What is a shell and tube heat exchanger?
Shell and tube heat exchanger is a device for heat exchange between one or more heat carriers. The radiators can be separated by tubes or plates to prevent mixing or direct contact between the heat carriers.
Heat exchanger between two media:
- Liquid-liquid.
- Gas (vapor)- gas (vapor).
- Liquid – gas (vapors)
Heat exchanger application
A shell and tube heat exchanger is important equipment and is widely common in many different fields. The following are common applications of heat exchangers:
- Firstly, ship technology
- Secondly, steam heating
- vacuum condensing
- Also, camshaft oil cooling
- seawater central cooling
- Finally, oil cooling.
Chemical technology in shell and tube heat exchanger
Shell and tube heat exchangers are commonly common in chemical plants and oil refineries to heat the feed to distillation towers. Heat exchangers are commonly common in power plants, which use steam-driven turbines to boil water into steam.
- Common to make EO/EG heat exchanger, VOC condenser.
- High pressure and high-temperature waste heat recovery system.
- Ethanol condensing system, heats, cools, and condenses a variety of liquids
- For instance, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, acrylic acid, fatty acids.
The industrial refrigeration system of heat exchanger:
- Firstly, evaporating or condensing NH3, R32, and R407 refrigerant gas
- Central water heating system, equipment to create hot water quickly using steam.
- Also, the Inter concept building depressurized uses a heat exchanger.
- Chiller Heat Recovery System.
- Solar system heat exchanger, heat pump.
More benefits of shell and tube heat exchanger
Shell and Tube Heat exchangers have quite a few different uses and functions so the possibilities for this device are endless.
- Paper technology: Waste heat recovery, paper coloring, etc.
- Heat exchangers are commonly common in food and beverage technology.
- Also, it can be common for pasteurization, sterilization, and preservation of food.
- Textile technology: Heat recovery in the washing and washing process.
- Also, common for cooling of ammonia, benzene, heat recovery of CO2 evaporation.
- Power industry: heat exchanger common to cool turbine oil using lake water, spring water.
- Moreover, the heat exchanger in the solar system.
Common types of heat exchangers
Beam tube shell and tube heat exchanger
One of the most widely common forms of heat exchanger in all industries, an estimated 60% of the world's heat exchangers today are tubular heat exchangers. The device consists of a bundle of tubes inside through which a liquid needs to be heated or cooled.
Beam tube heat exchangers are commonly common for applications requiring high working pressures and temperatures. The shell and tube heat exchange medium can be liquid, gas, gas, or vapor.
The beam tube heat exchanger depends on several factors:
- Firstly, using small pipes will reduce costs, compact equipment.
- Secondly, it will be difficult to clean and dirty.
- Also, pipe thickness is decided on heat transfer coefficient and abrasion.
- Moreover, pipe length, the distance between pipes, baffles
- The flow in a beam tube shell and tube heat exchanger can be unidirectional, horizontal, or helical.
Plate shell and tube heat exchanger
It is a type of device that uses metal plates to transfer heat between two liquids. This has a major advantage over a conventional Shell and tube heat exchanger. The device offers large heat exchanger efficiency and small size compared to the beam tube type heat exchanger.
Plate and tube heat exchangers are mainly common for low-pressure operating fluids (below 30bar). Some special plate heat exchangers using welded joints can be common for high-pressure applications where the medium is gas or steam.
Some mediums of plates shell and tube heat exchanger
Plate heat exchangers are mainly common for liquids operating at low pressures (below 30bar). Some special plate heat exchangers using welded joints can be common for high-pressure applications where the medium is gas or steam.
- Firstly, plate heat exchangers use a gasket.
- Secondly, semi-welded plate heat exchanger.
- Also, sealed plate heat exchanger.
- Spiral heat exchanger.
- Finally, lat plate heat exchanger.
Shell and Tube Heat exchanger concept
A shell and tube heat exchanger is a device common to exchange heat between one or more coolants. Refrigerants may be separated by plates to prevent mixing or direct contact between refrigerants.
A heat exchanger can also be called a condenser, or cooler, heater, or dryer (depending on the intended use). There, the mediums (liquid or gas-vapor) exchange heat with each other not directly, but through intermediate compartments and walls.
Common types of condenser
From the structure of the compartments, the intermediate wall is divided into the corresponding condenser types. There may be the following common types of condenser:
- Firstly, air cooler type heat exchanger
- Secondly, shell and tube heat exchangers in the form of coils, cages
- Also, beam tube heat exchanger (re-divided name according to shape and use)
- Plate heat exchangers (hermetically sealed, gasket type, semi-welded type)
- Finally, a gas-gas heat exchanger (air drying, waste heat recovery.
Common heating and cooling methods
The production system that needs cooling and heating in the shell and tube heat exchanger includes:
- Hydraulic oil, air compressor cooling oil, IPA oil, teeth, bearings, etc.
- Air conditioning hot rig - Cluster of tubes in the condenser, the evaporator in the chiller.
- Cleaning and plating chemicals common in the plating, packaging, and paint industries.
- Translation, beer, wine, beverage during fermentation.
- Milk, drug production.
- Cooling for the engine system in the field of ships.
- The boiler system provides direct heat in the factory.
1/Advantages and defects of Air cooling shell and tube heat exchanger
The system of air-cooled shell and tube heat exchangers is simple; easy to install the capacity of the air-cooled heat exchanger is 1.5 times lower than that of the water-cooled heat exchanger
The system is located near the machine; in the factory, waste heat => air conditioner works more => consumes electricity. High power consumption wind cooling condenser: Loss of electrical energy 2 times: Once for the pump. One for fan motor
2/ Advantages of water cooling using a spiral tube heat exchanger
Advantages of water cooling system using spiral tube shell and tube heat exchanger:
- Use the water available from the cooling tower.
- The fan motor is not common further.
- Saving electrical energy compared to the Air Cooling Heat Exchanger
- Lower cost than wind condenser
Disadvantages of spiral tube heat exchanger:
- Low power range.
- The size will increase rapidly with increasing capacity
- The life of the condenser is low
- Dirty water entering the pipe can cause sedimentation, precipitation, and blockage.
- Spiral tubular heat exchangers are less effective due to the helical structure
3/ Advantages of water cooling, using a beam tube heat exchanger
Advantages of tubular shell and tube heat exchangers:
- Firstly, larger heat exchanger capacity ranges than Spiral Tubular heat exchanger.
- Secondly, cool water available from the cooling tower can be common.
- Also, saving electricity compared to the wind cooling system.
- Withstand high pressure.
- Finally, easy to integrate with control system
Disadvantages of tubular heat exchangers:
- Using an input cold source that is unfiltered, untreated water will produce rust.
- Due to the tubular structure, dirt adheres to the pipe wall very quickly.
- Difficult to clean the sediment due to the complex structure.
- Shell and tube heat exchanger capacity decreases when the number of rust increases
- Short life due to ineffective cleaning
- Moreover, high cleaning costs (chemicals, labor)
- Finally, higher cost than Plate heat exchangers in the same capacity range
