Adamson University

College of Engineering
Chemical Engineering Department

Biochemical Engineering
Homework #4

General instructions:

1. Organize your thoughts and write legibly ( for questions, ENGINEERING LETTERING; solution
is free hand).
2. START EVERY ITEM NUMBER ON A SEPARATE SHEET.
3. Write your answers in a bond paper (8.5” x 13”).
4. Deadline is on February 19, 2018.

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1. (a) furnace wall is constructed of firebrick 15 cm thick. The temperature inside the wall
is 700 °C; the temperature outside is 80 °C. If the thermal conductivity of the brick under
these conditions is 0.3 W/m-K, what is the rate of heat loss through 1.5 m2 of wall
surface? (b) The 1.5-m2 area in part (a) is insulated with 4-cm-thick asbestos with
thermal conductivity 0.1W/m-K. What is the rate of heat loss now?
2. Heat is transferred from one fluid to a second fluid across a metal wall. The film
coefficients are 1.2 and 1.7 kW m-2 K-1. The metal is 6 mm thick and has a thermal
conductivity of 19 W m-1 K-1. On one side of the wall there is a scale deposit with a
fouling factor estimated at 830 W m-2 K-1. What is the overall heat transfer coefficient?
3. Vegetable oil used in the manufacture of margarine needs to be cooled from 105 °C to 55 °C
in a double-pipe heat exchanger. The inlet temperature of the cooling water is 20 °C and
the outlet temperature is 43 °C. All else being equal, what heat transfer area is required
if the heat exchanger is operated with cocurrent flow compared with that required for
countercurrent flow?
4. A fermenter is maintained at 35 °C by water circulating at a rate of 0.5 kg/s in a cooling
coil inside the vessel. The inlet and outlet temperatures of the water are 8 °C and 15 °C,
respectively. The length of the cooling coil is increased by 50%. In order to maintain
the same fermentation temperature, the rate of heat removal must be kept the same.
Determine the new cooling-water flow rate and outlet temperature by carrying out the
following calculations. The heat capacity of the cooling water can be taken as 4.18 kJ kg
-1
°C-1.
(a) From a steady-state energy balance on the cooling water, calculate the rate of
cooling with the original coil.
(b) Determine the mean temperature difference ΔT with the original coil.
(c) Evaluate UA for the original coil.
(d) If the length of the coil is increased by 50%, the area available for heat transfer,
A’, is also increased by 50% so that A’=1.5A. The value of the overall heat transfer
coefficient is not expected to change very much. For the new coil, what is the value of
UA?
(e) Estimate the new cooling-water outlet temperature.
(f) By how much are the cooling water requirements reduced after the new coil is
installed?
5. A fermenter of diameter 4 m and height 8 m is being constructed for production of
riboflavin using Eremothecium ashbyii. The rate of metabolic heat generation is expected
to be 520 kW, with an additional power input by stirring of 1 metric horsepower per 1000
litres of broth. The optimum fermentation temperature is 29 °C. The fermenter will be
cooled using a stainless steel cooling coil with inner pipe diameter 4.2 cm and wall
thickness 7 mm. Cooling water at 14 °C is available at a rate of 50 m3 h-1. The
fermentation broth is stirred using an impeller of diameter 1.9 m at a speed of 50 rpm.
The broth has the following properties: Cp=4.0 kJ kg-1 °C21, kfb=0.62W m-1 °C-1, ρ=103 kg m-3,
and μb=0.05 Pa s. The specific heat capacity of the cooling water is 4.2 kJ kg-1 °C-1, the
density and viscosity are 103 kg m-3 and 10-3 kg m-1 s-1, respectively, and the thermal
conductivity is 0.66 W m-1 °C-1. The thermal conductivity of the stainless steel pipe is 17W
m-1 °C-1. A fouling factor of 2.5 kW m-2 °C-1 is expected. Design an appropriate cooling coil
for this fermentation by answering the following questions.
(a) What is the exit cooling water temperature?
(b) What is the value of the fermenter-side heat transfer coefficient? Assume that the
viscosity at the wall of the coil is 15% higher than the bulk fluid viscosity.
(c) What is the value of the tube-side heat transfer coefficient?
(d) What is the overall heat transfer coefficient?
(e) What fraction of the overall heat transfer resistance is due to the tube-side liquid
film?
(f) What fraction of the overall heat transfer resistance is due to the stainless steel
pipe?
(g) What fraction of the overall heat transfer resistance is due to fouling?
(h) What is the temperature-difference driving force for this system?
(i) What heat transfer area is required?
(j) What length of cooling-water pipe is required?
(k) The cooling coil must be wound into a helix before fitting into the fermenter. It is
planned to mount the coil by attaching it to the baffles. As the baffle width is one-
tenth the tank diameter, the diameter of the helix will be around 3.2 m. How many
coils will be formed?
(l) The coils must be spaced at least 10 cm apart to allow cleaning and to reduce the
dampening effect of the coil on fluid velocity in the vessel. Will the cooling coil
fit into the fermenter?