Patent ID: 7610952

Claim:
A compact two-pass steam condenser having at least one improved tube nest configuration, comprising, a steam inlet through which steam is received; at least one tube nest in two distinct bundles, the top and the bottom bundle each having a plurality of cooling tubes for condensing the steam received through the steam inlet; and at least one non-condensable gas extracting tube through which non-condensable gas contained in the steam is extracted; a condensate outlet through which condensate condensed by the cooling tubes is discharged; and a vessel surrounding the tube nest, wherein the cooling tubes arranged in two distinct bundles and are separated by a pass-partition to form converging flow passages for the steam; the top bundle having vertical flow passages and the bottom bundle horizontal flow passages; wherein the top bundle receives steam directly from the inlet and the bottom bundle, in the case of a double section, receives steam from the inlet through a central zone, and through a passage between the vessel and the at least one tube nest in case of single section type of condenser; and wherein 5 to 10% of the cooling tubes are arranged in a distinct zone in the bottom bundle to form air cooling zone for cooling the non-condensable gases from a main cooling unit.