Compact Heat Exchangers,

Design and Applications

M.Tech Process Intensification
(CH2235)
Objectives
What is a compact heat exchanger?
Types
Advantages and limitations
Cost of heat exchangers
Fouling
Security and Environmental aspect
Design
Conclusion
Basic Definitions
Heat exchanger: apparatus that has two
streams of fluid that exchange
temperatures in order to heat or cool the
system.
Fouling: type of contamination in the heat
exchanger that can damage its purpose.
Description
Basically this presentation focuses on what
are compact heat exchangers, the various
types, costs, advantages and
disadvantages and how fouling may affect.
The main option for research was internet
and the library ( books, journals, thesis,
etc.)
What is a Compact Heat
Exchanger?
Area density greater than 700 m2/m3 for
gas or greater than 300 m2/m3 when
operating in liquid or two-phase streams.

Highly efficient

Reduce volume, weight and cost

Types of CHEs
Plate and frame heat exchangers: (PHE)
Plate and Frame Heat
Exchanger
Most common type of PHE
Consists of plates and gaskets
Materials: stainless steel, titanium and non-
metallic
Operation limits:
- temperatures from -35C to 220C
- pressures up to 25 bar
- flow rate up to 5000 m3/h
The heat transfer surface consists of a number of thin
corrugated plates pressed out of a high grade metal.

The pressed pattern on each plate surface induces

turbulence and minimizes stagnant areas and fouling.

All plate and frame heat exchangers are made with

what may appear to be a limited range of plate
designs.
Performance of PHE
Superior thermal performance is the
hallmark of plate heat exchangers.
Compared to shell-and-tube units, plate
heat exchangers offer overall heat transfer
coefficients 3 to 4 times higher.
These values, typically 4000 to 7000 W/m 2
C (clean), result in very compact
equipment.
This high performance also allows
the specification of very small
approach temperature (as low as
2 to 3C) which is sometimes
useful in geothermal applications.
This high thermal performance
does come at the expense of a
somewhat higher pressure drop.
Selection of a plate heat exchanger
is a trade-off between Uvalue (which
influences surface area and hence,
capital cost) and pressure drop
(which influences pump head and
hence, operating cost).
Increasing U-value comes at the
expense of increasing pressure drop
Types of Plate Heat
Exchangers
Brazen
Welded
Gasketed
Welded Plate Heat Exchanger
(PHE)
Welded Plate Heat Exchanger
Plates welded together to increase pressure
and temperature limits
Materials: stainless steal and nickel based
alloys. Can be made with copper , titanium
or graphite
Operation Limits:
- temperature limits depend on the material
- can tolerate pressures in excess of 60 bar
Brazed Plate Heat Exchanger
(PHE)
Brazed Plate heat exchangers are made by
brazing technology
No moving parts
No gaskets
Cost effective than casketed plate heat
exchanger
No leakages
Company like Dower manufacturing these
BPHE
Brazed Plate Heat Exchanger
Operates at higher pressures than gasketed
units
Materials: stainless steel, copper contained
braze
Operating limits:
- From -195C to 200C
- Pressures up to 30 bar
It is impossible to clean. The only way is by
applying chemicals.
Gasketed Plate Heat
Exchanger
A gasketed plate heat exchanger consists
of a stack of closely spaced thin plates
clamped together in a frame. A thin gasket
seals the plates round their edges.
Gasket Plate Heat Exchanger
Typical Plate Dimensions for
PHE
The plates are normally between 0.5 and 3 mm
thick and the gap between them 1.5 to 5 mm.

Plate surface areas range from 0.03 to 1.5 m 2,

with a plate width dength ratio from 2.0 to 3.0.

The size of plate heat exchangers can vary from

very small, 0.03 m2, to very large, 1500 m2.

The maximum flow-rate of fluid is limited to

around 2500 m3/h
Plates are available in a wide range of
metals and alloys;
including stainless steel
aluminimum
and titanium.
Gasket Materials
Advantages of Plate Heat
Exchangers
1. Plates are attractive when material costs
are high.

2. Plate heat exchangers are easier to

maintain.

3. Low approach temps can be used, as low

as 1 C, compared with 5 to 10 C for shell
and tube exchangers.
4. Plate heat exchangers are more flexible, it is easy
to add extra plates.

5. Plate heat exchangers are more suitable for

highly viscous materials.

6. The temperature correction factor, Ft, will

normally be higher with plate heat
exchangers, as the flow is closer to true counter-
current flow.

7. Fouling tends to be significantly less in plate heat

exchangers.
 Disadvantages
1. A plate is not a good shape to resist pressure
and plate heat exchangers are not suitable for
pressures greater than about 30 bar.

2. The selection of a suitable gasket is critical.

3. The maximum operating temperature is

limited to about 250 C, due to the
performance of the available gasket materials.
Plate Heat Exchanger Design
It is not possible to give exact design
methods for plate heat exchangers.
They are proprietary designs, and will
normally be specified in consultation with
the manufacturers
Design of phe
Design Procedure
1. Calculate duty, the rate of heat transfer required.

2. If the specification is incomplete, determine the

unknown fluid temperature or fluid flow-rate from
a heat balance.

3. Calculate the log mean temperature difference,

LMTD, TLM

4. Determine the log mean temperature correction

factor, Ft, see method given below.
5. Calculate the corrected mean temperature
difference TM = Ft x TLM.

6. Estimate the overall heat transfer

coefficient; see Table on next slides

7. Calculate the surface area required;

equation given on next slides

.
8 Determine the number of plates required =
total surface area/area of one plate.

9. Decide the flow arrangement and number

of passes.

10. Calculate the film heat transfer

coefficients for each stream; see method
given below.
11. Calculatethe overall coefficient, allowing
for fouling factors.

12. Compare the calculated with the assumed

overall coefficient.
If satisfactory, say 0% to + 10% error,
proceed. If unsatisfactory return to step 8
and increase or decrease the number of
plates.
13. Check the pressure drop for each stream;
see method given below
Flow Arrangement of PHE
Correction Factor Ft
Depends on NTU and then calculation from
the figure
Heat Transfer Coefficient
The equation for forced-convective heat
transfer in conduits can be used for plate heat
exchangers.
The values for the constant C and the indices
a,b,c will depend on the particular type of
plate being used.
The channel width equals the plate pitch
minus the plate thickness.
There is no heat transfer across the end
plates, so the number of effective plates
will be the total number of plates less two.
Plate Pressure Drop
Path length=plate length into number of
passes
Total no of channels=(no of plates-
1)/2 for 1:1 pass
The transition from laminar to turbulent
flow will normally occur at a Reynolds
number of 100 to 400, depending on the
plate design.
With some designs, turbulence can be
achieved
at very low Reynolds numbers, which makes
plate heat exchangers very suitable for use
with viscous fluids
a) 2 pass/2 pass b) 5channels
per pass
21 plates counter current
flow
Assignment
What is the difference between plate
fin and plate heat exchanger, also give
details of some fins
What are wide gap plate heat
exchangers, flow flex PHE.
Spiral Heat Exchanger (SHE)
construction
Two metal sheets that are welded
together then rolled to obtain
spiral passages (concentric
spirals)
Passages can either be smooth
or corrugated
Flow configuration : Crossflow(single or
multipass or counterflow depending on
the configuration of the inlet and outlet
distribution boxes.

Heat Transfer area may range from

0.5m2 for refrigeration purpose to 500m 2
for industrial applications.
The exchanger is made up
from long sheets, between
150 to 1800 mm wide,
formed into a pair of
concentric spiral channels.
The channels are closed
by gasketed end-plates
bolted to an outer case.
Inlet and outlet nozzels are
fitted to the case and connect
to the channels.

The gap between the sheets

varies between 4 to 20 mm;
depending on the size of the
exchanger and the application.
Spiral Heat Exchanger (SHE)

carbon steel,
Materials:

stainless steel and

titanium
Operation limits:
- Temperatures up to 400C (depends
on gasketed materials)
- Pressures up to 25 bar
The plate thickness : 2 mm to 10 mm.
Why no mixing of two fluids occurs
orThe
leakage
distance between the sheets in the spiral
channels is maintained by using spacer
studs that were welded prior to rolling.
Once the main spiral pack has been rolled,
alternate top and bottom edges are welded
and each end closed by a gasketed flat or
conical cover bolted to the body.
This ensures no mixing of the two fluids
occurs. Any leakage is from the periphery
cover to the atmosphere, or to a passage
that contains the same fluid. [
Self Cleaning or Fouling
SHEs are often used in the heating of fluids
that contain solids and thus tend to foul the
inside of the heat exchanger.
The low pressure drop lets the SHE handle
fouling more easily.
The SHE uses a self cleaning mechanism,
whereby fouled surfaces cause a localized
increase in fluid velocity, thus increasing
thedrag(or fluidfriction) on the fouled
surface, thus helping to dislodge the blockage
and keep the heat exchanger clean. "
They are also easily
cleaned, opening out like
anovenwhere any buildup
of foulant can be removed
bypressure washing.
There are no thermal-expansion
problems in spirals.
Since the center of the unit is not
fixed, it can torque to relieve
stress.
Types of Spiral Heat
Exchangers
Type I is the spiral-spiral flow
pattern.
Used for all heating and cooling services
Can accommodate temperature crosses such as
lean/rich services in one unit.
Type II units are the condenser and
reboiler designs
Spiral Flow-Cross Flow Pattern
Used for vacuum condensing and
reboiling services
 Type III is
combination of the
Type I and Type II
Some other Advantages
LMTD correction factor is
essentially = 1.0.
The channel spacings can
be different on each side to
match the flow rates and
pressure drops of the
process design.
 Applications
The SHE is good for applications
such as pasteurization, digester
heating, heat recovery, pre-heating
and effluent cooling.

For sludge treatment, SHEs are

generally smaller than other types of
heat exchangers
Design of Spiral Heat
Exchanger
Steps are similar like In PHE
Spacings are from 6.35 to 31.75 mm (in
6.35 mm increments) with 9.5 mm the
most common.
Stud densities are 60 60 to 110 110
mm, the former the most common.
The width (measured to the spiral flow
passage), is from 150 to 2500 mm (in 150
mm increments).
Diameters can reach 1500 mm.
The total surface areas exceed 465 sqm.
Formulas
 Plate-and-Shell Heat Exchangers
Embryonic Growth Mature Aging

bundle of plates inserted in a shell

on the plate side, the fluid flows
inside corrugated or embossed
channels
on the shell side, the flow is
similar to shell and tube heat
exchangers, and baffles can be
inserted
often used for revamping
application, as the shell can be
kept identical as for a bundle of
tubes
Platular heat exchanger
(Courtesy of Barriquand
(source: B. Thonon and P. Tochon, in: Re-Engineering Technologies Termiques)
the Chemical Processing Plant, Marcel Dekker, 2003)

MSc Course on Process Intensification 37

Plate and shell heat
exchanger has a variant
when plates have fins these
are called plate fin heat
exchangers
Aluminium platefin heat
exchangers (PFHEs) were
initially developed in the 1940s
to provide the aerospace
industry compact, light, and
highly efficient heat
exchangers for gas/gas
applications.
 Plate Fin Heat Exchanger
High area density and handles several
streams
Materials: aluminum, corrosion and heat
resistant alloys, and stainless steel (available in
titanium)
Operation limits:
- Temperature limits depend on the material
- cryogenic temperature up to 100C (aluminum)
- stainless steel up to 650C
- Pressures up to 100 bar for aluminum and 90
bar for stainless steel
Plate Fin Heat Exchanger
(PFHE)
 Two Types of Plate Fin Heat
Exchangers:

1) Welded Plate Fin Heat

Exchanger

2)Brazed Plate Fin Heat Exchanger

Welded Plate Heat Exchanger
Brazed Plate Fin Heat
Exchanger
Advantages
1. Compactness: Large heat transfer
surface area per unit volume (Typically
1000 m2/m3),
2. This in turn produces a high overall heat
transfer coefficient due to the heat transfer
associated with the narrow passages and
orrugated surface

3. Effectiveness: very high thermal

effectiveness more than 95% can be
obtained
 Temperature control:
can operate with relatively small
temperature differences.
A close temperature approach (Temperature
approach as low as 3K between single phase
fluid streams and 1K between boiling and
condensing fluids is fairly common.
This is an advantage when high temperatures
must be avoided.
Local overheating and possibility of stagnant
zones can also be reduced by the form of the
flow passage.
Multi steam operation is
possible upto 10 streams.

Truly Counter current flow

Disadvantages
1. Limited range of temperature and
pressure.

2. Difficulty in cleaning of passages, which

limits its application to clean and relatively
noncorrosive fluids.

3. Difficulty of repair in case of failure or

leakage between passages.
Plate Fin heat transfer
surfaces
The plate fin exchangers are
mainly employed for liquid-to-
gas and gas-to-gas applications.
Due to the low heat transfer
coefficients in gas flows,
extended surfaces are
commonly employed in plate-fin
heat exchangers.
Types of Fin
In order to improve the gas side coefficients,
surface features are needed to provided on
the gas side coefficients.
These features may be divided into two
categories:

the first, in which the surface remains

continuous (wavy and herring-bone fins) and

the second in which it is cut (offset,

louvered).
In a continuous type fin, the
corrugations causes the gas to make
sudden direction changes so that
locally, the velocity and temperature
gradients are increased.
This results in local enhancement of
heat transfer coefficient.
But an undesirable consequence of such
enhancement in heat transfer
coefficient is an increase in the friction
factor and pressure drop
Whereas in a discontinuous type of fin
geometry, boundary layers are interrupted
which would form on a continuous plate.
Adjacent to the leading edge of the fin, both
heat transfer coefficients and friction factors
are very much high due to generation of
fresh boundary layers.
But in addition to this friction drag, form
drag is also formed
Which leads to wastage of energy and hence
fins should be machined properply
Design of Plate Fin
Heat Exchanger
Heat Transfer Correlations for
Plate Fin Exchanger
Pressure Drop
The friction factor is defined on the basis of an equivalent
shear force in the flow direction per unit friction area. This
shear force can be either viscous shear (skin friction) or
pressure force (form drag) or a combination of both.
So without making an attempt to differentiate between
them, it is possible to express them by Fanning friction
factor (f) given by
 Now we
would read interesting
Heat Exchanger ie
printed Circuit Heat
Exchanger
Printed-circuit heat exchangers
(PCHE)
Description of
PCHE
Construction
Fine grooves are made in
the plate by using the same
techniques as those
employed for making
printed electrical circuits
(chemical etching).
The plates are stacked
together and diffusion bonded.
Salient features
Very high surface area
densities (1000-5000m2/m 3)

A variety of materials such

as 316 SS, 316L SS, 304 SS,
904L SS, cupronickel,
monel, nickel, and
superalloys can be used
Flexibility of design and high strength
offered by techniques of construction
Operating limits:
- temperature ranges from -200C to
900C
- pressures up to 500-1000 bar

The typical size of the channels is 1.0 2.0

mm,

Plate size can be up to 1.2- 0.6 m

This exchanger has been
successfully used with
relatively clean gases, liquids,
and phase-change fluids in
chemical processing, fuel
processing, waste heat
recovery, and refrigeration
industries.
Compact Shell-and-Tube Heat
Exchanger

To increase surface area, this equipment

has a large number of small diameter tubes
Summary and
Closing the Topic
of Compact Heat
Exchangers
Advantages and Limitations
Improved energy efficiency
- Closer approach temperatures allows greater
energy
transfer.
Smaller volume and weight
Higher efficiency
Lower cost
Multi-stream and multi-pass configurations
Tighter temperature control
Power savings
Improved safety
Limitations
Lack of industrial awareness
Companies remain aware of technology of CHE
Limited choice
Particularly for high-pressure
Conservatism in the user industries
Process industries are reluctant to adopt what
they may seen either as new technologies.
Susceptibility to fouling
Perception that small passages are likely to
foul.
Cost of compact heat
exchangers
Compact heat exchanger tend to be
cheaper especially when their total
installed cost is considered.

In some cases the materials used to

manufacture is expensive, but when we
consider the cost of unit plus the
installation, the cost is less than equivalent
shell and tube.
Thank Yoiu
Fouling
Crystallization or precipitation
Solutes in the fluid is precipitated and crystals are
formed
Particulate fouling or silting
Solid particles are deposited on the heat transfer surface
Biological fouling
Deposition and growth of organism on surfaces
Corrosion fouling
Carrying of corrosion products from other part of the
system being left on the heat transfer area surface
Chemical reaction fouling
Arises from reactions between constituents in the
process fluids
Freezing or solidification fouling
Occurs when the temperature of a fluid passing through
a heat exchanger becomes too low
Security Aspects
Fouling:
- Use of non-fouling fluids wherever possible is
of course recommended, for example clean air
or gases, light carbons and refrigerants.
- In open systems, check the possible
application of self-cleaning strainers, and the
installation of systems to dose with biocides,
scale inhibitors, etc., to control fouling.
- Use self-cleaning filter if possible
- Consider chemical cleaning. If this is
undertaken, the system must be designed to
allow the introduction and complete removal of
cleaning fluids.
Corrosion:
In some CHEs, the wall thicknesses are less
than in a shell-and-tube heat exchanger, so
corrosion rates and allowances need to be
accessed carefully
Although CHEs are often made from more
corrosion-resistant materials than the shell-
and-tube units, other corrosion mechanisms
such as cracking may occur, and the
compatibility of the material with the fluids in
the CHE should be checked.
Design
Analysis based on and Ntu method

Convection and friction coefficients have been

determined by Kays and London.

Some data of design can be supplied by

manufacturers.

Results for heat transfer and friction factors for

circular tube- circular fin and for circular tubes
continuous fin.
 VA fr m m
G Vmax
Aff Aff Afr
Aff rea mnima flujo libre
Afr rea frontal

jH St Pr 2/3
St h /Gc p
G Vmax
Re GDh /
 VA fr m m
jH St Pr 2/3
G Vmax
A ff A ff A fr St h /Gc p
A ff rea mnima flujo libre
A fr rea frontal
G Vmax
Re GDh /
Environmental Aspects
Energy conservation and environmental
considerations are the driving forces behind
changes aimed at reducing both chemical and
thermal waste.
More efficient use of energy and raw materials
Recovery of heats of reaction
High intensity mixing, enhancing process
selectivity
Minimum risk of runaway reactions
Smaller and cheaper plant
Ability to handle high-pressure reactions
Conclusion
Compact heat exchangers are available in a
wide variety of configurations to suit most
processes heat transfer requirements.
The advantages of CHEs, and associated heat
transfer enhancement techniques, extend far
beyond energy efficiency.
Lower capital cost, reduced plant size, and
increased safety are typical of the benefits
arising from the use of CHEs.
Compact heat exchangers can replace some
normal size heat exchangers bringing
advantages and performance.
Conclusion
This research took a lot of time, since the
specific details of a theme like this take
time to search.
Even though it took time, I really enjoyed
making this presentation.
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