ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I thank Mr. M.Ravi, Senior Manager, Utilities Department of

Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and Visakhapatnam for his valuable guidance
throughout the project by clarifying doubts and extending his full support
every time with his valuable suggestions and constant encouragement which
provoked a consistency in my thoughts which made me meticulous completes
my project.

I extend my sincere thanks to my belovedMr. K.SAM BABU,

AGM,Utilities Department for his generous support and his guidance to my
work.I had really astonished with the project that I had taken today which
made me infused.
(ATHULURI VAMSI RAM,

NIT DURGAPUR)

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 ABSTRACT

In today’s world where science and technology is advancing at

its peaks man is trying to gain a complete on every aspect of resource that is
available in this nature. The human civilization is the most prosperous civilization
in which man can learn in effective utilization many natural resources. Now in my
project where come across the Separation of Atmospheric air in utilization of
various process by separating them into Nitrogen, Oxygen and Argon where they
can be further used in many another applications.

My present project is in the Air Separation Plant of Utilities

Department where initially we could learn about the separation of Atmospheric air
by various Mechanical devices available for its separation like compressors,
turbines, reactors and heat exchangers. Since a heat exchanger plays a vital role in
manipulating the temperatures in an Air Separation Plant.

So, I chose to take Heat Exchangers Design as a project for more

knowledge. The E43 Heat Exchanger is of more cumbersome to maintain and we
had employed a new methods to see that the problems that are prevailing in that
Heat exchanger are rectified to the best innovative arrangement.

Argon is one of the precious and expensive gas available in little amount i.e.,
0.99% in atmospheric air, used in production of steel. As we know that production
of argon gas involves in several heat transfers and our project focuses on the Heat
Exchanger named E43 (Argon Gas Cooler) was facilitating several problems. The
problems that are encountered in this heat exchanger are stated below:
1. Load on refrigeration unit.
2. Corrosion
3. Cleaning Of tubes

In order to overcome the above stated problems in E43 exchanger a new design is
made to replace the present heat exchanger with revised specifications.

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CONTENTS PAGE NO

 THE ORGANIZATION

 INTRODUCTION TO AIR SEPARATION PLANT

 FLOW DIAGRAM

 PROCESS OF AIR SEPARATION PLANT

 ARGON UNIT PROCESS

 HEAT EXCHANGERS

 CONCLUSION

 BIBLOGRAPHY

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page 3

ABOUT THE ORGANISATION
Visakhapatnam Steel Plant-General Features
Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), the first coastal based steel plant of India is
located to 16 km south west of city of destiny i.e. Visakhapatnam. Bestowed with
modern technologies, VSP has an installed capacity of 3 million tons per annum of
liquid steel and 2.656million tones of saleable steel. At VSP there is emphasis on
total automation, seamless integration and efficient upgradation, which result in
wide range of long and structural products to meet stringet demands of discerning
customers within India and abroad.

VSP products meet exalting international quality standards such as JIS, DIN,
BIS, BS etc.

VSP has become the first integrated steel plant in the country to be certified to all
the three international standards for quality (ISO-9001), for environment
management (ISO-14001) &for occupational health & safety (OHSAS-18001).the
certificate covers quality systems of all operational, maintenance, service units
besides purchase systems, training and marketing functions spreading over 4
regional marketing offices, 20 branch offices and 22 stock yards located all over
the country.

VSP by successfully installing & operating efficiently Rs.460 Crores worth of

pollution Control and environment control equipments and converting the barren
landscape by planting more than 3 million plants has made the steel plant, steel
township and surrounding areas into a heaven of green . This has made Steel
Township a greener, cleaner and cooler place, which can boast of 3° to 4°C lesser
temperature even in the peak summer compared to Visakhapatnam city.

Background:
On 17 April 1970, the then prime minister of India, Late Mrs. Indira Gandhi
announced the government's decision in the Parliament to establish a steel plant at
Visakhapatnam. The activities kicked off by appointing site selection committee in
June 1970 and subsequently the committee‘s report was approved for site. On 20

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January 1971 she laid the foundation stone. Consultants were appointed in
February 1971, and feasibility reports were submitted in 1972. The first block of
land was taken over on 7 April 1974. M/s M.N. Dastur& Co was appointed as the
consultant for preparing the detailed Project report in April 1975 and in October
1977 they have submitted the report for 3.4 Mtpa of liquid steel.

With the offer for assistance from government of erstwhile USSR, a

revised project concept was evolved. Detailed Project Report for a plant capacity
of 3.4 Mtpa was prepared by M/s M.N. Dastur& Co in November 1980. In
February 1981 the contract was signed with USSR for preparation of working
drawings for coke ovens, Blast Furnace and Sinter Plant. The blast furnace
foundation was laid with first mass concreting in the project in January 1982. The
construction of township also started.

A new company RashtriyaIspat Nigam Limited (RINL) was formed

on 18 February 1982. Visakhapatnam Steel Plant was separated from SAIL and
RINL was made the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant in April 1982.

Vizag Steel Plant is the only Indian shore-based steel plant, and it has massive
land, up to 19,000 acres (7,700 ha), and is poised to become up to 20 MT in a
single campus and turnover in 2011-2012 was 14,457Crores. On 20 May 2009
Honorable Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched the expansion project of
Visakhapatnam Steel Plant from a capacity of 3.6MT to 6.3MT at a cost of Rs.
8,692 Crores.

The expansion project is expected to become functional by 2012.it

has been rated for consecutive five years that it would be

“THE BEST PLACE TO WORK IN INDIA"

Infrastructure

1. Coke Ovens and Coal Chemical Plant

2. Sinter Plant
3. Blast Furnace
4. Steel Melt Shop and Continuous Casting
5. Light and Medium Merchant Mill

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 6. Medium Merchant and Structural Mill
7. Wire Rod Mill
8. Steel Melt Shop
Location:
The plant is located on the coast of Bay of Bengal and about 16 km to the south
west of Visakhapatnam Port. It lies between the northern boundaries of National
Highway No.5. To the south of the Howrah Madras Railway Line.

Climate:
Visakhapatnam has warm and humid climate. April to June is hot and December to
February to February are pretty cold months. The city benefits from the Southwest
Monsoons (June to September) & Northeast Monsoon (October to December). The
average rainfall is 37.8° C.

Product Mix:
VSP is producing angles, channels, bars, wire-rods and billets for re-rolling. The
plant also produces pig iron and 1.44 million tons per annum of granulated also,
besides normal by-products from Coke Oven and by-product plant.
Modern Technologies

Modern technology has been adopted in many areas of production, some of them
for the first time in the country.

They are shortlisted below:

1. Selective crushing of coal.
2. 7-metre tall Coke Ovens.
3. Dry Quenching of coke.
4. On ground blending of sinter base mix.
5. Conveyor charging and bell less top for blast furnace.
6. 100% Continuous Casting of liquid steel.
7. Gas expansion turbine for power generation utilizing Blast Furnace
top gas pressure.
8. Hot metal de-Sulphurization

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 9. Extensive treatment facilities of effluents for ensuring proper
disposal.
10. Environment protection
11. Computerization for process control
12. Sophisticated, high speed and high production rolling mills.

Design & Engineering:

The soviet design organization, Gipromez designed the Coke Oven and
byproduct plant, Sinter Plant and Blast Furnace. Mecon of Ranchi engineered the
7-metre tall Coke Oven batteries with dry quenching. Dastur Co., who was the
principal consultants for VSP, engineered the remaining facilities.

Raw Material Linkages:

The Steel plant gets its supply Iron ore, Limestone, coking coal, dolomite,
Manganese ore and finally the Steam coal from different parts of the country and
has its sources tabulated for easy reference in a tabular form below

Raw materials used in the steel manufacturing are:

S.No Name of the Raw Material Used Source of the material

1. Iron ore Lumps Bailadila

2. Iron ore Fines Bailadila
3. Limestone- BF Grade Jaggayyapeta Captive Mine
4 Limestone –SMS Grade Import/ Indigenous
5. Dolomite- BF Grade Birmitrapur
6. Dolomite-SMS Grade Mahakam
7. Manganese Ore Chipurupalli, Sandar
8. Coking Coal (Prime indigenous) Pootkee, Bhalgora
9. Coking Coal (Prime Imported) Vizag Port
10. Coking Coal (Medium) GidiRamgarh
11. Steam Coal Ananta Deposit of Talcher

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MAJOR DEPARTMENT
1. Raw Material Handling Plant (RMHP)

VSP annually requires quality raw materials viz. Iron ore, fluxes, coking
and non-coking coals etc to the tune of 12-13 million tons for producing 3 Million
tones of liquid steel.

2. Coke ovens and Coal chemical Plant (Co &CCP)

Coke is manufactured by heating of crushed coking coal in the absence of air at a
temperature of 1000C and above for about 16 to18 hours.

The coal chemicals such as Benzole, Ammonium sulphate etc. are

extracted in coal chemical plant from CO gas. After recovering the coal chemicals
the gas is used as a byproduct fuel by mixing it with gases such as BF gas, LD gas
etc. A mechanical, biological & chemical treatment plant takes care of the
effluents.

3. Sinter Plant (SP)

Sinter is a better feed material to blast furnace in comparison to iron ore

lumps and its usage in blast furnaces help in increasing productivity, decreasing
the coke rate & improving the quality of hot metal produced.

4. Blast Furnace (BF)

Raw materials are charged from the top and hot blast at 1100C-1300C and
5.75 KSCG pressure is blown almost from the bottom.

5. Steel Melting Shop (SMS)

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 Steel is an alloy of iron with carbon upto 1.8%.Hot metal produced in blast
furnaces contains impurities such as carbon (3.5-4.25), silicon (0.4-0.5%),
manganese (0.3-0.4%), sulphur (0.04%) and phosphorous (0.14%) is not suitable
as a common engineering material. To improve the quality the impurities are to be
eliminated or decreased by oxidation process

During the process heat is generated by exothermic reactions of oxidation

of metalloids viz. Si, Mn, P, and carbon and temperature rises to 1700C enabling
refining & slag formation.

6. Continuous Casting Department (CCD)

Continuous casting may be defined as teaming of liquid steel in a
mould with a false bottom through which partially solidified ingot/bar is
continuously withdrawn at the same rate at which liquid steel is teamed in the
mould.Entire quantity of molten steam produced (100%) is continuously cast in
radial bloom casters which help in energy conservation as well as production of
superior quality products.

7. Light & Medium Merchant Mill (LMMM)

The billets for rolling in bar mill of LMMM are first heated in 2 strand
roller heater furnace of 200 T/h capacity to temperature of 1150-1200C.

The mill is facilitated with temperature core heat treatment technology

evaporative cooling system in walking beam furnaces, automated piling &
bundling facilities, high degree of automation and computerization.

8. Wire Rod Mill (WRM)

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 The mill is equipped with standard and retarded stelmore lines for
producing high quality wire rods in low, medium & high carbon grade meeting the
stringent National & International standards viz. BIS, DIN,JIS,BS etc and having
high ductility, uniform grain size, excellent surface finish.

INTRODUCTION TO AIR SEPARATION

PLANT
AIR SEPARATION PLANT
Air separation plant is one of the major auxiliary units and is adjusted
to meet maximum daily demand of gaseous oxygen, gaseous argon. The plant has
the provision for the production of liquid nitrogen and the liquid oxygen for
storage and utilization during the period of shut down of plat. The plant has three
air separation units, which produce 500 tons per day of oxygen (supplied M/s
BHPV).

MAJOR CONSUMERS:
Total requirement of oxygen and nitrogen and argon all over the plant
for three million tons stage is 24,248 Nm³/hr, 58500 Nm³/hr and 100Nm³/hr
respectively. Out of the steel melting shop (SMS) requires 97.3% of oxygen for LD
convertors blowing and LD vessel heating. 65.47% of nitrogen produced is
consumed by blast furnace and casting department requirement for homogenization
of steel is 93.75%.

The basic principle of main constituents of air i.e.,

oxygen (boiling pt is -182.8°C at 1atm pressure) and nitrogen (boiling pt is -
195.7°C at 1atm pressure) that is carried out by liquefying the air and separating by
utilization the boiling point difference for distillation.

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Process of air seperation plant:
The compressed air, delivered by one turbo compressor c1,c2,c3,c4 at a
temperature of 45°C, cooled down to 10°C in the tower E10. The air water tower
E10 uses water coming from to general circuit and cool down in the nitrogen –
water tower E11 by means of refrigeration contained in waste nitrogen coming
from cold box. A refrigeration unit X01 on this water circuit brings additional
refrigeration make-up, so that the temperature of the water is brought down to 5°C,
before the water enters the air-water E10. At the outlet of this cooling system, the
air passes through a drying and carbon dioxide removal unit composed of two
bottles (R01 and R02) filled with aluminum in the bottom and molecular sieves at
the two [the air flow going from bottom to top. Moisture is adsorbed by alumina
and carbon dioxide by molecular sieves. One of the two vessels is in operation
while the other is reactivated by waste nitrogen coming from the cold box. The
total cycle is 10hrs (5 hrs adsorption and 5 hrs regeneration) with 10 at the inlet of
bottles. Then the compressed air, dry and carbon dioxide free, and then enter the
cold box. It is cooled by the exchanger in counter current with the gaseous
products of the separation (oxygen and nitrogen) in the main exchanger E01-E02.
The air water tower E10 uses water coming from to general circuit and cooled
down in the nitrogen-water E11 by means of refrigeration contained in waste
nitrogen from the cold box.

A part of the air is taken at an intermediate point of the exchangers and sent
to centrifugal expansion turbine (D01 or D02) equipped with a brake generator to
provide the necessary refrigeration to make-up for the thermal losses of the cold-
box (the energy recovered in the brake generator is sent to the high voltage (6.6
kV) net work of the plant). The adiabatic expansion in D01/D02 down to
approximately atmospheric pressure provides the main part of the refrigeration
required by the plant.

The other part is cooled in E01/E02 and sent to the bottom of the medium pressure
column K01 to perform the first separation. In the column K01, the up flowing gas
becomes enriched with nitrogen condensation in the vaporizer/condenser E03
located at the top of the column.

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From top to bottom, the medium pressure column K01 gives the following
products:

 Pure liquid nitrogen.

 Poor liquid with low oxygen content used as reflux on the top of the low-
pressure column K02 after passing through sub cooler E05 and expansion
in a valve.
 Rich liquid at the bottom, a liquid containing about 40% oxygen sent to
the low pressure column K02 after passing through exchanger E04 and
expansion in a valve.

The up flowing gas in the low pressure column K02 is the gas vaporized in
the Vaporizer/ condenser E03 located at the bottom of this column, this exchanger
E03 is called main vaporizer, and vaporizes liquid oxygen at the low pressure by
condensation of the medium nitrogen in K01. The rich liquid sub-cooler E04
makes it possible for the liquid oxygen to flow through filter (R03 or R04) by a
thermo siphon effect. This extra filtration permits to avoid abnormal accumulation
of dangerous products in the oxygen bath in case of accidental passage of
impurities.

The low pressure column K02 gives:

 At the bottom, oxygen at a purity of 99.5%. Part of this liquid oxygen is sent
directly at the outlet of the cold box for storage. The other part is vaporized
in the air liquefier E06, and then heated in the main exchangers line E02-
E01.
 At the top, waste nitrogen, which is heated in the main exchangers, line E02-
E01. The pure nitrogen column K03 is located above the low pressure
column K02, and gives at its top pure gaseous nitrogen at 99.9% purity,
which is also heated in the main exchangers line E02- E01. For recovery of
argon, a gaseous flow is picked up from the low –pressure column K02 at a
point where argon content is about the maximum possible. This fraction is
taken the bottom of the crude argon column K02. The gaseous fraction
called “crude argon” contains normally 2-3% oxygen and small amount
nitrogen. Oxygen is eliminated at a low temperature.

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 The crude argon is warmed to ambient temperature exchanger E41 by exchange
with oxygen-purified mixture. Then crude argon is compressed to about 5kg/cm2.
After injection of right amount of hydrogen, then it passes through the catalytic
reactor R10 filled with special catalyst where hydrogen reacts with the oxygen
contain in the mixture to form water. At the outlet to form water. At the outlet of
the catalyst reactor R10 the gas contain less than 2ppm of oxygen but contains
water has moisture, and its temperature is about 400. By atmospheric cooler (E42),
water cooler (E43) and refrigeration unit (X10), the temperature of the gas
decrease to about 5 before entering the water separator (B11), where condensed
water is drained. Then oxygen purified mixture is dried in a drying bottle (R11 or
R12) while the other is reactivated by the dry heated argon. The fraction used for
reactivation is sent back , after expansion, to the suction of the crude argon
compressor (C40).

The dry fraction leaving the drying bottle (R11 or R12) is cooled down in
exchanger (E41) to its dew point and liquefies in condenser (E45A) at medium
pressure. After being expanded through a valve, the liquid is sent to column (K11),
and the gaseous fraction produced by expansion containing the main part of excess
hydrogen is warmed in exchanger (E41), and sent to the suction of the crude argon
compressor.

The column (K11) is the final element for argon purification. It is fed at the
mid part by liquid argon mixture containing nitrogen and a small amount of
hydrogen. This column operates between a condenser (E46) fed by a poor liquid,
and the vaporizer (E45). The pure liquid argon boiling at the bottom of the column
(K11) is drawn off as pure liquid argon product.

BRIEF PROCESS:
Air sucked from the atmosphere through a pulse type filter where the
dust is removed and then compressed to 7.4 KSCA (kg per sq cm absolute). This
air is pre-cooled in air water tower to 10°C and sent to purification unit for removal
of moisture, carbon dioxide and other hydrocarbons.

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 The purified through the main heat exchanger where it is cooled to
its dew point, currently without the going product i.e, oxygen, nitrogen and waste
nitrogen from the rectification column. A part of air is taken at an intermediate at
an intermediate point and expanded in an expansion turbine to provide necessary
cold to compensate the thermal losses of the system. The air from the exchangers
will be sent to distillation system, which separates air in to oxygen, nitrogen and
argon.

For the production of argon, a gaseous flow is picked at the suitable

point in the upper column of the distillation system (where argon contents are
maximum) and sent to crude argon rectification column to produce crude oxygen
containing 2 to 3% oxygen and small amount of nitrogen as impurities. Oxygen is
separated in warm argon purification unit where is reacted with hydrogen in the
presence of palladium catalyst. Hydrogen required will be taken from water
electrolysis plant (capacity 30Nm³/hr). Nitrogen is separated by distillation in pure
argon column.

GENERAL AIR SEPARATION PROCESS:

There are theoretically three means of obtaining of oxygen.

 Electrical : water electrolysis

 Mechanical: Air centrifuging
 Chemical: Solubility in various liquids, separation by passing through
porous materials.

But the only procedure widely used on the industrial scale consists in extracting
oxygen and other components of air by liquefaction and distillation at cryogenic
temperatures.

AIR COMPOSITION- CONCOMITANT PHASES CRITTICAL

TEMPERATURES:
Air is mainly a mixture of two gases: oxygen and nitrogen in the
following percentage:

1/5th oxygen (O2), namely 20.96%

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 4/5th nitrogen (N2), namely 78.11%

Air also contains other components such as five rare gases, which are found in
constant percentage and volume:

 Argon (Ar)-0.93%
 Neon (Ne)-0.0015%
 Helium (He)-0.0005%
 Krypton (Kr)-0.0001%
 Xenon (Xe)-0.00008%

Some other components are also present in variable quantities such as:
Water vapor, carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons and ozone.

Finally, traces of hydrogen and oil, if the air is handled by lubricated machines.

In liquid state oxygen and nitrogen form a mixture form a mixture of two miscible
liquids which may be separated due to their difference in volatility at atmospheric
pressure, nitrogen with a boiling point of -183°C. In addition, it is known that at a
given temperature, the vapor nitrogen than the source liquid and conversely a
vapor which partially condenses, gives a liquid richer in heavy product, namely
oxygen.

For example: a gaseous mixture having the composition of air i.e. 21% of
oxygen is balanced with liquid containing 40% of oxygen; air with 21% and liquid
with 40% of oxygen are in concomitant phases.

The boiling temperature of air lies that of nitrogen and oxygen gets higher as
the pressure increases. On this basis it might be assumed that increasing the
pressure to have the boiling temperature at the ordinary temperature liquefies these
gases.

But ANDREW’S discoveries have shown that there is a minimum

temperature to be reached which is referred to as critical temperature.

As far as oxygen and nitrogen concerned, the critical constants are as follows:

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 Air Oxygen Nitrogen
Critical Pressure, 30 51 34
kg/cm2 (Absolute)
Critical -140 -119 -147
Temperature, °C
Consequently the first operation of air separation of, consists in reaching these low
temperatures.

SEPARATION OF AIR COMPONENTS:

Air components are separated by means of liquid distillation columns, in
distillation column,

The operation is based on the difference in composition between a liquefied

gas mixture and the vapor it release, the vapor being generally richer in the volatile
component than the liquid.

A series of successive contacts between the down flowing liquid and the up
flowing made by means of perforated traces stacked one on top of the other in the
column results in variation of the composition of the vapor ang the liquid, the
vapor getting richer in the volatile components and the liquid, richer in the heavy
components. The compositions of the liquid from each tray remain at a constant
average. This component is different from one tray to another the lower trays being
filled with richer in heavy product than the upper ones. A thorough air separation
can’t be made by means of a single rectification column: two columns are required
for completing one cycle.

1. The first one is the high pressure column separating the passes air in to
liquid nitrogen and oxygen rich liquid (40% oxygen).
2. The second one is the low-pressure column is used for final separation
into pure nitrogen and oxygen.

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 Gaseous Mode Mixed Mode

Gas Nm³/hr Purity Gas(Nm³/hr) Liquid (Nm³/hr)

Oxygen 148000 99.5% 12750 875

Nitrogen 296000 99.9% 25500 1000

Argon 100 99.9% ---------- 100

STORAGE AND DITRIBUTION:

Gaseous Oxygen and nitrogen from cold box is compressed to 40KSCA,
10KSCA respectively by centrifugal compressors. And supplied directly to the
consumer by the pipelines. The liquid oxygen and nitrogen will be stored in
storage tanks and pumped to 40KSCA by centrifugal pumps and vaporize by water
bath type with steam injection and supplied to consumers at the time of emergency.
Liquid argon from cold box is collected in the argon tanks and cold converters.
From Cold converters liquid argon vaporizes in atmospheric vaporizes and
supplied to con casting department at 7 KSCA.

CYLINDER FILLING STATION:

Liquid oxygen, nitrogen and argon will be pumped by reciprocating pumps
to a pressure of 165 KSCA, vaporized, filled and delivered into cylinders through
manifolds of 4, 2, and 2 respectively.

GASEOUS STORAGE SYSTEM:

Gaseous oxygen from storage will be storage will be stored Nos. If buffer
vessels SMS of 100m3 volume at 40 KSCA. This pressure is reduced to 18 KSCA
and supplied to SMS.

Gaseous oxygen is stored near ASP in three Nos. of 100m3 of volume buffer
vessels and pressure is reduced to 12 to 18 KSCG and supplied for autogenic needs
all over the plant.

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 Gaseous nitrogen is stored in 6Nos. of buffer vessels of 125m3 water
column of 40 KSCG, 2 Nos. buffer vessel of 100 m3 of water volume at 40KSCG
for emergency needs of blast furnace. In addition nitrogen storage tanks are
provided at de-sulphurization plant SMS gas cleaning plant.

UTILITIES:
ELECTRICITY:
Electric power requirement of ASP are set by LBSS-2. Total power
requirement of ASP at 3 million tons stage is 64 MW approximately. Total
connected load is 123.7MVA.

COOLING WATER:
There is a closed cycle water cooling system in ASP where cooling water
36°C is drawn pump house-14, which is used as a cooling medium for gas and oil
coolers of compressors and expansion turbine air pre-cooling system. The hot
water at 45°C is returned back to cooling tower for cooling at 36°C.

CHILLED WATER:
Chilled water is taken from chilled water plant and is used as cooling
medium in air- conditioning and ventilation systems.

STEAM:
Steam is available near the battle limits at 5 to 12 KSCA (MTN) for
regeneration of absorbers, vaporizers of liquids, derming of heaters etc.

PUMP HOUSE:
4 pumps of each 3500 m3/hr capacity and discharge pressure of 3.5 kg/cm2
is provided to pump the cold water for ASP.

COOLING TOWER:
There are 5 cells of cooling towers and total water flow rate is 12000 m3/hr
warm water from different units will be coming back at 2.5 kg/cm2 and cooled in
cooling water tower.
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page 18
DERMING HEATERS:
Two derming heaters are provided for warming up of the plant at the time of
shut down and defrosting at the time of leakage if any.

HEAT EXCHANGERS
INTRODUCTION:
The design of good and safe operatable equipment for a process plant
indirectly decreases the initial installed cost, operating cost and maintenance cost
of the plant to achieve the maximum economy. Also, in a process it is important
that a heat balance sources or by exchange of heat between hot and cold process
streams which further may be accomplished by the use of many types of equipment
like furnaces, fractional towers, reactors and heat exchangers. Of these, the heat
exchanger is particularly desirable because of its extreme versatility.

Many types of heat exchangers are employed in such varied installations as

steam power plants, chemical processing plants, building heating , air conditioning,
refrigeration systems, mobile power systems for automotive, marine and aerospace
and nuclear fields.

DEFINITION:
A heat exchanger is a piece of equipment built for efficient heat transfer from one
medium to another. The media may be separated by a solid wall, so that they never
mix, or they may be in direct contact.

They are widely used in space heating, refrigeration, air conditioning, power
plants, chemical plants, petrochemical plants, petroleum refineries, natural gas
processing, and sewage treatment. The classic example of a heat exchanger is
found in an internal combustion engine in which a circulating fluid known as
engine coolant flows through radiator coils and air flows past the coils, which
cools the coolant and heats the incoming air.

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CLASSIFICATIONS:
There are three primary classifications of heat exchangers according to their flow
arrangement.

1. Principle of operation
2. Fluid Flow Paths
3. Functions And type of construction

CLASSIFICATION OF HEAT EXCHANGERS BY

CONSTRUCTION
In this section heat exchangers are classified mainly by their construction,
Garland (1990), (see Figure).

The first level of classification is to divide heat exchanger types into

recuperative or regenerative. A Recuperative Heat Exchanger has separate flow
paths for each fluid and fluids flow simultaneously through the exchanger
exchanging heat across the wall separating the flow paths. A Regenerative Heat
Exchanger has a single flow path, which the hot and cold fluids alternately pass
through.

CLASSIFICATIONS OF VARIOUS HEAT EXCHANGERS

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 1. Regenerative heat exchangers
In a regenerative heat exchanger, the flow path normally consists of a
matrix, which is heated when the hot fluid passes through it (this is known as the
"hot blow"). This heat is then released to the cold fluid when this flows through the
matrix (the "cold blow").

Regenerative Heat Exchangers are sometimes known as Capacitive Heat

Exchangers. A good overview of regenerators is provided by Walker (1982).

Regenerators are mainly used in gas/gas heat recovery applications in power

stations and other energy intensive industries. The two main types of regenerator
are Static and Dynamic. Both types of regenerator are transient in operation and
unless great care is taken in their design there is normally cross contamination of
the hot and cold streams. However, the use of regenerators is likely to increase in
the future as attempts are made to improve energy efficiency and recover lower
grade heat. However, because regenerative heat exchangers tend to be used for
specialist applications recuperative heat exchangers are more common.

2. Recuperative heat exchangers:

There are many types of recuperative exchangers, which can broadly be
grouped into indirect contact, direct contact and specials. Indirect contact heat
exchangers keep the fluids exchanging heat separate by the use of tubes or plates
etc.. Direct contact exchangers do not separate the fluids exchanging heat and in
fact rely on the fluids being in close contact.

3. Direct contact
This category of heat exchanger does not use a heat transfer surface, because
of this; it is often cheaper than indirect heat exchangers. However, to use a direct
contact heat exchanger with two fluids they must be immiscible or if a single fluid
is to be used it must undergo a phase change.

The most easily recognizable form of direct contact heat exchanger is the
natural draught Cooling Tower found at many power stations. These units
comprise of a large approximately cylindrical shell (usually over 100 m in height)
and packing at the bottom to increase surface area. The water to be cooled is

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sprayed onto the packing from above while air flows in through the bottom of the
packing and up through the tower by natural buoyancy. The main problem with
this and other types of direct contact cooling tower is the continuous need to make
up the cooling water supply due to evaporation.

4. Direct contact condensers

Direct contact condensers are sometimes used instead of tubular
condensers because of their low capital and maintenance costs. There are many
variations of direct contact condenser. In its simplest form a coolant is sprayed
from the top of a vessel over vapor entering at the side of the vessel. The
condensate and coolant are then collected at the bottom. The high surface area
achieved by the spray ensures they are quite efficient heat exchangers.

Steam injection is used for heating fluids in tanks or in pipelines. The steam
promotes heat transfer by the turbulence created by injection and transfers heat by
condensing. Normally no attempt is made to collect the condensate.

Direct heating is mainly used in dryers where a wet solid is dried by passing
it through a hot air stream. Another form of direct heating is Submerged
Combustion. This was developed mainly for the concentration and crystallization
of corrosive solutions. The fluid is evaporated by the flame and exhaust gases
being aimed down into the fluid which is held in some form of tank.

Classification of Heat Exchangers by Flow Configuration

There are four basic flow configurations:

1. Counter Flow
2. Concurrent Flow
3. Cross-flow
4. Hybrids such as Cross Counter-flow and Multi Pass Flow

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 1. Counter flow:
Figure 1 illustrates an idealized counter-flow exchanger in which the two fluids
flow parallel to each other but in opposite directions. 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).

Figure 1.COUNTER-CURRENT FLOW

2. Concurrent Flow Heat Exchangers:
In concurrent flow heat exchangers, the streams flow parallel to each other and
in the same direction as shown in Figure 2, This is less efficient than
countercurrent flow but does provide more uniform wall temperatures.

Figure 2.CONCURRENT FLOW.

3. Cross-flow heat exchangers
Cross flow 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 in Figure 3.

Figure 3.CROSS-FLOW.
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 4. Cross / Counter Flow
In industrial heat exchangers, hybrids of the above flow types are often found.
Examples of these are combined cross flow/counter flow heat exchangers and
multi pass flow heat exchangers.

Figure 4.CROSS/COUNTER FLOW.

Selection:
Due to the many variables involved, selecting optimal heat exchangers is
challenging. Hand calculations are possible, but many iterations are typically
needed. As such, heat exchangers are most often selected via computer programs,
either by system designers, who are typically engineers, or by equipment vendors.

To select an appropriate heat exchanger, the system designers (or equipment

vendors) would firstly consider the design limitations for each heat exchanger type.
Though cost is often the primary criterion, several other selection criteria are
important:

1. High/low pressure limits

2. Thermal performance
3. Temperature ranges
4. Product mix (liquid/liquid, particulates or high-solids liquid)
5. Pressure drops across the exchanger
6. Fluid flow capacity
7. Cleanability, maintenance and repair
8. Materials required for construction
9. Ability and ease of future expansion

Choosing the right heat exchanger (HX) requires some knowledge of the
different heat exchanger types, as well as the environment where the unit must
operate. Typically in the manufacturing industry, several differing types of heat
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exchangers are used for just the one process or system to derive the final product.
For example, a kettle HX for pre-heating, a double pipe HX for the ‘carrier’ fluid
and a plate and frame HX for final cooling. With sufficient knowledge of heat
exchanger types and operating requirements, an appropriate selection can be made
to optimise the process.

Heat Exchanger Types:

They are further classified as the following major types:

1. Shell and tube type

2. Double pipe type
3. Air cooled type
4. Plate Type
5. Spiral Type

Among these the shell and tube type is predominantly used in the chemical
and process industries. This article deals with the different types of shell and tube
heat exchangers, their constructional features with the applications, advantages and
disadvantages of each type.

1. Shell and Tube Exchanger

A Shell and Tube Exchanger consists of a number of tubes mounted inside a
cylindrical shell. Figure 8 illustrates a typical unit that may be found in a
petrochemical plant. Two fluids can exchange heat, one fluid flows over the
outside of the tubes while the second fluid flows through the tubes. The fluids can
be single or two phase and can flow in a parallel or a cross/counter flow
arrangement. The shell and tube exchanger consists of four major parts:

 Front end–this is where the fluid enters the tube side of the exchanger.
 Rear end–this is where the tube side fluid leaves the exchanger or where it is
returned to the front header in exchangers with multiple tube side passes.
 Tube bundle–this comprises of the tubes, tube sheets, baffles and tie rods
etc. to hold the bundle together.
 Shell—this contains the tube bundle.

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 SHELL AND TUBE HEATEXCHANGER
2. Double pipe type Heat Exchanger:
The double-pipe heat exchanger is one of the simplest types of heat
exchangers. It is called a double-pipe exchanger because one fluid flows inside a
pipe and the other fluid flows between that pipe and another pipe that surrounds
the first. This is a concentric tube construction. Flow in a double-pipe heat
exchanger can be co-current or counter-current. There are two flow configurations:
co-current is when the flow of the two streams is in the same direction, counter
current is when the flow of the streams is in opposite directions.

In this double-pipe heat exchanger a hot process fluid flowing through the
inner pipe transfers its heat to cooling water flowing in the outer pipe. The system
is in steady state until conditions change, such as flow rate or inlet temperature.
These changes in conditions cause the temperature distribution to change with time
until a new steady state is reached. The new steady state will be observed once the
inlet and outlet temperatures for the process and coolant fluid become stable.

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 DOUBLE PIPE TYPE HEAT EXCHANGER

3. Air Cooled Type Heat exchanger:

The air-cooled heat exchangers are mostly used when the plant location and the
ambient conditions do not allow an easy and economic use of other cooling
systems.

The most evident advantages of air-cooled heat exchangers are:

 No problem arising from thermal and chemical pollution of cooling fluids
 Flexibility for any plant location and plot plan arrangement (installation
over other units)
 Reduction of maintenance costs
 Easy installation by bolted assembly
 Lower environmental impact than shell and tube heat exchangers thanks
to the elimination of an auxiliary water supply

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 Air Cooled Type Heat exchanger

4. Plate Type Heat Exchanger:

Plate heat exchangers separate the fluids exchanging heat by the means of
plates. These normally have enhanced surfaces such as fins or embossing and are
either bolted together, brazed or welded. Plate heat exchangers are mainly found in
the cryogenic and food processing industries. However, because of their high
surface area to volume ratio, low inventory of fluids and their ability to handle
more than two steams, they are also starting to be used in the chemical industry.

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 Plate Type Heat Exchangers

5. Spiral type Heat Exchanger:

A spiral heat exchanger (SHE), may refer to a helical (coiled) tube
configuration, more generally, the term refers to a pair of flat surfaces that are
coiled to form the two channels in a counter-flow arrangement. Each of the two
channels has one long curved path. A pair of fluid ports are connected tangentially
to the outer arms of the spiral, and axial ports are common, but optional.

The main advantage of the SHE is its highly efficient use of space. This attribute is
often leveraged and partially reallocated to gain other improvements in
performance, according to well known tradeoffs in heat exchanger design. (A
notable tradeoff is capital cost vs. operating cost.) A compact SHE may be used to
have a smaller footprint and thus lower all-around capital costs, or an over-sized
SHE may be used to have less pressure drop, less pumping energy, higher thermal
efficiency, and lower energy costs.

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Thermal Analysis:
The thermal analysis of any heat exchanger involves the solution of the basic
heat transfer equation.

This equation calculates the amount of heat transferred through the area dA,
where Th and Tc are the local temperatures of the hot and cold fluids, α is the local
heat transfer coefficient and dA is the local incremental area on which α is based.
For a flat wall

whereδw is the wall thickness and λw its thermal conductivity.

For single phase flow past the wall α for each of the streams is a function of
Re and Pr. When condensing or boiling is taking place α may also be a function of
the temperature difference. Once the heat transfer coefficient for each stream and
the wall are known the overall heat transfer coefficient U is then given by

Where the wall resistance rw is given by 1/αw. The total rate of heat transfer
between the hot and cold fluids is then given by

This equation is for constant temperatures and heat transfer coefficients. In

most heat exchangers this is not the case and so a different form of the equation is
used

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 Where is the total heat load, U is the mean overall heat transfer coefficient
and ΔTM the mean temperature difference. The calculation of ΔTM and the
removal of the constant heat transfer coefficient assumption is described in Mean
Temperature Difference.

Calculation of U and ΔTM requires information on the exchanger type, the

geometry (e.g., the size of the passages in a plate or the diameter of a tube), flow
orientation, pure countercurrent flow or cross flow, etc.

The total duty can then be calculated using an assumed value of AT and
compared with the required duty. Changes to the assumed geometry can then be
made and U, ΔTM and recalculated to eventually iterate to a solution where is
equal to the required duty.

However, in performing the thermal analysis a check should also be made at

each iteration that the allowable pressure drop is not exceeded. Computer programs
such as TASC from HTFS (Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow Service) perform these
calculations automatically and optimize the design.

Mechanical Considerations:
All heat exchangers types have to undergo some form of mechanical design.
Any exchanger that operates at above atmospheric pressure should be designed
according to the locally specified pressure vessel design code such as ASME VIII
(American Society of Mechanical Engineers) or BS 5500 (British Standard).

These codes specify the requirements for a pressure vessel, but they do not
deal with any specific features of a particular heat exchanger type. In some cases
specialist standards exist for certain types of heat exchanger. Two of these are
listed below, but in general individual manufacturers define their own standards.

Fouling:
Fouling occurs when impurities deposit on the heat exchange surface.
Deposition of these impurities can be caused by:

 Low wall shear stress

 Low fluid velocities

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  High fluid velocities
 Reaction product solid precipitation
 Precipitation of dissolved impurities due to elevated wall temperatures

The rate of heat exchanger fouling is determined by the rate of particle

deposition less re-entrainment/suppression. This model was originally proposed in
1959 by Kern and Seaton.

Crude Oil Exchanger Fouling.In commercial crude oil refining, crude

oil is heated from 21 °C to 343 °C prior to entering the distillation column. A
series of shell and tube heat exchangers typically exchange heat between crude oil
and other oil streams to heat the crude to 260 °C prior to heating in a furnace.
Fouling occurs on the crude side of these exchangers due to asphaltene insolubility.
The nature of asphaltene solubility in crude oil was successfully modeled by
Wiehe and Kennedy.The precipitation of insoluble asphaltenes in crude preheat
trains has been successfully modeled as a first order reaction by Ebert and
Panchalwho expanded on the work of Kern and Seaton.

Cooling Water Fouling. Cooling water systems are susceptible to

fouling. Cooling water typically has a high total dissolved solids content and
suspended colloidal solids. Localized precipitation of dissolved solids occurs at the
heat exchange surface due to wall temperatures higher than bulk fluid temperature.
Low fluid velocities (less than 3 ft/s) allow suspended solids to settle on the heat
exchange surface. Cooling water is typically on the tube side of a shell and tube
exchanger because it's easy to clean. To prevent fouling, designers typically ensure
that cooling water velocity is greater than 0.9 m/s and bulk fluid temperature is
maintained less than 60 °C. Other approaches to control fouling control combine
the “blind” application of biocides and anti-scale chemicals with periodic lab
testing.

MAINTENANCE
Plate heat exchangers must be disassembled and cleaned periodically.
Tubular heat exchangers can be cleaned by such methods as acid cleaning,
sandblasting, high-pressure water jet, bullet cleaning, or drill rods.

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 In large-scale cooling water systems for heat exchangers, water treatment
such as purification, addition of chemicals, and testing, is used to minimize fouling
of the heat exchange equipment. Other water treatment is also used in steam
systems for power plants, etc. to minimize fouling and corrosion of the heat
exchange and other equipment.

A variety of companies have started using water borne oscillations

technology to prevent bio-fouling. Without the use of chemicals, this type of
technology has helped in providing a low-pressure drop in heat exchangers.

CRYOGENIC HEAT EXCHANGER

After being separated oxygen and nitrogen flow out at their boiling
temperature and at the pressure column about -180°C and -194°C respectively.
They carry huge quantity of cold, which must be recovered. This is the function of
exchanger.

The exchange is made uninterruptedly gases circulating in cross-flow. The

efficiency of the exchanger is defined by the temperature difference at the warm
end between then in flowing warm gases and the out flowing cold gases. This
difference corresponds to some considerable loss of refrigeration.

THE PLATE HEAT EXCHANGER:

Plate and Frame Heat Exchangers consist of two rectangular end members
which hold together a number of embossed rectangular plates with holes on the
corner for the fluids to pass through. Each of the plates is separated by a gasket
which seals the plates and arranges the flow of fluids between the plates.

This type of exchanger is widely used in the food industry because it can
easily be taken apart to clean. If leakage to the environment is a concern it is
possible to weld two plate together to ensure that the fluid flowing between the
welded plates cannot leak. However, as there are still some gaskets present it is
still possible for leakage to occur. Brazed plate heat exchangers avoid the

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possibility of leakage by brazing all the plates together and then welding on the
inlet and outlet ports.

PLATE TYPE HEAT EXCHANGER

THE BRAZED PLATE HEAT EXCHANGER:

Brazed type heat exchanger consists of a series of thin and corrugated
stainless steel plates. These plates are compressed and brazed together with copper
or nickel depending on the application. This creates flowing channels between
plates, with one fluid in odd number channels and the other in the even number
channels, thus reaching the purpose of heat exchanging. Different from the gasket
seal type, brazing type uses soldering material (copper or nickel depending on the
application) to seal the exchanger. By applying high temperatures in the vacuum
environment at the manufacturing process, it melts down the soldering material to
form the seal between each of the plates.

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 THE BRAZED PLATE HEAT
EXCHANGER

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