Fluid blow-off muffler

A blow-off muffler for use in passing a stream of pressurized geothermal steam into the atmosphere, comprising:

• a housing adapted to receive said stream, said housing having a height in the range of from about 2 to 20 feet and sufficient to accommodate a fill-pack which does not surge under the influence of said stream;
• an amount of distributor(s) in the range of from 1 to about 10 within said housing for passing said stream into the interior of said housing and for dividing said stream into a multiplicity of separate streams, said distributors having a diameter or width in the range of from about 1 to 24 inches and containing a plurality of holes or perforations having a diameter or width in the range of from about 1/4 to 3 inches and sized to exclude passage of said fill-pack;
• an amount of shell(s) in the range of from 1 to about 200 within said housing for isolating as a void volume a portion in the range of from about 3 to 49 percent of the volume circumscribed by said housing, said shells having perforations or openings sized to exclude passage of said fill-pack, and said void volume being adapted to pass to the atmosphere at least one-third of said stream after passage through but a portion of said fill-pack;
• and
• a fill-pack of macro-sized non-packing particles having average diameters in the range of from about 1/4 to 18 inches substantially (1) filling the remainder of said circumscribed volume, (2) surrounding said distributors and (3) contacting said shells.