One Step Ata Time...... oo PERC reese Desalting Options for Process Cooling-tower & Ethics Vs e Water Boiler Feedwater Treatment Focus on Steam Safety Heat Exchangers Pumps Equipment 4 Continue to Add Capabilities Pneumatic Conveying a Tips for Fact at Your Fingertips: Problem Heat Transfer Equations Powders An Access Intelligence Publicationprinted with permission trom CHE (Chemical Engineering), November 2004, Copyright © 2008 Access nttigenc Engineering Practice Steam Heat Exchangers Are Underworked And Over-suriaced An ‘Extended Stall Chart’ delivers effective condensate drainage James R. Risko TLV CORPORATION ne of the more difficult chal: lenges facing process and maintenance engineers is to fally understand the steam- pressure dynamics in over surfaced heat exchangers using modu- lating control with varying load conditions. And this challenge can be common because indirect heating by steam is often employed for heating process streams. Heat exchangers em- ployed in this service are known as process heaters, ‘The stall chart, which compares steam pressure at various steam- heater turndown ratios with the sys- tem back pressure, provides a general overview of a given steam heating ap plication. A basic understanding of this industry tool is necessary, and ean be acquired from a variety of sources [J]. However, the basic stall chart as- sumes that the steam heater has not been oversized, which is usually not the case; heat exchanger area is gen- erally over-surfaced for fouling factors and capacity eonsiderations, An effective alternative is the ex- tended stall chart (ESC), Easy to em- ploy, this plot readily accommodates oversizing, Condensate return header FIGURE 1. It the inlet pressure (P,) to the condensate-drainage solution (CDS) drops below the back pressure (Pa), there will be a negative pressure differential across the CDS, and a “stall” condition will occur Review of the stall chart As the demand load varies ia any heat exchanger using _inlet-modulating steam control, the detivered steam- pressure profile will correspondingly change. As an example, consider the heat exchanger (process heater) shown in Figure 1. For this sotup, the steam- supply pressure (P,) can be relatively constant at a typical value of 150 psig. But the pressure (P,) of the steam de- livered direetly to the heat exchanger 58 CHEMICALENGINEERING WWWCHECOM NOVEMBER 2004 by the control valve may vary greatly. ‘That means the inlet pressure (Py) to the condensate-drainage solution (CDS) will also vary considerably. (For simplicity, it is assumed that no pres- sure drop occurs across the heat: ex- changer, s0 P, = P2). If the pressure Ps falls below the back pressure (Py), there will be a negative pressure differential across the CDS. When this situation arises, the condensate cannot drain out, s0 itSTALL CHART 400 233 : ‘SUPPLY 380 t 101 oa + 240 ¥ ‘00 : 220 ‘ a 300 : so & 280 35 3 mecieaea|* | 260 2 : z + 20 w 5 $ 20 3 : — 2 200 6 Fie & 2 2 160 2 = te § 140 ay 120 ae r oe z io + ™m™ & 80 60 71 : a : : 20 t ; < : DEMAND 100 90 90 70 60 so 0 % 2 10 0 ood, percent FIGURE 2, The stall point for this example, described in the text, ozcurs at 65% load backs up into the steam side of the | ‘The 115 psig value for P. is shown in heater. This state of affairs is com- | the stall chart in Figure 2. monly refered to as a system “stall.” ‘The second condition to review is The first condition to understand | the effect that varying load conditions when making the stall chart is that, | have on the supply steam require- even under fall demand load, the | ments for pressure and temperature. maximum Py pressure will be the P, | The control system adjusts the steam prooruieinivos the cmtrol valvepeee” | ‘recsure ind bmparatare to belaies sure drop. If, for this example, the | the delivered heat with the load. So, if control valve pressure drop is 25 psi, | the demand load drops, the steam and the steam-supply utility line loss | pressure will also drop. Since less tem- equals 10 psi, then the delivered- | perature is needed with decreased de- steam pressure (P2) will be a maxi- | mand, lover temperature can balance mum of 115 psig. the need and this causes the steam Therefore, a Py of 119 psig is the | pressure to lower, pressure that should be converted to ‘This can be seen by looking at the Steam temperature and itis this value | basic heat-tranafer equation that is input into the stall chart as the steam profile at 100% demand, not the (UANLMTD) supply steam pressure, P;, of 150 psig. | where UA is the characterizing coeffi- cient (the product of the heat-transfer coefficient and surface area), and LMTD is the logarithmic mean tem- perature difference across the heat ‘exchanger. Because the product UA is relatively constant, the steam temper- ature must drop when the load drops. For this example, suppose that the back pressure (Pp) is 20 psig (solid green line) and that the product tem- perature increases from 50°F (T;) to 150°F (T,). The mean temperature of the process fluid, Ty, is 100°F, which is entered on the right (Note that the values of T,, and Ty are found on the left exis but plotied on the right axis.) Control adjustments affect the steam-pressure profile, and the result- ing steam pressure for a load pereent- age is recorded on the stall chart as the descending solid red line on Figure 2. Its formed by connecting the points Pz (actually its equivalent on the tem perature seale) and Ty ‘The stall point (S) occurs where the red and green lines intersect, or at at ‘65% load for this example, The dashed ‘orange vertical line through the De- mand section indicates the caution for a stall condition, ‘The demand load can also be graph- ically represented as a product tem- perature increase on the same stall chart as the ascending solid dark blue line, connecting the temperature points T; and Tz, And the equipment’s heat-transfer capability from surface area is noted by the left hand side of the bottom hoizontal axis where the load condition is 100%. ‘To summarize, the basic stall chart actually represents three different en- ‘vironments in one. Those are * The product-demand load, shown by the solid blue line, usually starting in the lower left of the Demand section # The heat supplied by the combina- tion of steam supply and the equip- ment heat transfer surface, shown by the solid red line starting in upper left of the Supply section * The back pressure of the return sys- tem, shown by the solid green line, usually drawn in the Supply section Such a stall chart is relatively com- pact, due to the hypothetical situation where the demand heating require- mont exaetly meets the installed heat exchanger surface area. [In such a CHEMCAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM NOVEMBER2006 59Engineering Practice EXTENDED STALL CHART (ESC) OVERSURFAGING 10 0 80 70 60 60 a 9 20 10 Oversuracing, porcont 10 —j—— ~ 8 2 Conditions ae : = : 1 u 180 _P, = Supply steam pressure, psig 7 : oe 15_P,-dinentean penn | £1 Jt 115 _ P= CDSinlet pressure, psig iro ‘ wi 5_T;=Productinlettemperature,'F | 8 gg | 480 _T,~ Product outlet tomparature, ys ‘ t 00 _Ty=Mean product temperature, °F Ty ‘ 2) _Pp=Totalsystem back pressure, psig | 015% « Percent oversurtcing op DEMAND 6 eae 100 99 90 7 60 50 40 9 0 10 0 Load, percent FIGURE 3. The extended stall chart (ESC) Is formed by adding an additional, equally scaled quadrant (Oversurfacing) in the upper left-hand side. This new quadrant begins at Pg, as shown here. The suriace area equal to 100% of the demand, with no over-eurfacing, ie indiested by the dached light blue line on the left hand vertical axle of the Supply quadrant case, MC,(T~ 7) = Q= UANLMTD), where M is mass flowrate and G, is heat capacity at constant pressure, and the exchanger has no excess sur face area| While nearly impossible to achieve, the heat and surface area sup- plied are exaetly equal to 100% of the demand, and the three environments are superimposed in the 100% seale stall chart shown in Figure 2. ‘The extended stall chart Heat-exchanger area is generally over surfaced for fouling factor and capac- ity considerations. The stall chart dis: cussed above does not provide for recording the amount of over-surfac: ing. Therefore, a new stall chart is needed; one where over-surfacing can be graphically demonstrated in an ad ditional quadrant to acecunt for extra surface area ‘This new, “extended” stall chart (ESC) improves the estimation of available pressure differential across the condensate-drainage device. The conditions of Figure 2 can be input and graphically demonstrated for 60 CHEMICALENGINEERING WWW.CHE.CON NOVEMBER 2004 comparison on the ESC (Figure 3).The surface area equal to only 100% of the demand, with no over-surfacing, is in- dicated by the dashed light-blue line ‘on the left hand vertical axis of the Supply quadrant. So far, the results of Figures 2 and 3 look similar However, the ESC ean be used to predict. extremely valuable informa- tion. A leftward ascending line can be drawn from the point Ty, on the right hand axis of the Demand quadrant through an intersection of the Py line with the left hand axis of the Supply