CONDENSER

[kentucky08]

Good day, everyone,

I am currently calculating the chilled water capacity required for our Methanol Refining Unit. The chilled water will be supplied to the total condenser. From this, we can conclude that the capacity of the chilled water will depend on the methanol vapor fed into the total condenser.

Before reaching the total condenser, the vapor will first pass through the first condenser. In the first condenser, most of the methanol will condense, and the vapor will exit from the upper part of the shell to be directly fed into the total condenser for further methanol recovery.

I have the temperature of the methanol vapor feed and the temperature of the uncondensed methanol that will be fed into the total condenser. Additionally, I have the design data for both condensers, including the number of tubes, tube orientation, pitch, length of tubes, tube size, and shell diameter.

My question is, with this data—particularly the temperature of the uncondensed methanol (i.e., the methanol that will be fed into the total condenser)—can I calculate the amount of methanol vapor fed into the total condenser?

 

[georgeverghese]

Mass flow and composition , pressure and temp of the ovhd feed to the 1st condensor should be in the thermal - process design datasheet for the 1st condensor ?

 

[EdStainless]

From your condenser data you can estimate the thermal performance of each.
And then given the actual cooling water flows and delta Ts you can calculate an estimate the thermal load on each.
And if you know the inlet and outlet temps of the methanol as well as the pressures you can calculate about how much is condensing in each unit.
These are only estimates because you don't know the actual thermal performance of the condensers.
Your DCS should have models of these condensers built into it.