Tube exchangers

The Stainicaibon process is described in Figures 3—7. The synthesis section of the plant consists of the reactor, stripper, high pressure carbamate condenser, and a high pressure reactor off-gas scmbber. In order to obtain a maximum urea yield pet pass through the reactor, a pressure of 14 MPa (140 bar) and a 2.95/1 NH —CO2 molar ratio is maintained. The reactor effluent is distributed over the stripper tubes (falling-film type shell and tube exchanger) and contacted by the CO2, countercurrendy. This causes the partial NH pressure to decrease and the carbamate to decompose. 

The sheU-and-tube exchanger is the workhorse of power, chemical, refining, and other industries (Fig. 8). One fluid flows on the inside of the tubes whereas the other fluid is flowing through the sheU and over the outside of the tubes. Baffles are used to ensure that the sheUside fluid flows across the tubes, thus inducing high heat transfer. 

Impervious graphite heat exchangers machined from solid blocks are also available (15,16). The solid block constmction is less susceptible to damage by mechanical shock, such as steam and water hammer, than are shell and tube exchangers. Block exchangers are limited in size and cost from 50—100% more than shell and tube units on an equivalent area basis. 

If the CO is not completely combusted to CO2 in the regenerator, a CO boiler is used to complete the combustion. The resulting heat of combustion and the sensible heat of the flue gas along with any heat from auxiUary fired fuel are recovered in the form of high pressure steam. When the regenerator is operated in total CO bum, the CO boiler is replaced with either a shell and tube exchanger or a box-type waste heat boiler (see Heat... 

In atmospheric air-cooled finned tube exchangers, the air-film coefficient from Eq. (5-64) is sometimes converted to a value based on outside bare surface as follows ... 

Kettle-type reboilers, evaporators, etc., are often U-tube exchangers with enlarged shell sec tions for vapor-liquid separation. The U-tube bundle replaces the floating-heat bundle of Fig. 11-36. ... 

The U-tube exchanger with copper tubes, cast-iron header, and other parts of carbon steel is used for water and steam services in office buildings, schools, hospitals, hotels, etc. Nonferrous tube sheets and admiralty or 90-10 copper-nickel tubes are the most frequently used substitute materials. These standard exchangers are available from a number of manufacturers at costs far below those of custom-built process-industry equipment. 

Transverse fins upon tubes are used in low-pressure gas sei vices. The primary application is in air-cooled heat exchangers (as discussed under that heading), but shell-and-tube exchangers with these tubes are in sei vice. 

Impervious graphite heat-exchanger equipment is made in a variety of forms, including outside-packed-head shell-and-tube exchangers. They are fabricated with impervious graphite tubes and... 

Cost data for shell-and-tube exchangers from 15 sources were correlated and found to be consistent wrien scaled by the Marshall and Swift index [Woods et al., Can. J. Chem. Eng., 54, 469-489 (December 1976)]. 

Kettle-type-reboiler costs are 15 to 25 percent greater than for equivalent internal-floatiug-head or U-tube exchangers. The higher extra is applicable with relatively large kettle-to-port-diameter ratios... 

Low-fin tubes (Mfi-in-high fins) provide 2.5 times the surface per lineal foot. Surface required should be divided by 2.5 then use Fig. 11-41 to determine basic cost of the heat exchanger. Actual surface times extra costs (from Table 11-14) should then be added to determine cost of fin-tube exchanger. 

Induced-draft units are less likely to recirculate the hot exhaust air, since the exit air velocity is several times that of the forced-draft unit. Induced-draft design more readily permits the installation of the aircooled equipment above other mechanical equipment such as pipe racks or shell-and-tube exchangers. 

Ground area and. space requirement.s. Comparisons of the overall space requirements for plants using air cooling versus water cooling are not consistent. Some air-cooled units are installed above other equipment—pipe racks, shell-and-tube exchangers, etc. Some plants avoid such inst ations because of safety considerations, as discussed later. 

When the outlet temperatures of both fluids are identical, the MTD correction fac tor for a 1 2 shell-and-tube exchanger (one pass shell... 

Overall coefficients are determined hke shell and tube exchangers that is, sum all the resistances, then invert. The resistances include the hot-side coefficient, the cold-side coefficient, the fouhng factor (usually only a total value not individual values per fluid side) and the wall resistance. 

Anodic protection today allows safe and efficient protection of air coolers and banks of tubes in sulfuric acid plants. In 1966 the air cooler in a sulfuric acid plant in Germany was anodically protected. Since then more than 10,000 m of cooling surfaces in air- and water-cooled sulfuric acid plants worldwide have been protected. The dc output supply of the potentiostats amounts to >25 kW, corresponding to an energy requirement of 2.5 W per m of protected surface. As an example. Fig. 21-9 shows two parallel-connected sulfuric acid smooth tube exchangers in a production plant in Spain. 

Shell and Tube Exchanger Selection Guide (Cost Increases from Left to Right)... 

Calculation of Tubeside Pressure Drop in Shell and Tube Exchangers... 

The price of a shell and tube exchanger depends on the type of exchanger, i.e., fixed tube, U-tube, double tube sheets, and removable bundles. The tube side pressure, shell side pressure, and materials of construction also affect the price. If prices cannot be obtained from endors, correlating in-house data by plotting /fr vs. number of ft with correction factors for the variables that affect price will allow estimating with fair accuracy. If not enough in-house data is available to establish good correlations. it will be necessary to use the literature, such as References 16. 17. and 18. 

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