Two Tubeside Fluids in Shell and Tube Exchanger

[sshep]

My Friends,

We are replacing a condenser (uses cooling water) which is nearing end of life, and also wanting to do some heat recovery into a process stream. Rather than buy two exchangers, we want to consider the obvious design of putting the process stream in tubes above, and cooling water in tubes below, with the condensing fluid in the shell. The tubeside channels would be designed so that cooling water and process stay segregated.

I have seen seperate cooling water channels many times on surface condensers to allow online cleaning, but never seen service split between a process and utility stream as I envision.

Has anyone ever used two segregated fluids on the tubeside of a single exchanger in the manner I envision? It would save alot in capital, equipment weight, and space. I will take any opinion or comment.

best wishes always,
sshep

 

[katmar]

Sounds like an excellent idea to me. I have done this in plate exchangers, but never in a S&T unit. But I see no reason not to do it if the tube side fluids are properly segregated and the temperature differences between the two tube banks do not introduce mechanical problems.

Katmar Software
Engineering & Risk Analysis Software

http://katmarsoftware.com

 

[rmw]

I've seen boiler feedwater heaters that have two heaters in one shell. The tube fields were different and distinguishable from each other. There is no reason one of those couldn't have had different fluids in each tube bank.

rmw

 

[uu78hswang]

shell and tube exchangers may be stacked up to a maxiumu of three shells high if aprroved by the customer