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Chemical Engineering vocabulary · Thermodynamics and Physical Properties

Dew point

Meaning in chemical engineering, with examples

/ˈduː ˌpɔɪnt/nounCommon term

In chemical engineering, dew point means: The temperature at which a gas or vapor mixture, when cooled at constant pressure, starts to form the first drops of liquid.

In Turkish: çiğ noktası, yoğuşma noktası

How it is used

Used in gas processing, drying, compressed air and distillation. Engineers specify water dew point and hydrocarbon dew point for natural gas and instrument air. The matching term for the first bubble of vapor when heating a liquid is the bubble point.

Example sentences

  1. Instrument air is usually dried to a dew point of −40 °C so that no water condenses in the lines.

  2. Keep the flue gas above its acid dew point to avoid corrosion in the stack.

Common collocations

  • water dew point
  • hydrocarbon dew point
  • acid dew point
  • bubble point and dew point
  • boiling pointThe temperature at which a liquid's vapor pressure equals the surrounding pressure, so that it boils. It goes down under vacuum and up at higher pressure.
  • vapor pressureThe pressure of the vapor above a liquid when the two are in balance at a given temperature. It rises with temperature, and the liquid boils when it equals the surrounding pressure.
  • vapor-liquid equilibriumThe state in which a liquid and its vapor exist together with no net change, each with a fixed composition. It is the basis for designing distillation and flash separations.
  • condenserA heat exchanger that cools a vapor until it turns back into liquid, for example at the top of a distillation column or at the exhaust of a steam turbine.

More terms: Thermodynamics and Physical Properties

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