Pipe in Trench

if the drains are situated correctly on the bottom of your pipes, you can direct the outlets into a safe direction or container and drain the accumulated fluids when the system is under pressure.

Just in case you are unfamiliar with the concept it works like this. The fluid collects in the bottom of your pipes and fills the bottom of the U shaped bend that directs the outlet back to the surface. When the system is pressurized the and you open the drain valve the pressure in the system will push the fluid down the U bend and up the drain pipe and out the valve. If you have an excess of fluid accumulation you can install a larger collection pipe to hold the fluid so it is not pushed downstream with the steam. As long as the drain pipe is situated on the bottom of the collection pipe the pressure will push it up and out the outlet.

Drew

In most closed systems the condensate is returned to a supply tank for the boiler. The condensate is usually still hot so you reclaim some the heat. Makes the system more efficient. Condensate drains if applied will use the steam pressure to force the condensate to return to the supply tank.

The question to you will the cost of closing the system pay for it self? Will the materials spent to do it be recouped with the increase efficiency of the boiler system, cost savings in water or other related saving as does the trench fill with the condensate? Does or is it being pump out?

Perhaps the greatest source of contaminated feed water that is fed back to a steam generation system comes from collected drains. If you decide to collect such drains and re-use them as feed to the boiler, such drains should have a monitoring system for conductivity as a minimum, espeically if the system is designed to be automatically fed back into the condenser, via a vacuum drag process. Additionally, when steam is used to heat fuel oil or other petroleum products, and the drains from these systems is to be reclaimed, the heated product represents a source of contamination. Oil, solvents, and other organics may invade the feed water and enter the boiler. These contaminates represent potential corrsion sources and also contribute to the build up of deposites or precipitates that require more frequent boiler blowdown. Sometimes, it is better to direct these drains to a waste disposal system than to try and collect them for re-use as feed water.

Install a Condensate power pump in the trench and pump the condensate overhead to the condensate return main or take the condensate main after the pump to the boiler feed tank. Checkup these pumps available at spirax sarco/armstrong etc.,'

i too make & sell the condensate power pumps (look at my avtar) but they are mainly for local use in pakistan.