What does Industry consider an acc

Obviously a low dP comes at a cost since a low dP will decrease the overall heat transfer coefficient. According to JMC an economical optimum lies around cost of dP over equipment lifetime = 1/3 of the cost of surface area.

So, what this means i think is that you establish the additional power needed for dP and then compare that to the cost of decreasing dP by increasing HX surface area.

--- Best regards, Morten Andersen

You could look for an optimization point.
The cooler's pressure drop costs money by decreasing pipeline flow capacity, which reduces sales revenue. There is also a cost associated with capital cost of the coolers plus the cost of compression of your gas stream to a higher pressure, the same amount that the coolers lose.

Say the discharge pressure for a 100 MMSCFD pipeline at the compressor is 1000 psig, and there is a 25 psi pressure drop at the cooler discharge that will reduce the pipeline inlet pressure to 975 psig, thereby reducing pipeline flow rate to say 99 MMSCFD. You lose 1 MMSCFD in sales every day.

The cost of compressing that gas stream from 975 to 1000 psig would also be lost to the cooler.

So, cooler's capital cost + compression cost must be <= pipeline capacity reduction cost.


--Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

For single phase sensible heat cooling application, also keep tube side velocity <20m/sec for non CRA tube material, or 25-30m/sec for CRA tubes.
In most cases, tube side velocity is much less than than these values, since cooler thermal design is always air side htc controlled.