HOMEWORK #2: Stirred tank

heat exchanger
Tecnolgico de Monterrey Campus Puebla
Bioprocesses Engineering II BT2012
Group 1: 1:00 pm-2:30 pm
Profesor: Dra. Claudia Martnez,

Team:
Miguel Ojeda Milln
Kayra Castillo Cruz
Juan Carlos Lpez Medina
Karla Daniela Castaeda Bocanegra

A01099203
A01324805
A01324506
A01099639

Date: March 01, 2016

Applications
Stirred tanks or agitated vessels have a wide range of applications in the chemical process
industry, in this type of heat exchanger one fluid or both fluids may be mixed in such way
that the distribution of temperature becomes uniform in the whole fluid. This is achieved with
a mechanical device known as stirrer or agitator (Sarit, 2005).

Some of the industries involving the use of a stirred tank heat exchanger include the
downstream processing of petrochemicals, polymers and chemicals such as oil additives,
expandable polystyrenes and synthetic fibers (Bondy, 2010). Other examples include phenolformaldehyde resin manufacture, sugar inversion, juice making in the food industry and
bioreactors. A bioreactor is generally assembled with a jacket or coil to maintain an
enzymatic reaction temperature because of the thermolabile properties of the products, to
remove the extra heat, or to hold an exothermic or endothermic reaction at constant
temperature. The increase in the temperature is due to the stirring action in the chemical or
biological reactors. Control the reaction temperature avoid thermal runaway reactions or to
suppress endothermic by-product reactions (Anxionnaz et al.)
Advantages
For highly corrosive or highly reactive materials, a jacket has the advantage that there are no
extra materials of construction and no extra metal surface in contact with the process other
than the normal vessel wall. There is also less risk of cooling fluid coming into contact with
the reaction mass, that minimizes the contamination factor in case of using biological
material for example in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals. When using a coil a large
surface area of heat transfer can be provided. (Carpenter, 2011)
Disadvantages
Using a cooling or heating jacket sometimes represents a lower heat transfer performance
than a coil as there will be a lower process side coefficient, usually a greater wall thickness,
and a smaller surface area. A jacket may also require a higher service side flow. For
exothermic reactions, a jacketed vessel has the disadvantage that the area/volume ratio
decreases with increasing scale.
Design equations
Reynolds number
NDi

V
where, N=rps (revolution per second) of the agitator
Di=impeller diameter
V=kinematic viscosity of the fluid
Heat transfer with non proximity agitators
c
N u=K aa Pbr b x (geometrical expression)
w

( )

Heat transfer with proximity agitators

Helical ribbon type impeller
For laminar flow 1<Re<1000 at the jacket wall

N u=4.2 1/a 3 Pr 1/ 3

b
w

0.2

( )

In turbulent regime Re>1000 the equation reads as

N u=1.5 1a/2 Pr1 /3

b
w

0.14

b
w

0.14

( )

Anchor type agitator

N u=1.5 1a/2 Pr1 /3

NTU =

( )

Ui A
p
mC

Roetzel and Spang presented correlation for temperature effectiveness of one side
stirred tank as

1
1
=R1 +
P1
1eNTUi
Two sided tank

P 1=

NTU
1+ NTUi (1+ Ri)

Heat transfer for steady state

Q=U ( T 1T 3 ) A
Where, T1=Temperature in the tank
T3=Temperature of the steam trap outlet
A= area of the tank
Heat transfer coefficient
1/ 3

h0=2960 ( D T , o /m st )
Where D T , o is the tank diameter and mst

is the mass flow rate of steam, can be found

be calculating the volume of steam condensate collected per time interval

hi=

1 1
+
U h0

Design Considerations
While carrying out the thermal design of a stirred tank, the following objectives are to be
obtained, according to Sarit, K. D. (2005).
To transfer required amount of heat.
To perform other sought operation.
To store the fluid.
In order to achieve this objectives, the next parameters need to be considered on the design of
the vessel:
Selection of the agitator geometry, based on the viscosity and reynolds of the fluid.
Selection of the tank, jackets and internals, based on the power needed and the type of
agitators chosen.
Calculation of the agitator size and power requirement for it.

 Calculation of the heat transfer areas.

Carrying out the mechanical design of the components.

Image: Steps for the thermal design of a stirred tank heat exchanger.
References
Anxionnaz, Z., Cabassus, M., & Gourdon, C. (n.d.). Heat exchanger/reactors (HEX
reactors): Concepts, technologies:State-of-the-art. Connecting Repositories, 20302049.
Bondy, F. (2010). Agitated Vessel Heat Transfer Design. Obtenido de Carmagen:
http://www.carmagen.com/news/engineering_articles/news134.htm
Carpenter, K. J. (2 de february de 2011). Agitated vessel heat transfer. Obtenido de
Thermopedia: http://www.thermopedia.com/content/547/
Sarit, K. D. (2005). Process Heat Transfer. Chennai, India: Alpha Science
International .