If the conditions in a condensate system are not constant, SP-CRD can still effectively discharge condensate while inhibiting excessive steam loss.

Let us consider a common example:

SP-CRD Model-10 can discharge 288 lbs of condensate/hour at 15 psi. If this model will handle only 144 lbs. of condensate/hour (50% of capacity), the steam loss is only 0.2 lbs/hour. When this model handles only 43 lbs of condensate/hour (15% capacity), the steam loss is still only 1.9 lbs/hour. This is still lower than the approximately 2 lbs/hour of live steam that an efficient steam trap will lose.

The above example illustrates how SP-CRD can efficiency work on many applications that have varying condensate conditions without any means of steam control.

Steam Loss Curves in Two-Phase Flow

The figure above presents the steam losses in a two-phase flow from low steam pressure to critical steam. At the extreme high pressure, a pressure exceeding 220 kg/cm², of critical steam, the steam and the condensate are identical. Therefore, the flow is really single phase. The curves below the line for critical steam are for lower steam pressures. The lowest curve refers to a steam pressure of 1 kg/cm². Better than 99% of the heating applications have process steam pressures of less than 15 kg/cm². A steam pressure of 20 to 50 kg/cm² is used for distributing steam over large areas using superheated steam. We consider a steam pressure of 15 kg/cm² or lower as moderate pressure.

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