What is "surface condenser"

Condenser \Con*dens"er\, n.

1. One who, or that which, condenses.

2. (Physic)

   1. An instrument for condensing air or other elastic fluids, consisting of a cylinder having a movable piston to force the air into a receiver, and a valve to prevent its escape.

   2. An instrument for concentrating electricity by the effect of induction between conducting plates separated by a nonconducting plate.

   3. A lens or mirror, usually of short focal distance, used to concentrate light upon an object.

3. (Chem.) An apparatus for receiving and condensing the volatile products of distillation to a liquid or solid form, by cooling.

4. (Steam Engine) An apparatus, separate from the cylinder, in which the exhaust steam is condensed by the action of cold water or air. See Illust. of Steam engine.

   Achromatic condenser (Optics), an achromatic lens used as a condenser.

   Bull's-eye condenser, or Bull's-eye (Optics), a lens of short focal distance used for concentrating rays of light.

   Injection condenser, a vessel in which steam is condensed by the direct contact of water.

   Surface condenser, an apparatus for condensing steam, especially the exhaust of a steam engine, by bringing it into contact with metallic surface cooled by water or air.

Surface \Sur"face`\, n. [F. See Sur-, and Face, and cf. Superficial.]

1. The exterior part of anything that has length and breadth; one of the limits that bound a solid, esp. the upper face; superficies; the outside; as, the surface of the earth; the surface of a diamond; the surface of the body.

   The bright surface of this ethereous mold.
   --Milton.

2. Hence, outward or external appearance.

   Vain and weak understandings, which penetrate no deeper than the surface.
   --V. Knox.

3. (Geom.) A magnitude that has length and breadth without thickness; superficies; as, a plane surface; a spherical surface.

4. (Fort.) That part of the side which is terminated by the flank prolonged, and the angle of the nearest bastion.
   --Stocqueler.

   Caustic surface, Heating surface, etc. See under Caustic, Heating, etc.

   Surface condensation, Surface condenser. See under Condensation, and Condenser.

   Surface gauge (Mach.), an instrument consisting of a standard having a flat base and carrying an adjustable pointer, for gauging the evenness of a surface or its height, or for marking a line parallel with a surface.

   Surface grub (Zo["o]l.), the larva of the great yellow underwing moth ( Triph[oe]na pronuba). It is often destructive to the roots of grasses and other plants.

   Surface plate (Mach.), a plate having an accurately dressed flat surface, used as a standard of flatness by which to test other surfaces.

   Surface printing, printing from a surface in relief, as from type, in distinction from plate printing, in which the ink is contained in engraved lines.

A surface condenser is a commonly used term for a water-cooled shell and tube heat exchanger installed on the exhaust steam from a steam turbine in thermal power stations. These condensers are heat exchangers which convert steam from its gaseous to its liquid state at a pressure below atmospheric pressure. Where cooling water is in short supply, an air-cooled condenser is often used. An air-cooled condenser is however, significantly more expensive and cannot achieve as low a steam turbine exhaust pressure (and temperature) as a water-cooled surface condenser.

Surface condensers are also used in applications and industries other than the condensing of steam turbine exhaust in power plants.