INTRODUCTION

The heat exchangers used by chemical engineers cannot be characterized by any one design;
indeed, the varieties of such equipment are endless. However, the one characteristic common to most
heat exchangers is the transfer to heat from a hot phase to a cold phase with the two phases being
separated by a solid boundary.

In the process industries, the transfer of heat between to fluids is generally done in heat
exchangers. A heat exchanger is a device that allows heat from a fluid (a liquid or a gas) to pass to a
second fluid (another liquid or gas) without the two fluids having to mix together or come into direct
contact.

HISTORY

 The first known heat exchangers for homes were simply rocks placed in a fire. The rocks
would store the heat from the fire and could then be moved inside of a hut or small tent to
warm the interior without fear of burning it down. The heat that was being lost from the fire
was captured by the heat transfer surface, the rock, and used to heat the inside of the
residence. This same method of thought led to the development of the hot water bottle.

 The first “central” home heating was invented by the Romans, though there is evidence that
the Indians may have been using this “hypocaust” technology up to two millennia earlier.
The premise involved a basement room located under the main floor. The floor was made
with cement sandwiched between layers of tiles on the top and bottom. Space was left for hot
air and smoke from fires in the basement to travel through the flooring so heat could radiate
up into the room. The same technology was used to heat the public baths.

 Koreans used a similar technology, called Ondol heating, for the last thousand years. With
the Ondol heaters, hot air and smoke would be channeled from the wood fires used for
cooking into pipes run under the floors.

 After 1700 years, a Frenchman, Jean Simon Bonnemain, usehd a hot water system to help
with the incubation of chicken eggs.

 In the 1800s, the Marquis de Chabannes used a similar technology to heat a sort of
greenhouse for growing grapes.

 In 1829, the Price brothers introduced hot water and steam heating to England and patented a
system for home heating.

CLASSIFICATION OF HEAT EXCHANGERS BY FLOW CONFIGURATION

There are four basic flow configurations:

1.Countercurrent Flow - This type of flow arrangement allows the largest change in temperature of
both fluids and is therefore most efficient (where efficiency is the amount of actual heat transferred
compared with the theoretical maximum amount of heat that can be transferred).
2.Cocurrent Flow - In cocurrent flow heat exchangers, the streams flow parallel to each other and in the
same direction as shown, This is less efficient than countercurrent flow but does provide more uniform
wall temperatures.

3. Crossflow - Crossflow heat exchangers are intermediate in efficiency between countercurrent flow
and parallel flow exchangers. In these units, the streams flow at right angles to each other as shown
below.

4. Hybrids such as Cross Counterflow and Multi Pass Flow - In industrial heat exchangers, hybrids of the
above flow types are often found. Examples of these are combined crossflow/counterflow heat
exchangers and multi pass flow heat exchangers.

TYPES OF HEAT EXCHANGERS

1. Double-pipe Heat exchanger

Double-pipe heat exchanger is perhaps the simplest of all heat exchanger types. Double-pipe heat
exchangers are also known as hairpin, jacketed pipe, jacketed U-tube and concentric pipe. These styles
of double pipe may have a bundle of inner tubes rather than a single tube. The double pipe heat
exchanger is essentially two concentric pipes with one fluid flowing through the center pipe while the
other fluid moves cocurrently or counter currently in the annular space. The light of each section is
usually limited to standard pipe length, so that an appreciable heat transfer surface is required banks of
sections are frequently used.
DISADVANTAGES

1. If the area is too large, a double pipe exchanger is not recommended.

2. Flow pattern is strictly counterflow; there is no cross flow.
3. As units are added on the possibility of leakage increases because of the number of connections
increases.

ADVANTAGES

1. The use of double pipe heat exchanger is not limited to liquid-liquid heat exchange but may also
be used for gas-liquid exchange and for gas-gas exchange.
2. Suited to high pressure applications.
3. Standardization, simplifies maintenance, servicing and stocking of parts.

2. Shell and Tube heat exchanger

In this type of heater or cooler, large heat transfer surface can be achieved economically and practically
by placing tubes in a bundle; the ends of a tube are mounted in a tube sheet. This is very commonly
accomplished by expanding the end of the tube into a close-fitting hole in the tube sheet by a process
called “Rolling”. The resultant tube bundle is then enclosed by a cylindrical casing (the shell), through
which the second fluid flows around and through the tube bundle.

ADVANTAGES

1. When the required heat transfer surface is large, the recommended type of exchanger is the
shell-and-tube variety.

DISADVANTAGE

1. Complexity in design sometimes results in expense in fabrication that must be balanced against
improved performance.
2. Added frictional loss due to higher linear velocities and entrance and exit losses in the headers.

USES

Shell and tube heat exchangers are frequently selected for applications such as:

1. Process liquid or gas cooling

2. Process or refrigerant vapour or steam condensing
3. Process liquid, steam or refrigerant evaporation
4. Process heat removal and preheating of feed water
5. Thermal energy conservation efforts, heat recovery
6. Compressor, turbine and engine cooling, oil and jacket water
7. Hydraulic and lube oil cooling

3. Extended-Surface Heat exchangers

If heat exchange is occurring between two fluids, where one fluid has a very high resistance to heat
transfer in comparison to other, the higher resistance fluid “controls” the rate of heat transfer. Such
cases occur, for example, in the heating of air by stream or in the heating of a very viscous oil, flowing in
laminar flow, by a molten salt mix.

HEAT EXHCHANGERS IN THE INDUSTRY

Heat exchangers are widely used in industry both for cooling and heating large scale industrial
processes. The type and size of heat exchanger used can be tailored to suit a process depending on the
type of fluid, its phase, temperature, density, viscosity, pressures, chemical composition and various
other thermodynamic properties.
  Heat exchangers are used in many industries, including:
 Waste water treatment
 Refrigeration
 Wine and beer making
 Petroleum refining
 nuclear power

In waste water treatment, heat exchangers play a vital role in maintaining optimal temperatures
within anaerobic digesters to promote the growth of microbes that remove pollutants. Common types
of heat exchangers used in this application are the double pipe heat exchanger as well as the plate and
frame heat exchanger.