Steam and Superheated Steam - Superheated Steam Still Images Two burners are ignited below the copper coil. These burners heat the steam to a very high temperature. The steam still condenses to liquid water in a beaker. A match placed into the superheated steam ignites. When steel wool is placed in the superheated steam, the steel wool glows brightly and reacts with the steam. Reaction with superheated steam can cause metal pipes in electric power plants to corrode and wear out. (When very hot steam is used, the steam will react readily with iron and cause the tubes and other components of the power plant to form iron oxide. This places an upper limit on the temperature of the steam, which also limits the efficiency of the power plant.) You can get at large JPEG versions of the images by means of the following links. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Back to the topic
Two burners are ignited below the copper coil. These burners heat the steam to a very high temperature. The steam still condenses to liquid water in a beaker. A match placed into the superheated steam ignites. When steel wool is placed in the superheated steam, the steel wool glows brightly and reacts with the steam. Reaction with superheated steam can cause metal pipes in electric power plants to corrode and wear out.
(When very hot steam is used, the steam will react readily with iron and cause the tubes and other components of the power plant to form iron oxide. This places an upper limit on the temperature of the steam, which also limits the efficiency of the power plant.)
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© 1999 Division of Chemical Education, Inc., American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.
