Subcooling

Condensate Subcooling For vertical condensers, condensate can be readily subcooled if required. The subcooling occurs as falling-film heat transfer. Heat transfer coefficients can be calculated as presented in a later section. 

For horizontal tubeside condensers, no good methods are available for predicting heat transfer coefficients when appreciable subcooling of the condensate is required. A conservative approach is to calculate a superficial mass velocity assuming the condensate filis the entire tube and use the equations presented previousiy for a singie phase sensible heat transfer inside tubes 

This method is iess conservative for higher condensate loads. 

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The last design variable which needs to be fixed before the design can proceed, but which is of lesser importance, is feed condition. Subcooled feed (i.e., below bubble point)... 

The resistance to nucleation is associated with the surface energy of forming small clusters. Once beyond a critical size, the growth proceeds with the considerable driving force due to the supersaturation or subcooling. It is the definition of this critical nucleus size that has consumed much theoretical and experimental research. We present a brief description of the classic nucleation theory along with some examples of crystal nucleation and growth studies. 

As mentioned in Section IX-2A, binary systems are more complicated since the composition of the nuclei differ from that of the bulk. In the case of sulfuric acid and water vapor mixtures only some 10 ° molecules of sulfuric acid are needed for water oplet nucleation that may occur at less than 100% relative humidity [38]. A rather different effect is that of passivation of water nuclei by long-chain alcohols [66] (which would inhibit condensation note Section IV-6). A recent theoretical treatment by Bar-Ziv and Safran [67] of the effect of surface active monolayers, such as alcohols, on surface nucleation of ice shows the link between the inhibition of subcooling (enhanced nucleation) and the strength of the interaction between the monolayer and water. 

Fig. 38. Caustic purification system a, 50% caustic feed tank b, 50% caustic feed pumps c, caustic feed preheater d, amonia feed pumps e, ammonia feed preheater f, extractor g, trim heater h, ammonia subcooler i, stripper condenser j, anhydrous ammonia storage tank k, primary flash tank 1, evaporator reboiler m, evaporator n, caustic product transfer pumps o, purified caustic product cooler p, purified caustic storage tank q, ammonia stripper r, purified caustic transfer pumps t, overheads condenser u, evaporator v, evaporator vacuum pump w, aqueous storage ammonia tank x, ammonia scmbber y, scmbber condenser 2, ammonia recirculating pump aa, ammonia recycle pump. CW stands for chilled water.

Overhead condensers sometimes need to be located in the stmcture. Usually, partial condensers need to be elevated above the reflux accumulator. Considerable stmcture cost reduction can be achieved if the process can use grade-mounted condensers. Mounting the exchangers at grade may require them to be designed with subcooling so that the reflux accumulator can be located above the condenser. This should be considered as part of the process design. 

Va.por Pressure. Vapor pressure is one of the most fundamental properties of steam. Eigure 1 shows the vapor pressure as a function of temperature for temperatures between the melting point of water and the critical point. This line is called the saturation line. Liquid at the saturation line is called saturated Hquid Hquid below the saturation line is called subcooled. Similarly, steam at the saturation line is saturated steam steam at higher temperature is superheated. Properties of the Hquid and vapor converge at the critical point, such that at temperatures above the critical point, there is only one fluid. Along the saturation line, the fraction of the fluid that is vapor is defined by its quaHty, which ranges from 0 to 100% steam. 

The carbon monoxide-rich, Hquid condensate from the primary separator is expanded and exchanged against the incoming feed and is then sent to a distillation column where the carbon monoxide is purified. The bottoms Hquor from the methane wash column is expanded, heat-exchanged, and sent to the bottom section of the distillation column for methane rectification and carbon monoxide recovery. The methane bottom stream is recompressed and recycled to the top of the wash column after subcooling. A sidestream of methane is withdrawn to avoid a buildup of impurities in the system. 

McCabe-Thie/e Example. Assume a binary system E—H that has ideal vapor—Hquid equiHbria and a relative volatiHty of 2.0. The feed is 100 mol of = 0.6 the required distillate is x = 0.95, and the bottoms x = 0.05, with the compositions identified and the lighter component E. The feed is at the boiling point. To calculate the minimum reflux ratio, the minimum number of theoretical stages, the operating reflux ratio, and the number of theoretical stages, assume the operating reflux ratio is 1.5 times the minimum reflux ratio and there is no subcooling of the reflux stream, then ... 

Fig. 20. Three sets of material balance lines for the Kubierschky three-column sequence where design 1 corresponds to the upper tie-line having Tmin = 8.78 design 2, to the subcooled upper tie-line having = 12.23 and design 3, to the lower tie-line having = 17.31 represents overall decanter composition , the overall feed composition to the azeo-column , the distillate composition from the entrainer recovery column and O, the...

From Viikalovich, Ivanov, Foldn, and Yakovlev, Theimophysical Pivpeities of Mercuiy, Standartov, Moscow, 1971. For the saturated liquid the specific volume at 203.15 Kis 7.26239 X 10 mV kg, etc. All the tabular values for 203.15 K, 213.15 K, 223.15 K, and 233.15 K represent a metastahle equilibrium between the subcooled liquid and the saturated vapor. 

For subcooling, a liquid inventory may be maintained in the bottom end of the shell by means of a weir or a hquid-level-controUer. The subcoohng heat-transfer coefficient is given by the correlations for natural convection on a vertical surface [Eqs. (5-33 ), (5-33Z )], with the pool assumed to be well mixed (isothermal) at the subcooled condensate exit temperature. Pressure drop may be estimated by the shell-side procedure. 

Type 111 units are a combination of the Type I and Type II where part is in spiral flow and part is in cross flow. This SHE can condense and subcool in a single unit. 

When dry, or superheated, vapor is used to subcool the liquid, the COP in R12 systems will increase, and decrease the COP in NH3 sys-... 

The diagram in Fig. 11-101 presents enthalpy data for LiBr-water solutions. It is needed for the thermal calculation of the cycle. Enthalpies for water and water vapor can be determined from the table or properties of water. The data in Fig. 11-101 are apphcable to saturated or subcooled solutions and are based on a zero enthalpy of liquid water at 0°C and a zero enthalpy of solid LiBr at 25°C. Since... 

Subcooled-hquid feed 9 > 1 Saturated-liquid feed 9 = 1 Partially flashed feed 1 > 9 > 0 Saturated-vapor feed 9 = 6 Superheated-vapor feed 9 < 0 The 9 value for a particular feed can be estimated from... 

FIG. 13-45 Effect of feed on stream rates just above feed stage M + 1. (a) Subcooled or bubble-point feed, (h) Superheated or dew-point feed, (c) Partially flashed feed. 

The thermal quality of the solvent feed has no effect on the value of (S/F)mjn, but does affect the minimum reflux to some extent, especially as the (S/F) ratio increases. R nax occurs at higher values of the reflux ratio as the upper-feed quality decreases a subcooled upper feed provides additional refluxing capacity and less external reflux is required for the same separation. It is also sometimes advantageous to introduce the primary feed to the extractive distillation column as a vapor to help maintain a higher solvent concentration on the feed tray and the trays immediately below... 

Performance information for the purification of p-xylene indicates that nearly 100 percent of the ciystals in the feed stream are removed as produc t. This suggests that the liquid which is refluxed from the melting section is effectively refrozen oy the countercurrent stream of subcooled crystals. A high-meltingproduct of 99.0 to 99.8 weight percent p-xylene has been obtained from a 65 weight percent p-xyfene feed. The major impurity was m-xylene. Figure 22-12 illustrates the column-cross-section-area-capacity relationship for various product purities. 

Fhix-force-condensation scrubbers combine the effects of flux force (diffiisiophoresis and thermophoresis) and water-vapor condensation. These scrubbers contact hot, humid gas with subcooled liquid, and/or they inject steam into saturated gas, and they have demonstrated that a number of these novel devices can remove fine particulates (see Fig. 25-24). Although limited in terms of commercialization, these systems may find application in many industries. 

Figures 26-63 and 26-64 illustrate the significant differences between subcooled and saturated-liquid discharge rates. Discharge rate decreases with increasing pipe length in both cases, but the drop in discharge rate is much more pronounced with saturated liquids. This is because the flashed vapor effectively chokes the flow and decreases the two-phase density.

HEM for Two-Phase Orifice Discharge For orifice or nozzle flow, the friction term and the potential energy term in Eq. (26-82) are negligible, so it can be integrated in general across both subcooled and flashing regions thusly ... 

For the highly subcooled subset of Regime 2, ("q, < q ), flow is singlephase (hquid), and integration of Eq. (26-93) gives what is commonly referred to as the orifice equation ... 

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