help, Keith! If anything ever comes of
this, I won't forget you.

I appreciate any help I can get!

MODERATOR'S COMMENT:
Note, not really on-topic, but intriuging and I want to see where th
is

develops.