Latent heat

How it is used

Used in condenser, reboiler, evaporator and dryer calculations. Engineers talk about latent heat of vaporization and of condensation; condensing steam gives up its latent heat, which is why steam is such a good heating medium.

Example sentences

1. Water's latent heat of vaporization at 100 °C is about 2,260 kJ/kg, more than five times the heat needed to warm it from 0 to 100 °C.

2. Most of the dryer's energy goes into supplying latent heat to evaporate the water.

Common collocations

• latent heat of vaporization
• latent heat of condensation
• sensible and latent heat
• heat of vaporization

Related terms

• heat capacityThe amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of a material by one degree. Per kilogram it is called specific heat capacity; water's is about 4.18 kJ/(kg·K).
• enthalpyA measure of the heat content of a substance, used to calculate how much energy is needed to heat, cool, vaporize or react it at constant pressure. Usually given in kJ/kg or kJ/mol.
• 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.
• reboilerA heat exchanger at the bottom of a distillation column that boils part of the bottom liquid to produce the vapor that rises up the column.
• dryingRemoving water or another liquid from a solid, usually by heating it with hot gas or under vacuum, until it reaches the required moisture content.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• latent heat · Physics

More terms: Thermodynamics and Physical Properties

• vapor pressure
• boiling point
• vapor-liquid equilibrium
• ideal gas law
• dew point